Opinions on new position

[Steelyphil]

Hello,

So I am currently an EM PA with a schedule of 7 on - 7 off 10 hour shifts. My wife is also a PA and has the same type of schedule. We overlap 6 days a month and have 6 days total off together a month.  The problem is that we have 2 children under 3 and want another one soon.  Recently I have been thinking about getting a “normal” job, interviewed with IR and was offered a position with salary of 130k. No weekends, no holidays, no call. I currently make about 150-160k.

I am wondering if the schedule is worth the decrease in pay by almost 30k? I have never had a 9-5 job as a PA and am weary that it would actually be better for me and my family.

 

Looking for opinions or experience on the matter.

 

[CAAdmission]

I took a similar size pay cut for a job with a much better lifestyle. I do not live anything like an extravagant lifestyle, and I am very happy with my decision. 

[briansk]

One thing to consider, you currently average 35 hours per week. Not sure if the new position is hospital based or private practice. but I would venture to guess it isn't 35 hours a week. 

[Steelyphil]

1 minute ago, briansk said:

One thing to consider, you currently average 35 hours per week. Not sure if the new position is hospital based or private practice. but I would venture to guess it isn't 35 hours a week. 

It’s private, but also during normal business hours. The majority of my shifts in the ER are 11a-9p or 10a-8p, so I would imagine the hours I’m off are more so hours with the family…

[sas5814]

Its very much a personal choice and hard to calculate the good and bad parts. I have had some wild schedules. 2 24s a week. 3 12s, 4 12s including weekends and holidays and 35 day rotations at remote medicine sites. My wife is an RN and has worked various schedules that overlapped with mine. We didn't have kids in the mix because we are older and our kids are grown.

Every mix of schedules we had came with upsides and downsides. Now we both work 0800 to 1630 5 days a week. To me its an easy schedule. She hates working 5 days a week and would rather be on 12s with more days off.

I think you have to make the calculation as best you can and then pull the trigger if it seems to work. In my experience you never really know until you have done it for a while.

[bananapeppers]

I have been doing EM for 10 years. There are currently a lot of pros and cons. One of the pros in EM is it flexibility, take off whenever you want and need and having shift work and random days off of the week. However, I am single with no kids so this works out very well for me. However, my colleagues, who all have kids have been really struggling in EM. They're constantly asking for switches in the schedule and leaving late at night. I think most of them would be willing to take a pay cut to spend more time with kids. I think it may be worth the financial cut as long as you guys are stable financially. You can't really get back time with kids growing up. But obviously there are other factors too including how happy you are at work, management, etc. 

[CAAdmission]

5 hours ago, bananapeppers said:

You can't really get back time with kids growing up.

Very important consideration. You only get one chance to screw up your kids. 

[EMEDPA]

2 hours ago, CAAdmission said:

Very important consideration. You only get one chance to screw up your kids. 

pretty sure I succeeded in that regard...

[ventana]

13 hours ago, CAAdmission said:

Very important consideration. You only get one chance to screw up your kids. 

 

10 hours ago, EMEDPA said:

pretty sure I succeeded in that regard...

Oh great.  Thanks for the reminder.    I barely made it through the pandemic and now this great news.   

[SedRate]

23 hours ago, Hemmingway said:

Its very much a personal choice and hard to calculate the good and bad parts. I have had some wild schedules. 2 24s a week. 3 12s, 4 12s including weekends and holidays and 35 day rotations at remote medicine sites. My wife is an RN and has worked various schedules that overlapped with mine. We didn't have kids in the mix because we are older and our kids are grown.

Every mix of schedules we had came with upsides and downsides. Now we both work 0800 to 1630 5 days a week. To me its an easy schedule. She hates working 5 days a week and would rather be on 12s with more days off.

I think you have to make the calculation as best you can and then pull the trigger if it seems to work. In my experience you never really know until you have done it for a while.

Agree. My spouse and I are finally on the same schedule which has been nice, but personally, I hate M-F. Can't get anything done during business hours and it's the same ol grind day in and day out. A regular sleep schedule and no weekends, nights, and holidays are pretty nice though. 

[RadAssPA]

130 k seems to be a fairly standard starting salary for IR. An 8-5 IR job can easily turn into an 8-6+ a lot of days. I would counter for 150.....