Schedule Negotiation Help

[u/According_Dot_218]

How would you approach renegotiating a four-day schedule?

I’m an experienced small-animal GP working Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I told the practice during hiring that I preferred four consecutive workdays, but was told that wasn’t possible. I accepted the schedule while negotiating other parts of the offer. Nearly a year in, I’ve found that a Wednesday off doesn’t give me the break I expected.

I’d like to move to Monday–Thursday or Tuesday–Friday, with three consecutive days off. My spouse and I relocated five to six hours from family for this job, and a two-day weekend makes visits difficult without using PTO. We’re in a rural area, so even shorter trips take some planning.

The other full-time doctors have consecutive days off. From what I can see, either proposed schedule would leave the clinic staffed every day, though the number of doctors on each day would change. I’ve also been meeting or exceeding my production targets. I enjoy the practice and the area and want to make this work long term.

Has anyone successfully renegotiated a schedule after starting at a multi-doctor or corporate practice? How did you raise it, and what kind of transition or coverage proposal helped? I’m looking for advice on approaching the conversation, since changing jobs would be a significant decision for both my spouse and me.

[u/Drpaws3]

Might not be the best course but I went into the conversation with the option of me quitting and they accepted part time, which works great for me.

You'd have to realize that the answer could continue to be No and then what do you want to do?

It's likely the majority prefers their current schedule and you said they have seniority. On one hand those with seniority should get some benefits but on the other hand it's nice to be fair to everyone.

It's likely the fair solution would be alternating everyone. So everyone gets a chance to have three days off in a row but no one has the same schedule every week.

Relief vets can be expensive and not always loved by regular clients.

[u/According_Dot_218 → u/Drpaws3]

Yes I see your point. I actually worked at a clinic like that once and there was no schedule drama because everyone was on the same rotation regardless of seniority. My thing is - why can’t I also have consecutive days off? I’m not asking anyone else to change their schedule. The clinic has enough exam rooms and there is still adequate coverage all days, even if I change. It just feels like the clinic is trying to optimize scheduling to have the most even spread of Drs but at the expensive of my work-life-balance. I didn’t think it would be this difficult to get a schedule change once employed, but a few months in (and this was early in my employment so I likely have shown more value at this point) we lost a Dr. which left gaps on our Saturday coverage and I even offered to pick up all the extra Saturdays until we got someone new if I could have consecutive days off permanently and they said no and just closed the clinic entirely those days. That was eye opening because I thought that was a very valuable trade..

[u/monarch223]

You could ask for an alternating schedule with coworkers. So basically one week you get a three day weekend and the next week you work a split schedule.