What's your price?

[gbwillner]

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Just thought I'd change up the pace around here.

Pathologists in general are more satisfied with their careers than other medical professionals, and definitely more satisfied than the average bloke. But what's that satisfaction worth in terms of $$?

For the practicing pathologists out there I pose this question:

How much $$ per year would it take to get you to move at least 500 miles away from where you are now and do something only at most tangentially related to pathology? It could be anything from working in industry in a less interesting setting (like circling tumors on slides for downstream processing) to shoveling ****.

My only request is honesty, and maybe state if you are happy at your current position.

 

[BlondeDocteur]

Yeah, quantifying intangibles! You go first, since I obviously can't comment.

 

[gbwillner]

Hmm... Well, I bring this up because I just had a related conversation with a more senior member of our staff. His number was roughly $3M/year but it was weighed on location to a relatively small degree. I thought that number was outrageous.

I am definitely happy with my career thus far... and not just sure of what that number is at the moment. I know anything over $500K would make me seriously consider it, but it's not enough to flip the switch on its own.

 

[cmz]

Just so we're clear... you're NOT asking us about www.whatsyourprice.com?

 

[BlondeDocteur]

You'd have to price in:

- loss of intellectual pleasure in work
- discount investment into medical education & training
- loss of feeling of clinical relevance, making a difference in lives of others
- loss of scientific/clinical advancement (if you do research)
- loss of feeling of mastery & expertise
- loss of social prestige

- loss of spouse's income, spouse's job satisfaction, spouse's intangibles
- disruption of social networks
- if you move 500 random miles away, chances are you'd be in a sparsely populated area. So you'd lose cultural opportunities, urban diversity, school quality, airport access, real estate investment into property, etc.

The only net plus would be money. Which would actually be hard to spend in an area with nothing to do, cheap housing, and no private schools. I suppose you could fund pet projects, make various philanthropic gestures, wipe out debt.

When you look at all that... everything that really comprises a life... maybe 3 million isn't so crazy.

 

[TX515]

Price?

Too many other variables...PTO, do I like the location, how may days per week we working, weekends, call, insurance?

Mon-Fri 9-5 in a rural area, no call, no weekends, good insurance, cultural opportunities like no traffic...Pay me more than what I make, I may be game

 

[LADuck00]

$1,000,000 a year would be hard to turn down. That's essentially winning the lottery and taking the 30 year payout option.

 

[pathstudent]

Just so we're clear... you're NOT asking us about www.whatsyourprice.com?

That website has to be a scam.