Thursday, June 7, 2012

Your salary. Your life.

I'm sure most of us met quite a few burnt-out, disenchanted and disinterested docs. All that makes them go through their clinical routine is their paycheck.
They (and a lot of their more cheerful colleagues) are trapped in what we can call a high wage trap: despite of being utterly dissatisfied with their current situation they make a decent salary, and to start something new and (possibly) exciting, which may or may not lead to a higher income, is outright scary, since we all developed a high dependency of this paycheck. Most of us would never go for it, because the more you earn, the more you have to loose. However, in a great scheme of things it's your life experience that matters (or should matter).

It's much easier to start something new when you really have nothing...

2 comments:

drsam said...

Yes, this trap is absolutely there and very hard to extricate oneself from.

I can't tell you the number of fellow physicians who I've heard say "If I could do something else and make an income similar to my current one, I'd quit in a heartbeat."

Bottom line is that even at the low end of income, physicians tend to do pretty well, but man there is a lot of crap that goes with it.

Sure physicians make decent coin, but they increasingly feel controlled by others...typically others who, in the perception of the physicians at least, are not qualified to be in charge of them. These controllers include such entities as insurance bureaucrats, lawyers, hospital case managers, hospital CEO's, etc.

The thing is, although the income is pretty good, that's not all there is to the "trap." What really makes it a trap is that to reach this "trapping" income level, the typical physician has given up most of his/her youth and young adult-hood, living below the poverty line and busting ass as a student/intern/resident, and has simultaneously acquired a ridiculous mountain of debt.

So, it's not just a matter of "Boo hoo, I need to find something else that pays as well so I can maintain my expensive lifestyle." It's really a matter of "Boo hoo, this job is slowly killing me, but I can't quit and pursue something else because I'm too damn old and even at my current income level, I'll be making student loan payments till my seventh or eighth decade of life."

Anyway, it's not an impossible trap to escape from, but it ain't easy. It's mostly a matter of perception. It's mostly a matter of, as you implied, where you value things in your life...income and "stuff" vs experiences and living.

Personally, I've been exploring alternatives, and have been practicing (at a much lower income level) overseas for over a year now. Not without stress or aggravation, but overall, I sleep much better at night now.

If I ever return to practice in the U.S., I think guys like Gordon Moore, with the Ideal Medical Practice thing, are sort of on the right track, as are the folks exploring "Cash Only" practices, etc.

I think dropping out of the hamster wheel model of medical practice is the only way to truly achieve professional satisfaction. Unfortunately, there are a lot of powerful vested interests who want to make it as hard a possible for docs to practice outside of the hamster wheel.

Anyway, those are just some "off the top of my head" thoughts on the matter.

Docblogger said...

DRSam,
"Boo hoo, this job is slowly killing me, but I can't quit and pursue something else because I'm too damn old and even at my current income level, I'll be making student loan payments till my seventh or eighth decade of life." is exactly right.
So it's like a golden (well, not so golden any more) cage for many of us.
Maybe we can right something up for my blog or yours(if you have one) at least about "other" things- I know, there's some stuff about non-clinical jobs out there, but what about "clinical" and "happy"?
Yours,
DB