Goings On

The title of this post would make you think that there is some excitement in my life.  For that, I sincerely apologize.  I’m sitting at the dining room table on a Friday and trying to digest the last month (and a little bit).

Danielle was on call on February.  It wasn’t so bad until the two back-to-back weekends that saw dozens of pages at all hours of the night. The end was in sight, though… or so we thought.  The first week off-call in March has been rough.  Monday through Wednesday saw her return home after the kids were in bed.  Last night, she barely made it home in time for dinner.  Tonight, she may just be home in time to eat with us since she’s at a seminar in the City (no patients to hold her up).

What’s killing me about all this, besides my own failure to find gainful employment or even maintain consulting work in the current economic climate, is that less than a month into her time with the practice, Danielle was asked to take on a lot of unexpected work, very suddenly.  The only other general neurologist in the practice was diagnosed with a terminal illness and had to stop working immediately.  Danielle went from building a practice for herself from the ground up (her desired situation) to taking on another physician’s patients.

She did this with a smile on her face and with no request for a renegotiation of her contract.  It’s important to understand that her group is primarily epilepsy-based and that Danielle, as a general neurologist, is an employee and not on track to ever be a partner. Taking on this additional work has no upside for Danielle.  She is a smart, talented woman and a fantastic doctor.  On her own, she has been receiving referrals and, despite the work load, has brought new patients to her group.  She did not need the additional billing.  Since she isn’t on track to become a partner, the increased billing does not speed up partnership.

In addition, Danielle was told that she would only have to take two months of emergency department call, which is handled by a number of different groups. The others that share call tried to stick Danielle with four months and, despite protest, she is handling three months.  It also bears mentioning that the other physicians have the support of a physician’s assistant to write notes and field calls.  Danielle has no such support.  She is truly alone and there has been little movement made to reduce her workload to agreed-upon levels.

Danielle and I both hoped that the practice would recognize this major shift to the agreement and either adjust base compensation or award some kind of bonus.  Given that we’re almost at the end of the first quarter and neither of those things have happened, and with this post-call week taxing our relationship, something needs to change.  Clearly, an increase in salary isn’t going to get her home earlier.  It would afford us some additional flexibility to have the babysitter come one afternoon each week to allow me to focus on job hunting, or just to go get my hair cut or run errands without a tagalong.  It would also give us both some kind of solace that the additional work isn’t for nothing.

She told me that if presented with the same situation as she was nearly five months ago, she would say “yes” again without hesitation. I completely agree with her. I think that’s what makes this so hard. She’s a team player and it seems like the coach is taking advantage of that. The situation can’t continue as-is.  It’s not fair to her professionally, and it’s not fair to us personally.  We’ll see where this goes.

As for me, the past few days have been better on the job hunt. I’ve found three positions to apply for, all of which are reasonable fits for my skills/experience.  I’m still hopeful that the phone will ring and I’ll get an interview set up.  I’ve started spending more time with my cover letters and on LinkedIn.  In fact, I replied to a comment thread in the Chronicle of Philanthropy group last night and had the opportunity to make a connection with someone who appreciated what I had to say.  If nothing else, her feedback has made for a successful week on the employment front.  I appreciate being appreciated.

So, to say that things are exciting would be gross mischaracterization. Things are as mundane as they could be… no fires, carbon monoxide scares, personal injuries, etc. No excitement is ok, but I do look forward to the day I can announce my return to employment.