How do you handle a jerk attending?

[Pure Anergy]

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I have a situation that I thought would be helpful to discuss in case someone else faces the same problem, plus I'm interested in knowing how other people would handle it. There is one attending at my program who openly dislikes me. We didn't have any falling out that I know of. He just doesn't like me and didn't like me from the first day we met. Someone else suggested that he doesn't like people from my ethnic background, but I haven't ever heard him make a racist comment or anything like that. I think it's just me.

Without being too specific, he does things like criticize me in front of other residents, nurses, etc. One time he talked about how dumb I am to another attending who had come down to the ED to do a consult. He did that with me there in the room, and I can only imagine what he must say about me behind closed doors. Another time, I said that I did not think the patient had X diagnosis, and he sarcastically asked me how many cases of X I have seen to have any idea if the patient does or does not have that disease, even though he agreed with me that the patient did not have it. There are plenty of other examples along that line, but that gives a good picture.

I have not ever complained to the PD or anyone else about how this attending treats me. But it's bad enough that I know at least one other attending has said something to the PD about it. As far as I know, the PD hasn't done anything though.

At first, I wasn't sure how to handle it. Obviously being disrespectful back isn't an option, and that's not my style anyway even if I could get away with it. What I decided to do was act like he was my favorite attending instead of like I dreaded working with him. For example, I told him that I really like working with him because he teaches me so much. (That's not even a lie, if you consider learning to deal with an obnoxious person senior to you as learning.) Or when he says something sarcastic, I treat it like it's a joke and laugh even though he isn't joking. I've been doing this for the past month or so, and it seems to be working. Not that I think complimenting him made him love me, but the first time I did it, he was surprised and didn't say much to me at all.

Like I said, I am curious if any of the rest of you had to deal with a jerk attending like that during residency, and if so, what you did.

 

[link2swim06]

I have a situation that I thought would be helpful to discuss in case someone else faces the same problem, plus I'm interested in knowing how other people would handle it. There is one attending at my program who openly dislikes me. We didn't have any falling out that I know of. He just doesn't like me and didn't like me from the first day we met. Someone else suggested that he doesn't like people from my ethnic background, but I haven't ever heard him make a racist comment or anything like that. I think it's just me.

Without being too specific, he does things like criticize me in front of other residents, nurses, etc. One time he talked about how dumb I am to another attending who had come down to the ED to do a consult. He did that with me there in the room, and I can only imagine what he must say about me behind closed doors. Another time, I said that I did not think the patient had X diagnosis, and he sarcastically asked me how many cases of X I have seen to have any idea if the patient does or does not have that disease, even though he agreed with me that the patient did not have it. There are plenty of other examples along that line, but that gives a good picture.

I have not ever complained to the PD or anyone else about how this attending treats me. But it's bad enough that I know at least one other attending has said something to the PD about it. As far as I know, the PD hasn't done anything though.

At first, I wasn't sure how to handle it. Obviously being disrespectful back isn't an option, and that's not my style anyway even if I could get away with it. What I decided to do was act like he was my favorite attending instead of like I dreaded working with him. For example, I told him that I really like working with him because he teaches me so much. (That's not even a lie, if you consider learning to deal with an obnoxious person senior to you as learning.) Or when he says something sarcastic, I treat it like it's a joke and laugh even though he isn't joking. I've been doing this for the past month or so, and it seems to be working. Not that I think complimenting him made him love me, but the first time I did it, he was surprised and didn't say much to me at all.

Like I said, I am curious if any of the rest of you had to deal with a jerk attending like that during residency, and if so, what you did.

Is it just you, maybe he is doing it to everyone?

 

[UnderwaterDoc]

Wow, kudos to you for the way that you are handling that situation, I know that I would not be able to keep quiet, especially when being unfairly reprimanded and berated in front of other coworkers.

I have yet to come across your situation at our shop, but I would tell you that if you feel like this interactions are having enough of a negative impact then you owe it to yourself to do something about it. I would talk to your PD about it no question, especially so if this attending is singling you out.

I've been told that attendings were fired from our program years ago because they were nasty towards the residents, enough people complained, and they were let go. Some attendings are just not meant to teach.

 

[Apollyon]

There are putz-tastic losers in academics that are there because they can't/couldn't cut it in private/community practice. People will say "oh yes they could!", but I can think of only one person that went from private to academic that wasn't a tool, and he did it to do a fellowship.

For an attending to demean a resident, that is poor form, unprofessional, weak, and would NOT be tolerated on the medical staff of a non-teaching department. It doesn't matter how good you are; to ask "wow, is your hair nappy today?" or "is it a kosher meal for lunch?" or "can you get a tan?" or "all you guys speak Chinese, right?" are all beyond unprofessional. They're outright rude. If it has bothered another attending enough to tell the PD, it is telling that the PD has said nothing to you, and one of two things: the PD talked to the attending, who is blowing the PD off, or the PD did not talk to the attending, which is corrosive to the educational process. Hell, the more I think of it, I just want to fly to wherever you are, and get in this idiot's face, and tell him where his bread is buttered. Seriously. When I get a game face on, it's showtime. What's right is right. This isn't.

 

[UnderwaterDoc]

Hell, the more I think of it, I just want to fly to wherever you are, and get in this idiot's face, and tell him where his bread is buttered. Seriously. When I get a game face on, it's showtime. What's right is right. This isn't.

I am stealing that phrase for posterity 🙂

 

[KarlPilkington]

I would talk to your PD immediately.
This type of behavior should not be tolerated anywhere.
Personally I would say something to this guy if he were to call me stupid in front of another attending, but that's just my personality. In any event, your PD needs to know about these interactions.

 

[em1234]

I can't believe this dude is in a position to teach $hit how to stink, let alone train the future of emergency medicine.
You have obviously found a WAY better coping mechanism that I would have employed (read: pummel this clown), but I'm not sure it is the right one. You need to kick this up the chain to your PD quickly and repeatedly. If the PD has already had one complaint from another faculty member, you need to find out if they were spoken to and if your PD is weak sauce and hoped it would go away or if this attg really doesn't value their job and has opted to not correct their attitude. If your PD has not spoken to this clown, then your PD sucks and it should be taken directly to your chairman. At my residency there was an absolutely no tolerance policy for bullying, especially not by OUR OWN FACULTY! INSANE!
There is already so much crap to deal with as a resident, the last place you should expect, or be willing to endure this behavior is from your own faculty. your mentors. your guides. the people who are paid to teach you. I don't know where you are, but at my residency our faculty openly admitted that they had easy jobs. We made all the calls, got everyone admitted (which was never easy), did the procedures, fought with all the consultants. All they had to do was make sure we didn't flagrantly kill anyone. Maybe it is time for this attg to move on to another practice location before Apollyon and I hop a flight devastate this fool.

Don't tolerate the intolerable cruelty of one small minded tool. Stand up for your right to have a collegial and collaborative work environment.
-1234

 

[docB]

This situation serves as a good reminder of how much residents have to lose and how vulnerable they feel because of it.

I applaud the OP for taking the approach he has. I have a few suggestions:

If you feel like going to your PD could put you at risk for retaliation (that's a big red flag for a bad PD BTW) then don't go to the PD. Do you have a faculty mentor, a good assistant PD or even just a faculty member you are tight with that you can trust? If so talk to them with an agreement this is confidential. They could then go to the PD with a general concern about the attending in question in a way that can't get traced back to you.

If this guy truly has it out for you and is not just a lemon for everyone I think it's fine to avoid him. Check the schedule and trade away. It's not like you're avoiding nights and weekends.

Journal. If this ever does result in you sitting in front of the PD the first question will be "Can you give me specific examples?" Make sure you can, with time and date and patient numbers if need be.

Good luck.

 

[deleted65604]

I agree with DocB. Plan well, and have a rock solid case on paper. If you don't have an overwhelming amount of evidence, you are going to look silly and whiny. Think about each instance, and make sure you want to include it and that there is no simple explanation or that the attending isn't just being crotchety. I wouldn't go so far as to pander to the jerk. Be professional and don't joke around in the least in your interaction with him. He sounds like a personality disorder, and messing with them can really turn on you as they are often professionals at manipulating those around them.

Turn the other cheek until you have enough overwhelming evidence as to prove that his behavior is inexcusable. Make sure you are on unequivically solid standing with your residency in scores, evaluations, patient care, etc. Before you decide to make a big stink about it, think long and hard about whether this will overall hurt you or help you.

Sometimes you confront people because you want justice and retribution. You usually get neither.

If you are truly being persecuted in residency and you are well liked, people will go to bat for you. Above all, keep in mind that residency is a 3 year long job interview/background check of the most thorough nature ever endured by a professional. You endure 3 years of @#!*% so that you can learn to take care of patients and so that your PD can help you get a job.

 

[Birdstrike]

.

 

[UnderwaterDoc]

I am curious as to how some of the attendings are responding to this, with the caveat that you make sure you are a superstar resident before complaining, I don't think the fact that you are a "normal" resident precludes you from voicing your objections. How you do on your exams should have no effect on how you are treated by an attending.

Adding to what I said earlier, I would also talk to the offending attending, respectfully off course, and I would let him know that being confrontational and berating me in front of others is not appropriate, not to mention that it makes the working environment worse for everyone. After that, if it continues, I think you would be well within your rights to turn your back and refuse to listen to anything else he has to say when he turns aggressive, present your patients and keep your verbal responses to a minimum around this guy.

 

[EM2BE]

I have dealt with this type of behavior (yelling at me, calling me stupid in front of everyone to see). I found it was best to act as if nothing ever happened and to do the best I can when I'm at work. This attending definitely was not singling me out as I have heard from others they had to go through something similar as well. It seems this attending in particular really hates working with interns because they don't know anything. I've even heard them say it was much easier just to see the patient than to oversee a resident/student see the patient. My thought that day was then they should not be in academics and they should leave.

Edit: The best thing is that this attending does not hold grudges. Some days are much better than others. I still cringe when I have to work with them, but things are getting better. Unfortunately, after one horrible shift with this attending, I, unfortunately, cannot forget how bad things can get.

 

[deleted65604]

I am curious as to how some of the attendings are responding to this, with the caveat that you make sure you are a superstar resident before complaining, I don't think the fact that you are a "normal" resident precludes you from voicing your objections. How you do on your exams should have no effect on how you are treated by an attending.

I think it is relevant. If you aren't the smartest resident around and the attending is making this obvious fact known to you, then nobody is going to care. Sometimes you've got to call a spade a spade. If a sub-par resident comes up to me and complains that they were accused of being lazy, stupid, or irresponsible, I'm probably going to respond, "You are fat and ugly too. Get over it."

 

[Birdstrike]

.

 

[Rendar5]

I think it is relevant. If you aren't the smartest resident around and the attending is making this obvious fact known to you, then nobody is going to care. Sometimes you've got to call a spade a spade. If a sub-par resident comes up to me and complains that they were accused of being lazy, stupid, or irresponsible, I'm probably going to respond, "You are fat and ugly too. Get over it."

and this behavior helps the resident improve on their deficiencies how exactly...? There's a difference between constructive criticism and mind-numbing derogatory criticism.

 

[UnderwaterDoc]

I think it is relevant. If you aren't the smartest resident around and the attending is making this obvious fact known to you, then nobody is going to care. Sometimes you've got to call a spade a spade. If a sub-par resident comes up to me and complains that they were accused of being lazy, stupid, or irresponsible, I'm probably going to respond, "You are fat and ugly too. Get over it."

In private, you can dress me up and call me Shirley if you think that will help me, but I don't care how dumb I am, nothing gives you the right to call me stupid and berate me in front of other coworkers.

I mean maybe if Pure Anergy made a completely obvious and terrible mistake and you took it out of context and in the heat of the moment you said "wow you're stupid!!", I could see that happening, but I don't think that was the case here. If your goal is to teach me, so I stop being "stupid", berating me and humiliating me is not the right way to go about it. Like I said earlier, some attendings are not cut out to teach.

 

[name?]

I think that, at a minimum, a request should be made to have critiques made in private, or at least away from the bedside/consultant ears where they can harm not only yours, but your department's reputation. I'd also probably at least let the PD know it's an issue--anonymous complaints or nameless attending would be fine just so you can be sure it's been put out there. Sounds like a world-class D-bag. Chin up, work hard and if you have to get abused, at least ask them to do it in a less destructive way.

 

[docB]

I am curious as to how some of the attendings are responding to this, with the caveat that you make sure you are a superstar resident before complaining, I don't think the fact that you are a "normal" resident precludes you from voicing your objections. How you do on your exams should have no effect on how you are treated by an attending.

Adding to what I said earlier, I would also talk to the offending attending, respectfully off course, and I would let him know that being confrontational and berating me in front of others is not appropriate, not to mention that it makes the working environment worse for everyone. After that, if it continues, I think you would be well within your rights to turn your back and refuse to listen to anything else he has to say when he turns aggressive, present your patients and keep your verbal responses to a minimum around this guy.

I think the idea that a resident who may be facing problems on the horizon should work to make sure all their ducks are in a row has merit. Here's why. As an administrator I can assure you that there is a difference in my mind when I'm addressing a complaint against a guy who has a lot of deficiencies vs. a complaint against a guy who is a solid performer. It will do nothing but help your situation, or at the very least reduce the complexity, to be that solid performer.

This also raises another issue that the attendings seem to accept more than the residents. Life (and medicine) are not fair. A resident shouldn't have to go through this. But it happens. That's life. We've all seen docs get railroaded. Hell, most of us have been railroaded. I know I have. The tips above were intended to provide some direction on where to go from here. Not to justify the actions of the abusive attending. If I were this guy's boss I rip him a new one but that's just not reality.

And just because something's within your rights doesn't make it a good idea. The OP certainly has the right to tell the attending to stop but if this guy is a big of a jackass as it sounds they run a real risk of retaliation. Again, it isn't right, but that's how it is.

 

[WilburSK]

I think it is relevant. If you aren't the smartest resident around and the attending is making this obvious fact known to you, then nobody is going to care. Sometimes you've got to call a spade a spade. If a sub-par resident comes up to me and complains that they were accused of being lazy, stupid, or irresponsible, I'm probably going to respond, "You are fat and ugly too. Get over it."

Wow....classy.

 

[UnderwaterDoc]

The OP certainly has the right to tell the attending to stop but if this guy is a big of a jackass as it sounds they run a real risk of retaliation. Again, it isn't right, but that's how it is.

Retaliation? In what form? The only retaliation that I would be afraid of as a resident would be getting fired, could that happen because of me telling a jackass attending to back off?

I agree that being Resident Superstar definitely would help, I can't think of any situation in which it wouldn't. I wonder if the attending's performance would get the same scrutinizing as the resident's. I still don't think you have to bend over and take it just because you are not a superstar, though.

 

[VienneseWaltz]

Journal. If this ever does result in you sitting in front of the PD the first question will be "Can you give me specific examples?" Make sure you can, with time and date and patient numbers if need be.

Yes, do this--keep records. This is critical to establishing a pattern.

Based on what you've said about this guy, I think you have little to gain by confronting him directly. He's a hot mess of Axis II.

I DO think you need to talk to your PD about this. For one thing, if this guy decides to go to your PD about YOU and you've waited to discuss it, you will sound retaliatory. For another, your PD may be waiting to hear from you, thinking not to stir the pot if you're apparently not bothered by it. At a minimum, you may help establish a pattern if he has done this to someone else or does it in the future.

I think you are handling your interactions with this guy in a good way, attempting to maintain professionalism, in which he is absolutely lacking. If you stick around after residency, this guy will be your colleague. And to any jerk attendings out there, consider that the residents you are abusing now may soon be your associates or even your bosses.

Good luck.

 

[AmoryBlaine]

Speaking as a senior resident:

a) The behavior is unacceptable and unprofessional.

b) You NEED to involve another attending in this discussion immediately (PD, APD, advisor).

c) I would speak to your chief residents about this, semi-officially.

d) One thing to consider, and your chiefs may be able to help you with this, is where you stand in the program. If you are a weak, whiny resident it will be harder to make any headway. Some attendings take their role as guardians of the specialty very seriously. I have an attending who is generally pretty cool, but is hell on wheels to residents who he thinks are dangerous, lazy, etc. His rationale is that he doesn't care if they hate him, he only cares if they get competent before graduation. It doesn't excuse your attending's behavior, but if you are a low performer he may be viewing his behavior as goal-oriented and corrective rather than just mean. The other important reason to figure this out is that if the lid blows off this thing and you end up telling someone in authority "Dr X is unprofessional" he may come back with "Resident Y is incompetent for these reasons." Then **** gets messy, because your performance may be seriously brought into the equation.

 

[NinerNiner999]

The suggestions in this thread are all valid. To add my 2 cents...

Before you do anything, check your file with the program coordinator - you know, the "academic" record within your residency. It is most likely that this attending has an axe to grind with you and dissipates this by the public interactions you describe. It is also likely, however, that there may be more interaction as you have alluded to "behind closed doors." Make sure there are no complaints, poor evaluations, etc that may have found their way into your residency file, unbeknownst to you, before you take the next step.

The next step is to go up the chain, and be very careful not skip any people as you go. Be polite, friendly, and open to criticism. Start with your chief resident. Send everyone you speak with a brief thank you letter by email and keep it. It doesn't need to be specific, but it should reference your discussion:

"Hi Jim - Thanks for talking with me today about Dr. X. It was reassuring to hear that you are pleased with my performance, and I am glad you are looking into my educational matter. Please let me know the outcome, and any suggestions you have for me. Anergy"

Save these emails.

If the Attending's behavior continues, go to the PD, and reference your prior conversation with your chief resident. Thank your PD with an email as well.

If the behavior continues, approach your PD again, and ask him/her to meet with you and the attending in person. Again, send thank you emails to both of these people and reference the outcome of your meeting:

"Hi Dr. X and P.D.- Thank you both for meeting with me today to discuss ways we can improve our working relationship. As we discussed, I will do.... and you will help me with..... "

If, after all of this, there is still no improvement in this relationship, and you feel you can no longer work with this attending because he/she is harming your learning process and ability to develop, ask your program director in writing to minimize your exposure to this attending. Also ask for this written request to be placed in your file for reference.

The end result of all of this is to nip this in the bud as early as possible before it gets out of control. Be friendly and kind and, judging by the way you are handling this right now it doesn't sound like that will be a problem. Don't be demanding to get this done, but be firm in your resolve to do the right thing.

Retaliation is a real threat in academic medicine, and witch hunts can be started very easily. As long as you have a clean file before you start this process, an email trail of your attempts to resolve this matter, and a letter requesting intervention to protect you, any bad mojo that enters your file after this process will be brought into question.

Good luck.

 

[Angry Birds]

I will be taking a dissenting viewpoint here: I think you should avoid confrontation; you should neither speak to the attending himself nor with your PD or anyone else. Here is my operative logic. I think you need to ask yourself two questions:

1) What is the absolute best case scenario following such an interaction? What is the absolute most you could expect to gain from such confrontation?

2) What is the worst case scenario? What do you stand to lose?

I think when you frame the question in that way, you will see that you have very little to gain and almost everything to lose.

1) The possible benefit you may obtain from such a confrontation is that the attending might treat you a bit nicer--or let's say absolute best case scenario he becomes your BFF or gives his daughter to you in marriage. But is that really worth the risk of #2 (below).

2) What you stand to lose, worst case scenario, is that you will get kicked out of your residency. No, I don't think just this one confrontation would do that. But, it may initiate a sequence of events that will ultimately culminate in you being asked to leave your program. Let's say that the jerk attending ends up actually being influential in the program or the hospital--what if this guy feels no fear of being a jerk to you because he is so influential in that program that he has little fear of being reprimanded? Don't you think a brand-new attending would be much less likely to bully a resident as compared to one who has been there since time immemorial?

So, it ends up your influential attending plays golf with the PD, and in fact, their wives and kids have play dates together. Whose side do you think the PD will incline toward?

I've seen a couple residents let go (at different programs). Certainly, both made some mistakes, but nothing I thought was catastrophic or damning enough to get fired (actually, they were pressured into leaving voluntarily). Yet, it was really just a series of events--even a sequence of events--that was initiated by one or two key interactions with powerful attendings and a lot of groupthink.

You have everything to lose, and almost nothing to gain. So, why do it? Just because of your ego or self-dignity? I guess I can respect that if you have the chutzpah to risk everything because of self-dignity. My need for self-preservation outweighs my self-dignity, sad as that might sound.

Your residency is only 3 years long. You won't see this guy for the rest of your life after that. So, let him say and do what he wants. Call him a mother f***er in your head and be done with it. Then, go home to your significant other and enjoy life. Soon, your time to be an attending will be here and your window of extreme vulnerability will be gone. Then, you can call them mother f***ers to their face (perhaps not in exactly those words) and even if you get fired, you can go across the street to work in another ER.

Just my two cents. I realize it's a bit cowardly, but I have seen first-hand from those couple friends who got the boot from residency what it's like being $300,000 in debt with your career in medicine forever over because no residency program wants/needs to hire a residency "drop-out" when they have thousands of other spot-free applicants.

 

[CherryTree1305]

At first, I wasn't sure how to handle it. Obviously being disrespectful back isn't an option, and that's not my style anyway even if I could get away with it. What I decided to do was act like he was my favorite attending instead of like I dreaded working with him. For example, I told him that I really like working with him because he teaches me so much. (That's not even a lie, if you consider learning to deal with an obnoxious person senior to you as learning.) Or when he says something sarcastic, I treat it like it's a joke and laugh even though he isn't joking. I've been doing this for the past month or so, and it seems to be working. Not that I think complimenting him made him love me, but the first time I did it, he was surprised and didn't say much to me at all.QUOTE]

For my two unwanted cents, I thing you have your answer in your own statement above. You say "it seems to be working." Killing with kindness has worked in similar situations in the past for me and a couple of times has turned my adversary into my best defender! Keep it up. You achieve nothing by being pulled down to his level. By the same token, start your own file and document, document, document incidences as they occur.

 

[xaelia]

As an attending, any feedback that couldn't wait until the end of the shift should be given in private. Any further concerns would go back through the Program Director.

As a resident, again, any uncomfortable conflicts with an attending are best addressed with the Program Director as well. Either they will give you feedback if you have an area in which to improve, or they can escalate a problem attending to the Chairman.

 

[Pure Anergy]

Wow, thanks for all of the replies, and sorry I haven't been back for a while. I wanted to answer a few things.

I will be taking a dissenting viewpoint here: I think you should avoid confrontation; you should neither speak to the attending himself nor with your PD or anyone else.

I agree, both for the reasons you gave, and because I don't think the situation is intolerable enough to warrant stirring up a hornet's nest.

For my two unwanted cents, I thing you have your answer in your own statement above. You say "it seems to be working." Killing with kindness has worked in similar situations in the past for me and a couple of times has turned my adversary into my best defender! Keep it up. You achieve nothing by being pulled down to his level.

I agree. I wasn't really asking about what the rest of you think that I should do, because I've already decided on this strategy, and it does seem to be working. So I was more asking what people thought in general, and to get a discussion going, because I'm obviously not the only person this has ever happened to.

Is it just you, maybe he is doing it to everyone?

Among the current residents, it is just me, as far as I know.

I have yet to come across your situation at our shop, but I would tell you that if you feel like this interactions are having enough of a negative impact then you owe it to yourself to do something about it. I would talk to your PD about it no question, especially so if this attending is singling you out.

Again, I don't feel that it's having enough of a negative impact to go to the PD about it, especially because one of the other attendings already discussed it with the PD. There isn't anything I'm going to add.

TIf it has bothered another attending enough to tell the PD, it is telling that the PD has said nothing to you, and one of two things: the PD talked to the attending, who is blowing the PD off, or the PD did not talk to the attending, which is corrosive to the educational process.

Hmm, it's possible that the PD talked to the attending about it. I wouldn't have any way to know.

Hell, the more I think of it, I just want to fly to wherever you are, and get in this idiot's face, and tell him where his bread is buttered. Seriously. When I get a game face on, it's showtime. What's right is right. This isn't.

Haha, thanks. 🙂

Don't tolerate the intolerable cruelty of one small minded tool. Stand up for your right to have a collegial and collaborative work environment.

I would talk to your PD immediately.
This type of behavior should not be tolerated anywhere.
Personally I would say something to this guy if he were to call me stupid in front of another attending, but that's just my personality.

As I said above, I agree with Angry Birds that there is not much to be gained by stirring the hornet's nest.

If you feel like going to your PD could put you at risk for retaliation (that's a big red flag for a bad PD BTW) then don't go to the PD. Do you have a faculty mentor, a good assistant PD or even just a faculty member you are tight with that you can trust? If so talk to them with an agreement this is confidential. They could then go to the PD with a general concern about the attending in question in a way that can't get traced back to you.

I don't feel like going to the PD would put me at risk for retaliation. But as I said, one of the other attendings has already talked to the PD. So the PD knows, and there is no way that can be traced back to me, because I had nothing to do with it. In fact, I asked the other attending NOT to talk to the PD when that attending spoke to me about it, and the other attending told the PD anyway, against my wishes.

First, I would make sure you're a great resident, you come early, leave late, read, ace all your in-services, get along well with everyone else, treat everyone with respect, and act like this a--hole doesn't get under your skin. If everyone else thinks you're doing a great job, it'll be obvious how much of a loser this person is.

I'm doing my best, though I'm not sure that I'm a great resident. I guess I'd say I'm kind of lopsided. There are some things I'm great at and well above average, and other things that I'm average at or maybe even below average. That's probably true for most people, though.

Based on what you've said about this guy, I think you have little to gain by confronting him directly. He's a hot mess of Axis II.

Again, I agree.

I DO think you need to talk to your PD about this. For one thing, if this guy decides to go to your PD about YOU and you've waited to discuss it, you will sound retaliatory. For another, your PD may be waiting to hear from you, thinking not to stir the pot if you're apparently not bothered by it. At a minimum, you may help establish a pattern if he has done this to someone else or does it in the future.

Again, the PD already knows. And since I last posted, I found out that there is at least one other person who had this problem with the same attending. The other person is a current junior attending who also did residency here.

I think you are handling your interactions with this guy in a good way, attempting to maintain professionalism, in which he is absolutely lacking. If you stick around after residency, this guy will be your colleague.

I will definitely not be sticking around after residency. Not because of him, but for family and personal reasons.

b) You NEED to involve another attending in this discussion immediately (PD, APD, advisor).

Again, this has already been done.

c) I would speak to your chief residents about this, semi-officially.

I don't think that involving yet more people, and particularly other residents, is the greatest idea.

 

[roja]

I would speak to your PD immediately. Also if you have other faculty whom you trust, I would speak to them about it as well. NOT telling your PD disables him/her from being able to address issues. Speaking to trusted faculty will also give you an idea of the politics in your institution.

 

[BushDoc20]

humm, Bush advice is easy, go down the local watering hole have a couple of bevvies and tell the guy exactly what you think of him and there'll be a massive punch up you end up in the hospital and punch on again and they leave you to it....till you cant throw another and thats when you have mutual respect for each other, But seeming as though this is not possible and its not Australia and not the bush.....when you finish up on a shift adjust the family jewels, hold your head up high, walk out and let the PD (whatever that is) know what the flaming heck this drongo attending is doing.

the new cocky attendings we get we throw them to the croc bites or send them to go pull someones leg out a croc, if that doesn't knock em down a few notches then its the pub.

 

[tkim]

humm, Bush advice is easy, go down the local watering hole have a couple of bevvies and tell the guy exactly what you think of him and there'll be a massive punch up you end up in the hospital and punch on again and they leave you to it....till you cant throw another and thats when you have mutual respect for each other, But seeming as though this is not possible and its not Australia and not the bush.....when you finish up on a shift adjust the family jewels, hold your head up high, walk out and let the PD (whatever that is) know what the flaming heck this drongo attending is doing.

the new cocky attendings we get we throw them to the croc bites or send them to go pull someones leg out a croc, if that doesn't knock em down a few notches then its the pub.

"That's not a knife."

 

[BushDoc20]

got it in one tkim!