<Gen X Rant...>

Several weeks ago the Diane Rehm Show was dealing with the new regulations in medical schools that limit the number of hours a medical resident can work each week to 80. That is not a typo. 80 hours a week is the limit, and that is an improvement over the past system, which apparently had no upper limit.

There were various perspectives offered on this change; most people felt it was a good thing. One woman called in though—she teaches residents, and was lamenting how “undedicated” the current crop of residents are, because they’re right out the door when hour 80 comes along, regardless of the state of their patients.

Now medicine, like ministry, is not a punch-clock profession. I am not going to condone someone leaving in the middle of surgery, or while a patient’s coding on the table. And you shouldn’t leave without briefing whoever’s relieving you on the condition of your patients.

BUT, assuming that a resident is not doing any of those things, what on earth is wrong with her leaving at hour 80?

This week there was a similar report on Morning Edition, although this time they were talking about how the folks in med school right now are choosing specialties over primary care, in part because they don’t want to sacrifice quality of life issues. Again, there was disdain expressed at this easy way out. Now again, the lack of primary care physicians could turn out to be a problem, but honestly, who can blame them for wanting to have a life?

Middle-age doctors, apparently.

The same thing happens in ministry. The model that young pastors have inherited is of the pastor who is available to his (sic) congregation 24/7, who will schedule church events on a wedding anniversary, who will short-change family for flock. I know of ministers who after retirement have literally had to repair their relationship with their kids because they were never around. And yet there persists a sense that if you choose a different way, you are not a devoted pastor. It’s perfectly OK to leave items undone on your desk or a parishioner unvisited or a phone call unmade, if you have squeezed in every bit of work that you possibly could over the course of the week. Can it also be OK if those things went undone because you belong to a knitting circle or want to visit the new museum that just opened downtown?

I’ve heard it said that boomers lived to work, and gen xers (oh how I loathe that term, but that’s a topic for another time) work to live. I don’t know if the former is true, but the latter definitely is. I acknowledge that fact, even though I have a job I absolutely love, I wouldn’t do anything else, and I love "making a difference."

So enough with the judgment!

If you want to see us work hard, look at our entire life, not just our jobs. We are making meaning out of what we do—it’s just that “what we do” doesn’t end when we leave the job site. My life is my vocation, and that includes writing, knitting, watching movies, and yes, “wastes of time” like TV, going to the mall, and sitting and doing nothing—to say nothing of parenting and being a decent spouse. I say, more power to the residents who shuffle home at hour 80.

</Gen X Rant>

Postscript. It is possible that someday reverendmother’s identity will be revealed, in which case I must say that my congregation is absolutely wonderful in their understanding of the fullness of my life, only one part of which is ministry (albeit a significant part). So is my head of staff. But they are not the norm.