Useful links
Zoe Smeaton reports.
When the pressures of working in the dispensary get on top of you, the last thing you may want to talk about is work. Relaxing away from the pharmacy and trying to forget all about it is probably high on the agenda, so you might not consider spending more time with your colleagues.
But actually, getting to know the people you work with could be just the thing to help improve your daily life and kick start your climb up the career ladder.
A useful way to spend time with colleagues is to organise an away day. This could be anything from an afternoon walking the hills, to a trip to your favourite local restaurant or even organising a structured away day through an outside organisation. A quick online search reveals a myriad of options offering everything from days on team building or conflict resolution, to trying to prepare for new projects or work on mission statements.
Deciding what you want to achieve on your away day is important, says Yvonne Tuckley, Numark’s training manager. “You need to be clear why you are having an away day in the first place – is it essentially a jolly, or to enable people to learn something, or is it team building? As with anything else, you need to have an objective in mind.”
And there are lots of options. Although planning strategies and projects might seem a million miles away from the dispensary, they could apply, for example, if you were preparing to launch a new service. Sitting down with colleagues to plan what you want to achieve and how you will manage it in the dispensary could be a useful exercise and help get everyone motivated.
Getting it right from the beginning could make all the difference in making it a success, which will be good for patients, the pharmacy and, of course, your own career.
Perhaps a more likely option in pharmacy is to concentrate on team building. This does need to be planned properly, to ensure people will be at their best and so are more likely to get along, but it can bring many benefits. Asda superintendent pharmacist John Evans says it can be useful to get to know your colleagues better. They might, for example, then offer you more support on the tough days at work. Or you might get to know someone senior, who could offer career help and advice.
Suggesting an away day to your employer in the right way could also help your career – if they see you’re doing it for the right reasons because you’re enthusiastic about developing yourself and about making the pharmacy run as smoothly and efficiently as possible, they’re likely to appreciate your approach. Boots, for example, is a supporter of the strategy, saying it has been offering employees community-based team challenges for over 10 years “as an opportunity for colleagues to spend time together as a team while giving practical support to the local community”. The multiple says such events can help raise morale but also provide personal development opportunities.
It’s also worth considering that taking on the task of arranging a team day will require you to demonstrate organisational and other skills that could get you more brownie points from your employer. Boots works with charities to arrange its staff opportunities and says each day has a team leader.
“The nominated team leader will liaise with the account manager at the charity to co-ordinate the team challenge. We encourage the team leader role to be taken on by a more junior member of the team as a development opportunity to demonstrate leadership and organisational skills,” Boots says.
If you’re having trouble arranging an away day, remember that it doesn’t have to be a full day away from the dispensary, which can be hard to find time for. You could try to find time outside of work or just go for a few hours. You might even be able to go somewhere work-related, which would help show extra enthusiasm for your job.
For example, Ms Tuckley suggests going to an event like the Pharmacy Show or the C+D Awards together.
Whatever you choose to do, though, as long as you’re proactive about it and try to take positives from it, there’s every chance your away day could help both your everyday working life and your career. As one Boots employee concluded after a team day: “The team really enjoyed the day and the preparation that went in to it. Although it was hard work it was worth it.”