So I love the tv show House. Give me any crotchety doctor who’s one part jerk, two parts condescending, and seven parts diagnostic genius and I’ll settle in for an episode. However, for first year dentists, your life isn’t going to be an episode of House. It’s going to be more like The Office. Here’s why and 4 ways not shoot yourself in the foot.
Dentists work in small offices. Even if you’re part of a huge clinic with 40 dentists, the day to day work is with a small group of people. The office manager, the RDA, a hygienist, and one or two front office staff is 90% of who you’re going to interact with. These people can make your first-year practicing dentistry heaven or hell. Here’s the 4 things you can do to help yourself.
- Realize that while you’re the most senior staff clinically, you are the least senior person in the office. This seems obvious but it’s easy to screw up. The office’s schedule centers around: the dentist and his/her schedule, how much work the dentist does, and how the patients feel about the dentist. This makes it easy to think that you are irreplaceable. However, most of the support staff have been there for a long time. They have been working together. They have their own culture. You are the new person, tread lightly. Even though you have clinical autonomy and should exercise that, you are not king/queen of the office. In my experience, dentists have been reassigned an hour away from their original office simply because they didn’t jive with support staff.
- Be wary of staff that are overly friendly and want to be your best friend. For 6 months at least, keep your head down and be friendly, but not friends, with your support staff. If someone instantly wants to be your best friend, remember you are in the middle of an office dynamic that you have yet to understand. Smile and nod and keep a low profile.
- Please, please, PLEASE do not drink with the office staff after work. I get it, everyone is young and you’re probably in a new area. Still, drinking after work, especially when you’re new in the office, is a bad idea. This is where sexual harassment lawsuits Even if the fun doesn’t go that far, it often only takes a complaint to get reassigned or fired. The office managers often have long relationships with the support staff, they don’t know you and aren’t going to bat for you.
- Some office’s expect the new dentist to perform some management of employees. If you’re in that situation, less is more. If an issue arises or staff complains, defer to your director or a regional manager and rely on their written instructions. Work situations can go badly pretty quick and you’ll want your instructions on how to proceed in writing.
I avoided the most obvious Office reference and didn’t say anything about a Jim and Pam situation. I hope it’s clear, in this day and age, a dentist should not date their staff members. If that’s not obvious to you, please call me immediately, because your life is about to get expensive.
