With the introduction of administrative duties to my clinical repertoire, I have come to realize the following:
- I really like seeing patients. (I’m not seeing as many of them now as I once did. I miss the clinical work.)
- I really like teaching.
- I am more skilled at teaching when with a single individual or with a group of less than three people than with a larger crowd. (It is difficult to make education as interactive as the size of the class grows.)
- When working in a large system, one cannot escape politics. I’m not a fan of politics.
- I feel more sympathy for the middle managers of the world. It kinda sucks.
- I don’t avoid conflict as much as I thought I did.
- A lot more people throughout the hierarchy now know about my fondness for cookies. It’s a bit embarrassing at times.
Reminder to self: My (self-perceived) productivity is directly proportional to how busy my schedule is.
29 Aug 2007 |
“I feel more sympathy for the middle managers of the world. It kinda sucks.”
So it kinda sucks that you feel sympathy for these people, or being a middle manager sucks, or both?
What I have learned to do is people-sifting. You have to sift out the ones that listen to and understand your point-of-view, and in the process help turn it into something positive. You also need to learn that while complaining is Ok, if you can’t come up with useful suggestions for change, complaints tend to go nowhere.
Comment by Greg P | 29 Aug 2007 @ 5:46pm
I have learned that I can learn something from almost everyone I meet. I have also learned that it often doesn’t matter how much you have learned and know from experience, if you don’t have that piece of paper on the wall, you get little respect. I am getting more confrontational as I get older, maybe it comes from confidence with age?
Comment by donnalee | 30 Aug 2007 @ 5:17am