WILLIAMETTE! WILLAMETTE! CAN YOU HEAR ME? HUH? OH...oh.....you're OK? Great. Geez, for a minute there I thought the shrill of the smoke detector shrill pierced through the most vital part of your brain, the vacationulla oblongata. Lose function here, and one shows up for work unneedlessly even when vacation time is available. Carries 0% five year survival.
All kidding aside, private groups don't bank vacation....hence my initial Scooby UUUUUHHHHHHH???? when I read your post....like WTF??? Why would dude show up for work if he's....uh.....off? Since I work to live and not live to work, if I'm scheduled off, don't expect to see me here!!!
Anyways, its all a scheduling thing so you cant really bank time like the big, inefficient, probably overstaffed academic places where they've got so many guys on payroll that 2 or three could not show up for work and they's still be OK.
Going back to my post in the Lifestyles thread, groups can be creative with their schedule, as long as everything is covered.
The schedule is worked out, say among 5 partners, at a place where 3 docs are needed. That leaves one guy post call and one guy on vacation, so everyone takes 10 weeks. BUT, one dude cant just say "I'm not gonna take my vacation week this week", unless he's a *******, because the week will evaporate in thin air....use it or lose it, since the doctors schedule keeps marching on whether he takes it off or not. Comprendez? Now he could ask one of his partners to switch off weeks, if his desire to do so came AFTER the hard copy of the schedule came out (NEVER ask whatever one of your partners to redo a schedule they've finalized, unless you wanna be capped....
)
NOW, Dudeski, one of my buddies who is making so much money he had to buy a bigger truck to put it in, kinda like the condo in
BLOW, their group has decided to maximize their income by WORKING THEIR ABSOLUTE ASSES OFF....every third night call, working post call, very little vacation.
But thats whats cool about anesthesia....although if you join an existing group you're obviously gonna be on their schedule....but later down the road when you get a few years under your belt, you may be HMFIC somewhere, and then YOU can be the creative one with the schedule.
Wanna work hard for a cuppla years? Great. Hire one less partner, everyone works post call, and the money that wouldve gone to the doc you didnt hire is equally distributed among the doctors.
Want a more leisurely lifestyle? Great. Hire enough so you dont have to work post call and can take adequate vacation.
I definitely recommend the latter, because I've been in both situations, albeit temporarily.....at my previous gig we acquired a surgery center contract....which was great...so we said to ourselves "OK...everyone is gonna suck it up, we'll make great cash, and we'll put the word on the street that we need another doc, and we'll just enjoy the extra money until the extra dude gets here."
After about six months of working our ASSES off the money didnt matter anymore. Seriously. Everyone was edgy, pissed off, and tired. So we started bringing in a locums dude and paying him $1300 for a 7-3 shift so we could take some time off.
And this brings up another very important point...I know you guys salivate when you hear stories of the big, big, Johnny Depp's-condo-fulla-money-type practices...and yeah, they are out there...its important for you to realize that in order to make huge cash in anesthesia, there is no passive income or royalties...dudes in big money practices are making that kinda money because they are absolutely, positively working their asses off, 6-7 days a week, post call, not alotta vacation, etc.
In my opinion one can do that for a finite period...unless you are willing to sacrifice your mental health, your marriage, be an uncle to your kids instead of a dad, etc.
I'm out.
