I can’t think of too many white collared jobs that rival the intensity and duration of work endured by doctors. Sure, there are plenty of physically and mentally demanding occupations out there, but what other job involves handling the livelihood of others, triaging life-threatening events, and multi-tasking multitudes of time-sensitive matters?
The work of a lawn maintenance guy.
Take, for instance, the duties of “just” a lawn irrigation serviceman. Let’s say the lawn guy is tasked with installing a drip irrigation system in a lawn. This is an extremely labor-intensive process. A general overview is that supply lines have to be placed, individual irrigation lines have to be delivered to the plants, the valves tested, lines buried, and landscaping created to make the lawn aesthetically pleasing. Even more labor intensive is searching the lines to identify any leaks in the lines after they’ve been buried! Combine this work with the scorching summer heat, and you’ve got yourself one strenuous job.
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Rinse and repeat. Let’s say you and your crew of three guys repair and install new irrigation every day, five to six days a week. Fifty weeks a year. You’ve got yourself a pretty strenuous and repetitive schedule. Plenty of people do it. It pays the bills, and it is hard work.
The work of a corporate finance guru.
The finance industry works hard. I would consider finance bankers, analysts, associates, or whatever title they may have to be the grunt workers of the white-collared world. Think 80+ hour weeks for projects, presentations galore, and meetings to consume your life. Many financial analysts I know party hard too. Extreme vacations and sports in the limited downtime they may have. Some of these guys get smart and save up a financial nut like Sam from Financial Samurai. Others just spend it on an expensive lifestyle. Many of these people don’t last in their industry. After they move up the ranks, they either transition out of the industry altogether or just move into a more administrative role.
Sure, I’m biased, but why do people in the this industry eventually leave? The guys that I know who are in their first five years of financial banking tell me they love the challenge, hard work, and helping improve our economy and quality of lives. Huh?
The work of doctors.
Yes, I’m a doctor, but I do think that our line of work is genuinely gratifying. Take away all of that administrative B.S., healthcare regulations, and management issues of any workplace, and you’ve got a profession that is out there to do some good. Look at the Hippocratic oath. I don’t know of any other profession that makes you swear by such a statement.
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I know doctors who spend six days a week working to care for their patients. Some of them take only two weeks of vacation per year. Some others work either three to four days a week. Some others take twelve weeks of vacation. There is amazing flexibility in medicine—you just have to make a decision to what is most important to you.
Is the the money?
Is it the lifestyle?
Do you want to work 70 hours a week, take only two weeks of vacation per year, and make $1 million a year? Some of us don’t have the luxury of titrating our work-money-lifestyle balance due to the nature of our work, but this is a subject that I’ve been contemplating for a long time. Given the intensity of our line of work, there has to be a breaking point.
I once had a patient who was in the truck driving industry for thirty five years. He ended up getting placed on dialysis because his kidneys shut down after going for so many years in an occupation that didn’t necessarily allow for bathroom breaks!
Another one of my patients was a construction worker for twenty years, but ended up getting on disability not because of an injury, but simply because his joints broke down after many years on the job.
At what point will you draw the line on balancing your work, money, and health?
(Photo courtesy of Flickr)
I’m sure that we’ve all encountered scenarios where we go out of our way to either save money or get a better deal. I’ve certainly had to decide between waiting in a two-hour line to purchase train tickets with credit card versus using a machine that only takes cash (I used the machine).
Success in our careers can be defined by a number of criteria. Two of the most important qualifiers in my book include both financial and physical/mental health. After all, your pool of money serves you no good if you are not healthy enough to enjoy it. Interestingly, I came across an article published in the 2010 issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons that surveyed health of surgeons. One of the key findings was that 86.9% of respondents reported symptoms of physical discomfort! The group of oncologic surgeons surveyed stated that the bulk of the physical ailments come from cervical spine pain, musculoskeletal fatigue, and vertebral disc injuries.