When to leave an associate position?

[TheBookCookout]

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For some context, I am a 2025 grad. I have been working at a private practice for a year now and am contemplating whether to stay or find another position.

For the first 6 months I was paid a daily guarantee of 800/day working 4 days per week. In that time my schedule was extremely light. After the 6 month mark it was expected that my schedule/production would be enough to transition off of the guarantee. However, my schedule was still extremely light and my income would have taken a significant downturn, so my employer and I agreed that I would be paid a lesser guarantee of $500/day until the schedule picked up.

In the last 6 months since then, I have never once surpassed this $500 minimum. I am paid 32% adjusted production. I am averaging 22k in production per month. There is no clear trend in my production (it is not consistently increasing month over month -some months it's up, some months it's down). I average 8 new patients per month. I am doing an average of 15 hygeine exams per week (my boss does significantly more). The boss is currently not doing any marketing to increase patient flow. I'm in a large town / small city of about 200k people, more than 2 hours away from any other major metropolitan area. The area is not saturated with dentists (unsure exact ratio). It's not a highly desirable popular location or high cost of living area either.

For those with more experience with this. Would you try to make it work at the current practice? I really love my patients and the staff is great here, but I'm not sure if it is worth staying or trying to fix an issue. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

 

[omfsing]

Leave now

 

[Lemillion]

Hmm for being in a smallerish area with not a long of competition, you should be busy/making more. Some things to consider

1) Long-term goals? Parternship here or ownership transition?
2)Close to family at all?
3) Any thoughts on doing a start up or purchasing a practice?
4) Growing as a clinician and opportunities to grow overall?

*I tend to lean on that most people don't stay at their first associate position long-term. Most people leave at some point or another. Leaving at one year is feasible if you're not feeling fulfilled or have found a better opportunity.

 

[charlestweed]

How about asking your boss to book you more patients per day and work less days per week? And then use the 1-2 extra days that you have in the week to find another dental office to work part time at. Since you like the current owner and his staff, you should stay. It can be very stressful when you have to work with unfriendly staff. A lot of the general dentists (especially the young recent grads) in my area have travel to work at more than 1 office in order to keep themselves busy. My sister is a GP. When she first opened her own office, her schedule was very light. To stay busy (and to be more productive), she worked part time for a corp office. Another plus of working at more than 1 location is if you get fired, you’re not unemployed and you can still pay your bills.

I am a dental specialist. Most of us, specialists, here in California are doing the same. We treat high patient volume, work a few days (2-3 days) per months at each office location, and travel to work at multiple offices to keep ourselves busy.

 

[JacquesVallee]

You've been there a year and you don't have enough work to take home $500 a day. That is pitifull. I'd leave. 22k a month in production is so little. I'd start looking for jobs and applying. Then, once you have a new job lined up, put in your notice.

Charles' idea isn't terrible either about going down to two days a week at this office and finding another office for two days a week. That could work as well, but I'd be more inclined to leave altogether.