Career/Job satisfaction of doctors and place of work: Extent of correlation?

[Gauss44]

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Are some medical centers and departments clearly better than others when it comes to job satisfaction or a doctor's happiness on the job?

A small medical problem and change of insurance has brought me to several different doctor's offices lately. I mentioned to all of them that I am a premed. Some PCPs looked miserable and cautioned me that medicine is going downhill. Others smiled and said, you'll like this job! The same with the specialists.

I noticed that whole departments seemed to have mainly happy or unhappy doctors and staff. Has anyone else noticed a correlation between the happiness of doctors and where they work?

 

[Boolean]

Of course. If you like where you are, you're going to be a bit happier in general. I apply similar philosophy to my life in various regards. I tend to spend my money where my feet are for a prolonged period of time: sleeping, driving, at my desk, in my shoes. As a result of this, these are the places where I spend money. I have a nice bed, comfy car seats, comfy desk chair, and nicely fitting and comfortable shoes. These are minor things, but they adjust the situation I'm in, and in turn, make me a bit happier. I feel the physicians you spoke to may reflect this. They don't quite enjoy where they are, so it's rubbing off on other aspects of their happiness (that coffee may not be bitter, but if you dislike the company making it, you may enter a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts)

 

[SN12357]

Are some medical centers and departments clearly better than others when it comes to job satisfaction or a doctor's happiness on the job?

A small medical problem and change of insurance has brought me to several different doctor's offices lately. I mentioned to all of them that I am a premed. Some PCPs looked miserable and cautioned me that medicine is going downhill. Others smiled and said, you'll like this job! The same with the specialists.

I noticed that whole departments seemed to have mainly happy or unhappy doctors and staff. Has anyone else noticed a correlation between the happiness of doctors and where they work?

This is true of ANY industry. It is literally a universal truth of the workplace.

If you walk into one of the most standardized environments in all of industry--retail stores--employee satisfaction or discontent is almost entirely attributable to the management of the company and the managers of the specific store. Thus you'll see tremendous variation in happiness both across store chains within the same category and across stores within one chain.

Of course your overall contentment as a doctor is dependent on the organization you work in and the management structure and business success thereof. Why would it be any other way?

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

I'd imagine some doctors wouldn't want to dissuade someone who is excited to go into medicine, regardless of whether or not they are unhappy.