sneaky or smart move?

[TeaKae]

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So I just spent 2 days rotating on a team with one other M3 student (her and I were the only two med students on the team--there were 2 interns, 2 residents, a fellow and an attending) and on the 2nd day, today, when we got evaluated, she shows up with blueberry muffins she baked for the team. 😱

To me, it seemed immature and almost unprofessional. I mean, muffins, really?! wtf. Like, do you think that'll help your evaluations? Maybe it did and now I look like a slacker. I guess I just think it should be about my performance and skills while I'm working there...I thought the muffins were over the top, personally.

Or am I just overreacting? Is this is normal behavior for a junior medical student?

 

[FutureDr8429033]

So I just spent 2 days rotating on a team with one other M3 student (her and I were the only two med students on the team--there were 2 interns, 2 residents, a fellow and an attending) and on the 2nd day, today, when we got evaluated, she shows up with blueberry muffins she baked for the team. 😱

To me, it seemed immature and almost unprofessional. I mean, muffins, really?! wtf. Like, do you think that'll help your evaluations? Maybe it did and now I look like a slacker. I guess I just think it should be about my performance and skills while I'm working there...I thought the muffins were over the top, personally.

Or am I just overreacting? Is this is normal behavior for a junior medical student?

Hah!

I'm sure she thinks she's just being nice. Maybe other people think that too. I see it as a desperate plea for acceptance.

 

[pingouin]

We have lots of people at my school who like to bake, and will bring stuff in for their teams on occasion. I've never heard of anyone doing it because they think it'll get them better evaluations, and knowing the people I have in mind, that's unlikely to be an unspoken expectation either. The most common reason is that they like to bake (or cook, or whatever), it helps reduce their stress, and they don't want to keep it all at home and eat it themselves. Their teams are just handy human garbage disposals for delicious baked goods.

 

[TeaKae]

Yeah...I tend to read into things but it just didn't sit right with me for some reason.

I'm afraid M3 year is going to make me fat. There's seriously so much free food around, it's hard to say no. Must....start....packing...lunches.

 

[2012mdc]

So I just spent 2 days rotating on a team with one other M3 student (her and I were the only two med students on the team--there were 2 interns, 2 residents, a fellow and an attending) and on the 2nd day, today, when we got evaluated, she shows up with blueberry muffins she baked for the team. 😱

To me, it seemed immature and almost unprofessional. I mean, muffins, really?! wtf. Like, do you think that'll help your evaluations? Maybe it did and now I look like a slacker. I guess I just think it should be about my performance and skills while I'm working there...I thought the muffins were over the top, personally.

Or am I just overreacting? Is this is normal behavior for a junior medical student?

It seems kind of desperate only because y'all have been there only for 2 days.

I have classmates that like to bake and near the end of rotations they'll bring stuff in. Never really saw it as kissing up.

 

[doc2beIRELAND]

I think it's really ass-kissy, to be honest, and if I were her attending I'd be laughing at her inwardly (while shoving the muffin into my mouth as quickly as possible of course).

I hear ya about getting fat... we just did a one month rotation and I put on 4lbs - between free pharma lunches and subsidised canteen food, meh 😡

 

[red10]

She mighta been doing it as a thank you not as a way to suck up. I bake all the time for my classmates mostly because I like baking more than eating. I took cupcakes to my mentors as "thank you for letting me shadow you" gifts.

If bringing in muffins is enough to get her better reviews, then your attending is a twit.

Chill. If she's trying to one up you, what are you gonna do about it? Bake something too? just let it go and send a thank you card if you're so worried about being one upped.🙄

 

[Lbgem]

She mighta been doing it as a thank you not as a way to suck up. I bake all the time for my classmates mostly because I like baking more than eating. I took cupcakes to my mentors as "thank you for letting me shadow you" gifts.

If bringing in muffins is enough to get her better reviews, then your attending is a twit.

Chill. If she's trying to one up you, what are you gonna do about it? Bake something too? just let it go and send a thank you card if you're so worried about being one upped.🙄

I think the difference is timing. Baking/cooking does relieve stress for me personally, and when I started working for my current (don't shoot me) pharma company I did bring in wild blueberry muffins with lemon sugar on top, but that was AFTER I felt comfortable enough with the people around me. It was basically what the other people said - can't eat it all, relieves stress and it's a nice surprise for coworkers.

However, imo doing it before you really know the people I feel like it's more on the sucking up side. But you're not grading her 😛 or being graded against for not bringing in food.

Oh and I will say suck ups are usually making up for their lack of skill/motivation/etc, and try to go that route. Most people see through it. Let the quality of your work speak for you.

@ Red, I did have a coworker who took it as a challenge/personal affront so she started bringing/making the same things I did (i.e. asks me what I'm bringing to the BBQ this week and then decides 'coincidentally' she's bringing the same thing...tempted to tell her I'm making a pummple cake ...)

 

[red10]

@ Red, I did have a coworker who took it as a challenge/personal affront so she started bringing/making the same things I did (i.e. asks me what I'm bringing to the BBQ this week and then decides 'coincidentally' she's bringing the same thing...tempted to tell her I'm making a pummple cake ...)

haha oh god I had a girl do that to me once. Not the same dish but she still tried to out do me. I won tho.

 

[Hemichordate]

I think the difference is timing. Baking/cooking does relieve stress for me personally, and when I started working for my current (don't shoot me) pharma company I did bring in wild blueberry muffins with lemon sugar on top, but that was AFTER I felt comfortable enough with the people around me. It was basically what the other people said - can't eat it all, relieves stress and it's a nice surprise for coworkers.

However, imo doing it before you really know the people I feel like it's more on the sucking up side. But you're not grading her 😛 or being graded against for not bringing in food.

Oh and I will say suck ups are usually making up for their lack of skill/motivation/etc, and try to go that route. Most people see through it. Let the quality of your work speak for you.

@ Red, I did have a coworker who took it as a challenge/personal affront so she started bringing/making the same things I did (i.e. asks me what I'm bringing to the BBQ this week and then decides 'coincidentally' she's bringing the same thing...tempted to tell her I'm making a pummple cake ...)

Love the cake. Do you know how much one that size would cost?

 

[Lbgem]

Love the cake. Do you know how much one that size would cost?

If I were guessing - probably 20-40$ if you made it yourself depending on the quality of ingredients, guessing around 50-60$ if you asked a bakery to make it for you. Someone else could probably give you a more accurate estimate.

@Red Hard to outdo the original imo 😛 . I'm letting her do what I was thinking about, and making something else. Last year she made a cake you could only eat by using a spoon... And then when she heard me answering people on what the ingredients were/how I made it (from scratch), she jumped in and said hers was made from scratch too, minus the cool whip, the Snickers, Twix...you get the idea.

 

[Bartelby]

Some students genuinely do this because they like to bake and/or want to do something nice for the group (I have met them) and others do it because they figure a couple of muffins is worth it to have your evaluators like you more (I have met them too). As you get to know this classmate over the rotation you will figure out which of these types they fall into, generally because the suckups keep doing things like that and seem pretty grade-oriented. Either way I agree with the above, just carry on with your rotation same as you would if the other student didn't bring stuff in.

Personally the only times I brought in baked goods were for staff (receptionists, nurses, etc) who were exceptionally helpful, and that was only on the last day of those rotations.

 

[officedepot]

If it would get me a better eval you bet I would do it. Now, since I can't cook at all this doesn't help me...

also I will add that I would never do something like that w/out at least warning the other student (if I liked them) and would also just split it w/ them if they wanted some credit. No point in trying to outdo your fellow classmates bc these are the people you're going to be interacting w/ in residency.

 

[Caesar]

She mighta been doing it as a thank you not as a way to suck up. I bake all the time for my classmates mostly because I like baking more than eating. I took cupcakes to my mentors as "thank you for letting me shadow you" gifts.

If bringing in muffins is enough to get her better reviews, then your attending is a twit.

Chill. If she's trying to one up you, what are you gonna do about it? Bake something too? just let it go and send a thank you card if you're so worried about being one upped.🙄

I love when you bake.

 

[Caesar]

You all over think things. It was the second day... so what? Maybe it was a way to be nice and get to know the other people on the team?

She brought cupcakes, not cured cancer. It won't make a damn bit of difference come evals.

 

[DrBowtie]

It seems kind of desperate only because y'all have been there only for 2 days.

I have classmates that like to bake and near the end of rotations they'll bring stuff in. Never really saw it as kissing up.

Pretty much sums it up my thoughts. 2 days seems weak.

She should have told you though before such that it doesn't make you look bad and you could of brought some coffee or something.

Whenever we do breakfast stuff its always from our collective medical student cohort (usually 2-3 people)

 

[MilkmanAl]

I've brought cinnamon rolls a few times on the last day of the rotation if I got along with the team well. It's just supposed to be a nice gesture for helping me out, not a way to curry favor. the residents don't have much of a hand in evaluating us, anyway.

 

[CptCrunch]

Brownies = honors

Muffins = high pass

 

[OveractiveBrain]

If it would get me a better eval you bet I would do it. Now, since I can't cook at all this doesn't help me...

also I will add that I would never do something like that w/out at least warning the other student (if I liked them) and would also just split it w/ them if they wanted some credit. No point in trying to outdo your fellow classmates bc these are the people you're going to be interacting w/ in residency.

So, having been on both sides of the fence (the evaluatee and the evaluator), I can definitely say that more experienced people see right through bull**** like cupcakes and brownies. It might work on the one person who is doing Ob/Gyn though they wanted Derm, have no friends, and are a shallow empty vessel of a human being, but for most people in medicine, ass-kissing like that doesn't make much of a difference.

If she's doing it to be nice, then great. Nice people do nice things. Maybe she just likes to bake. Maybe its the one passion she has in life and she really just wants to share her passion with others. Maybe she sees that the interns are stressed out right now, and, someone saying "hey, I care" can really lift their spirits. Maybe her way of saying she cares is by baking.

Now, if she's doing it to get a better grade, that is pathetic. It won't work, it comes across as childish, and yes, unprofessional. USUALLY, if people have ulterior motives (like getting a better eval) with a bribe, they will let it slip. They will do something else, other things you might not notice, that makes the evaluators believe they are duplicitous. If that's the case, bribes backfire, and like whoa. There is nothing worse than someone who appears friendly, team-oriented, and patient centered on the outside, but who is really a gunner on the outside.

And finally, if she is a master manipulator, and she will never show her duplicitous side, then who cares. If she's good enough to make people believe she is caring, patient centered, and team work oriented, by walking the walk and talking the talk, then what difference does it make if she is or isn't. The outcome is the same. The team does better, patients get healthier, and the world is a better place.

But at the fundamental question, "do cupcakes improve evals?" No. Do you have to compete by doing something nice? No. Do your job well, show you are team-oriented, show up on time (mentally and physically), learn about your patients, don't sound like an idiot, and you will do just as well as she does (assuming she also does these things).

It is more unprofessional for an evaluator to be motivated by a bribe than for a student to offer one.

 

[Foodie]

I like it when diligent, smart, compassionate, med students who are a joy to work with bring treats. The goodies don't change anything in terms of how I grade them. And almost always the treats are brought in at the end of rotations as a token of gratitude. By that point, evals have already been written and filed away.

I did the same when I was a med student. It's kind of an act of douchery to bring in baked goods at the start of a rotation, no matter how much she loves baking. That girl should have given you a heads-up that she was going to do that, so that you don't feel like you were one-upped.

 

[robu058]

Stupid question from a MS2...

what is the difference between an intern and a resident???

 

[Foodie]

Intern is a first-year resident.
PGY-1 = interns
PGY-2+ = resident

 

[robu058]

Intern is a first-year resident.
PGY-1 = interns
PGY-2+ = resident

Thanks bro!!!

 

[J ROD]

weak sauce......

 

[WellWornLad]

A girl on my first rotation did this. She claimed that she "just felt like baking something" when she brought them in. Her mistake was in showing up too early to rounds when only med students were around, because she had to make up some lame excuse for why we weren't allowed to have any.

I guess it's in the eye of the MD, but woe to the med student who brings me muffins when I'm attending (yeah, I said it). It's just as unprofessional to accept gifts from someone you're evaluating as it is to accept gifts from pharma reps, and just as weak to claim that it doesn't make a difference in how you behave.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

As a resident - I love it when the med studs bring in treats. It doesn't change my overall impression of them or their eventual evaluation, but...I like cookies, and I often miss meals at work.

As a student, I had a co-student bring in an expensive (like ~$100) gift basket "for the team" along with personalized thank you notes for each resident and the attending. Now THAT made me want to smack her upside the head, and afterward all the residents joked about the obvious attempt to suck up.

 

[username456789]

Certainly seems like a douchebag move. Sure it's theoretically possible she just had the baking itch that night and needed to scratch it, but after spending a year on the wards with plenty of different classmates, and given the context, it seems much more likely she was making some desperate attempt to gain favor. Sure, it's almost certainly in vain and should have no bearing on her (or your) evaluation, but it's much more telling in that it reveals the kind of person she may be when on rotations.

Third year of medical school brings out a ton of . . . let's call them "personality quirks" in your fellow classmates.

 

[2012mdc]

A girl on my first rotation did this. She claimed that she "just felt like baking something" when she brought them in. Her mistake was in showing up too early to rounds when only med students were around, because she had to make up some lame excuse for why we weren't allowed to have any.

I guess it's in the eye of the MD, but woe to the med student who brings me muffins when I'm attending (yeah, I said it). It's just as unprofessional to accept gifts from someone you're evaluating as it is to accept gifts from pharma reps, and just as weak to claim that it doesn't make a difference in how you behave.

I would have taken some anyway or if I was feeling like a real a-hole just knock all of them down