Tuesday, February 14, 2012

More money and a managerial paradox

I blogged some time ago that I switched jobs and now it is 50% clinical and 50% administrative (or "leadership"). Now, what they call in business world the "economical profit" (i.e., my current salary minus the "opportunity cost", or what I could've been making at my old job) is pretty good. However, the added hassle/more time spent dealing with staffing/patient complaints/organizational etc. headaches (not even mentioning political undercurrents and interdepartmental "bad blood"), the need to be constantly (i.e. 24/7) available to resove petty/small/medium-size/large issues... Is this"economical profit' worth it?
On one hand, sure- it's more money in real terms. Also a potential to earn more money thru advancement at later stages of your career. More interesting ,too, I guess, at least the level of the problems I'm supposed to solve. More flattering for your ego, yeah! ( you are "da boss" after all, you've made it!)
But all this leads to almost no ( and I mean it) free time- even when you're "not working" you still are- trying to figure out solutions to issues/schedules/research ideas/fend off hostile attacks etc. (Speaking of solutions, I found that most of them are only temporary). So kids get no attention. So is your spouse. So is your other small piece of life outside your working realm which is supposed to be used to enjoy the fruits of your bigger piece of life consumed by work. Add to this a tremendous increase in stress levels. An lack of attention (due to lack of time) to management of your investments ( I think it's possible to assign a sort of "negative cash flow' numbers to all of the above if nothing else, as a crude denominator)
At the end that "economic profit" shrinks, the question is by how much.

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