Very long story short, I agreed to take a job as a receptionist for my parents when I was pregnant as I live in a small town and it was hard to find work while expecting. My father is a new doctor (practicing out of residency less than 5 years as a second career) and bought a clinic from a retiring doctor. This other doctor lied to our family about the practice and it turns out we bought a clinic that was at a $30,000/month deficit. Then the pandemic hit. My parents spent 2 years getting the clinic back on its feet so they didn’t have to close their doors as they were the only family practice in town at the time (another small clinic has opened, which helped).
As they transformed the practice to a model that didn’t accept insurance (DPC model, another long story, google it if you care), the staffing changed. Some older nurses and PA’s retired, some left for other jobs, and a couple were let go. The end result was myself, my dad (MD), a nurse practitioner, and two RN’s with my mother working as our office manager/accountant. For a while, it went really well. The staff was less stressed and the smaller patient roster felt they had more attention to their needs. It worked out great. My pay kind of sucks ($35,000/year, which isn’t a livable wage in my area) but I sucked it up to help my family.
Over the past year, I’ve felt like things have crashed and burned. One of our two nurses left to do hospitalist work (I’m very happy for her and miss her a lot, she was a good friend and coworker) and my parents refuse to hire another nurse. Our remaining nurse is pregnant and they’re saying they won’t find a replacement for her maternity leave. They plan on giving her 3+ months of leave like they did when I gave birth (my mother covered my position), but they somehow think our clinic will survive on no nurse for months.
The nurse and I are getting stressed. We honestly have no idea how the NP feels, but she only works 3 days a week and has a separate business she owns so this isn’t her main income like it is for the nurse and I. I’m doing the job ma of at least 2 people, handling all of the day to day administrative work (referrals, paperwork, orders, faxes, new patient intake, etc) while also taking all of the calls, answering voicemails, and doing patient check in. The nurse is handling every medical duty the doctors don’t do, which was designed for 2-3 people to do with our current model.
My parents have been on vacation for over a week now. Today was my first day back in the office since the 4th as my childcare for my 6 month old son fell through for a few days. The work load I had to catch up on was overwhelming. Plus, the nurse was having to cover the front desk for me since my parents refuse to hire someone to cover for me (my mom usually does it but again, they’re out of town on vacation). The nurse was so overwhelmed and stressed when I got there. We talked about it and I decided to shoot my parents a quick message asking them if they’re still thinking about hiring someone else on to help us. For a long time, they said it would be okay with just the nurse and I, but recently they started suggested they may hire someone else (either a nurse or receptionist, either would be helpful). They immediately got mad that I dared interfere with their vacation (they take time off frequently).
My dad flew off the handle and said we were making him cancel the rest of his vacation and said the stress of all of this was too much for him. I don’t know if my mom ever talked him down, but he does this kind of thing a lot. The nurse and I thought it was ridiculous. He messaged the work chat that we’d have a meeting when they got back to discuss things, but the only option he sees is to cut the patient roster, which he says would mean a pay cut to our salaries. He says there’s suddenly no money to hire someone else on, which doesn’t make sense as none of us have gotten a pay raise and the other nurse only left a month ago. How did they pay her? I’ve helped with the books so I know everyone except me is paid very well. Where did that salary go all of a sudden?
The nurse and I are at our wits end. I’ve never seen her so mad. She says she’s gonna quit next week. I’m working on my resume to try and find some remote work so I can stay home with my son (my husband makes decent money). It’s frustrating, but I’m already paid a little above 30k a year, it won’t be worth working so much for less.
I’m just disappointed this is the way things have gone. My parents always told me they’d take care of me, but I guess I shouldn’t have believed them.
An interesting tidbit is that recently, my mom was talking about livable wages. I asked her if she thinks she paid me a livable wage and she said, “no, but your husband works so it’s fine”. If any other job admitted they weren’t paying me well because they knew I was in a dual income household, I’d quit on the spot. I shouldn’t treat my parents any different if they’re going to treat me like this.