A reconfiguration of who is in the driver’s seat when it comes to business is upon us.

If ‘We’re Hiring’ signs were a political campaign, they’re doing a very good job at getting the word out. It seems like you can’t drive a block without seeing a business hurt for help.

A few weeks ago I had mentioned seeing several thousand coin as signing bonuses. (Funny thing though, I just found two assistants and a hygienist in this market without a signing bonus).

There is a shift in power you should be aware of. If you’re going to be a ‘Karen’ to your server at the local burger joint, don’t expect to be the one leaving with an extra burger and fries.

No, quite the opposite.

Managers are pushing back. Telling rude, contemptuous clients they are wrong. Whattt? Isn’t the patient, client, customer always right???

I couldn’t ever quite grasp that concept whenever I heard about it. Now it makes absolutely no sense in this type of climate.

When human labor is scarce, the power to negotiate better wages, better working conditions and dealing less with crap is with the workers and not the owners. Without a large pool to just grab a new talent we value the skill set we’ve raised to this point. 

Allowing a terrible patient to walk all over your staff isn’t a great team building exercise in the first place.

It’s like Jenny sticking up for Forest on the school bus, you want to be there for your staff. Your patients are the replaceable cogs, not the staff in a practice. And heck, it’s way harder when your staff is like a box of chocolates, never knowing what ya gonna get.

Keep up the good fight for your staff. We’ll all get through this in one form or another. 

Lam