Should I ditch the NHS for a private sector job or stay and become a consultant?
I’m a doctor working in the NHS, about two years from finishing training to become a consultant.
I have been offered an opportunity to work in the private sector in the research and development section of a large pharmaceutical company. The perks would include better pay – more than double the salary I would earn in the NHS – and sociable working hours. All my professional subscriptions and registration fees would be paid. Also, the work sounds interesting – a project based on new drugs.
I find my work as a doctor unsatisfactory. I enjoy patient interaction and the clinical stuff, but it’s repetitive. The stress and long hours aren’t a problem: it’s the ennui. My day-to-day ward work is looking after elderly patients who are better looked after by a social worker.
My non-medical friends think I’m crazy for not jumping ship. My doctor friends are split. Do I just take this job and run, or stick out the next two years and see how it goes?
Jeremy says
At the heart of this dilemma lies a serious question: how do you evaluate the relative worth of jobs? Some people, often at the start of their working lives, apply purely factual, objective criteria: salary, perks, working hours, daily travel demands, holiday allowance, pension and so on.
But other people, from an early age, have a strong and emotional leaning towards a particular profession. Sometimes it’s the result of parental influence, but often it’s just a powerful feeling. Tellingly, such a vocational ambition is described as a calling. I wonder if you know into which of these two categories you fall? If you do, you may find it less difficult to make a decision.
On the evidence of your letter, I suspect you weren’t drawn to medicine from an early age. When describing the offer from the pharmaceutical company, for example, you list the salary, the working hours and the perks before briefly touching on the work itself. If I’m right, you can probably snap up that job with little risk of future regrets.
But if I’m wrong – if being a doctor is still important for you – then you should hang in there for another couple of years.
I’m not making any value judgment between these two options. Neither is more noble than the other and there is inevitable overlap between them. The right decision is the one right for you.
Readers say
• If you do complete your training and become a consultant, you’ll be in a much stronger position to look for other opportunities. Loulu
• This is my cohort, aged around 50. The ones in pharma have well-paid jobs … and that’s about it. Many of them started with tempting research careers but are now in “regulatory affairs” or back office. The medics enjoy higher status, more power, broader horizons and flexibility to go part-time. Oommph
• The pharma company should be obliged to pay back a proportion of your training costs to the NHS. pandle
• I left clinical practice three years ago after five years as a hospital doctor and have not looked back. Being a consultant is not what it used to be. My partner was badly bullied in the NHS and so were some of our consultant friends. You can go back to training if you don’t enjoy pharma – there will always be a job for you. Hedgehog 1066
I am anxious about having to grass on colleagues in an ugly workplace dispute
I greatly fear I am about to be called as a witness for both sides of a bitter dispute at my workplace. I won’t bore you with the sorry details, suffice to say no one involved (including myself) has covered themselves in glory.
My employer has long ignored the bad and worrying behaviour of a member of staff, up to the point that three other staff members have entered complaints against her.
All participants in the investigation – the defendant and three complainants – have peppered their statements with references to me as a witness; one has even told the independent investigator personal medical details about me.
These statements have been shown to the person under investigation and she is now distressed, not just about the accusations of staff but also what she supposes is my disloyalty to her.
The person is guilty of the things she is being accused of, but the three complainants and I are not blameless. There is a dysfunctional culture in the workplace and the defendant is using this to mitigate her bad behaviour.
I am anxious and distressed at the idea of giving evidence. I have been brought up in a culture of ignoring bad behaviour – even if it is hurtful to oneself – where one does not “grass”.
I know legally I can be compelled to bear witness and that anonymity cannot be guaranteed, but this goes against everything I believe in and fear the consequences.
Jeremy says
As I am sure you must realise, the moment this investigation was made known, the time for obfuscation and the tolerating of bad behaviour and turning a blind eye was over.
However embarrassing and painful it may be, however much you feel that you’re “grassing” on others, only honesty will allow you to draw a line under the past and prevent you becoming yet more embroiled in inconsistencies.
You should put this decision of yours in writing to the investigator. I doubt if you need to emphasise the dysfunctional culture in the workplace: it will become apparent and you mustn’t be seen to be using it as an excuse.
Readers say
• Write a statement referring to your recollection of events and submit that in advance. In any subsequent discussion refer directly to the statement. Under no circumstances answer any question beginning with the word “why”. Claim lack of memory or no insight into the motivation of others. JulesMaigret
• Speak to a union. As soon as you can. MissGliss
• I wonder if your state of mind is because you feel a bad situation has blown up and now you are out of control and feel called to account. It might be time to own your mistakes and become part of the solution if you can. c8th3r1n3
Do you need advice on a work issue? For Jeremy’s and readers’ help, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@theguardian.com. Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or to reply personally.
