Worked Over

www.jdhodges.com

"Don't take that job. They don't have their shit together."
--Dad

I'm 33. Why does my father still have to be right all the time?

I currently work at a private hospital in SF. Due to somewhat antiquated laws, I can't be hired by the hospital, even though it's the only place I work. Instead, I work for incorporated group of physicians who contract with the hospital. Actually, to be allowed to have benefits, I work for a medical association that subcontracts to the physician group that contracts to the hospital. You get the idea -- there are a lot of business people involved.

Doctors, as a rule, are terrible business people, and should hire others to handle the money. Wise doctors hire good business people. My group is not wise.

When I finished my residency and was looking for work, I heard about my current job. I signed a letter of intent, then waited for my contract. They dragged their feet, and tried to give me a contract and demand that I sign it that day. Then they refused to make any changes in the contract, since they didn't have time to get it to the lawyers. (At about this point, my father opined as above). In the end, I had to work as a locum tenens for almost a month before I was a full hire.

Shortly after I was on board, the business people had a meeting with all the recent hires. They listened to us, and promised things like this wouldn't happen again. (You see where this is going.)

I have dealt with changes and shortages of staffing, growing pains with the nursing staff, and strife in my group. All the while, I generally enjoyed my job, and thought I did it fairly well. There was a big hullabaloo about the specialists' long term contracts, so I didn't hear much about mine until late spring. In June, our chief negotiator said mine was on the way. In July, he said it was on the way. Upon returning from a vacation July 28, I found in my mailbox not a contract with the promised raise and changes, but a piece of paper asking me to work for the same salary for two more months.

I refused to sign it, and no one seemed to care until August 1, when I was no longer officially employed. In a meeting that morning, the head of our group started to talk about recruiting new physicians. I made an audible "Pppphhhllbbtttt" sound.

"Yes, Joel?"

"Sorry, but I don't see how you can talk about recruitment when you can't even keep the people you have," I said.

Not knowing what was up with my contract, he said "What do you mean?"

"Well, my contract ran out yesterday. If I go over to the hospital today, I don't know if I will get paid. But I can deal with that. I don't know if I'll get benefits, and I can deal with that, too. But since my malpractice insurance is through [the group] and I'm no longer a contracted employee, I'm not sure I have malpractice insurance. So I can't work today."

"You don't have a new contract?" he asked.

"No. They want me to sign a two month extension, not a contract, and I refused."

To his credit, the head of my group flew into action, and the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) was meeting with me in our negotiator's office by 11:00 AM. The problem was, she offered nothing but her word that I would eventually receive back pay (she wouldn't even put it in writing). I mentioned that they had already held a meeting to promise this wouldn't happen again, and I suggested that if we could extend the contract by changing the dates, we could also change the salary. Or, I proposed, we could add a signing bonus to the extension that made up the salary difference (since she allegedly intended to give it to me). She said "the lawyers" would not allow either.

Unfortunately, I've played enough Hold'Em to know that you won't win if you can't afford to lose. Since it takes a month or more to get privileges to work at a new hospital, and I had neither job applications sent nor two months salary in the bank, I coudn't really quit. In the end, I left the room with a promise that my senior colleagues would make up my salary if they try to screw me, my new contract would include retroactive malpractice tail coverage (long story), and the CMO would try to get me a contract in one month instead of two.

I'm pretty pissed that I put myself in that position. Now it's mid-September, a month and a half-out, and I still am without a contract. I sat in a meeting last night with the CMO, during which contract issues were discussed. She offerred no information about mine. My problem is not actually the money -- I'm doing fine; but as a rule, I don't work for people who show me so little regard. It's hard to argue that you're surprised when a 1 year contract ends.

I do learn from my mistakes, though, and I have a couple of job interviews scheduled. As Mr. Scott quoted, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." My biggest problem now is that I'm not sure I'm ready to leave SF, but I don't have another job offer here. The two leaders are a research job in Austin, Texas and a hospitalist job in Hawaii.

home.austin.rr.com

I'm actually starting to get excited about the latter -- it would be working as a civilian at a army teaching hospital. A number of the men in my family have been in the military, and I have a lot of respect for the armed forces. I've thought about enlisting to serve as an MD for a couple of years, but I'm finally enjoying myself after 20+ years of confusion/closet, and I'm not very good at hiding things. This job almost seems like fate telling me to put up or shut up, and, let's face it, living in Hawaii may not actually be a "sacrifice".

www.epa.gov

I'm also thinking that I should apply for a job at Emory. I've always wanted to go back, but I didn't want to burn bridges by applying before I was serious. Part of me thinks that if I'm going to move, it might as well be back to Atlanta.

www.registrar.emory.edu

So, what do you think, Blogosphere? To paraphrase Jo Dee Messina, "Heads Austin, Texas, Tails Honolulu." Please send opinions, or any information you have about living in these areas. I can use the help.

Two quick side notes:
1) I've been watching the season finale of "Blade: The Series" while typing. I've been infatuated with vampires since the series "Cliffhangers" when I was a kid. Now, I'm infatuated with the hot Asian guy in the tight white shirt who works with Blade. Since he's not a vampire, perhaps he sucks things other than blood.
2) The gent who sent me flowers (who recently took me out) just sent me an e-mail with "A Song for Employees Suffering Mistreatment". I shit you not.