I get roughly 2 dozen emails a day offering a variety of locums positions ranging from 1 week to "ongoing". Call is usually expected. Comp for agency jobs typically runs in the $3000-3500/d range, at least around here. This includes malpractice and credentialing fees. It's 1099 income and doesn't include any "benefits" like health/disability/life insurance, PTO, 401k, etc.
Is this mostly inpatient work to cover a gap in the schedule? What did these locums docs say was their reason for working locums?
I have credentialed a number of locums and one of them was not terrible. Perhaps we are talking about the same person.
People work locums in all fields for a variety of reasons. I am personally considering it, 15-20 years down the road as a transition to retirement. But a lot of the locums docs I've interacted with have done it because they can't hold down a regular job d/t personality issues.
Why you went into the field, and why some other people went into the field, are likely radically different.
About 2 years ago, someone suggested we engage a locums doc to help cover a few months between a physician retiring and a new one coming onboard. I gave up all of my administrative time to cover that clinic so we could avoid locums.
