When I worked like a new grad

Last week I wrote about charging by time instead of result and why I think that is a mistake. Please let me tell you a story about that.

I still work from time to time and a while ago I was at a practice interstate filling in for two weeks. The practice in question had a senior dentist (who I was filling in for) and 3 new grads.

I've been doing dentistry for 35 years and in that time I've learned a lot about working efficiently. Being efficient is a passion of mine — I can get good quality work done in a really, really time effective manner.

At the end of my first day I walked out to the front desk and looked at my day list. It was covered in discounts. All told over $900 of work that I had done on that day had been discounted away by the front desk team.

The office manager explained it to me like this: "Our patients only expect to pay $xxx per hour and so we discount back to that figure." The figure they were applying to me was the same as a new grad. In effect they had taken my 35 years of experience and thinking about efficiency and thrown that skill in the rubbish bin.

From then on I simply did what a new grad could do in the time allowed and then sat and talked with the patient.

But it struck me then, and still today, as an incredible waste of talent.My suggestion to you is this: If you get better and more skilful at a procedure don't discount away your learning and expertise. If anything charge more.

People pay for results not time.