You helped me make the decision to be FIRE'd.

As you said, it all depends. But if this involves being on call, my personal response would be "over my dead body!"
 
I agree with meadbh. They are having some remorse about not letting you do as you originally planned and asking you to leave earlier than you wanted to. Now they see they need you. Frankly I would leave as planned.

Do you really need the money that much? You were ready to leave in 2 weeks.

Also tell them no on call. I haven't done any for 3 years and before the j*b prior to this last one I hadn't done call for about 6 years. In other words when I hit my early 50's I refused to be on call except for 1 fateful year in 2010.

If you find you really need money you can always pick up some contracted or locums work somewhere, no?

Good luck!


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I actually did the job over Christmas last year when they were desperate. The contract with the hospital us a financial sinkhole for the group and the hospital. There's practically no patients. I won't be handling any phone calls unless I'm needed to do an admit. In residency I only really liked hospital work. The lack of being busy makes it appealing. They're going to pay someone to do this anyone and I'


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(didn't finish) and it could be me. Realize the group are my friends and colleagues, so it makes it hard to decide. DH likes the idea for my sanity. Going from 15 hr days on my feet in a hospital with pathetic nurse managers and hostile inner city patients who steal baby blankets to a rural environment with very nice staff and free food might be a welcome transition. Going from what I do now to no work and no identity as a physician is actually a little daunting.

I would barely be working one week a month.

Thanks for the input. Please keep talking me out of it.


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Sounds like a relatively stress-free way to transition into FIREd status, and the extra money would be nice. How long would you have to commit to doing it for? Can you say you're willing to give it a try for 1-2 months first? Then if you don't like it you can easily pull the plug and walk away.
 
Before I retired from medicine I was able to cut back my time and give up the most stressful parts of my job. It made work much better for awhile and actually helped me hang in there until my son finished college. Eventually even the part time got old as I was ready to move on. If there is no call, the job is low stress and you really only have to work about one week per month, you might like it and it could be a nice transition for you. I say take the job if you want to, live off your retirement budget and see how it goes for awhile. The beauty of being financially independent is that you have the opportunity to create the life that you want. The retirement police will say you aren't really retired but who cares? Go with your gut.
 
EastWest Gal said:
(didn't finish) and it could be me. Realize the group are my friends and colleagues, so it makes it hard to decide. DH likes the idea for my sanity. Going from 15 hr days on my feet in a hospital with pathetic nurse managers and hostile inner city patients who steal baby blankets to a rural environment with very nice staff and free food might be a welcome transition. Going from what I do now to no work and no identity as a physician is actually a little daunting.

I would barely be working one week a month.

Thanks for the input. Please keep talking me out of it.
Click to expand...

Here's how I would look at it.

You are retiring from your job. Now, in retirement, you get to choose what you want to do with your time. If you decide to do a part-time job, because you WANT to do it, to me you have not "un-retired", you have not "changed your mind" or backed off your original plan. It's choosing to do what YOU want to do, and you simply happen to get paid for it.

But don't let money be part of the decision-making process.
 
EastWest Gal said:
(didn't finish) and it could be me. Realize the group are my friends and colleagues, so it makes it hard to decide. DH likes the idea for my sanity. Going from 15 hr days on my feet in a hospital with pathetic nurse managers and hostile inner city patients who steal baby blankets to a rural environment with very nice staff and free food might be a welcome transition. Going from what I do now to no work and no identity as a physician is actually a little daunting.

I would barely be working one week a month.

Thanks for the input. Please keep talking me out of it.


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Click to expand...

It doesn't sound too bad. In your situation I would give it a try for 6 months.
 
Meadbh said:
It doesn't sound too bad. In your situation I would give it a try for 6 months.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the exact same thing. Take a few weeks off and then give it a try and see if you like it. Tell them you'll commit to x months and then decide if you want to continue but if you decide to leave that you'll give them plenty of advance notice to find a replacement. Win-win.
 
How do you feel about the idea that they wouldn't help with your work or stress level until they almost broke you? I'd be kind of resentful of that kind of self serving behavior even if some of these people are your friends....it doesn't seem like a very nurturing work environment. You might feel better leaving them completely and looking around for something part time on your terms, if that's what you want to do.
 
I found out more about it today.

My partners are also under huge stresses. My partners aren't the problem. The hospital environment has taken away space for physicians to do any charting. There's no place to sit. It's hopelessly noisy (staff!!). It gets busier every year. We have virtually no power over many aspects of our patient's care. The unit I work in has a very difficult nurse manager.

My partners are my friends too. At the second hospital, we started a new program. The second hospital is really nice and docs are treated with respect.

If looks like the position is temporary and is really in anticipation of an emergency physician shortage in the group. It might not even happen.

What 's nuts is that working two weeks a month pays 50% more than I made before, which is upsetting.


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Okay, you're going from a high stress full time position to a part time low stress position that pays 50% more?

I did that for one that paid just a bit less than the job I retired from. I stayed five years and only left because things changed radically for the worse. Otherwise I would have stayed for a couple more years.
 
EastWest Gal said:
I found out more about it today.

My partners are also under huge stresses. My partners aren't the problem. The hospital environment has taken away space for physicians to do any charting. There's no place to sit. It's hopelessly noisy (staff!!). It gets busier every year. We have virtually no power over many aspects of our patient's care. The unit I work in has a very difficult nurse manager.

My partners are my friends too. At the second hospital, we started a new program. The second hospital is really nice and docs are treated with respect.

If looks like the position is temporary and is really in anticipation of an emergency physician shortage in the group. It might not even happen.

What 's nuts is that working two weeks a month pays 50% more than I made before, which is upsetting.


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Click to expand...

I think you should do it.
 
Whatever you decide to do, you can always change your mind and retire.

OTOH, there's such a shortage in medicine I think there's no way to not be too busy unless one really retires. At least that's been my experience.

I hope I can go to 1 day a week in 4/2015. Wonder if that can really happen. But I too am making so much more on my 3 day a week schedule than I did driving 133 miles round trip daily 5 days a week.

Go figure.


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I like prudent_one's logic. You are still retiring, but now you can work because you want to. Look at it as extra fun money to use for some vacation which sounds like you need to do and can take advantage of. The beauty of your situation is working because you want to, not because you have to. If the stress becomes too much or the time becomes more than the orig plan, you can leave. Seems like only positive for you, assuming the work is good.
 
You can't get any of that work time back. Life is short. Do what makes you happy. For me, I would not do that part time gig. It is totally up to you and what you would like to do. Good luck with your decision.
 
Keep the money out of the equation. Is this something you would enjoy doing? Would you do it for free? Are you looking for a slower transition out of the work force, or are you so burnt out that you need to get completely out?
 
This is a tough one. Retirement after working so hard and achieving financial independence should be an act of celebration. If you are FI and have a pretty good idea of how you want to spend your days after RE the only reason to continue working is because you really want to. Trying a new position only makes sense if you feel the need for a bigger cushion(OMY) or you think you would be happier in the new job than pursuing other activities in full retirement. As a fellow MD in a similar position I continue working because of a handfull of cherished projects and people that outweigh the negatives. Key thing is to truly do what you want to do and remember you can change your mind if you determine a decision is a mistake. Worst option is agonizing while changing nothing.
 
A work BS rant, leaving it all behind for good.

Originally I set my retirement date to 1 day after my 55th birthday, in 2014. There was a desparate need for our practice at our secondary site. I negotiated substantial pay increase to fill in that position for a few months.

I posted my retirement year as 2015--I went part time casual at the beginning of last year, filling in a few holes in the schedule. My goal was to "help out" 4-5 days a month and to train my replacement. That never happened. No replacement, always being asked to do more. Refusing most of the time didn't matter to the group.

They replaced a pediatrician with a nurse practitioner, but not just any nurse practitioner but one who started out not very competent then got in a major MVA at the end of her first month. It clearly was about "insert body into schedule slot". The nurse practitioner from our group who wanted the job was refused it, though she was very very good. The duplicity in mid level and upper level management in this company is astounding. So, tired of being asked to do three times as much work as I wanted, and mostly refusing, and with all my friends gone, I have stopped caring about sustaining the practice until they hire enough practitioners. It will never happen.

July 31 is my last day ever "filling in".

There is a point for most of us where we realize that work gets in the way of our life. A part of me realized this the first day I worked after finishing my training. Blessed are those who feel their work is part of who they are. For me it was not a huge part of my identity. What I hold dearest is the arts--music, theater, music, painting, music, literature, music, music , music. That has been the theme that has shown up in my life, over and over again. It's weird to be a doctor and not feel like a doctor. Over and over, music is where I keep coming back to.

I kept waiting for my position to be filled. Never happened. Other people left. No positions filled. Our medical director has two feet into corporate management, one foot in the practice. His job is secure when our practice disappears (talk about comflict of interest) The secretaries/billers long ago knew their jobs of 20+ years would disappear. No one is invested in this practice any longer. The nearby academic center is positioning itself to take this practice over, so nothing bad will happen to the patients.

July 31st will mark the last day I do anything as a physician. It feels very strange, even though my passions are elsewhere. I got accustomed to using the MD title to open doors in the rest of my life. The funny thing is, there are no doors I need opened any longer.

My personal psychological checklist for leaving all medical work forever:

Happy with what I have done and tried to do √
Financial independence √
Kid out of college √
32 year marriage more solid than ever √
Enjoyable paid for home, time to upgrade and update √
Travel plans √
Many musical activities already happening and more to come √
Generally healthy, need to lose weight and exercise more--will happen!

It wasn't OMY syndrome. It was OM month, every month. Never again.

Yay!
 
EastWest, wow.... Parts of your post are similar to what DW has been going through with getting her replacement on board (luckily, things are looking better on that end, finally).

Kudos for you in cutting the agony. Enjoy!
 
Congrats EastWest, enjoy the rest of your summer, and then fall, winter, spring, repeat.


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Congrats EWG - I've followed your transition to part time and am excited to see *you* excited about transitioning to full-time-retired. Enjoy your music, home remodel projects, and healthier lifestyle. :)
 
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