Snow, Ice, Practice Closure. Oh my!

Closing the practice for a day, two, or five is an extremely difficult decision. Whether it is due to snow, a water leak, or a broken compressor, there are multiple factors when considering a practice closure. In this episode, Dr. Kuba and Bethany discuss what to consider with patients during a practice closure. They remind listeners about the importance of clear communication with patients as well as the importance of preparation for unexpected closures. They also focus on what to consider with team members during closures. This is an important subject, so listen up! 

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Transcript

Are you looking for a podcast where you can hear from real people regarding their real dental drama? If so, then
0:09
you've come to the right place. Join hosts Bethany Penny and Dr. Reena Kuba
0:14
as we dive into the solutions we've created and the mistakes we've made
0:19
while managing dental drama. Let's get started. Brr lady,
0:26
I know we're sitting here bundled up. Yes. Um, which first of all, before I
0:31
get into what I wanted to talk about here, I want to apologize to everybody because listening back to some of the
0:37
podcasts recently, I'm like, what is that noise? I think it's me. Like you,
0:44
it's either you, it's me. Let's say it's me. I know it's me fumbling around and wiggling and
0:51
talking and not realizing that I'm wiggling. Um, so I think it's probably my foot hitting something in the car or
0:57
my knee. I don't I don't know. But I'm going to be try to be a lot more cognizant that I am making noises. When
1:03
y'all are listening, you hear that boom in the background. Like before we could blame the kids when we would do it in a
1:08
closet. I know. But now it's just you and me. And I know it's not you. It's got to be me. Um, so I apologize for all my movement and I
1:16
will try to, you know, we're we're going to be still as statues today. I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try. I No
1:22
promises, but I'm trying. Yes. Yes. Um, okay. So, topic for today. I don't
1:29
know how many of the listeners are affected by all the snow and the cold weather and blah blah blah. Um,
1:37
but uh Dallas, we we get made fun of because people are
1:43
like, "Y'all don't know how to drive in this." No, we don't. We do not. Um, and I see nothing wrong with that.
1:50
We We get like this for 4 days out of a year. Why should we know how to drive in it? Yes. Yes.
1:56
And ours is not snow. It's a thick layer of ice. Mhm. And then if we get lucky, we get some
2:01
snow on top that we can go play in. Yes. So it wres havoc for on the city
2:06
for however many days. Like this last week the kids are out of school for 4 days which usually that doesn't happen.
2:13
Usually it's like two. Yeah. But I think because the ice was so solid it and then in the day if it did get
2:19
above freezing it would kind of melt but then it would refreeze. So the roads were just garbage.
2:24
Um it's a real safety issue. So, you know, whether it's legit because that
2:30
could happen anywhere or because we're a pack of babies, either way. Yeah. It's like wreaks havoc on the city. Um,
2:37
so the question that I wanted to discuss today, the topic is
2:42
uh what do we what do we do with our patients? What do we do with our teams?
2:48
because I know for owners it is exceedingly stressful to have to think about all of those
2:54
moving parts and um so buddy of mine that's an orthodontist I was messaging him and he
3:01
was like really annoyed because he's got his you know big old SUV with his
3:07
whatever tires and he's adventurous and he lives 2 minutes from his practice so for him he's like no big deal I'm at the
3:15
practice let's go, but his staff comes from all over the place and so I think
3:21
he's frustrated that the staff's not coming in and um
3:27
so he anyway he was he you know he was shut down for a couple days last week like the rest of us but then I was
3:34
asking him something about this week and he said like oh we're having to be open
3:40
late or we're doing he's like we missed 300 patient appointments
3:46
that we're now going have to try to figure out where to put these people. Um, so it it wres havoc
3:53
on our practices. So I think there's two parts to here that I kind of want to talk about. Number one is dealing with
4:01
what do we do with the staff? And so I'll come back and elaborate on that in a minute. And then next, what do we do
4:07
for our patients? Now, for somebody sitting in like Hawaii or California or
4:13
somewhere where you're like, "What are y'all talking about?" Okay, so let's say it's not ice. Let's
4:18
say it's a volcano if you're in Hawaii. If it's a wild fire if you're in
4:24
California or a flood or a tornado if you're in Kansas or whatever, right? So,
4:29
you all know what I'm talking about. Or um did the compressor go down? You were talking about a client whose compressor
4:34
went out for two days. Well, what do you do with the patients and staff in that case? You have a pipe that burst and now
4:41
your office is flooded and it's going to take the, you know, however long to get
4:47
the building back, you know, in into functioning mode. So, same thing is
4:52
where I'm kind of going with this. What what do we do in those situations where we are we're having to be shut down and
4:58
it's out of our control? But it is so every owner listening right
5:04
now knows exactly what I'm talking about. It is so gut-wrenching to go what
5:10
is the right move here and hem and haw and hem and haw and I would think I would think the majority
5:18
probably well I'm making up a number here but 95% we lose sleep over this and we are in a complete state of like not
5:24
panic I would say but just kind of like on edge of how am I fixing this there's
5:30
probably 5% that's like it's not my problem I'll just whatever happens um but I don't think Most owners are there
5:37
because it is so impactful both from a production standpoint and a pissing a
5:43
patient off standpoint and a pissing a team member off standpoint. So it really becomes this
5:49
big jumbled pile of stinky you know what. Um so anyway, I just wanted to
5:56
dive into that since it's so fresh from the circumstances of at least what's gone on in Dallas last week.
6:02
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is very fresh for us cuz we're coming off of this. And I think you're hitting the nail on the head because it's there's so many
6:09
complicated series of decisions that need to be made and there's so many different vantage points for how to make
6:15
those decisions. I almost think let's start with like the patient side of it and then let's transition to what do you
6:24
do with staff in this particular situation. But um we'll just kind of speak on our example from this last
6:31
week. Um, so the first thing that I always encourage practice owners to do
6:38
when it comes to decide, sometimes you don't have a choice. Your compressing compressor goes out, there is no choice.
6:44
Like you're you're having to reschedule patients and there's no himming and
6:49
hawing about it. It just it is what it is. Or there's a massive leak in your office. It's like you literally don't
6:56
have a choice. You have to reschedu patients. when it's weather related,
7:02
it's like, am I seeing patients? Am I coming in late? And what are what are we
7:08
doing? And so, the way that I encouraged my clients over this past week was take
7:14
it a day at a time. We don't have to make big sweeping decisions.
7:20
Just evaluate. as you get close to the day that you're needing to make a decision about, evaluate whether or not
7:27
you're you're going to see patients the next day. That way, you're making decisions off of fresh information, the
7:34
latest information. Now, the downside to that is we just happened to be in a situation in Dallas where the winter
7:42
weather occurred over a weekend. So, it started over, I think, Friday night into
7:48
Saturday morning and accumulated throughout the weekend. And so, then you're like, well, shoot, how do I make
7:54
a decision over the weekend? That's where you need to make sure you have your resources set up. Do you have a
8:00
remote access where you can log into your software? Are you taking if if are
8:05
you going old school and taking a copy of Monday's schedule home with you so that you have the numbers to call
8:11
patients? Do you have a system like aweave or yappy or something like that
8:17
where you can blast message your patients? Figure it out. If you know winter
8:23
weather is coming in over the weekend, you need to have thought about it on
8:29
Friday before you leave to ensure that you have the ability to contact your patients over the weekend if you decide
8:35
to shut down the practice. And we don't have to contact patients on Saturday for
8:40
Monday. They're watching the weather just like we are. They're they know, hey, I need to be keeping my eye on
8:46
what's going on with Monday. So, most of my practices made the call on Sunday at
8:52
some point for Monday and alerted all of their patients, alerted their team
8:57
members. So, just take it a day at a time would be my first piece of advice.
9:03
Do you have any thoughts on that? No, I I I agree completely. And I think if you've um if you've never had to deal
9:11
with all of that, like please create your system now. Mhm. Because it's not a if, it's a when um
9:17
when it's a pipe, when it's a flood, when it's a tornado, when it's right, like so it's it's going to happen. And I
9:24
mean I I know early on in my ownership career, it was me. It was me who was logging in. It was me. We've come so far
9:33
that luckily and my manager I have thanked her like she's been an angel on
9:38
earth um doing all of this from home because she's set up where she's got
9:44
access to weave and she's got access to the remote login um and she was able to handle all that for me you know um we
9:52
happen to have on that so you're saying yeah the storm came Friday night by Saturday the streets were all ice by
9:58
Sunday more fell so now we had like 2 in of ice and two inches of snow like um so
10:04
it was clearly like this was not going to melt by Monday and roads were going to be a disaster. Um, but we had surgery
10:12
cases that day, of course. Right. So now it's not just us. We're also dealing with the anesthesiologist and we're also
10:19
dealing with patients that are in pain. So it's like, okay, do I need to risk life and limb and ask my team to risk
10:26
life and limb to get there? And anesthesiologist, what do you want to do? Cuz that's also your livelihood. So
10:32
if I cancel, I'm taking money out of your pocket while we're at it. So, it just became, you know, but at the end of
10:37
the day, like being able to contact all of these people. So, luckily the
10:42
anesthesiologist I have his cell number, so we're we're able to text. But if you're like, "Oh, the number isn't, you
10:48
know, the numbers in the office and I can't get to the office." Like, that adds to your stress. So, making sure
10:54
you've got systems in place that you can, you know, and you know, say my
11:00
manager's internet went out, uh, because she lives out in the boonies, and then who's backup? Do I know how to get in
11:07
there and do some of these things? Do you have SOPs in place and not just in a binder in your office?
11:14
Like, is it on a server that you can get access to? Right. Um, it it's the the situation's already
11:21
so stressful. It adds to the stress when you're like, "Okay, this is what we're going to do." And then you're like, "I literally cannot execute this because I
11:29
don't know how to send an email blast to my patients." Like, I figured out what to tell them,
11:34
but now I literally can't tell them because I don't know how to do it. So, have all of that ready somewhere where
11:40
you've got it like maybe in your own Google Drive that you can go back and, you know, maybe every 6 months you're
11:46
looking at saying, "Did we change our systems? Did we change our passwords or something?" So, I can get in there and
11:52
like literally execute this stuff. Yeah. Um, you may be about to you you might be
11:58
about to say whatever. You'll know what I'm trying to say. I'm going to jump to it before you do. Um, one way that we try to decide if we're
12:05
open or not. Um, and a colleague taught me this years ago is they go based off
12:11
whatever the school district is doing. And so even if you're general or surgery
12:16
or whatever, it's still the school districts. like your patients may not be able to get to you if you're an adult
12:21
practice because they have kids at home. Mhm. And their kids school got closed which
12:27
means they're at home which means the parents stuck with child care issues. So it does affect everybody. So it was kind
12:33
of like a good way of going okay. So for us if one of the districts that's close
12:38
to us is uh Capel. So if Capel is closed then most likely we're going to be
12:44
closed. And that kind of helps when patients know that and team members know that.
12:49
Mhm. Then yeah, um it kind of helps set the precedent for
12:55
like this is what's going to help make that decision. I think that's a good guiding principle
13:00
if you're just like, I need a system on this. I need to not have to waffle and try to figure out what we're doing every
13:06
time. some people that just hate that decision-making process and don't know how to fully evaluate whether it's safe
13:13
to be open or not. The school districts are overly cautious and there if they're
13:19
going to be open, chances are it is absolutely safe for patients to be able
13:24
to get out. If they're closed, chances are it is unsafe for some patients at least to get out and get to
13:31
appointments. Now, in this particular case, what's interesting is
13:36
just to kind of throw a if if that ends up being your system, here's one word of
13:41
caution on that. We in Dallas this last week, a lot of the districts were closed
13:48
longer than people thought they would be because there were certain like the main
13:56
roads were cleared and I and uh salted and all the ice was removed, but there
14:03
were a lot of side roads that there just wasn't enough manpower to take care of
14:09
those. And so in neighborhoods or in roads that were leading to
14:15
neighborhoods, those were not maintained or those were not cleared. And so while
14:20
the main roads or highways were cleared, the smaller roads were not or the
14:28
parking lots weren't. So I know our district ended up being closed the entire week. Of course, we're out in the
14:34
boonies and so a lot of those county roads were impossible to navigate, but also the parking lots. They couldn't get
14:42
the ice off the parking lots in the schools. And so they knew kids could
14:47
fall, break arms and legs and all of that if there was ice in the parking lot. And so thinking about it from that
14:56
vantage point there, I had plenty of clients where the districts were still closed this week
15:02
and they decided to go ahead and open because their parking lot was m maintained and most of the roads around
15:09
them were maintained enough that they knew at least some patients would want to be able to get in. And so I think
15:15
that's one rule that I think is very helpful to follow is like just go with the school districts. But it doesn't
15:22
mean you can't veer away from that rule. If you're like, "Oh my gosh, the school district is still closed, but we happen to be very central in town and we're
15:30
fine." Then feel free to break your own rules. Which is exactly what happened with us. And and it's still just day by day. So
15:37
how we kind of decided um I actually wasn't in town, but my one of my
15:43
assistants who's very much like she does not like to be at home and the roads do not scare her. She's like, "Get out of
15:48
my way." So, she um I didn't ask her to, but she came up to the office cuz she wanted to make sure that nothing had
15:53
leaked and wanted to check the faucets and all that. So, bless her. And um so
15:59
she so I finally said and and we'll get to this more when we get to the staffing part of it, but to me I'm like, "Okay,
16:06
if you felt safe getting there, I know there's still some of my team members that are out in the boonies and they're
16:12
not going to feel comfortable." And I don't know that I feel comfortable with them on the roads, even if they want to be heroes. Um so I just kind of said,
16:21
"Who can get there?" Yeah. Does anybody want to get there? do we have a doctor that can be there because
16:28
I'm not in town. Um, and so one of our doctors was like, "Yeah, I can get
16:33
there. I I want to work." And so we ended up having like this skeleton crew of a doctor and three team members that
16:40
came and then we were kind of calling patients cuz yeah, we're we're there. We're our patients come from a very
16:46
small range like within a two to three mile is the majority of my patients from
16:51
around my office. really probably 50% is one mile within the office. Um, you know, cuz again, Dallas
16:58
metroplex, like there's five of us on every corner. So, this is kind of my corner of where I drop from.
17:03
And I'm like, a lot of them are going to want to come out and come. And so, we
17:09
were saying, you know, we were calling even patients from next week to say, hey, if y'all want to go ahead and come
17:15
on in, because I wanted to make it worth the while for the team. That's the other thing, like depending on where you are,
17:20
even if you can risk life and limb and get there, but are any patients going to show up? Mhm.
17:25
And you don't want to go through all of that and then be sitting there for two patients? Exactly.
17:30
Cuz we've all done that before and that sucks. And so it's a very unpredictable situation, but I think really paying
17:37
attention to what your area is like, what the weather's kind of doing, and getting a pulse of who can be there, or
17:44
if it was like me and two front team members. Well, obviously, like, how are we going to do patient care when none of
17:50
us really remembers how to turn the compressor on? You know what I mean? Like, so if you can get together your
17:55
crew, um, those are things that you want to consider. And so for those of us that
18:01
have been doing this a while, it's like it's still inconvenient and stressful, but it's not like it was in the early
18:07
days for me. Like the first five, six years of it, I was always in panic.
18:12
Yeah. Always. I didn't want patients mad. I didn't want team members mad. I was worried about production like we were
18:19
losing productive days. And uh it was exceedingly stressful. And and it it still can be for sure.
18:26
Like none of this is easy by any means, but I think as long as you know going into it, okay, this is how we're going
18:33
to communicate with patients. We've got that set up, we've got that ready to go, we've got a backup in case so and so
18:38
that has the login can't log in, then at least Susie is prepared to be back up.
18:45
Um, getting things like your uh voice messaging system. If a patient calls
18:51
into the office, if you're not going to have somebody answering phones, which thankfully with a lot of the phone
18:56
systems, phones can be answered remotely. So, it could be that the office is closed, but you've got Sally
19:04
teed up to be answering phones from home that day. Um, which is an option. Now,
19:10
again, I don't anticipate in a situation of weather that a lot of patients are going to be calling in, but if you've
19:16
got a situation like a compressor or a leak, that phone can still be answered
19:22
in most situations. And so, it's figuring out who's who's on phone duty.
19:27
Um, or ch at the very minimum changing our voice message to say, "Hey, thanks
19:33
for calling the office. We are actually closed today. Um, please see our social
19:39
media accounts for updates on when the practice is going to reopen. Making sure you're putting the information out on
19:45
social media so that patients can find that up-to-date information. So, I think communication is key here with patients.
19:53
We've got to overcommunicate rather than under. So, we don't just
19:59
need to communicate with the patients that were scheduled on Monday. we need to communicate with the whole patient
20:04
base to say by the way we are closed today due to the weather and you're like
20:09
really are patients going to call in. You never know and you certainly don't want them to be trying to get a hold of
20:15
you and not able to to at least hear what's going on. So communicate on
20:21
social media, send out an email blast that you're closed. Certainly personally
20:26
contact or at least blast contact the patients that are scheduled for that day. Are you gonna have somebody
20:32
answering phones? If not, then you need to change the voicemail so that people know that you're not answering phones
20:38
that day. Even setting up an email auto response, like if patients are emailing
20:43
in like, uh, am I going to have my appointment on Wednesday? Do you know if you're going to be open? At least there's an auto email response if
20:50
nobody's watching email during that period of time. So, I'm giving you homework. Can you
20:55
make a playbook or even if if playbook items because I know you may already have them lined up for the next digest,
21:01
but even like a hub document to be like what is my inclement situation
21:07
protocol and just all the things we need to remember to do? Um do if you're in a building, do you do
21:14
you have your uh management company's um info at the ready?
21:22
Yeah. or is it in the office that you can't get to? Right. So, just other things that like things
21:29
to prepare like you just said like are we are we sending a uh leaving a you
21:35
know out of office message? Okay. What am I saying on that message?
21:40
I don't know. Yeah. What am I what is the verbiage for the email that's not going to irritate a patient?
21:46
Am I too vague? Am I too specific? So, just things like that that let's like Okay, fine. Like now I know I want to
21:55
uh you just said put something on social media like what what do you want me to put? So first of all I don't even know
22:01
how to do that right like me physically there was a time like I said year four year five year seven I used to do that
22:07
myself now a team member does it right so if the one team member I can't get a hold of and she doesn't have internet or
22:14
whatever it is who else can do it so do I have a backup so first of all like now I've decided we need to do an email or a
22:20
social media blast a how do I do it b what are we putting on it um so just
22:27
those kind of thing can you create a absolutely resource. Yeah, absolutely. To help walk us through all of that.
22:33
Yes. And stay tuned for where we'll drop that. Um, speaking of, we didn't say this at the beginning, but it's
22:39
February, so the February digest is out and it's got a ton of great information.
22:45
Um, but yes, we'll figure out where we can sprinkle in an increment weather plan. Maybe the hub might be the easiest
22:51
spot, but that's what I was thinking because I know you already have March content being worked on
22:59
for the resources. So, um Yeah, that's great. Perfect. Um okay, so um I can I
23:09
transition a little bit? Let's transition. Yeah. So, now I want to talk about like the whole staffing part of it. Um,
23:16
and I think early on my thought was staff
23:22
want to stay home. I just assumed that they would be angry if I said get out
23:28
because I think I assumed that they'd be like, "What do you want me to do with my kids and what do you want me to um
23:34
actually hang on before I dive into that, I know what else I wanted to say." The other thing when you were talking about parking lots and ice and all of
23:40
that, I think that to me one of the first years that we had the snowstorm or whatever and my assistant lived closer
23:48
to the office than I did and I was like, "Hey, do you feel comfortable?" She's like, "Yeah, my dad's driving around.
23:53
I'll get him to drive me." and she's like, "We spent 30 minutes trying to pry the door open because the way even
24:00
though there was no ice in the parking lot, the way the door there's like an awning over the door, so sunlight never
24:07
hits that spot. There's like a solid thick like 4 in thick ice.
24:12
Oh my god. You know, block blocking you from opening the door." And she's like, "It took us like 30
24:18
minutes to get, you know, carve our way through that." Which part of me was like, "Why'd you do that? Like, you could hurt yourself. it wasn't that
24:25
important to get into the building. Whatever. I appreciated her efforts. Um, but I think for me, that's where I start
24:31
going. If a patient is to get hurt on the premises, we will be liable for
24:37
that. So, is that production worth it to pay for that?
24:42
Exactly. Because we're liable if somebody if their two-year-old steps on your gaming console and crashes it down on the wall
24:49
when their mom's not watching the kid. I'm liable for that, too. So, in the weather, if somebody slips trying to get
24:56
into my building, that's going to be on me. So, that alone right there kind of before the person told me about the
25:02
school districts, that alone, I was like, if there's ice on the roads, I know there will be ice at my entryways.
25:08
Nope, not opening. Yeah. Or will my staff slip on that trying to get in? Yeah. And then I'm liable for that workers
25:14
comp. Nope. Not doing it. So, to me, that took precedent over a patient being
25:20
angry at me. Now, I will say I am in a different situation than those of y'all
25:27
that are like, "This patient has been on my ass about getting this crown delivered, and I need to get that crown
25:33
delivered, otherwise this patient's going to complain with the board." Right? Like, in pediatrics, there's very little that I would have to risk life
25:40
and limb for an emergency for. So, I will say it's easier for me to be like, I'm calling it. I'm not coming in for
25:47
any patient because you will be the same patient that I could get your crown on, but then you slip on the ice on the way out and now
25:53
I know like now you're mad at me anyway. So, for me that that's kind of was my um
25:59
boundary. Yeah, if you will. Um and there was something else I was going to say about that. Now,
26:05
I forgot. So, I'll interrupt myself again when I come back to it. So, moving on to staff then. My assumption was
26:11
staff would want to stay home. Yeah. When I worked for um an office before I
26:16
started my own, I remember um witnessing and my jaw just literally
26:21
dropped because there were team members that were like, "Well, I could have gotten here and worked, but you chose to
26:29
close the office and what about my pay?" Yep. And I was like, "What? He protected you
26:37
and protected you from having to he he said I'm not gonna like push patients
26:44
because there were plenty of patients who wanted to come in and he was like no I got to watch out for the safety of my
26:49
team first and you thank him by saying well you prevented me from earning and now I'm
26:56
going to pay rent which fair to a degree but on the other hand I'm like dude this
27:01
guy can't make a right decision because if he says we're open then a majority of the team is going to go well what am I
27:08
supposed to do with my cash or list you know you expect me to risk getting on the highway and so he's
27:15
we thought he was accommodating and then there's like two that are like well now I couldn't get a paycheck and what am I
27:20
going to do and I was just like dude this guy is in a no-win situation this sucks so can we talk about
27:28
what do we do with our teams what's the right answer and and this one is a a delicate
27:36
subject. I understand because there are when we say two sides to the coin, man,
27:41
there are two opposite sides to the coin on this. And so I fully get the position
27:49
that team members are in when a winter storm comes through and wipes out a week
27:55
of work for them. That's catastrophic for them. I I I totally get that. Um,
28:01
and I also totally get that it's catastrophic for the practice. Thank you. I was about to say it's catastrophic for me too.
28:07
Yes, it is. It is. It is a no-win situation to be perfectly honest. And so
28:15
it's so challenging in that scenario to go what do we do? Like yes, team members
28:22
gosh they got you know stuck at home unable to work.
28:28
practice owner is at home unable to work. Nobody's winning in this situation. And I feel I see practice
28:34
owners that are torn because they're like, I feel so bad about this situation.
28:39
But at the same time, what do you do? And so here here are
28:45
some thought things that I want to kind of throw out. First of all, practice owners, if you don't have a PTO plan in
28:54
place, this is why we have PTO. You know, a lot of paid time off. PTO,
29:00
paytime off. A lot of people think paid time off is for vacation,
29:07
right? Oh, I offer a week of, you know, paid time off so that somebody can take
29:12
a vacation. Yes, that may be what it's used for, but I view paid time off as
29:20
this situation. Oh, no. The practice had to be closed Monday through Wednesday
29:25
this week due to winter weather. And thank goodness I have a paid time off
29:33
plan so that my team members can utilize some of that paid time off and supplement their pay. Now, that paytime
29:40
off always comes out of the practice owner's pocket, but ultimately it's a benefit that team members are able to
29:48
still pull on that paytime off and get paid. A lot of practice owners feel
29:53
pressured by their team members to still pay, not out of paid time off, but to
30:00
still pay for the hours that they could have gotten had they worked. And as much
30:06
as my heart goes out towards team members, I am adamantly opposed to that.
30:11
And I know I can feel the laser eyes coming at me right now from team members. But I'm opposed to it for very
30:18
valid reasons. Number one is everybody's losing in this situation and the
30:24
practice is suffering when there is no production for a week and it compounds
30:32
the problem when the practice owner still has to pay team members when they
30:37
weren't there to work. So it takes an already bad situation and it makes it
30:42
progressively worse. So that now the practice owner is in a deeper hole than
30:47
they were before. I think the pressure that team members feel for practice owners to pay comes from the idea that
30:55
there's an endless bucket of money that's just waiting to be spent. And
31:01
that is such a false I I'm not saying that there aren't practice owners that do have that bucket of money, but that
31:07
is truly the exception. That is not the rule. especially coming into January.
31:13
The month of December going into January is one of the hardest times for practice
31:19
owners because number one, usually there's some time off over the Christmas
31:24
break that team members are paid for it. It's holiday time or it they're using
31:31
the rest of their paid time off and the practice is closed and not producing. There are Christmas gifts that practice
31:38
owners often buy for their team members. There's Christmas bonuses that oftentimes practice owners are paying.
31:45
It is a very expensive month for practice owners. So, they are normally coming into January in a deficit
31:53
position. Cash flow is a problem. I can't tell you how many times in January
31:59
a practice owner chooses not to pay himself or herself.
32:04
When you say when I say that, that doesn't register with a lot of people.
32:10
It definitely doesn't register with team members. So, I want to challenge team members here. Uh we have a lot of team
32:16
members that listen, I want you to imagine for yourself a month of no pay.
32:23
A month of zero pay is a big deal. Okay?
32:28
So when practice owners are already coming into a month where they oftentimes don't pay themselves because
32:34
December was so expensive means they have bought Christmas gifts in lie of
32:40
paying themselves. They have paid out Christmas bonuses in lie of paying themselves. They have closed the
32:45
practice to allow team members to have time with their family in lie of paying themselves. So, they're coming into
32:51
January on that and now we've got winter weather that hits and we want to say,
32:56
"Hey, doc, still pay me because I could have worked and this is a hardship on me
33:01
and my family." A lot of times, your practice owner is already in a hardship
33:07
and so it's very unfair to ask to be paid in that situation and it compounds
33:12
the problem. So, that's number one reason. I will say at least what I saw
33:18
in my in the practice that I worked for before I started like that was that was it the the staff where he was like well
33:24
you have PTO you can use and team members were like but this isn't they were like that's my vacation time this
33:31
is bad weather and I don't want to waste my PTO on this and so again he was kind
33:36
of just stuck and you know it it was just for me just jaw-dropping to go how do these people
33:43
not see that he didn't make any money Like to me it's even you know as a as a
33:49
business owner you have to make a lot of decisions that are right for the business and for dental owners
33:55
especially I think it gets really like we get emotionally involved because we work so closely in a company like I
34:02
don't know Amazon where the CEO is off like going to the moon literally like
34:07
you know they're far removed but in our offices we are not far removed we are sitting there side by side and so we are
34:15
very aware of the impact of any decision we make on the team. And you know, a lot
34:21
of times it's not fair to the owner because you have to sometimes like remove the emotion and go black and
34:27
white. What is the right thing to do here? And to me, very black and white is any business if money is not coming in,
34:36
how is it going out? There's nothing to go out. And so here on snow days, we did not make money.
34:43
Yeah. So, how can I pay you then? Like it does. So, to me, I'm like, I'm going
34:49
to leave it that simple to where like even when we're hiring. Yeah. You know, it's like I want you to read
34:55
this policy manual and really take note. Do not come to me if that's going to make you mad.
35:00
Yeah. Do not accept the position, right? Because it is not fair that I should be
35:06
penalized for what mother nature decides to do. Yeah. So, these are our how we proceed. And if
35:11
that's going to bother you and you think you're entitled to that, it's not Yeah. That's not a fair to the point where I
35:17
also I think y'all remember this from back in the summer where I'm like summer we're paying out a lot of bonuses cuz
35:23
we're busy and all of that, but everybody in my pedo office knows the day school because of our demographic,
35:30
we are really killing it on school holidays. Yeah. The day school starts until the next
35:37
holiday which is like sometime in October. We are crickets. Yeah, y'all know that. So, you know, I'm going
35:44
to be asking some of y'all to stay home. You know, I'm going to be like, and it's nothing personal. It's black and white.
35:50
There's no money coming in. We had five patients today. What do you want me to pay you guys on? I am losing money being
35:55
open today. Yeah. And it shouldn't matter if I've got a pile of money at home or if I've got
36:01
nothing in my bank account. It shouldn't matter. It's We've got to keep it black and white to go. That is the nature of
36:07
business. Yeah. If you don't like it, go be a teacher. Go be a hospital worker.
36:12
Yeah. But if you are choosing to be working in a small office, that's what you signed up for.
36:20
Yeah. And there are a lot of perks to them. Absolutely. You're not coming in at 5:00 a.m. for a
36:25
hospital shift. You're not staying till 5:00 p.m. on a school shift. Mhm. You you get there's there's you know,
36:32
yes, there's benefits to working for the school district that you get the whole summer off, but the rest of the time you
36:37
don't get paid very well. You get paid very well in our offices. Yeah. You're not, you know, if you work for
36:42
Chick-fil-A, their business is always there. You're going to be off on Sunday, but the rest of the time you're going to
36:48
come home smelling like chicken every day, right? Like it's just the nature of that
36:53
business. There's pluses and minuses. Yeah. So, don't put it on your doctor that your doctor's the bad guy and they should be paying you. that's what you
36:59
signed up for and you you certainly take advantages of the perks when they are there. Yeah.
37:05
And if you're like, "No, there are no perks." Okay, then maybe you're in the wrong field. I don't know what to tell you. Then go work somewhere where it is
37:10
more stable. Go be a Amazon delivery driver. I don't know. Um, but this is
37:16
what you signed up for and it is not fair to that business to have to pay you when the business is not making any
37:22
money. Period. Plain simple. End of day. An analogy I would give, if you have,
37:27
say, a lawn guy or every three weeks you go to your hair
37:33
lady and she's counting on you. She saves that slot for you or for your nails or for whatever.
37:40
Let's go with the lawn example. Say you've got somebody who comes and cuts your lawn every week and now it snowed,
37:46
so there's no lawn to cut. And if lawn guy came to you and said, "But you still
37:51
owe me money because that's the service we have, but you didn't cut my lawn."
37:59
Right. But you still owe me money, right? That's like what you're doing to your doc if you're expecting it get paid,
38:04
right? You didn't do the job and it's not the doctor's fault. Yeah. You didn't get to do the job.
38:10
Yeah. Exactly. So whether it's the compressor or the tornado like
38:17
yeah I think team members we've got to reset our mental expectation on that. It
38:23
can't be that the doctor's now going to cover this deficit. We we can't we just
38:29
can't expect that. And if we put that pressure on the doc it in many situations it is terrible for the
38:37
practice. It's a terrible decision. Um, I there and as I say this, I'm thinking
38:46
of a couple of my clients that felt stable enough financially to be
38:53
able to gift a day or two. I think the max was like 2 days that one of my clients paid because he was like, "It is
39:00
a rough situation. I financially I've preserved I've I've made sure that but
39:07
also so he ended up gifting two days. His team did not ask for it. His team
39:12
did not expect it and I think that's a very different scenario. Yes, it is. But I I still don't like it cuz you're setting a precedent now.
39:18
Right. But they are a Monday through Thursday practice. And his compromise on that
39:25
was, hey, I want to gift these two days, but I also need to ask you to give me
39:31
two Fridays. We've got to make up we've got to have places to move our patients, and I know Friday is not our normal day.
39:38
So, I'm I'm willing to gift you this. I need you to be able to gift me two Fridays. See, so to me, that is exceedingly
39:45
generous because he is going to have to pay them for those Fridays. Yes. So to me to me it's I shouldn't have to
39:51
gift you anything and negotiate with you. It's we are open on Friday. That is the nature of business that we couldn't
39:58
be open this day. You still need a paycheck. Why should I just give you money for Monday and pay you Friday?
40:03
Like I'm not doing that. You want to earn. You're saying you need your 4 days. Well, this is the day you can make
40:09
it up. And if you're going to have a fit about coming to work Friday, that's your problem. But then you're just not going to get a paycheck. like
40:14
that that to me I'm really worried about setting a precedent. Um exceedingly generous but even if the
40:21
team didn't ask for it now you've planted the seed that it is a possibility. Yeah. And so now every time you have to shut
40:27
down you have just opened that door that they're going to be like oh and then if
40:32
you don't I think most of them will be like okay he didn't. But there will
40:38
still be a bitter taste. Yeah. Even some will have a very small bitter taste, some will have bigger, but
40:43
guaranteed there will be a bitter taste going, "Oh, why did we get it then and not now?" Yeah. So, I wish he hadn't done that.
40:49
Yeah. Um because I think it's going to come. No, no good deed goes unpunished. That that decision will come back to chomp him in
40:56
the ass. The other thing I was thinking about, I think this is what I forgot earlier. Part of me goes, "Okay, well,
41:02
we had to be shut down for these days. So, what's the next holiday? Memorial Day. Okay. So, should I go ahead and
41:09
give you Memorial Day pay now, but then you don't get paid on Memorial Day, right?
41:14
But then I'm like, but then that opens a whole another can of worms as far as like, but what if you're not an employee
41:20
by the time that rolls around? Or what if again, am I going to be expected to make set accommodations every time?
41:26
Yeah, I'm not doing that. I'm going to keep it back to if McDonald's had to close on
41:31
Monday because no workers could get there, is McDonald's going to pay their employees? Hell no. Yeah,
41:37
it is what it is. You're going to have to figure out your own situation and that is nature of business wherever we
41:44
are. So why should we as owners be held to a different standard than the nature of
41:50
business and we are running a business? Yeah. So to me, this is one area where I keep
41:55
it very black and white where I'm like it needs to be fair across the board and if if I'm dishing things out, it's not
42:02
fair to me and to my practice. And I do think the black and white boundary of this is what we do. You this that's and
42:09
again this goes back to it doesn't mean that an employee has to go a week without pay. There is paid time off as a
42:16
and again this goes back to if you don't have pay a paid time off policy I would encourage you to incorporate it if nothing else for things like this so
42:23
that there's the ability for somebody to choose. No, it's not vacation. PTO does not equal vacation. I don't like that
42:30
that that connection that mindset. Yeah. PTO is when I have an unex
42:35
unexpected absence, I have the ability to draw on that benefit. And in all honesty, if that means that I use it up
42:42
on being sick or snow days or whatever, that's what it's designed for. When I
42:47
take a vacation, to me, paytime off, if it there's still paytime off available,
42:52
fantastic. But if I take a vacation and don't get paid because I used it on all these other scenarios, to me, that makes
42:59
sense. that makes logical sense to to to have it used that way. So, all that to
43:06
say, I like the idea of just clearly black and white. If the practice is closed for
43:12
some additional reason, this is yes, I understand you didn't get to work
43:18
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, but we're adding this day and this day, and you'll be expected to work. you'll be able to
43:24
recover your hours by working extra essentially to make up for this, which I
43:29
think is very fair. That's fair to the practice. That's fair to the team because they're a able to rebound
43:35
financially and get some hours back in in. And it's fair to the patients
43:40
because we have three days of patients that now need to be rescheduled quickly.
43:45
Well, we've already got a full schedule. Where are we going to put those patients? Guess what? are adding days or
43:51
we're expanding days to be able to rebound from that. And that to me is a very fair approach. That's not fun for
43:58
anybody, but I think that's fair. The other thing is if we're closed
44:04
and you've got somebody that can work and wants to work, answering phones,
44:10
responding to emails, responding to text messages, working to reschedule, they're calling
44:15
the patients and getting them rebooked. That's a great thing that can happen from home. So, if everybody's homebound
44:22
and you you've got somebody that has that access, that's beneficial for the practice. It gives that person the hours
44:28
that they need and also our patients are being taken care of, which is and this is where if you're a team
44:35
member, I would encourage you learn more skill sets because there are some I know in my office that are like, well, I will
44:41
do that. I'm like, no, no, your grammar is not appropriate. you you know last
44:48
time you sent it out to this group and that's not the group that should have gotten it like whatever. So if if you're
44:55
if you're like man I want to make sure that I don't ever have to go another week again without pay make yourself
45:02
useful. Yeah. And then you bring up and say hey I can do this. I can come up and do that. I
45:08
can come and and be legitimate. Don't don't just go and sit on the clock, but keep in mind that that practice is
45:14
bleeding right now. And so, please do not add salt to that wound. Make yourself helpful. And by that in that
45:21
regard, then you're helping yourself and you're helping the practice. That's a win-win. Go for that. Absolutely.
45:27
But, you know, the cuz I have seen too where it's like, well, she's allowed to have access from home. I don't have
45:33
access and that's not fair. She gets to have hours when I don't. Okay. Well, have you ever done anything
45:39
to try to get that to try to get that? You've always been the one to say, "Nope, when I'm home, I'm with my kids and I don't want to be
45:45
disturbed." Okay. You can't have your cake and eat it too, right? So, are you helping or are you not?
45:51
Yeah, agreed. And I think that's a great way to approach it. what can I do to make myself valuable so that if and when
45:57
the practice does have to be closed, I have access, I'm trained, I'm approved to be able to do these additional
46:03
administrative tasks which are helpful during a closure. So if anything, go do
46:10
that. Get prepared for that. So awesome, good topic. Thank you. Thanks for
46:15
joining the conversation today. We hope that you are comforted in knowing that you are not alone, but we also hope that
46:22
you're walking away with some really great tips and tricks to try in your practice.
46:28
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