Auntie Marge explains it all: I'm a doctor in a cubicle.

By Bill Jackson April 16, 2024 5 mins read 219 Views

By Dr. Margaret Curtis, WCI Columnist

[Editor's Note: Readers of The White Coat Investor might know our columnist Dr. Margaret Curtis as a pediatrician, half of a dual-physician household, and the proud owner of a sidewalk sofa. She has been around long enough to have seen and experienced all kinds of professional challenges that physicians face. As her alter-ego, Auntie Marge, she shares opinions and gives advice. If you have questions about your work or financial life, Auntie Marge is here for you.]

“My employer has recently mandated that physicians will chart in a shared workspace or on mobile computers. We will no longer have offices or dedicated phone lines. We have been informed that we are not allowed to use exam rooms for charting after a patient has left, so that patients can be roomed sooner. But we don’t even have enough staff for that kind of rapid room turnover, so I don’t get this.

I never thought I would be stuck in a cubicle at this point in my career. The thought of working out of a bullpen (aka ‘working out of a collaboration space that is nothing more than a big room with lots of desks') is making me miserable. What do I do?”

The advent of cubicles as physician workspaces may be the most benighted of all the slings and arrows hurled at us by Healthcare in America, ca. 2024 (and yes I know that cubicles and open workspaces are not the same thing, but the distinction is meaningless because both of them are stupid). While the rest of the business world realized about a decade ago that cubicles actually worsen performance, the powers-that-be at American healthcare employers have recently decided that crowding physicians into open-plan areas cheek-by-jowl with medical assistants, triage nurses, and schedulers is a good idea. Clearly, someone went to a weekend seminar on “regressive business practices you can institute to feel clever” and came home brimful of enthusiasm.

You are right to feel demoralized because cubicles are demoralizing. According to LinkedIn, “Doors are only for managers and people who have earned them! Cubicles are organized and equal, so employees know their place in the company.”

First, I would like to say: drop the exclamation point, you fascists. Second: we have earned those doors. We have earned doors, at least one window, and a bulletin board where we can put up kid art and anti-admin snark. We need private telephone lines to make sensitive phone calls, dedicated computers where we can keep our resources, a bookshelf for clinical references, a plug-in kettle, and weird mementos (mine has kids’ toys. My urologist husband keeps a collection of bladder stones. I don’t like it, but no one else is allowed to criticize it). We know our place, and it is not at the end desk that Cathy isn’t using right now because she’s out on FMLA.

I (Auntie Marge) have worked out of “open workplans.” About 50% of the time, I come home with a splitting headache from the background noise (and sometimes the noise is me chatting with someone nearby, so I’m part of the problem). What can you do about being put in a cubicle, or really about any of the many indignities of modern physician employment? I’ll start with the most logical and effective and end with the most satisfying.

1. Show the data. You can cite studies that show that cubicles worsen employee morale, diminish privacy, decrease working memory, and don’t actually increase collaboration. When your coworkers start calling out sick with influenza A, make one of those bulletin boards with thumbtacks and string connecting the sick contacts.
2. Remind your boss that HIPAA requires that healthcare workers access “only the minimum amount of protected health information needed to accomplish the intended purpose of the use.” Overhearing a colleague discuss a patient’s diagnosis on the phone is not a HIPAA-approved use. Be sure to mention “The Feds.”
3. Request an accommodation. This can be for ADHD, migraines, hearing loss, or any of the other totally legitimate reasons that you should not have to work in the cognitive equivalent of a mosh pit. If you don’t have documentation of any of these, you may have to ask your PCP. If you are a PCP and are asked for a letter—well, I won’t tell you what to do, but “Mental Health” is always an honest answer. Ask yourself how well you would do working in a bullpen and then start writing.
4. Join forces with the other physicians and ask for a quiet workspace of your own. Avoid any mention of the status you have earned through unending years of toil as a student and resident or risk being labeled an elitist. Being an elitist gets you in trouble with HR and with the nurse manager who feels strongly that physicians need to be taken down a notch. Then, you have to do paperwork.
5. Ask for noise-canceling headphones.
6. Ask nicely if you can at least finish your charting in an exam room.
7. Don’t ask and just finish your charting in an exam room.
8. When caught finishing your charting in an exam room, say “I just forgot.” Say this every time you get caught.
9. When caught finishing your charting in an exam room, yell “HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY?”
10. Quit.

doctor in a cubicle

More from Auntie Marge:

How Can I Make My Terrible Doctor Job Less Terrible?

Should I Feel Bad About Taking Time Off?

Whether you choose to suffer (No. 1) or take up arms (No. 9 and No. 10) depends on how well the job otherwise works for you. If you can walk away—and I recommend that all physicians know where the exit doors are, no matter where they are in their careers—your position will be stronger. Your work is worthwhile and you deserve a workspace that will allow you to do it to the best of your ability. Whatever you decide to do, I am here for you.

Want to hear even more from Dr. Margaret Curtis, who made two presentations at WCICON24? Then, check out the Continuing Financial Education 2024 course that presents 37 hours of content from WCICON24 (you can earn up to 16 CME hours) and guides you on how to make wise financial decisions and have meaningful, sustainable careers.

Have you ever had to work in a cubicle or a bullpen? What was your experience like? Did it hinder your work? How did you get out of it? Comment below!

The post Help, I’m a Doctor in a Cubicle: Auntie Marge Explains It All appeared first on The White Coat Investor - Investing & Personal Finance for Doctors.

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By: Josh Katzowitz
Title: Help, I’m a Doctor in a Cubicle: Auntie Marge Explains It All
Sourced From: www.whitecoatinvestor.com/doctor-in-a-cubicle/
Published Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2024 06:30:41 +0000

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