The tipping point

It was surreal watching all the pharmacists escape the disgraceful working conditions at CVS. It must’ve taken a great deal of courage and, perhaps equally, a great deal of stress to drive them to take such drastic action. And it begs some questions: “Why on earth do we wait until we’re run to the bone to do anything about it?” or even worse, “Why do we have to wait for some catastrophic incident that costs a patient’s life before we step back and say enough is enough?” I say this because these were the conditions that drove me out of my retail pharmacy job. (Before I go any further, I must say that not all retail pharmacies have these working conditions; some of us are just less fortunate. But many pharmacies take great care of their staff.) Perhaps the reason ‘Why’ is this: For change to manifest, there needs to be a Tipping Point—defined in the Oxford Dictionary as “the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.” I’m sure if each of us goes back in our history, we’ll be able to pinpoint times when incidents pushed us to make some big decisions when we failed to listen to our inner voice. My tipping point was the culmination of a series of events or perhaps more accurately, calls to action. My first mistake was prioritizing work over my health: Skipping breaks Skipping even toilet breaks Dealing with stressful workloads without complaining Poor sleeping habits due to stress and feeling overwhelmed The worst example was probably forgetting to hydrate myself. This continued to my detriment, as my kidneys have the tendency to make kidney stones like a factory. Well, one day, things got really bad! It was during the COVID-19 lockdown and I was the sole charge pharmacist (the only pharmacist in the store!). For a couple of days, I had been showing signs of an early kidney infection, but no help was available to call on so I just kept my head down and got on with it. Until my body had had enough, and I ended up ambulating due to septic shock two days later. Call me stupid for not paying attention to my health, because that was stupidity. Did my boss care? Could they rescue me if I was on the brink of death? No. But that’s what we do as pharmacists. We just put our well-being last. Lesson learned. First call-to-action ignored. A couple of months after I recovered, I won a couple of national awards: a community pharmacist award and a research and education award. It wasn’t so much the significance of the awards as the creativity of the initiatives that won me the awards that highlighted something very important to me: I was meant for more than I had ever known or realized. For a month afterwards, my inner voice grew louder. It told me that I had the potential to lead projects in the pharmacy sector and that I had a creative gene I needed to nurture. But I just kept going. I ignored that voice. Until I finally had to listen. One day I was directly told that, despite the increasing workload, the company could not afford another hire. I just need to cut down on patient consultation time and focus on dispensing. For me, that was it. The last thing that kept me hanging where I was was my patient interaction time. That, I couldn’t let go of. And so there went my termination notice. I was out of work for four weeks— there was no way I was going to turn into a full-time robot. Listen to your inner voice early on Life sends you messages in different shapes and forms. As Oprah Winfrey says, “it might show up wearing a skirt, and if you don’t listen, it will turn up again wearing a pair of pants.” It will show up until you listen. Sometimes the lesson will manifest discreetly, but if you don’t take heed, it will come back at you harsher and tougher. And every time, a voice inside will tell you to move in a certain direction, but alas, fear of uncertainty is strong and will hold you back. If there is one piece of advice that I could give you, it is: LISTEN. TO. YOUR. INNER. VOICE. Don’t ignore it like I did. It is there for your awakening. Life is calling on you to fulfill a bigger purpose. Steps for change Recognize warning signs. Ignoring warning signs that something isn’t going right—either with you or in your workplace—is my definition of ignorance (of which I am guilty). Don’t wait until xxxx hits the fan to make changes. Plan your exit. Leaving without having a plan forward generally isn’t smart. In saying that, if your back is to the wall, you have no choice but to go forward boldly. Bur having a plan may have perhaps saved me a bit of desperation at the beginning while I was trying to figure out my next steps. Take calculated risks. It’s fair to say that, as pharmacists, we are a very risk-averse bunch. And, fair enough—you can’t take risks with ensuring every patient gets the right medicine. It’s either right or wrong, black or white. But welcome to life as a pharmapreneur, where everything is grey, and you need to embrace it this way. And you’ll either learn (not fail) or succeed in your endeavors. Surround yourself with support. Family, friends and colleagues will be there for you; you just need to ask. You need to have support and be in a good headspace to make well-assessed decisions. Get real-world advice. You’ll need a sounding board, and this should preferably be someone who is risk-averse and business-oriented and either has a business of their own or is a business advisor. Network. Reach out and attend networking events and virtual events. Be present where the action is happening; that way, you increase your luck surface area and open yourself up to opportunities. Pay for advice. Know someone who has travelled the same road you want to take? Don’t be scared to reach out to them and ask for help. Why spend six months figuring out what someone can teach you in an hour? Read. Read everything outside of your profession or discipline; that way, you expand your horizons and develop lateral thinking, becoming more creative. Develop a roadmap. It doesn’t need to be exact or accurate, but you do need to have a destination. Don’t just go driving into your journey without knowing where you’re headed. Think about where you want to be in one year, five years, and 10 years. How are you going to get there? This is your roadmap that outlines the steps needed to reach your desired outcome. And when your plans don't work, what is your Plan B? Keep discipline and accountability. The biggest two hurdles that hold people back from reaching their ambition and full potential are a lack of consistency and discipline in adhering to their goals, worsened by a failure to hold themselves accountable. If you can’t hold yourself accountable to your goal, get a second person to help or get a business mentor. Your tipping point may be now. It could be arriving soon. Or it may have happened already. Regardless, we all need a tipping point in our lives to awaken us to our true potential.

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The tipping point

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Blog Author

Katrina Azer

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