Physician People Pleasing; The Hidden Costs

I gotta tell you, I would never have thought I was a people pleaser.

In fact, I used to fancy myself a bit of a rebel.

And yet, I now see I have a whole lot of people pleasing patterns (especially at work).

So do most of the physicians I work with.

Running behind so you skip finishing that note and head into the next room? It’s got people pleasing behind it.

Going to work when you were on call and haven’t slept because people might be upset if you canceled your office? People pleasing.

Now, people pleasing is fine and dandy – most of us do it in some form or another. And you may even CHOOSE to do it in some situations.

The problem that I wanted to discuss on this week’s podcast episode is the inequality that shows up when physicians people please.

We rush to the next patient so they don’t feel uncomfortable and get annoyed with waiting. But in the process, we end up spending our evening catching up on the notes we didn’t finish. We save each patient maybe 5 minutes of discomfort but may take on an hour or more of discomfort ourselves.

You drag your exhausted butt into the office to see non-urgent office visits so the patients and staff aren’t inconvenienced by having to reschedule appointments. Getting a doctor’s appointment rescheduled can be annoying but it could never compare to the discomfort of working without having slept.

Add these up over the course of a week or a month and this habit of us taking on significant discomfort to keep patients (and other people in our life) really adds up and takes a toll.

If you are wondering what this has to do with your eating and weight… this is a HUGE driver of eating. Except… when you are procrasti-snacking in the evening you won’t connect it to your fear of letting patients wait for you to finish your notes. You’ll assume there is something wrong with you and food.

And that is a shame.

This is the hidden cost of people pleasing as a physician.

Listen to this week’s Thriving As A Physician podcast episode below to learn more about how this is probably influencing your eating behind the scenes.