The WHY?

I have been thinking about the complex workplace issues we face as surgeons or surgical trainees. Perhaps it's an act of injustice we experience or witness at work, or public humiliation for a mistake we make, or inability to progress further in our career no matter how hard we try, or lack of thanks from our bosses or concerns for our welfare, or watching a toxic individual get rewarded, and the list goes on. The surgical life is full of such paradoxes. Sometimes it can be very hard to voice out our feelings and doubts. In our profession, voicing out is perceived as weak. Hence, we keep those feelings in, sharing only with those closest to us who may not understand the complexity and intricacy of surgical life.

The Pandemic has caused a paradigm shift in mindset, thinking, and values in the workplace. Our doctors are quiet-quitting. Quiet-quitting is a misnomer because it's neither quiet nor quitting. They are not quitting their jobs, but they are quitting the idea of consistently going 'above and beyond' in the workplace. They still come to work, and continue to meet the demands of their jobs, but they reject the mentality that they must always be available for more work, and be reprimanded in the process when things don't go well.

When I was a resident, getting a job as a unaccredited surgical registrar was not easy. But now, there is a state-wide shortage of unaccredited surgical registrars. Increasingly, the younger generation of doctors are not attracted to the profession of surgery anymore. Does it come as a surprise to us? Some see the millennial generation as lazy and entitled. Others see it as a natural response to such tough working condition with no clear reward in sight. It clearly does not pay off when they have committed so much of their time, energy and emotions into their work, yet they don't receive the recognition and appreciation in return.  

Our doctors are waking up. We need a sense of purpose and meaning in what we spend a third or half of living moment working on. We need to know that we are an important part of the team, that we will receive helpful and constructive feedback when we make a mistake, and we also need a sense of progression for all the hard work we have put into our career.

With real-life stories and personal observation, I would like to help our surgical doctors in this complex journey of surgical training. Every 2-4 weeks, I will publish something relevant that will equip you with the necessary tools to face some of these complex issues and give you insight into how certain individuals thrive in adversity. My goal is not to solve all the problems in surgery, but to bring to light some of the common problems we all face and how we can deal with them in a way that still retains our humanity. I hope this will help you in your journey.