Title should read "Why having a job is hard".
I mean, ask the night manager at Wendy's. I'm pretty sure they would endorse all 5 of your points.
Except it wouldn't be nearly as hard to quit that job and still work in the food service/restaurant industry.
And in Europe at least such workers have much better treatment, so equating US piss poor treatment of food workers with piss poor treatment of residents as somehow making complaints of worker treatment of either party invalid is BS. We can do better and people who suggest we can being told to just suck it up for status quo because this is just how it's gotta be done, I don't hold to that.
Otherwise, I agree with you.
Ahh, so much entitlement, so little time from the OP, colleagues.
As a grad student and a post-doc, I was doing 60 hrs/week in the lab, or writing at home. Anyone doing more than that, and I felt, had something wrong with their science.
I once heard a contractor state why he hired illegal aliens. "They have good work ethics and don't have a high sense of entitlement."
Wow, that is really offensive. That's 1) endorsing illegal hiring practices known to unfairly exploit immigrant populations ostensibly coming to US for better opportunities and not having the same worker protections, protections that historically US citizens have died for
2) saying that being able to hire these workers illegally and not being held to the standard of employment law is "good work ethic" and that not being "entitled" to protection under employment law, is preferable to employees "entitled" to lawful labor practices, are showing unreasonable levels of entitlement?
I see more wrong with your friend's attitude and statement, logically, ethically, and legally. I see their statement is more a reflection of justfying why it's good hiring practice for themselves than that the workers are "better" workers aside from likely being more desparate and easier to exploit.
Also knowing plenty of people in academic science, not one of those people have as much difficulty getting full meals in, or attending medical/dental appointments. Granted, often theirs is more work that is individual and not customer/colleague face-to-face time, and greater freedom in shifting hours to evening or weekend, essentially more flexible in WHEN hours are done if not the total.
Also, most of the people I know in academic science were paid a stipend during grad school, and did not incur debt. Granted they have a lower ceiling on wages post-grad and as post-doc. It can be more difficult to obtain academic positions but right out of grad school they are infinitely more "hireable" and have way better working conditions even if hours are long compared to MD grads
. They never complain to me about regular 24 hr shifts, not having time to eat/piss/poop, or having to miss Thanksgiving and Christmas. Picking up Jimmy from school when he's sick? Not a problem.
Otherwise I agree with the posters on this thread about other jobs and the brutality there, it's all about the same.
What I think I agree with and think is legit in this comparison with the OP, is that much as fashion models are expected to have a eating disorder, and they are expected to exercise in service to it.
I lost so much weight from not having time to eat/cook, like 20 lbs from healthy weight to medically anorexic, in a month or so, colleagues were asking me if I might have cancer. We regularly joked about how long our last meal had been. And I was someone that worked pretty hard to get food in, more than my colleagues. There was legit a thread on here saying that residents shouldn't be seen eating, no joke.
And while others put on weight from too much fried food at VA cafeterias (seriously, the cafeterias there crack me up, some of the most ironic hospital food ever), most of us couldn't find time to exercise, so in that sense I expect the average resident is less fit cardiovascularly than the typical fashion model (depending on how far they've taken their eating disorder, what with getting more exercise)
In medicine, we are expected to frequently neglect our health to a point that even other hardcore professions find shocking, and even if they didn't, it's the fact that all-nighters, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, **** eating habits, skipping regular dental and medical appointments, and the general poverty of mental health, is shocking considering what our industry is. It smacks of hypocrisy. It is surprisingly hypocritical.
Sure, lawyers and business people I know aren't necessarily eating better, getting exercise, or medical care more than a lot of docs. But by virtue of their job description I don't find that surprising.
The lawyers I know tend to have their legal affairs in order. The people in finance have usually seen to their financial planning, people working at Wendy's often bring it home to the family even though they've likely lost the taste for it, (gotta feed the kids somehow on that wage), and the fashion models look "good" by societal standards, and often have nice duds, dentists I know have great oral health and nice looking teeth. Real estate agents have nice houses. People I know who work with computers have nice tech. The accountants I know, know where their money is going at least. The guys on "Deadliest Catch" are eating seafood. The carpenters I know have nice decks. Mechanics I know drive junker cars but keep them going. My cosmetologist friends are pretty stylish.
Do doctors have good health? On average we kill ourselves moreso than most other professional fields.
Most of my friends in professional fields if they had catastrophic illness in themselves or family, or had to walk away from a job or try to find another one even if lower paying in order to have better working/work life balance, would not find their professional career OVER as in OVER like a resident would.
I'm not saying it's peaches and roses in other fields (especially law these days), but on average other workers have more bargaining rights and the ones who don't often can find other work and be more or less in a similar financial situation.
Tl;dr
I saw the thread title and the one thing that stood out to me about fashion modeling and residency, is how much you skip meals.
