Help with New Grad Contract

[knwandrick]

Hello! I'm a new grad and recently received a job offer and contract. I wanted to see what other PAs thought and things I should negotiate since this is my first experience with this.

Position is with a spine surgery practice in Texas:

- Salary $90K with yearly bonus "at discretion of CEO." This seems a little low, but hard to negotiate as I have no experience.
- 2 weeks paid vacation - In my interview they also stated that major holidays were off as well. Need to clarify if these would be paid or not. Is this reasonable time off or too little?
- 5 days sick leave with doctor's note
- CME allowance of $2500. They stated in interview that I also would have 5 days for CME, so I need to clarify this with my contract and whether they are paid or not and have this included in writing.
- Malpractice insurance is provided "consistent with reasonable surgical physician assistant coverage." Obviously need to clarify whether occurrence or claims maid. And tail or not.
- Individual health insurance covered by employer. Family health insurance covered by employee. I only need coverage for myself, so this sounded like a good deal to me.

Other than above, I also wanted feedback on my hours. My schedule is described as up to 5 days a week but then later says that 5 days is routine and more days as agreed by PA and physician as needed. Hours may or may not extend past 10 hours per day with workload not to exceed 80 hours a week. There is no mention of call but when discussed they said I should "rarely" be on call. Obviously I'm not trying to get tricked into working 80 hours a week when the job was described as a M-F position. What is the best way to ask that this is clarified and protect myself from being exploited?

Appreciate all of your feedback! Thank you!

[PACJD]

4 hours ago, knwandrick said:

Hello! I'm a new grad and recently received a job offer and contract. I wanted to see what other PAs thought and things I should negotiate since this is my first experience with this.

Position is with a spine surgery practice in Texas:

- Salary $90K with yearly bonus "at discretion of CEO." This seems a little low, but hard to negotiate as I have no experience.
- 2 weeks paid vacation - In my interview they also stated that major holidays were off as well. Need to clarify if these would be paid or not. Is this reasonable time off or too little?
- 5 days sick leave with doctor's note
- CME allowance of $2500. They stated in interview that I also would have 5 days for CME, so I need to clarify this with my contract and whether they are paid or not and have this included in writing.
- Malpractice insurance is provided "consistent with reasonable surgical physician assistant coverage." Obviously need to clarify whether occurrence or claims maid. And tail or not.
- Individual health insurance covered by employer. Family health insurance covered by employee. I only need coverage for myself, so this sounded like a good deal to me.

Other than above, I also wanted feedback on my hours. My schedule is described as up to 5 days a week but then later says that 5 days is routine and more days as agreed by PA and physician as needed. Hours may or may not extend past 10 hours per day with workload not to exceed 80 hours a week. There is no mention of call but when discussed they said I should "rarely" be on call. Obviously I'm not trying to get tricked into working 80 hours a week when the job was described as a M-F position. What is the best way to ask that this is clarified and protect myself from being exploited?

Appreciate all of your feedback! Thank you!

Red flags all over this. Is all of this your wording or is it the wording of the employer? 

-Bonus "at discretion of CEO"  --> so I am guessing you won't get a bonus

-Malpractice insurance coverage "consistent with reasonable surgical physician assistant coverage." --> what is reasonable coverage in their minds?

-Scheduled to work "up to 5 days a week" 

-Scheduled to work 5 days "plus more days as agreed by PA and physician as needed" --> so you could be working 5-7 days a wk? hmmm....

-Hours "may or may not extend past 10 hours per day" --> so you could work as little as 5 hours per day or as much as 20 hours

-Workload "will not exceed past 80 hours a week" --> i would hope you aren't expected to work 80 hours per week, or 70, or 60

-Call is "rare" --> what is considered rare? once a month?

 

No... Just no...

[MT2PA]

Get details in writing.  As above, a lot of muddled wording.

Are you doing 4 10s?  That's up to 5 days and may or may not exceed 10 hrs.  In which case, great.  5 x 8hr days also fine.  But it's all too vague.  The fact that they have this language in the contract would say to me that you definitely at some point will be doing 10+ hr days and potentially reaching 80hr/weeks.  

You need details.  Make them get specific.  Make them put it in writing.  If the details lean your way, then sure.  As is, this doesn't sound promising (but you SHOULD try to pin them down, it might end up being okay).

[knwandrick]

Thank you both for taking a look. I definitely agree that the hours need to specified further. At my interview we discussed a M-F schedule 8-5 with some OR days (7-5). 

I appreciate your feedback. For some background, I'm a new grad and relocated for my husband's job after graduation, so I don't have any great contacts or networking from school. So far I haven't had any other leads on my applications, so I'm not in a great position to turn this away IF I can get the hours clarified and nailed down.

[AbeTheBabe]

It's better to look a few more weeks, rather than switch jobs in 6 months. Have they had a PA before? What was his/her hours like? If you're gonna work 40 hours a week, then it's an okay offer. If you're gonna be working 60-80 hours a week, then it's shit. If you're working an average of 60 hours a week, that 90K means under $30 an hour. Terrible. Either clarify hours or insist on being paid 45/hour.

Also, the fact that you need a doctors note for sick time is absolute bullshit. You're a professional with a masters degree. I have a cold but I have to drag my ass to an urgent care, waste a copay, waste my time, just so I can get a note so I can get paid. Bullshit.