Read time: 1.5 minutes
The biggest mistake I see most healthcare workers make is not asking for what they want.
Each of you reading this right now can tell me your biggest frustrations: the ‘forced’ overtime, no relief, paltry raises, sicker patients, increasing coverage ratios, etc.
But no one speaks up. Nothing changes.
Each of us has been guilty of complaining at the nurses’ station or in the OR break room to our colleagues.
We commiserate with each other. We talk just to feel heard. Meanwhile, nothing changes because we are afraid of what might happen.
Unfortunately no one analyzes the potential outcomes of asking for what they want:
If we ask for more and fail, then we lose nothing (assuming no burned bridges). But we are afraid of what the boss, or our peers, might think.
If we ask for more and succeed, then we win.
I was guilty of doing the same thing. I don’t know what I expected while they paid us less to work more: weekend nights were added, so was expanding coverage to another hospital.
As time went on, I felt like I was suffocating.
It took me over a year to articulate a solution: I would ask to work less.
It took me a full year to ask for less money and less stress in exchange for less shifts. The decision to ask for what I wanted, now two years ago, was the first step of what continues today as a long journey.
I was told, “No.”
That might sound like a loss, but it wasn’t. The truth was in that year prior, while contemplating my options and rehearsing how I would ask the question, I had already won. I had changed my mindset from accepting everything they piled on me, to advocating for myself and searching my options for a better life.
The first revolution is when you change your mind about how you look at things, and see there might be another way to look at it that you have not been shown…Gil Scott Heron
By the time I heard their refusal I was on my way. My mind was already in motion – I could see clearly, without fear. I realized that there were other ways to do things; there are other paths in life and in medicine. To think otherwise – to feel trapped – that is fear holding you back from discovering what is out there. Fear is holding you back from knowing your value at work and at home.
If you want more, then you have to make a change. Ask for it, demand it.
But don’t just demand it from your boss. Demand it from yourself. Expect more from you.
It’s 2023! Teenagers are making five-figures a month on YouTube and TikTok. Travel nursing and locum tenens physicians can find schedules that work for them and pay better for their time.
Stop being miserable: find a better path and start living a better life.
It doesn’t hurt to ask.
Whenever you’re ready to consider a different path, reply to this email [email protected] or message me directly on the socials here:
Tell me how I can help your specific situation and find a way for you to take control of your time.
Help Patients. Work Less.
Do More of Everything Else.
