Should I go on strike at work?.
When your mind and heart are truly open abundance will flow to you effortlessly and easily.
Question:
“I work in an institution/system with limited resources, where my colleagues and I have all the responsibility for patient care (very demanding patients legally entitled to get the best possible care).
At the same time, we have very little power to make decisions about which ward a patient might go to and what care he might get.
Other professional groups try hard to make us do things their way (though we are responsible for the outcome!), sometimes instead of doing the work they are supposed to do.
They threaten us to complain about us and if they do so, the (very weak) Medical Director will always be on their side and act against his staff.
Working conditions and payment are also quite bad because there is no support.
Well, I feel I am wasting my time with stupid paperwork and silly discussions with those people who are not responsible, but think that they know better.
We need all our time for patient care, as we always lack staff, while other staff have time to develop new concepts of care and the future of the hospital (that we take the responsibility for!).
We are too busy for that. My staff also behaves as if the work they are employed for would be a special favour to us we have to be very grateful for.
Some colleagues think about strikes. But is that a wise thing to do? How to deal with a situation that concerns our profession in the whole country?
I know that it is my ego that does not want to carry out other people’s commands and take responsibility for that.
I know that my ego wants to have the power correspondent with my responsibility.
My ego also wants my work to be honoured.
But is it all ego? Should I join the strike? Should I try to leave? How to change such a situation? The lesson to be learnt might be to find my own path and purpose of life, but trying to do that has not altered the situation.
I am trying to think that our position cannot diminish our value and potential and the value of our work, but that does not solve the whole problem.”
Response:
Even with your lengthy letter it is difficult to offer you a clear direction because it is hard to actually know what is going on without being there.
What I can determine from what you said is that this is not primarily an ego issue because you are clearly concerned for the quality of health care for your patients.
Being in the position of responsibility for health services without having the authority to make the necessary medical decisions is an exercise in frustration.
Clearly you need to restructure the decision tree with your Medical Director and his bureaucrats.
Before you strike you might want to submit written recommendations to him outlining the untenable current procedures and what you would like to change.
Look at the mission statement of the institution and point out how the present system is not living up to that.
If there is no incentive on managements’ side to listen to these proposals, then going on strike remains an option.
Love,
Deepak
