Dear Doctor: My Colleague Is Impossible

Welcome back to our monthly advice column, where we tackle the most complex ethical and interpersonal dilemmas in modern medicine. Today's letter comes from a senior consultant in Seattle who wishes to remain anonymous.

Dear Doctor, my colleague Peter will always arrive late for our morning ward rounds and blame everyone else for the delay. Whenever we have an unexpected finding during an intraoperative procedure, he disappears to check his phone.

He is constantly dismissive of the junior residents, and if we ever try to convert to open surgery, he sighs loudly and acts condescending toward the surgical team. I have tried to have a word with him multiple times, but he just gives me an abrasive stare and keeps on interrupting.

How can we address behavior like this without destroying the department's morale completely? We cannot let this toxic culture continue any longer.

Thank you for reaching out with such a vivid description of your daily struggles. Workplace conflict is exhausting, especially when dealing with unprofessional conduct and disruptive behavior in high-pressure clinical environments.

However, before we draft a formal complaint or start looking into mediation, let us examine your letter a little more closely. You mentioned that Peter always arrives late and blames others for everything.

You also noted that he refuses to listen when you try to speak with him, and you feel that he is entirely responsible for the poor supervision in your unit.

Are you sure it isn't you? Let us look at the facts. In your last three emails to our editorial team, you complained about four different colleagues who all happened to be described in identical terms.

Perhaps what you perceive as his abrasive nature is actually a reaction to your own tendency to micromanage every single task. Sometimes the best way to empower your team is to step back and reflect on your own habits.

Until you learn to delegate tasks without constantly hovering over your peers, you will keep running into the exact same interpersonal brick wall every single week.

Read again and choose the right answer

What is Peter's main habit according to the reader's letter?

• He always arrives late and blames others.
• He refuses to scrub in for surgeries.
• He steals medical equipment from the ward.

What unexpected twist does the columnist introduce in the response?

• The columnist reveals that Peter has already resigned.
• The columnist suggests that the reader might actually be the cause of the problem.
• The columnist states that Peter is the reader's long-lost brother.

What does the columnist advise the reader to do at the end?

• File an immediate lawsuit against the hospital.
• Step back and reflect on their own micromanagement habits.
• Demand that Peter be transferred to another hospital.

How many colleagues had the reader complained about in previous emails to the magazine?

• One colleague
• Four different colleagues
• Ten different colleagues

Sources: photo by Tessy Agbonome on Pexels