Comments on: Why No Job Can Ever Be Perfect

By: Tracy

Tracy — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:27:50 +0000

Thank you so much for your post! I am a nurse and studying to be a nurse practitioner. I appreciate your insight and candor. As a nurse, I often feel frustrated with the system. However, I truly feel blessed to have the chance to make important impacts on people's lives.

Tracy: Me, too. Alex

By: Brenda Keefe

Brenda Keefe — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:29:56 +0000

Thanks again for a wonderful post.

I have to say that even with all the frustrations, unending piles of paperwork, and what seems like too many phone calls to professionals that never seem to return them and having to make them all over again, I still love the work I do and the job I have. No job is perfect but I think I have the next best thing. I am truly grateful for having a job today and having one I love. This may change tomorrow, but for today all is well.

I think of my dad who worked in a factory for 35 years, worked his butt off with all the overtime he did, supporting my mother and 9 siblings, supporting me through my undergrad so that I could have a job I loved. I don’t remember him complaining about his work. I do remember comments when his pension fund went bankrupt, having worked all those years, and that happening.

So, maybe the perfect job is in the eyes of the beholder?

By: Erika Mitchell

Erika Mitchell — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:17:38 +0000

I hear you fully as a physician myself. I am frustrated, often angry, because of the lack of emphasis on patients and the ever-increasing emphasis on money, malpractice and governance. Having read the book you had recommended, I am now more aware of the natural states behind my behavior and feelings. But I am concerned that in accepting the system for what it is and trying to work to the best of my abilities withing its limits, that I become complacent. I try to convince myself that I do the paperwork, argue with insurance companies, work long hours and ignore my own needs for the great privilege of being a surgeon. It is a privilege and I am insanely grateful for it. But how do I stay thankful in this imperfect system? I feel the need to be angry, to fight it, to not just accept it for what it is and work with a smile, despite the fact that I know it is bigger than me and that my voice is small. My lower worlds are still so strong.

Erika: As they are in all of us! Finding a way to enjoy an imperfect job doesn't, in my mind, preclude you from fighting to improve it. I share your sense of impotence in contributing to the change our medical system so desperately needs, but my answer is to fight for better solutions right where I am in whatever way I can, which really has led to meaningful, if only local change. Alex

By: Amy

Amy — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:19:40 +0000

Alex, Beth and Donna,

Thanks so much for your thoughts. I’ve taken a look at the links you all recommended and they are certainly helpful. We’ll see what happens the next time I see my PCP. I guess I’ll give him one more chance for now.

By: Donna B.

Donna B. — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:00:06 +0000

I can certainly sympathize with Amy…I wrote about how I felt I was my own PCP over a year ago.

Those of us with complex, not well-defined medical issues are often frustrated. This is especially true where chronic pain is a factor.