Need a plan of action before approaching my boss.

amother

Mon, Jan 26 2015, 11:14 pm

I work for a doctor part time. When I was hired he didnt want to pay me to be there full time as the practice didnt need a full time secretary. The deal was I would work one day a week in the office and the other days the calls would get forwarded to a cell phone and I would answer from my home.
I have worked there for a year now but I feel I am working more than I am getting paid to do.
My boss came to me and told me patients were complaining that they are not getting a call back so soon. Yes I do call people back but maybe not the same day. My boss expects me to call back right away or answer the phone so it doesnt go to voice mail, but I told him that he is only paying me for when I answer the phone not for waiting around to take a cal,l also he expects me to have the phone with me when he will have patients so if they are lost or late or cancel at the last minute I could let him know. What he doesnt want to get is that if no one calls I still have one ear for the phone where ever I am but I dont get paid for that time so if I take another part time job I cant answer his calls.
I really like working for him but it is becoming too difficult because I really need to make more money because we have many bills to pay so I cant just "work" for him and drop everything else when he calls to tell me to do something if I am only working very part time.
We have spoken about this but he just never does anything about it.
I dont want to leave but I would like to go to him with a plan like on the days I work from home he will pay me x amount of dollars for the day even if I dont have calls to answer and when I am in the office I will get the 15 dollars an hour we discussed .
Does that sound reasonable? How much do you thing I should say to pay for the time I am at home. Actual work is most of the time no more than 2 hours a day but "stand by time" is more.

Any ideas?

flmommy

Mon, Jan 26 2015, 11:24 pm

Sounds like a flexible job. Nice to be able to go to kids school on those on call days or work out etc. The flip side is being on call is difficult because you never know when the phone will ring which is a pain. I would first tell the Dr. that you agree to not let calls go unreturned any day since that is impt to him/her. Then I would state but that in order for it to be worth your while you need to be paid X amount of dollars for being on call. If you work 2 hrs out of the day but are on call 8 I think it would be fair to be compensated for 4 hrs. What do others think?

notshanarishona

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 12:36 am

What I used to do is charge a certain monthly salary and then my lower hourly wage.
For example lets says generally I would end up working 2 hours a day and a hour of that time would be scattered through out the day.
I would get paid $150 + lets say $10 per hour as opposed to $12 per hour when you work.
It is definitely acceptable to request $ for being on call.

Dev80

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 1:46 am

Can the you have some set hours where patients will for sure get you on the phone ut be limited to a certain amount of hours?

Like let's say from 8AM -12PM you are on call (getting paid hourly or what you've set) and you have to answer then/call back if you missed the call. Then, for the other parts of the day maybe you can have that arrangement where you will take the call if you can (and get paid the way you do for that) but if not they will get a call back when you can/during 8AM to 12PM the next day.

amother

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 1:49 pm

Op here

I could wait for hours without the phone ringing and I dont get paid. He doesnt understand that, and if I am at home but out doing something and my boss calls for me to call a patient he doesnt understand that I might only be able to call the next day because I am at another job or busy with something. I cant be on call all day and not get paid. Or if a lab calls but I cant get him the message till the next day because I am working for someone else he has to understand that which he doesnt because he is too cheap to pay me.

MagentaYenta

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 1:59 pm

A physician has the right to expect that patient calls are returned on a timely basis. If you can't do this, it may be time for you to end this job and move onto something else. FWIW I find this whole arrangement rather unconventional.

I call my Drs and get a live human being. She takes my message and then asks what a good call back time would be based on the Drs. calendar. In the new age of the PPACA folks are going to expect to have medical records online. It's already happening in my community. What will happen to your job then?

I wish you the best but this all sounds so weird to me.

amother

Tue, Jan 27 2015, 2:34 pm

op here

I want to work full time but he is too cheap to pay for full time because he has a small practice and is a specialist that most people dont believe in. On a good week he will see 15 patients so the office is not that busy.
His office is very laid back and there are time when patients call for him and he wont get back for a week.

He wans me to be on call but doesnt pay me to be on call.

amother

Wed, Jan 28 2015, 12:18 am

[quote="jflower"]Wow. He is really taking advantage of you. You have to make it clear to him that you can't be on call if you're not getting paid. It's ridiculous for him to expect that of you![/quote

Yes I know he is taking advantage. He is a nice guy but very cheap. He wants the office to move forward but doesnt want to pay for it.
I was suppose to work in the office 2 days a week but he saw there was not enough work for two days so he told me to only come in for one day so I lost out on 6 hours of work that I doidnt get paid for but he wants things done in a timely fashion.
, I want to approach him but first I want to think of what is fair to me as how much should I get paid for being on call and taking his calls whenever he needs me.