Latest / Lean Out Podcast / Solocast: The Day I Showed Up for Work, but There Was No Work - Navigating Unexpected Changes in Work-Life Balance

Transcript

Solocast: The Day I Showed Up for Work, but There Was No Work - Navigating Unexpected Changes in Work-Life Balance · Lean Out Podcast

• 0:01
  Welcome to the lean out podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:04
  Don baker.
• 0:05
  Are you looking for a new approach to finding authentic and sustainable work-life balance?
• 0:10
  You've come to the right.
• 0:11
  Place.
• 0:11
  For inspiration.
• 0:12
  information.
• 0:13
  and a community.
• 0:14
  community.
• 0:14
  of like-minded.
• 0:15
  Professionals.
• 0:16
  Let's get to the show.
• 0:24
  hello, hello.
• 0:24
  Thanks for being here.
• 0:26
  I hope you've had a great September so far.
• 0:29
  In my most recent Practice Balance newsletter, I was talking about how September is classically a month of change.
• 0:36
  You feel it in the weather.
• 0:38
  You see it if you have children, your kids start their new classes.
• 0:42
  Maybe kids are going off to college or changing schools, and maybe some other places too.
• 0:50
  And by the way, if you're not subscribed to my newsletter, I have a new teaching video for you when you go over to my website, practicebalance.com, and subscribe.
• 1:00
  For years, I shared a worksheet on finding your core values, and while I still think that's super important and it's something I have almost all my coaching clients go through, I decided to change it up and offer this video.
• 1:13
  So it's all about the one thing holding you back from better work-life balance.
• 1:18
  And it's not available anywhere else on my website or YouTube channel, so go get it by putting your email into the purple box that pops up at practicebalance.com.
• 1:29
  You can also get it at practicebalance.com/connect, and I'll drop that link in the show notes.
• 1:36
  For me, the other place I'm navigating change right now is work.
• 1:40
  I've enjoyed a regular part-time per diem, or as we say in medicine, PRN position, with a large anesthesia group in a nearby city center for approximately the past four years.
• 1:54
  Given my rural living situation with limited work opportunities near me, this has just been perfect.
• 2:02
  I committed to one week a month with this practice, and all I had to do was give them my work dates at least three months in advance, and I got to pick the weeks that I worked.
• 2:11
  Only on rare occasion would they change a week due to overstaffing or some sort of alternative need.
• 2:18
  I worked extra weeks for them on many different occasions, including during summer break, spring break, and maternity leaves for some of the different partners.
• 2:28
  So it was to my great surprise when I traveled to this work location on a recent Sunday night, took a look at the schedule, and found that I was not on it for Monday morning.
• 2:38
  I was not scheduled in any of the ORs.
• 2:41
  I had given my dates months earlier, and they were listed in the scheduling program, but there was a slight change in the notation that I hadn't noticed before.
• 2:50
  So I texted the on-call scheduler, and I waited for quite a while to hear anything that night.
• 2:55
  And this is probably like eight or eight thirty PM.
• 2:58
  Finally, before I was going to sleep, I received a message from the head scheduling administrator.
• 3:04
  There must be a misunderstanding," she said.
• 3:06
  "There was a recent email sent out to you that you should have received where all per diem people are now encouraged to give their availability, but we will not be guaranteeing any shifts as our staffing needs have greatly changed." No, I do not remember reading this email.
• 3:19
  I probably didn't pay that much attention to it because it's usually geared toward all the different per diem people, and I'm different than most of them.
• 3:28
  Usually, the emails don't apply to me.
• 3:30
  Because I have this unique situation where I come from out of town, it is different than the people that are locals who work elsewhere and just throw their hats in the ring for shifts whenever they have an open day.
• 3:43
  This was my main gig, and I'm even W-2 with this company.
• 3:48
  So here I was.
• 3:49
  I had driven hours to work, and there was no work.
• 3:52
  This was very infuriating and also kind of embarrassing.
• 3:56
  Like, How did I miss this email?
• 3:57
  Why did I not read this harder?
• 3:59
  I could have avoided the surprise.
• 4:02
  And also, I was thinking, what about me?
• 4:05
  Like, surely they forgot about my special situation.
• 4:10
  The next day, I reached out to the partner who had hired me, but unfortunately, he wasn't really in the know on the situation at all.
• 4:18
  He said he'd put me in touch with the decision-makers, the people that are in charge of the schedule, but it never really happened.
• 4:24
  If he did, they didn't contact me.
• 4:27
  So here I am with this big change to my work-life balance all of a sudden, looking at the disappearance of a work situation that I have really enjoyed for the past few years.
• 4:37
  I share this story with you for a few reasons.
• 4:40
  First, I want you to know that even when you think you have your balance all figured out, things change, and then you don't have it figured out.
• 4:48
  It happens to me, and I'm the one who studies and talks about this stuff all the time.
• 4:53
  And secondly, change is an inevitable part of work and life.
• 4:58
  I did a whole podcast episode on this a couple years ago titled The One Thing You Can Rely On, and I will link that in the show notes in case you missed it or you wanna re-listen to it as a refresher.
• 5:11
  I realize in reflection that I've been saying for a while I'm surprised that I still have this job because I expected it to change sooner.
• 5:20
  So here is what I learned from this great misunderstanding that I hope might be helpful to you.
• 5:28
  Number one, there is no loyalty.
• 5:31
  Workplaces will do what's in their best interest despite how long you've worked there, who you know, what you've done, etc.
• 5:40
  This is one of the truths of the treadmill in my book, Lean Out.
• 5:44
  They're included in chapter five, but here they are.
• 5:48
  Number one, even though it costs a lot to replace you, you are easily replaceable.
• 5:54
  Number two, there is no loyalty in the workplace.
• 5:58
  Number three, you are not a savior.
• 6:00
  Your clients and patients will be okay without you.
• 6:03
  Number four, many people are worried about what others think of them, but most of the time people are too busy thinking about themselves.
• 6:11
  And number five, you can have allegiance to your clients and patients and also to yourself at the same time.
• 6:19
  By the way, if you found this podcast through searches or through a friend and you haven't read my book, Lean Out, I'll place a link to get it in the show notes.
• 6:27
  It's a good reminder, even in this situation, for me to go back and look at these, not because I feel like I was getting stuck on the treadmill again, but because I was maybe getting a little too comfortable in this work situation Number two, get everything in writing.
• 6:44
  When I was in the middle of this situation, I kept saying,"But I'm not like the other per diem people.
• 6:49
  I'm different." And then I looked back at my employment contract and all the email trails from when I was hired, and you know what?
• 6:57
  The mutual agreement about one week per month was nowhere in my contract or any of those emails, and I am just now realizing this four years later.
• 7:08
  In my situation where the group simply is staffed up and doesn't need extra people right now, it may not have mattered at all, but I can think of situations where it could matter, like if there was a change in leadership and new people didn't know the arrangement or something like that.
• 7:23
  I don't hire lawyers to review my contracts because I'm married to a lawyer and I usually have him look at it, and I'm not blaming him for not catching this, but basically anyone who reviews something for you, they don't know what they don't know.
• 7:35
  So just as a reminder, get everything in writing and make sure that you look through your contracts with a fine-tooth comb.
• 7:45
  Number three, look at unexpected changes as a way to expand your thinking.
• 7:51
  When I interviewed Leigh Johnson on the podcast earlier this year, we talked a lot about this.
• 7:56
  I'll link her episode in the show notes in case you missed it or you wanna revisit it.
• 8:01
  Leigh used the closing of her medical practice to open up her mind to all the possibilities of what she could do next, and she actually ended up moving to New Zealand for a temporary locums position.
• 8:13
  Since I've been thinking about retiring from anesthesia, I have been entertaining what it would look like if I just did that now.
• 8:20
  I was gonna wait until I was 55, and I'm 52, but why not now?
• 8:27
  I've also been thinking about exploring more work opportunities in some of the parts of southern Utah, and I might pick up some different locums work in other parts of the country.
• 8:37
  I'm not really sure what I'm gonna do yet, but I'm trying to keep my options open and I'm trying not to have everything planned out for five years, as I've talked about before on the podcast Number four, when you have a unique work-life balance, like a part-time, locums, or a per diem position, turnover is simply part of the picture.
• 8:59
  PRN means as needed, and whenever my arrangements have ended, it's because they didn't need me anymore.
• 9:06
  It happened with the previous long-term per diem gig that I had right before I got this job.
• 9:11
  It's easy to think in the default that it's all about you, but it's really not.
• 9:16
  And this leads me to my last takeaway.
• 9:19
  Number five, don't expect a going away party.
• 9:24
  I initially was a little miffed that I didn't get much feedback from the people that I've been working with closely about how this isn't fair, I'm sorry, they'll miss me, or whatever.
• 9:33
  But it really isn't about me.
• 9:36
  People and organizations for that matter are embroiled in their own drama.
• 9:41
  I was reminded of this when I listened to a recent Mentally Stronger podcast.
• 9:45
  The host is therapist Amy Morin, who is also the author of Thirteen Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do.
• 9:53
  And I'll link the episode in the show notes, but essentially it was all about not taking things personally.
• 9:59
  And one of her points was coming to terms with the fact that two things can be true.
• 10:04
  This hurts, and also this isn't about me.
• 10:09
  I hope this reflection helps you when you're facing a big change.
• 10:14
  Let me know, have you had any work surprises like this, and how did you deal with them?
• 10:19
  Share your thoughts by sending me fan mail through the link that's on your podcast platform, commenting on the blog post that's associated with this episode at practicebalance.com or DM me on Instagram, I'm Practice Balance Thanks for listening to the lean out podcast.
• 10:39
  If you find these conversations inspiring and useful, please forward them to a friend and also leave a review on iTunes or Spotify so that other people can find them easier.
• 10:51
  If you want to get in touch with me, you can find me at my website, practice balanced.com, where you can subscribe to my newsletter and get updates regularly about new podcast episodes, blog posts, speaking, engagements, and coaching services.
• 11:07
  You can also support my work by buying my book, lean out a professional woman's guide to finding authentic work-life balance for yourself, a friend, family member, or coworker.
• 11:19
  Have a great day and we'll see you next time