I love my job in the sense of what I do and the kinds of diagnoses I get to treat. I don't like my job in the sense that they play the "because you're the new guy" card far too often. It started out with little stuff and with a question "since you're the new guy, would you mind..."; but has progressed onto bigger stuff and just happens without any warning or effort to get my input... and that is what is starting to worry me. Something new has popped up and I'm getting ready to put my foot down; but some 3rd party opinions are greatly appreciated in case I am being too rash.

I work in Lafayette, a roughly 35 minute drive from where I live. We also have a West Lafayette clinic, which is an additional 30+ minutes from where I live. The West Lafayette clinic only has physical therapy up to this point; but they want to have occupational therapy (what I do) as well because we see a lot of patients from West Lafayette and they would like the option of occupational therapy closer to home.

So they asked all of the OT's if they wanted to split mornings and afternoons between the clinics. The other 3 OT's live in Lafayette and one (the owner's wife) lives pretty equidistant to each clinic. They said they'd rather not because they like being in the main clinic where we have more equipment. I said I'd rather not because I don't want to spend 2+ hours a day in my truck. The next day I was told I would be the one going... but I already saw that coming.

What I didn't see coming is that they want me to spend my lunch time driving to the West Lafayette clinic and that time will not be factored into my "8 hour" work day. I'm a salary employee and already work 48+ hours a week and get paid for 40. Our office is understaffed; so I come in 30 minutes early to get my own charts ready, work through lunch to finish notes and fax stuff to case managers for my morning patients, then stay late each night to fax the stuff for my afternoon patients. Pulling charts and faxing/calling are supposed to be done by the office staff while I'm seeing 16 patients a day; but it doesn't get done unless I do it and I'm not going to let my patients' quality of care suffer from our being understaffed. So beyond just having to drive through lunch, I'll have twice as much faxing/calling to do at the end of the day because I can't use lunch to handle the morning patients... topped off by over an hour drive back home.

I said something to our business manager about wanting that drive time factored into my work day. She said she already mentioned that to the owner and he said no and commented that "that's just part of having a salary job."

So I'm pissed (you probably figured that out by now <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> )... and very tempted to draw a line in the sand and say I'm not willing to go to the other clinic if the drive time isn't factored into my work day. The issue becomes, if they say 'no dice' I at that point will need to decide whether to fold and fully establish my role as their *****, or put up an ultimatim regarding my employment. I'm willing to walk if it comes to that point; but IMHO it shouldn't have to. Stuff like that has been slowly dropping my level of regard for the owner. This may be the straw that breaks the camel's back; but I know all of the other little things are influencing my view as well and I want to make sure I'm not making a mountain out of a mole hill for this one issue. I have always been the "whatever it takes to get the job done" type; and I feel like they are capitalizing on that personality to the point that I'm being taken advantage of. Please be honest, your input very well may play a role in a pretty major life decision.

Thanks for reading all of that if you did. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />