Yeah, we talk about it all the time how podiatry job market is thin, rare good job postings get smashed with tons of apps, most podiatrists end up in PP, associates are underpaid, etc.
The other side of the coin is that many who do work hard to get those 'holy grail' DPM jobs working for hospital, ortho, main surgery doc for a big pod group, academic, etc tend to get burnt ouuuuuuuuut. I have seen it with at least 10+ SDN members over the years and dozens more DPMs I met during school or training. The call and the pressure to produce and the stress to keep the job since it was so hard to get or the location was a compromise to avoid PP just become taxing. It is not pleasing mentally to make about half what most MD/DO surgeons at the same hospital make for similar hours... and you have little leverage since 100 other podiatrists are tripping over one another trying to get your job. It's tempting to grind it out at a tough job when you'd have to take a paycut to go elsewhere or finding anything similar can take awhile - or an even less desired location. A lot of smart and hardworking people get grumpy to the point of quitting, getting fired, work conflicts, personal relationship strain, etc from the DPM "dream jobs" just like many others gripe and complain of barely being able to pay their loans with the PP associate gigs.
It's not that that's any excuse to be short and confrontational at the job or SDN or anywhere... but it's
definitely not unrelated.
I think we assume (or pretend?) that because podiatry's an "easy hours" or "family friendly" specialty that it's that way everywhere - and that nobody should complain much. It certainly can be fairly relaxed, but a lot of us face the choice of underpaid vs overworked (or both). It's just easier for most MDs to deal with burnout when they drive home having their student loans paid off by age 35 in their S-Class Mercedes... knowing they have dozens of alternate jobs/locations should they choose.
