Let’s get real! Best paying job without a bachelor’s degree. The market is saturated, pay is dropping, stress is at an all-time high, and there is nowhere to go. I have been a hygienist for over 20 years and cannot believe the hygiene programs continue to lure people in with no place to put them upon graduation. What a joke this latest article is. Get out in the real world, take a look around. Talk to people about their feelings about their jobs, rating job security, happiness and feeling of importance. Of the 20-plus hygienists I know up close, none would repeat their career choice. Back pain, neck problems, lack of medical or any other benefits, etc. The hygiene profession has been going downhill for quite sometime and is not far from hitting bottom. I laugh when I read one-half of your articles!
It has been over 4 1/2 years since anyone in my office has gotten a raise, yet we are generally busy. Both dentists have recently bought nearly $1 million dollar "cabins," and we have lost CE pay, must take extended lunch hours if patients cancel, the front office will call us to come in late if there is a cancellation, even though we have been up for hours, dropped kids at daycare and are on our way in!
I doubt very much there has been a change in the office production but our checks have seen big drops. Vacation time is frozen, CE classes eliminated, CPR is now on our own time, no sick days so many people come in feeling ill and spread it around so the rest of us get unpaid sick leave! That works out great!
Appointments are squeezed in to make the front office staff look good even though it throws our schedules off and makes us upset and patients angry to have to wait! It is a long day in the office, the fun is gone, and the stress is going to kill us! Hygiene is simply not worth it!
P.S. I was not laughing at you; it was in ridicule, but I think you knew that.
T, RDH
Kristine’s reply: Thank you for taking the time to send your courageous and powerful emotional response. I value it; RDH eVillage welcomes your feedback. Keep it coming.
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