ESCAPE THE CAREER TRAP

For a very long time after I graduated, I desperately wanted a job. Actually at that time I needed one too- for financial and emotional reasons. But as things happen, I could not get any job. In that time I managed to keep afloat professionally and personally.... And right at the time when I did not need the job, I got one. Of course, I wanted it- very badly so I jumped into it. It made me happy for exactly 5 days. After that I kept hearing ‘this is a job not a career’...’this is a career not a life’......’this is work not passion’. The day I understood what all these platitudes meant I gave my notice and quit....and escaped the trap called ‘career’.

For the last 50 years, men and women, boys and girls have been brought up on the myth of a ‘career’. The word evokes such a mix of accomplishment, status, affluence and sheer snobbery that a majority fall for it. Everybody is supposed to decide and understand something called their ‘identity’ and stick to it. Young women with little babies become depressed because they have been unceremoniously shut out of their ‘career’. Kareena gets a thumbs up because she does not let motherhood interfere with her career. Men are expected to relocate to wherever their jobs are because they have a career to make. This is not a gender issue at all....the myth affects all who are naive enough to be drawn into it.

Gender equality is the phrase used to fire young women into giving up everything in the service of industry. Men are expected to settle for no less than 16 hours of work and aspirations to be the CEO. So even if some people would rather choose needlework or to spend time with family, they are made to feel stupid about these choices. To assuage their guilt we invent childcare centres with cctv camera, quality time parenting, certified elder care manpower, spouse- dating and art exhibitions. Actually all these amount to nothing if you are doing it just to further your career.

A career is meant only for three categories of people- people who are competitive by nature need it to remain sane. People who have poor social and financial support need it to make something of their lives. And a third category is people who have nothing else in their life to look forward to....this last category need career only for a while though. All other folks should look at education only as a means to acquire the wherewithal to do what they like so that it can start paying them. Then proceed to work as few hours as possible working to earn money and rest of it to enjoy the work. One must be able to cut down on the working hours to be able to do anything that one needs to do or wants to do....including non-remunerative tasks like being with one’s children and parents, or doing embroidery or painting one’s bicycle.

A person without a career could be a lucky person.....for this person has a life                                                  

Consumer is king.....but what about patients?

The Tide of corporatisation of healthcare has swept over India in the last decade. From being sanctuaries in the middle ages to being temples of healing in the last century, hospitals are now evolving into commercial centres. Patient is cast as a ‘consumer’ while healthcare professionals are ‘service- providers’. Today the hospital is designed like a factory with its staff as workers. Unfortunately, health can neither be manufactured nor be bought. In this fact lies the irony- while patients’ narcissism is massaged by advertising spiel- the larger population have not understood what to really expect. 

Consumer- patient

No human willingly chooses to become a patient. (Only exception, being the cases of psychological disorders in which persons are fascinated by doctors and treatments. Let’s leave this category aside.) For illness is an unwanted imposition to be got rid of as soon as possible. In the best cases it is treated as a character- building adversity.  So a person just happens to become a patient. A patient becomes a consumer when he chooses to ‘buy’ healthcare ‘products’. This product maybe an investigation, treatment, therapy, convalescence or palliation.

Service- providers or expert professionals

 The difference between corporate medicine and rest of corporate India is vast. Except few administrators and expert doctors all other staff are either contracted, interns, students or observers. Every corporate hospital runs its own nurses training, post graduate medical training and other courses- the students provide free or cheap labour to run the hospitals. While rest of corporate India enjoys a 5- day week, corporate hospitals work 6 days (the hospitals are manned by rotation duties. These rotations are done every 6 days with one day off). Mandatory 36 days paid leave, maternity leave, on site child care, medical facilities- are not usually given.

The problem is the problem

Common complaint against corporatisation is high expenses. This is a genuine problem and activists are working on it. Bigger concern is changing framework of illness and its treatment. The reality about illness and treatment is this- one cannot choose the illness, its timing or intensity. Similarly no patient can hope to recover by mere administration of treatment without an interest or effort on part of the patients. Corporate healthcare is trying to actively hide these facts.

Advertisements make tall claims about prevention of illness by undergoing battery of diagnostic procedures. No tests can prevent illness. If you become ill at an inconvenient time, the corporate hospital promises to give you treatment without a break in your commitments. A part of this is the active encouragement given to patients to arrive late for appointments and to not be compliant towards treatment recommendations which get in the way of their life (eg alcohol use during treatment). Has anyone ever heard of a running car being repaired? But corporate healthcare promises that to humans.

As stated earlier, health is a commodity that can neither be manufactured nor bought. A few lucky people are born with good health and continue to enjoy its benefits without much effort. Many of us are able to cultivate healthful habits. Yet for most of us illness is inevitable. Patients have to approach for help. The responsibility of arriving on time, reporting problems honestly, taking treatments as advised- is completely with the patient. Going to a corporate hospital with excellent quality ratings alone, never helps. Patients should learn to differentiate between hospital and hospitality and between treatment and pampering. In this lies the difference between a common patient and a wise one.

Conclusions

The trend of corporatisation has given a false sense of security that they will be assured of good health with payment of steep charges. But no illness can be treated just from the outside without participation of the patient. Patients should be willing to do their part of the hard work to recover, merely throwing money will get them nowhere.