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Did You Go Into Medicine For The Money


RGK

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Not sure how old you are to name yourself "older", but if you are early 30s like me, you will remember that movie being EVERYTHING for a while (the soundtrack too, obvi).

 

If people want to send their kids to private school, I think that is fine, even though I do not think it is necessary.

 

When I have kids, I would really want them to work once they are 16. I always worked in customer service, starting at McDonald's, and to this day, I feel like this had a huge impact on me.

 

I also expect that you need to teach your kids a lot of things at home no matter how good their school is. I would obviously want to make sure that they learn their letters and numbers, are surrounded by books, and develop a love of reading.

 

But, I also expect that a lot of the things you think would be taught in school, may not be. For example, I fully expect that spelling quizzes, memorizing multiplication tables, and touch typing will be learned at home, along with many other skills

 

 

Nicely said. We all have expectations for kid's education, and while it is imperative to find schools that fulfill the need the best way, the important part comes from home and environment.

 

All costs money, though. Aside from private school tuitions, EC might cost a fortune - sports, for example, once they get to really competitive level. Having secure financial future, at least you know that you'll be able to provide for all that and give them the advantage of good foundation for life. Kids who don't have that advantage will have it harder, yet it is amazing how many people overcome adverse circumstances, including socioeconomic, and succeed.  

 

About working since age of 16, I don't know... it is very common N-American attitude which is not so common in the old world. In all European countries I know, the majority of teenagers and university students don't work during the summer unless they have to. They travel instead. (note to ralk: I don't have statistics about student workers in EU, this is a subjective observation).  Both work and travel have valuable educational aspects, and they are not mutually exclusive. But personally I would prefer my kids to explore the world before they enter working world.   

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Personally, it wasn't too important to my parents that I worked. It was more about me wanting to shop at the Gap.

 

But now, after having this experience and also from knowing a lot of people who did not, I value it more than my parents did.

 

I have a lot of friends who never worked growing up, and I know this sounds harsh, but this lack of experience always comes with a bit of naivety.

 

I have traveled quite a bit as an adult and that experience is important too. But I actually think that working as a teenager or young adult makes a person more"wordly".

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Nicely said. We all have expectations for kid's education, and while it is imperative to find schools that fulfill the need the best way, the important part comes from home and environment.

 

All costs money, though. Aside from private school tuitions, EC might cost a fortune - sports, for example, once they get to really competitive level. Having secure financial future, at least you know that you'll be able to provide for all that and give them the advantage of good foundation for life. Kids who don't have that advantage will have it harder, yet it is amazing how many people overcome adverse circumstances, including socioeconomic, and succeed.  

 

About working since age of 16, I don't know... it is very common N-American attitude which is not so common in the old world. In all European countries I know, the majority of teenagers and university students don't work during the summer unless they have to. They travel instead. (note to ralk: I don't have statistics about student workers in EU, this is a subjective observation).  Both work and travel have valuable educational aspects, and they are not mutually exclusive. But personally I would prefer my kids to explore the world before they enter working world.   

 

Mwhaha, stats everywhere!

 

I spent 5 minutes seeing if I could find an answer to that question myself and couldn't, but interesting data points I did find indicate that teenage employment in North America is dropping quickly, especially in higher-income groups. Working might have been the norm in the 1990's, but not so much these days.

 

On a more subjective note, I'm with makingfetchhappen - I worked as a teenager and traveled abroad as a teenager, and while both were valuable, I learned a lot more from working, even if it was only in fast food. I agree with the sentiment that working as a teenager or young adult makes a person more worldly - so many people try to understand the whole world before they have even a basic understanding of how their own countries, cities, or communities function. Going to public school and working a typical job gives a lot of perspective on the world in your own back yard, and it's something a lot of well-educated people lack. I wouldn't sacrifice my time flipping burgers for a trip around the entire world.

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Personally, it wasn't too important to my parents that I worked. It was more about me wanting to shop at the Gap.

 

But now, after having this experience and also from knowing a lot of people who did not, I value it more than my parents did.

 

I have a lot of friends who never worked growing up, and I know this sounds harsh, but this lack of experience always comes with a bit of naivety.

 

I have traveled quite a bit as an adult and that experience is important too. But I actually think that working as a teenager or young adult makes a person more"wordly".

Agreed completely. My husband has had jobs since age 8. He started distributing the PennySaver at 8 then did that until he was 16 at which time he started working full time.

 

I started working at 13. Had multiple jobs at 18. I will be strongly encouraging my kids to work. My son already has tasks he can do for spending money and we've actually negotiated a little contract. He has chores that he doesn't get paid for as well. If he wants a new video game or whatever, he is expected to save up. Currently he has $40 towards the DS he wants to buy for his little sister for her birthday in October (he's cute like that.) My daughter had a few tasks she can earn money for as well. They are 8 and 4.

 

I would like to point out that multiplication tables and spelling tests are things my son does at school, in grade 2. He has a 24 word spelling test in French every two weeks and has to practice his spelling every night. He's in French immersion so I couldn't say if they do it in English or not. I've been pleasantly surprised with the education system here. Seems good at the elementary level, but it's crap in high school so we're considering spending those years elsewhere.

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Personally, it wasn't too important to my parents that I worked. It was more about me wanting to shop at the Gap.

 

But now, after having this experience and also from knowing a lot of people who did not, I value it more than my parents did.

 

I have a lot of friends who never worked growing up, and I know this sounds harsh, but this lack of experience always comes with a bit of naivety.

 

I have traveled quite a bit as an adult and that experience is important too. But I actually think that working as a teenager or young adult makes a person more"wordly".

 

 

Good points. However, you never experience the world the same way  travelling as an adult rather than a teenager (unless you stay with your parents in 5* resorts, but this is not what I have in mind).  In most cases, it is a survival game with challenges that might be greater than work experience. 

 

The same could be said about working, I suppose - while you might have easily 40+ years in the workforce (and ceasing being 'naive' early in the process),  your adult work  will never be the same as your first job at school.  And actually I observed that  people whose first job is the one they get after the university have a very difficult time to adjust to working world.

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Mwhaha, stats everywhere!

 

I spent 5 minutes seeing if I could find an answer to that question myself and couldn't, but interesting data points I did find indicate that teenage employment in North America is dropping quickly, especially in higher-income groups. Working might have been the norm in the 1990's, but not so much these days.

 

On a more subjective note, I'm with makingfetchhappen - I worked as a teenager and traveled abroad as a teenager, and while both were valuable, I learned a lot more from working, even if it was only in fast food. I agree with the sentiment that working as a teenager or young adult makes a person more worldly - so many people try to understand the whole world before they have even a basic understanding of how their own countries, cities, or communities function. Going to public school and working a typical job gives a lot of perspective on the world in your own back yard, and it's something a lot of well-educated people lack. I wouldn't sacrifice my time flipping burgers for a trip around the entire world.

 

While I agree that a lot of young people don't have  basic understanding of how their own countries, cities, or communities function, i don't think that doing paid work is an answer. Engagement in the community, volunteer work, and yes, travelling and seeeing how other people live could very well give a sum of experiences and perspective. And by the way, I don't consider people who got schooling and little else as " well-educated people".  GW Bush went to Yale - and what kind of world perspective did he have!

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One of the neat things about paid work is that you get treated like crap and you need to put up with it.

 

I remember very vividly learning to apologize to customers yelling at me when the fact is, they were the ones who were completely out of line. At McDonald's, working through a burn, or receiving one because a customer wanted no salt fries, well that was pretty common.

 

Now, you need to up with a lot of people putting you down in a hierchigal field like medicine, I am sure of that. But to me, it isn't quite the same, and it has an end date.

 

A lot of people spend their entire lives being pushed around and talked down to.

 

In a twisted sort of way, I want my children to go through this. :)

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While I agree that a lot of young people don't have  basic understanding of how their own countries, cities, or communities function, i don't think that doing paid work is an answer. Engagement in the community, volunteer work, and yes, travelling and seeeing how other people live could very well give a sum of experiences and perspective. And by the way, I don't consider people who got schooling and little else as " well-educated people".  GW Bush went to Yale - and what kind of world perspective did he have!

 

I apologize for not using your specific definitions for terms (though I'm not sure how I could have known that...) but that's basically my point - high-end schooling doesn't provide good perspective.

 

Working is engaging the community, and in a relatively unsheltered fashion. Organizations generally like to keep their volunteers happy and don't tolerate abuse from those being helped by those volunteers - as makingfetchhappen points out, that's not always the case in the working world. Learning how to make an angry customer happy has really come in handy working in healthcare. You can't really get a sense of the value of money without working for it and understanding how much effort in is required for how much money out. How can you understand poverty without understanding the challenges of working for minimum wage, or even searching for a job?

 

Especially for wealthier students, paid work provides a window into a world that they might otherwise never see. It's one thing to help a 21 year old guy with one kid and another on the way - it's quite another to take direction from him at 3 am, because he works the night shift with you. Volunteering has a lot of value and can provide some pieces to the puzzle of how the world works, but it's not all-encompassing either. No experience is. Paid work fills in a lot of those gaps, just as volunteering or traveling abroad can fill in gaps that working leaves. It takes a bit of everything.

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One of the neat things about paid work is that you get treated like crap and you need to put up with it.

 

I remember very vividly learning to apologize to customers yelling at me when the fact is, they were the ones who were completely out of line. At McDonald's, working through a burn, or receiving one because a customer wanted no salt fries, well that was pretty common.

 

Now, you need to up with a lot of people putting you down in a hierchigal field like medicine, I am sure of that. But to me, it isn't quite the same, and it has an end date.

 

A lot of people spend their entire lives being pushed around and talked down to.

 

In a twisted sort of way, I want my children to go through this. :)

 

My first job, in a photo lab at age 16, was not like that at all. I had an amazing boss who respected my opinion and my skills! He helped to bolster the independent spirit my parents had already instilled in me. 

 

To answer this thread's original question, I'm more interested in the skills and knowledge that medicine can provide me than the money, but I also decided to pursue this career after I had kids and realized that a stable income from at least one parent might be necessary if I wanted them to have the same sort of upbringing I did. We're homeschooling, but my kids will get a good mix of working, volunteering and world travel, that's for sure. My toddler has already probably been to more rallies and community meetings than the average Canadian!

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My first job, in a photo lab at age 16, was not like that at all. I had an amazing boss who respected my opinion and my skills! He helped to bolster the independent spirit my parents had already instilled in me.

 

To answer this thread's original question, I'm more interested in the skills and knowledge that medicine can provide me than the money, but I also decided to pursue this career after I had kids and realized that a stable income from at least one parent might be necessary if I wanted them to have the same sort of upbringing I did. We're homeschooling, but my kids will get a good mix of working, volunteering and world travel, that's for sure. My toddler has already probably been to more rallies and community meetings than the average Canadian!

I agree that people should not have to put up with abuse, but working with the public, they sort of do. My bosses were great and treated me with a lot of respect, and I learned a lot from them.

 

I personally belive everyone should be treated with respect. It should be given and doesn't need to be "earned" like people sometimes say, you know?

 

I have personally found the contrast disturbing. Being a professional has allowed me a certain amount of freedom to speak my mind and perhaps an unwarranted amount of respect at times. I like to see it as silly and to try not to take it for granted.

 

It all comes back to the "prestige" that gets mentioned pretty often. We can joke that being a doctor is not prestigious, that deal with all the gross stuff afterall, but fact is, they do enjoy quite a bit of prestige.

 

I've been a little bit "spoiled"in this regard from a pretty young age. If my kids end up going to med school at 21 or 22, I would really like them to see the working world from the other side first. You know?

 

Edited to add: what is a photo lab :P

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Indeed, some of these low-level jobs result in taking a lot of abuse. Went through it myself; less-than-minium wage physical labor with abusive illiterate jerk as a supervisor.  Did I (and others in my group) learned from it ? Probably. Would I wish this kind of experience on my kids? No. But's my experience is hardly representative, most of workplaces treat young people right. And times have changed too - bullies are not appreciated in workplace, in any kind of job (I recall with amusement that the great Riccardo Muti had to resign from La Scala after orchestra refused to play because of his abusive behavior - he was screaming at musicians during rehearsals).  

 

Whilst I agree that paid work adds to  life experiences, I am questioning the scale of the phenomenon. Aside from having part time jobs during school year, most of university students go straight from exams to paid work for all summer, and then back to class. ralk is quoting data indicating that teenage employment is dropping in North America. This is mostly HS students?  With university students, isn't the trend opposite? I barely know anybody who doesnt work. In contrast, in Europe barely any university student works. Here, the part of this is necessity (rising tuitions etc), but another part is an attitude.  Making money seems to be a priority at any stage in life. What about the time for other life experiences?

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Indeed, some of these low-level jobs result in taking a lot of abuse. Went through it myself; less-than-minium wage physical labor with abusive illiterate jerk as a supervisor.  Did I (and others in my group) learned from it ? Probably. Would I wish this kind of experience on my kids? No. But's my experience is hardly representative, most of workplaces treat young people right. And times have changed too - bullies are not appreciated in workplace, in any kind of job (I recall with amusement that the great Riccardo Muti had to resign from La Scala after orchestra refused to play because of his abusive behavior - he was screaming at musicians during rehearsals).  

 

Whilst I agree that paid work adds to  life experiences, I am questioning the scale of the phenomenon. Aside from having part time jobs during school year, most of university students go straight from exams to paid work for all summer, and then back to class. ralk is quoting data indicating that teenage employment is dropping in North America. This is mostly HS students?  With university students, isn't the trend opposite? I barely know anybody who doesnt work. In contrast, in Europe barely any university student works. Here, the part of this is necessity (rising tuitions etc), but another part is an attitude.  Making money seems to be a priority at any stage in life. What about the time for other life experiences?

 

Dropping for high school students mostly, but not rising for university students. Appears largely flat for university students, with perhaps a slow, long-term trend down, but nothing significant. Overall participation rates are still rather high - most university students to in fact work, but it's not a rising trend, for sure.

 

International data is a bit harder to pin down aside from the US (where the rate is clearly falling both for teenagers and those in their low-to-mid 20's), but yes, the EU in general has lower youth labour participation, but that's not true for all countries. The UK and Austria are about equal to Canada, the Netherlands actually appears to have higher participation.

 

There's research on the value of teenage employment as well. It's not clear-cut or without controversy, but on the whole research seems to find that teenage employment is rather beneficial (and teenagers agree) if it doesn't crowd out other activities. Working 10 hours a week likely helps, working 20+ almost certainly hurts. That's not exactly unique to employment - too much of anything a teenager does can be damaging if done to excess - but if engaged in with moderation, there are some clear benefits, particularly to long-term economic prosperity.

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Indeed, some of these low-level jobs result in taking a lot of abuse. Went through it myself; less-than-minium wage physical labor with abusive illiterate jerk as a supervisor.  Did I (and others in my group) learned from it ? Probably. Would I wish this kind of experience on my kids? No. But's my experience is hardly representative, most of workplaces treat young people right. And times have changed too - bullies are not appreciated in workplace, in any kind of job (I recall with amusement that the great Riccardo Muti had to resign from La Scala after orchestra refused to play because of his abusive behavior - he was screaming at musicians during rehearsals).  

 

Whilst I agree that paid work adds to  life experiences, I am questioning the scale of the phenomenon. Aside from having part time jobs during school year, most of university students go straight from exams to paid work for all summer, and then back to class. ralk is quoting data indicating that teenage employment is dropping in North America. This is mostly HS students?  With university students, isn't the trend opposite? I barely know anybody who doesnt work. In contrast, in Europe barely any university student works. Here, the part of this is necessity (rising tuitions etc), but another part is an attitude.  Making money seems to be a priority at any stage in life. What about the time for other life experiences?

No, I agree. I was referring to dealing with the public more. Also, dealing with a boss who is a bit of a jerk is different from dealing with one who is a flat out bully. Even adults suffer too much when their boss is a bully. 

 

I would encourage my kids* to quit if their boss was a bully. Bosses just have too much power over you. The way I see it, you can grow thick skin, but you can't grow scales :P.

 

*My hypothetical future children who I will probably freak the hell out when anyone hurts them in the slightest...

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You can have character-building experiences without having to work retail. Plenty of youth organizations, many of which are sponsored social programs, also teach you fortitude and perseverance. It's the same as with ECs - you don't have to do anything, but you have to do something.

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Dropping for high school students mostly, but not rising for university students. Appears largely flat for university students, with perhaps a slow, long-term trend down, but nothing significant. Overall participation rates are still rather high - most university students to in fact work, but it's not a rising trend, for sure.

 

International data is a bit harder to pin down aside from the US (where the rate is clearly falling both for teenagers and those in their low-to-mid 20's), but yes, the EU in general has lower youth labour participation, but that's not true for all countries. The UK and Austria are about equal to Canada, the Netherlands actually appears to have higher participation.

 

There's research on the value of teenage employment as well. It's not clear-cut or without controversy, but on the whole research seems to find that teenage employment is rather beneficial (and teenagers agree) if it doesn't crowd out other activities. Working 10 hours a week likely helps, working 20+ almost certainly hurts. That's not exactly unique to employment - too much of anything a teenager does can be damaging if done to excess - but if engaged in with moderation, there are some clear benefits, particularly to long-term economic prosperity.

 

Good research, you are, as always, very thorough.

 

While i agree with you about too many hours a week being bad, working during the summer bothers me most.  You can earn lots of money working full time during summer vacation, but free summers never come back. It's rare to see anybody  working, let's say, May till July, then taking August off - yet alone taking the whole summer off.  In my opinion, it promotes a culture that is dominating in N America but not in Europe - work, work, work, never rest. As a result, Canadians don't protest that 2 weeks is a minimum statutory vacation time In Ontario (outrageous - can't compare with any developed country except, of course, US - where staturory minimum is 0).  And when people finally earn more vacation, they still don't take them! Help me here with exact numbers, but don't they show that more than 50% adults in Canda never use  their full vacation time?

 

We are being conditioned to work since childhood in the endless quest for money. Doctors are not immune to it, they often don't take vacation either - after all, most run their own business, so any vacation translates to loss. And because of high earnings, the "lossess" are high too!

 

Isn't it better to forfeit minimum wages and have your summers for yourself when you are still at school? It will only get worse later on.

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Good research, you are, as always, very thorough.

 

While i agree with you about too many hours a week being bad, working during the summer bothers me most.  You can earn lots of money working full time during summer vacation, but free summers never come back. It's rare to see anybody  working, let's say, May till July, then taking August off - yet alone taking the whole summer off.  In my opinion, it promotes a culture that is dominating in N America but not in Europe - work, work, work, never rest. As a result, Canadians don't protest that 2 weeks is a minimum statutory vacation time In Ontario (outrageous - can't compare with any developed country except, of course, US - where staturory minimum is 0).  And when people finally earn more vacation, they still don't take them! Help me here with exact numbers, but don't they show that more than 50% adults in Canda never use  their full vacation time?

 

We are being conditioned to work since childhood in the endless quest for money. Doctors are not immune to it, they often don't take vacation either - after all, most run their own business, so any vacation translates to loss. And because of high earnings, the "lossess" are high too!

 

Isn't it better to forfeit minimum wages and have your summers for yourself when you are still at school? It will only get worse later on.

 

Becoming a workoholic is a concern, certainly, but I'm far from convinced working as a teenager encourages that,especially if done in moderation.

 

The main reason I want my kids to work is so that they have a respect for money, the kind of work necessary to earn it, and that they have some sense of how to manage what money they do earn. That doesn't mean they have to work every week of every summer full time. But it does mean if they want to say, go on a fun summer trip, they have some sense of how much work it takes to pay for that trip. The actual money earned is as much a side-benefit as anything else, though it does certainly help. I avoided a good amount of debt through my pre-university savings, even though I mostly just worked 10-15 hours a week and never full time in the summer.

 

Again, it's about moderation. Working too much has negative consequences. Not working at all, also has negative consequences. If people don't figure out how to find the balance while they're young and have plenty of support, they'll have to make a go of figuring it out later in life when they don't. Talking to some of the people ahead of me here at school, the one thing I hear repeated is that clerkship is roughest on those who have never really worked a day in their lives, because it's such a different experience than school or volunteering. You mentioned physicians not taking enough vacation time, but to add onto that list of "things doctors don't do well", money management is a major concern, with many physicians reporting financial distress despite earning mid-to-high six figures. If physicians were better at managing their money, rather than just earning lots of it, maybe they'd be more willing to take some time off.

 

I agree that "an endless quest for money" is a bad thing, I just don't see how encouraging kids to engage in work, responsibly, creates that drive. They'll have to work eventually and I'd rather they find the right balance early on. You describe a situation of taking some time off in the summer while working the other months as something that you don't see often, but that's exactly what I do. I'm taking a trip, then I'm working to pay for it, doing work I enjoy. And I got to figure out what kind of work I enjoy... by doing other work previously, some of which wasn't nearly as fun.

 

Kids should get a sense of a proper balance between work and everything else, but that's not going to happen if all they do is the "everything else".

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I definitely don't take my full vacation and it has nothing to do with the lost income, it has to do with it being incredibly difficult to leave work for any length of time. What I come back to after i'm gone for a week is so intense that it almost negates the relaxation of a week off. Even just coming back after being closed for a long weekend is heavy. I've also never had a week off where I didn't at least have to deal with emergencies by phone.

It's very hard to take vacation when you have a lot of professional responsibility, and it's also hard to take vacation in other professions where you're constantly trying to climb the corporate ladder.

I agree that the system is the issue, it's ridiculous that although we're entitled to time off, it's often perceived as lack of commitment to the work if that full time is taken.

This certainly isn't true in every work place, but i've seen it a lot in the corporate world.

It's the case in government as well, for many. My manager has taken a few weeks of vacation, certainly far less than that to which she is entitled, during the nearly two years I've worked for her, but she has never been out of contact during those weeks. She still has email and can be reached by phone. The only difference is that she isn't physically present in the office.

 

I heard of a company - though for the life of me I can't recall the name - which actually bounces back emails and does not accept voicemails for people when they are on vacation. So instead of coming back to an inbox with 500 new emails in it, they come back to precisely as many messages as they had when they left. Because it's not really vacation if you're just putting the work off until you get back. I love that idea and wish it were employed at my job.

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Becoming a workoholic is a concern, certainly, but I'm far from convinced working as a teenager encourages that,especially if done in moderation.

 

The main reason I want my kids to work is so that they have a respect for money, the kind of work necessary to earn it, and that they have some sense of how to manage what money they do earn. That doesn't mean they have to work every week of every summer full time. But it does mean if they want to say, go on a fun summer trip, they have some sense of how much work it takes to pay for that trip. The actual money earned is as much a side-benefit as anything else, though it does certainly help. I avoided a good amount of debt through my pre-university savings, even though I mostly just worked 10-15 hours a week and never full time in the summer.

 

Again, it's about moderation. Working too much has negative consequences. Not working at all, also has negative consequences. If people don't figure out how to find the balance while they're young and have plenty of support, they'll have to make a go of figuring it out later in life when they don't. Talking to some of the people ahead of me here at school, the one thing I hear repeated is that clerkship is roughest on those who have never really worked a day in their lives, because it's such a different experience than school or volunteering. You mentioned physicians not taking enough vacation time, but to add onto that list of "things doctors don't do well", money management is a major concern, with many physicians reporting financial distress despite earning mid-to-high six figures. If physicians were better at managing their money, rather than just earning lots of it, maybe they'd be more willing to take some time off.

 

I agree that "an endless quest for money" is a bad thing, I just don't see how encouraging kids to engage in work, responsibly, creates that drive. They'll have to work eventually and I'd rather they find the right balance early on. You describe a situation of taking some time off in the summer while working the other months as something that you don't see often, but that's exactly what I do. I'm taking a trip, then I'm working to pay for it, doing work I enjoy. And I got to figure out what kind of work I enjoy... by doing other work previously, some of which wasn't nearly as fun.

 

Kids should get a sense of a proper balance between work and everything else, but that's not going to happen if all they do is the "everything else".

 

Lots of good points here. But looking around, the balance you promote does not exist for the majority of university students. Most work all summers.

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I definitely don't take my full vacation and it has nothing to do with the lost income, it has to do with it being incredibly difficult to leave work for any length of time. What I come back to after i'm gone for a week is so intense that it almost negates the relaxation of a week off. Even just coming back after being closed for a long weekend is heavy. I've also never had a week off where I didn't at least have to deal with emergencies by phone.

 

It's very hard to take vacation when you have a lot of professional responsibility, and it's also hard to take vacation in other professions where you're constantly trying to climb the corporate ladder.

I agree that the system is the issue, it's ridiculous that although we're entitled to time off, it's often perceived as lack of commitment to the work if that full time is taken.

This certainly isn't true in every work place, but i've seen it a lot in the corporate world.

 

Some changes are taking place, but most work  environments function exactly as you say. It's cultural issue. People here think it is normal. For me, a newcomer, this is shocking. I am sorry for students and for adults in workforce but I suppose I shouldn't be, because they don't mind.

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I highly doubt it will be exclusively for money [at least it should not be] because there are other careers that involves less investment and high pay! May I say prestige? 

 

But medicine is unique career that makes it different from other and I think that is what makes is more attractive!

 

My household [of 6 peoples] has income of 25,000 and I don't think we are dying of hunger or anything and still living comfortably. I think it just about balancing your income with what you can achieve!

 

:)  

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