andrewducker | Interesting Links for 13-09-2023

I hope so. It's a bit of funny environment I think and an acceptance of more senior people's bad behaviour seems (or seemed) to be seen as par for the course. Not just sexual harrassment but other forms of bullying, difficult working conditions and long-hours and short staffing.

So if I were going to pick an industry that would be slow to change surgery would be on my list.

At least, judging by the conversations I've heard medics have with each other.

Ah yes, the "Smith is a genius, so we can't sack him, even if he does set fire to the office twice a year." approach. Totally ignores the number of possible other geniuses that won't work for you because they don't want to be on fire.

There are literally studies saying that no matter how much of a genius the jerk is, the jerk brings down total productivity. Not just because people won't work for you, but also because the ones who stay employed are less productive because of the jerk in their environment.

I'm going to note wrt. surgeons and sexual assault that (a) there's reputedly a higher than normal rate of psychopathy among surgical specialities -- having low empathy can be an asset when your job involves cutting people up -- and (b) surgery is an artisanal specialty: surgeons take years to train, are minimally interchangeable, and skill/experience makes a profound difference to outcomes.

So (b) means there's intense pressure on management to put up with asshole rock stars, and (a) means you're more likely to get predatory/assholish behavior.

(Finally, there's the subsequent reporting that most medical students get zero training on sexual harassment in the workplace and how to deal with it. Which doesn't just affect surgeons, but almost all medical staff.)

It's possible that (a) is true because it makes them better surgeons.

And also possible that there are lower levels of empathy because shitty behaviour by some has driven out anyone with a shred of humanity left in them.

Not only, but also...

The systematic use of sleep deprivation and acute stress is central to the process of training (and selecting by elimination) junior doctors in teaching hospitals.

It's remarkably effective in eliminating empathy.

We observe this in other professions - law, banking, and the larger accountancy firms - where 'the last man standing' from the graduate intake acquires a grisly collection of adaptive psychoses and a distinctive management style which generates profits (and further career advancement) by burning people out.

Edited (typos) 2023-09-15 06:32 (UTC)

That's another good point.

(I'm going to say nothing about how front-line military service generate stress and induce severe sleep deprivation: the implications should be obvious.)

Interesting Links for 13-09-2023

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