#90: Would Working Part-time Make You a Better Doctor?

Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. I'm your host, Peter Kim. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe so I can bring it to you every week. Now let's get on with the show. Hey everyone, hope you've had a great week. Let's have a fun time. On today's episode, we're going to be talking about a topic that is pretty near and dear to my heart now. You know, over the holidays I had a good time talking to a good number of people. And you know, of course it's one of the first questions is what do you do and talk about your schedules and things like that. And you know, I'm really excited to be able to say I'm currently working part time clinically and I do it because I enjoy it. I still, you know, enjoy being an anesthesiologist. There is a lot that I love about it, right. But I do it part time, meaning that I do it on my own terms because I have a lot of other interests as well too. And I have things that I'm trying to juggle and balance. Not only trying to be a great doctor, but also trying to be a good husband, a good father, good entrepreneur and these kind of things. And so I've really tried to create my schedule in my life according to that. Now, I've talked to a lot of different people and a question that has come up in a lot of different circles is that does working part time, does it make me or make anybody a better or worse doctor? Now we all know that being a doctor, it's a. And any other high income professional who's listening to this, it's a profession that really demands like a high level of commitment, right. Really I feel it's unmatched in many other careers. We just don't take time off, right. We are committed to our craft. Not only do we work, you know, every day, but we are always looking to expand our knowledge and do better at what we do. And so what's happened naturally over time is that we've committed ourselves to these long hours, right? And in some ways we're like stuck to our job. Well, I think things are changing today, right? And that part time schedules, they're becoming more and more common and definitely more accepted in medicine. Now much of the reason I turned to passive income or to figuring out ways to create passive income, initially it was to allow me to eventually cut back my hours so I could spend more time with my family, spend more time doing things outside of medicine that matter to me. So turning medicine into a hobby was a real goal. And that's the term that I always had in my head. I want to turn medicine into a hobby. Now, what's the difference between a hobby and a job? Right. A hobby is something that you do because you're passionate, passionate about it, and it brings enjoyment into your life. Whereas a job is something you do because you really want to receive an income. You're trading your time and effort for money. Now, these two can be the exact same thing, a hobby and a job. But the way you approach it, the mentality and the passion behind it could be completely different. Now, for the average physician, I'll tell you that the standard 40 hour work week, it's anything but standard. I mean, many of us would love to be able to work just 40 hours a week. I mean, I'd say that part time for doctors. I don't think it's necessarily part time for the rest of the world. I don't know if you ever felt like that. I mean, our schedules can be pretty brutal. Now, looking back at one of the most recent surveys that I could find about this, I mean, it's a 2014 survey by the AMA. It talked about the work life profiles of today's physician. That's back in 2014. Now, it showed that 20% of physicians from 40 to 69, those are critical working hours. We worked 61 to 80 hours per week. That's still like residency. In fact, it's worse than most residencies, even with all the work restrictions today. And, you know, 2/3 of physicians reported working 40 to 60 hours a week. So you take 2/3 of physicians, 67%, you add another 20%. 87% of us are working more than 40 hours a week. That tells us that, you know, we're working at the very least, what's considered to be out 1.5 to 2x. Right. Two times a full workweek in nearly every other profession out there. That means that when, you know, we think about going part time, it doesn't mean you're only going to work 20 hours a week a lot of the time for a lot of people out there. I don't know if you feel like that, you know, part time means cutting back to a normal work week for other people. What feels kind of normal. It might just mean not pushing beyond the bounds of what an average person is really willing to tolerate. So I want to go back to thinking about it. Would working part time make You a better doctor now? One thing I absolutely believe is that happier doctors are better doctors, right? When people are happy, they're able to be kinder, they're able to be more empathetic in their professional lives as well as their personal lives. And I don't think this only applies to doctors. I mean, workers in general, they're more productive and better at their jobs when they're happy and fulfilled. You know that there's so many people that you interact with on a daily basis that are in the service industry. You know that. And what these studies show, which is that, you know, this Oxford study from 2019 showed that happier workers are up to 13% more productive than their less contented counterparts. And I'd probably say it's a lot more than that, right? I mean, work is more about, you know, more than just like, sheer productivity. I'd say negativity at the workplace, it's totally contagious. I mean, it's a fact. When you're unhappy, it's really harder to put on a good face, engage in good active listening, open communication, both of which are, like, super critical for. Right. A positive doctor patient relationships. And you see this whole relationship, it's breaking down all over the place today. And I think it's, you know, there's multifactorial. There's so many different reasons for that. But part of it is that we just. When you don't feel your best, you know, whether it's physically or mentally, unfortunately, it's hard to do your absolute best at work. And that applies to everybody. And I think that doctors, more than other people, are really good at putting on a good face. We know that. We know we have to bring our best at every single moment to take care of a real person in front of us. You know, our patients, right, Our coworkers, our colleagues, they count on us to bring our A game day in and day out, right? And I mean, this only matters not because of just the attitude, but honestly, the results matter, especially if you're in a technically important field, you're doing surgery and anesthesiologist, you got to bring your A game every single day. And now I believe that our happiness, it matters to us, and it matters to other people who care about us. I mean, it really should matter to everyone we come into contact with in our professional lives. But so. So how do we find that happiness? And is. Does part time, you know, work, does that equal happiness? Now, I know that the younger generation today, and I think I'm part of that. I'm somewhere in the middle, I'd say we're putting a more and more emphasis on the priority of work life balance, like understanding what that is. And, you know, people can argue whether there's such a thing as work life balance or work life integration, but just the concept of, like, being more in control of your work and your life outside of it, right? To find, like, you know, put priority on both of these things. I think people just, they don't want to just go to work, right? Pay the bills, try to save enough money so they don't have to go to work someday when they're 60 years old and they get to retirement age, they want to enjoy life a little bit now. And I think that's a movement that's going on, right. That I see a difference. The whole concept of yolo, you only live once, right? I mean, you hear that all the time. I think that countless studies, from what I've read, it shows that the younger generation, you know, they attribute more value to this balance than other factors when they're considering employment. You know, many people used to just choose security as the number one most important thing. And I think doctors do that a lot still to this day. But other people, they're like, what kind of life can I live? Life is short. You know, they want to make the most of it. Now, I don't know about you, and maybe you said this before, I've heard more experienced colleagues mention people today just don't want to work hard. Now, I personally don't believe it's a matter of not wanting to work hard or having the capacity to work hard. You know, we all know that to get where we're at today. I don't care. Anybody who got through med school got through residency. It took a lot of hard work, extraordinary amount of time and effort, especially when compared to other people out there. I think it's just that the field of medicine has changed. Like, we've gone from doctors who practice with fair amount of autonomy. Right? We feel really invested in our own practices and we have the best, you know, patients, best interests at heart. Now it's become simply more like we're providers, right? That term in a big machine, we follow protocols. We're more like technicians. So it's really changed the way we look at the profession itself. It's also changed the way we operate within the profession. Now in medicine, obviously, early in the early years, with the demands of residency, internships, balance is tough to find. Like, I think we all give that up. We didn't even expect that. But one of the easiest ways to find a little balance when you work though, when you get out, you know, in a profession that traditionally requires these long hours, including nights and weekends, is to turn some of those work hours back into life hours, right? To take back control of some of those. And that's where a part time schedule comes in. Now, we all know that physician burnout's real. You know, that term is used so much now, but it's absolutely out there now. I think the pandemic, it's brought to light a lot of the things you know about society as a whole. And people are starting to find out burnout in healthcare amongst healthcare workers is one of them. Not just us, but anyone who been impacted by this pandemic in any way. And so it's nothing new. Funny thing is it's actually an officially diagnosed condition these days. And research shows that physicians are 15 times more likely than any other professional than other professionals out there to face burnout. And no wonder. It's a high stress job and you know, it's an important job, but we come into, you know, when you carry a lot of stuff home with you on a daily basis. Now, burnout affects your work life, right? Affects your family life, everything in between. And for many physicians, a part time schedule provides the opportunity and it's the key to recovering from that. Right? Or possibly even avoiding burnout in the first place. So I'm going to ask you this question. Would working less make you happier? I mean, if it would, I mean, you might consider looking for a way to make working less a reality if that would be the case. Remember that part time in medicine doesn't necessarily mean working 20, 25 hours. I think a lot of us kind of scoff at that idea. And of course like income wise that might affect us quite a bit. But it's potentially like working a part time schedule, you know, might be working normal, quote, unquote, you know, work hours like the rest of the workforce out there might mean cutting back to normal eight hour work days, right? Including your paperwork, right. It might mean cutting back on nights and weekends, taking less call. Right. I mean, there are cons, pros and cons to going part time. I mean, obviously the downside is there's, you're going to get less money, right? Because you know, we're paid usually for the time that we put in. You know, perhaps you're going to deal with the stigma associated with working anything less than a full workload. I know a lot of us have the identity, you know, we're happy and we take pride in working a lot and that's what we've done to get where we're at. Maybe you have less time, you feel, to practice and really keep proficiency in what you're doing. Now, all these things are downsides that you should consider and think about. So I think it's important to ask that question again. Do part time doctors make better doctors? I don't think there's any real definitive answer to that question and I think the answer varies from one person to the next. So I think there's some important questions to consider and maybe you can ask yourself these questions and then act, you know, accordingly according to this. So, number one, are you struggling with your current work life balance or the proportion of time that you spend on each? Number two, do you think that cutting back on your hours, would it take some of the weight off your shoulders and allow you to stress just a little bit less, you know? Number three, do you think you'd be happier with more time off than before? Do you think you can afford it? Or can you think about different options for making up for that loss of income? Are there other possibilities? Number five, just ask this for yourself. Do you think it would make you a better doctor? You know, whether that's both in skill, better in the way you interact with patients, the better patient care, you know, what does it do for you? You think if you maybe just cut back a little bit. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not telling everybody they should cut back because for some people, they just love what they do and they need to put the time in. And we need people like that as well too, that, that want to continue to kind of push medicine forward. And if that's you, that's great. I just letting people know that there are options out there without feeling like you have to go all or nothing, that many of us would do better in a situation where maybe we spend a little less time, a little bit more time taking care of ourselves, right? Devoting to other things, but makes us feel refreshed and passionate again and reignite some of the energy that we have in the fuel for medicine. Something that we, you know, dedicated so much of our life to. Now, many of us would love to have that choice, right? But we feel like we're kind of trapped. We feel tied to our jobs financially, right? It supports our lifestyles, it provides security for our families. But if finances weren't part of the equation, if you could remove that, a good important question to ask is how would you optimally spend your time now, if it's anything different than what you're doing, I think it's important to kind of reintroduce the idea creating multiple streams of income. I'm just so big on it because it allows you to create the life in and out of medicine that you want so you can choose what your days look like. Now, what are those ways to create some income? We've talked about it before. Some might be real estate, some might be in the market. Something for some of you might be entrepreneurial. I don't know what that looks like for you, but just know that there are options. There are other people doing this. You're not alone in this and how you're feeling or thinking. And you don't have to recreate the whale. There are other people who have blazed that path, gone on that journey before you, and have gotten to where they want it to be. And my hope for you is to get, especially this year, is for you to really take concrete steps to get where you want to be, right? To move in that direction. So whatever it is, you know, my hope for you is that you find a way to get started so you can ultimately decide and figure out whether working the same in medicine, working less, working more, whatever that is, is best for you, your family, your patients, society, whatever that might be. And that is my hope for you this year. And so have a great week, take care and let's talk again soon. Enjoy the show. Let me know by dropping a review in the podcast app you're listening to us in. And if you haven't already, make sure to hit subscribe. Are you a part of our community yet? Join thousands of physicians who are also on this journey to creating their ideal lives through multiple streams of income. You can join us on our Facebook group, Passive Income Docs, and you can always learn more at our website, Passive Income. Incomemd. Com. Thanks again for allowing me to be a part of your journey. See you next time.