Compensation Conundrum

[gungho]

Here's a "hypothetical":
Dr. Solo hires Dr. Junior right out of surg path fellowship. Solo pays Junior a reasonable salary for a year at which time Junior becomes an independent contractor responsible for his own billing, expenses, etc. Solo "requires" Junior to assume directorship of 2 small outlying hospital clinical labs. After the 1st year, Solo pays Junior the remainder of his 1st year revenue (including fees for directorships) after expenses (salary paid, taxes, licenses, CME fees, etc.) so that Solo essentially makes $0 from Junior's presence. During the year, Solo frequently expresses thanks and relief to Junior for his working there and providing some relief from solo practice. Solo provides a significant amount of mentoring for Junior, both from the anatomic aspect and the clinical/management aspect. Junior ends up signing out slightly more than 1/2 the surgicals/cytologies during the 1st year. Solo also makes several references to the idea that perhaps he should have "charged" Junior an amount for "mentoring" and the leg work he did to set up the directorships, etc., but balances that with his appreciation for the work Junior does/has done and the reliability/stability Junior has demonstrated. Question: should Junior feel obligated to remunerate Solo for such mentoring, and, if so, how should this be valued?

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[xanthines]

If Dr Solo didn't make any money by hiring Dr Junior, I'm not sure how much management mentoring Junior got. Just sayin'.

 

[2121115]

Why should he feel obligated to pay Dr. Solo anything at all? There was nothing about that in the contract and both parties were aware of the situation going in. I don't see why this would even be an issue.

 

[lipomas]

I would think this sort of thing would be acknowledged without resorting to financial matters. Take solo out to dinner. Get him tickets to a concert or a game that he wants to go to as a thank you. Invite him over. Is he joking about the fee for mentoring or is he one of those guys that thinks everything has to have a dollar value attached to it?

 

[LADoc00]

Here's a "hypothetical":
Dr. Solo hires Dr. Junior right out of surg path fellowship. Solo pays Junior a reasonable salary for a year at which time Junior becomes an independent contractor responsible for his own billing, expenses, etc. Solo "requires" Junior to assume directorship of 2 small outlying hospital clinical labs. After the 1st year, Solo pays Junior the remainder of his 1st year revenue (including fees for directorships) after expenses (salary paid, taxes, licenses, CME fees, etc.) so that Solo essentially makes $0 from Junior's presence. During the year, Solo frequently expresses thanks and relief to Junior for his working there and providing some relief from solo practice. Solo provides a significant amount of mentoring for Junior, both from the anatomic aspect and the clinical/management aspect. Junior ends up signing out slightly more than 1/2 the surgicals/cytologies during the 1st year. Solo also makes several references to the idea that perhaps he should have "charged" Junior an amount for "mentoring" and the leg work he did to set up the directorships, etc., but balances that with his appreciation for the work Junior does/has done and the reliability/stability Junior has demonstrated. Question: should Junior feel obligated to remunerate Solo for such mentoring, and, if so, how should this be valued?

Haha. I got a good chuckle out this.

Sooo, you are junior I imagine?

The answer is Junior is extremely lucky to have found Dr. Hans Solo. Basically Junior walked into a situation where he didnt need to spend time/money/stress setting up a business (which is huge, huge), finding AND negotiating contracts with hospitals and producing infrastructure for a practice. Off the top of my head, that is six figures+ Jr. is walking off with for what? Being reliable and a nice guy?

Hans Solo is a poor businessman or really doesnt care about $$.

 

[Parts Unknown]

Question: should Junior feel obligated to remunerate Solo for such mentoring, and, if so, how should this be valued?

Someday far in the future Dr. Junior will be Dr. Senior, and he will be the one shepherding a new Dr. Junior into the practice. At that point the cosmic ledger will be balanced.

 

[KCShaw]

Question: should Junior feel obligated to remunerate Solo for such mentoring, and, if so, how should this be valued?

"Should"? Based on what? I mean, really.. a year or more later someone makes a remark that they should be paid for something they did, evidently, primarily to help themselves out? It seems to me that they got exactly the compensation they wanted going in. Nobody seems to have gotten blindsided or surprised here. At worst, maybe Solo regrets not dragging things out a bit and milking Junior for a few years -- commonly accepted practice. You don't give your coach in high school a cut of the MLB contract you got after graduation. You don't kick part of your salary back to the company after they teach you how to use the new version of the accounting software just because you're pretty good with it now. You don't give a cut of your first contract back to your fellowship director for her training you. I don't see why I would/should feel obligated to give a cut of my income back to my boss for hiring me, placing me in a good situation, paying me, and me not unfairly earning above and beyond (it's not like Solo gave Junior a hospital, which the next day tripled what it was paying Junior and only Junior, abruptly excluding Solo). It would be somewhat different if my boss was performing my responsibilities because I wasn't, or wasn't doing a good job.

But this really doesn't make sense to me as a realistic consideration, the way it's presented or the way I'm reading it. Unless this, uh, hypothetical includes misunderstanding a "gosh this is an awesome situation you're in, you should feel lucky!" for an "I put you here, you frikkin' OWE me you jerk!"