"opt out" revolution broken down by advanced degree

[walkitout]

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/080822/7/3o0xi.html

Highlights: doctors are most likely to make part-time work, then lawyers, then business (of the three categories of advanced degrees considered -- academic track doesn't make an appearance that I noticed), and by business, MBA which is to say management.

A variety of contributing factors are considered: lack of support/role-models in management for working reasonable hours, people marry within their field which compounds the problem, less commitment to the career (people know what a doctor is; what a manager is is far less clear), less money/fewer years commited to the advanced degree, etc.

Shockingly good analysis; I doubt you'll see much of this mentioned elsewhere.

ETA: _Someone_ followed up with the author for more details:

http://blog.marketplace.nwsource.com/ninetothrive/2008/07/so_many_articles_and_studies.html

Comments

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I was surprised to see the MD thing -- both my mother and uncle gave up part-time practices because it was no longer possible to get affordable malpractice insurance on anything much under full-time practice (as the insurance rates didn't go down at all in proportion to one's time working). However, they were both anesthesiologists, who probably have extra-high malpractice rates, and it's my impression that doctors' salaries subsequently went up quite a bit as well, even in proportion to the also-escalating malpractice rates (so the economic decision might have been quite different fifteen or twenty years later).

Anesthesiology *used* to be a pretty good specialty for those who wanted to work part-time -- you were either on call or you weren't, no regular patients or rounds to deal with.

I would certainly get a lot more burned out being an MBA than a doctor, not that I could handle either. But at least in medicine there are *real* emergencies that might be worth staying up all night to deal with.

part-time doctors

[walkitout]

There are a lot of salaried/temp positions in medical care (including MDs) that I don't think existed so much even a decade ago -- work for a clinic, hospital, agency, whatever. I think in those situations, you don't have to pay for the malpractice yourself, as in a private practice; it's paid for by the larger organization. I could imagine that making a big difference in terms of creating viable, flexible, fewer-hours jobs in health care.

I was _not_ surprised by the lawyer thing, because of all the lawyers in my in-laws extended family I've been hearing a fair amount about the increasing viability of part-time partner stuff.