The Nobility of Labor

"It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do."            ~Jerome K. Jerome~

Happy Labor Day, I hope you're getting a chance to relax.  I want to ask you something;  When you think about what you do for a living do you think of it as a job, or a profession?  Do you enjoy what you do?  In the past few years I've heard more and more about things that make me feel sad for people.  Assistants who read text messages while they are assisting chairside, hygienists reading magazines during downtime, front desk assistants checking out their Facebook page,  and dentists calculating the amount of years they have to endure until they can retire.  What's up with all that?  Why are people so disengaged from their work, or even just plain loathe to do it? 

I think it all begins with finding work you love.  Let's start there.  If you keep going back to a job you hate, day after day, you have three choices; quit and find something you love to do, stay and find a way to love it, or stay and be miserable.  I don't suggest the third option because not only will you be miserable, you'll make everyone around you miserable, too.    Let's see if we can fix that.

Dentists,  I'll start with you.

1. Don't keep bad staff.  These are the people you fixate on, wonder what you should do about, and dread seeing.  They keep you from being happy in your work.  They drag good employees down and cause chaos and resentment.  They are more interested in drama then their work.  Set them free, they'll have a better chance of finding something they love to do, too.  You ruin people when you tell them they need to change and then tolerate it when they don't.  Discipline has to be learned at some point, let it start with you.  They may eventually come back and thank you.
2. Find a manager that is obsessed with the business of your practice.  As Warren Buffet says, "Obsession is the price for perfection."  People who are obsessed with their profession would do it even if they weren't paid as handsomely.  They do what they do because they love it.  An obsessed manager will not only keep your team going, they'll keep pointing out the best way to go to you, too. They'll watch your money and keep an eye on the next thing that needs to be done.
3. Develop a great team.  Once you've gotten any bad employees out, work with your obsessed manager to develop a fantastic team.  It is work, but it's worth it.  It never ends, you don't get to rest on your laurels, but after a while you look at your great team, hear them serving your patients and realize, you love the process of creating this team, so why would you ever want to stop.
4. Decide what you want your practice to be, because it will evolve with or without your direction.  Do you want to stay small, or bring in associates and partners and open satellite offices?  Do you want to get out on the lecture circuit and become nationally known or are you happy in the comfortable niche you've created?  Whatever your practice becomes, be sure that your vision drove it there.  Make it a practice that you love returning to day after day, one that really makes you feel great about what you've built.
5. Look at what you do and how you do it.  Do you slow down and enjoy your patients and get to know them?  Do you understand the role that your work plays in their lives?   Do you see that your employees come to work every day to help you with your vision for your practice?  Can you make that all true for yourself?

Staff, it's your turn

1. Do you like what you do and see the value in it?  Really think about what you do.  Of course some of it seems routine or maybe even too simple.  It depends on how you think about it.  I get a lot of satisfaction from keeping the lab clean.  You might wonder how I see that as helping our patients, or even why I'd enjoy it.  If things are clean and orderly there will be less retakes of impressions and more time to spend on more satisfying patient care. It's background work and maybe no one else notices it, but it satisfies me to see it look so good.  Find the satisfaction in doing something just a little better than would be merely acceptable.
2. Value each other.  Really look at your co-workers, including your boss, and see how wonderful they are.  We all have something wonderful about us, it's just that many times the bad stuff is what we notice in the moment.  Think about it, someone else may do something annoying or ridiculous once or twice in the course of the 8 hours we spend with them.  The rest of the time they are perfectly fine and we take it for granted.  It's the 2 minutes of obnoxiousness, or aggravation that we tend to focus on for the remainder of the day.  Find a way to turn it around and brush off the annoying quirks and embrace the perfectly fine behavior that fills the rest of the day.
3. Value your patients.  They are trusting you and depending on you to care.  Do your best for them, get to know them and understand them.  Don't judge them, try to make them feel cared for.  Find pleasure in making something easier for them or helping them care for themself better.

Get it together people.  One of these days you're going to run out of time and then it's too late.  You'll have spent your life in an unhappy state.  Work hard with your head and your heart and then enjoy your rest.  Appreciate the opportunity to work, it's not a guaranteed right, just ask someone who can't find a job.  Hold up your end, find the right profession, educate yourself continuously and strive for excellence every day.  Then you will understand the nobility of labor.