I’d recently been promoted to Ortho senior when a junior colleague made a lengthy complaint about me, and positioned it as them representing all juniors on the team. I remember having this moment of rage sitting in the in-charge office whilst the complaint was read out to me.
Part way through I asked the in-charge who had known me for some time if these were behaviours they thought I was capable of? And at what point might they think “hey, this doesn’t sound like the Teala I know, I should check and ask if she is ok”. I then pointed out how currently those in the department who seemed to cope with their workload were just given more shit to do (until they burnt out), often taking on workload from their colleagues who’d already burnt out.
The complaint I never fully understood. I mean you go from a level 1/2 (rotating junior) to a level 3 (specialised senior) and there was no “how to be a supervisor training”.
But their complaint and my moment in that office were symptoms of the exact same thing: how the work was getting handed out, and nobody was really managing it (well).
And I always found myself looking at the outpatient referral list being like, why is this taking so long to get these patients in? Why do we let these inappropriate patients be referred, and then let them fester as a “low priority”? How do we build a system around that to make that easier and quicker?
There was no standout moment where it clicked, just a persistent thought that surely we could do things better when the way we were working made my brain hurt (again). I’d dive into changing something because it was annoying the shit out of me. That points towards a systems mind, making the system better.
If you’re still stuck on how to work out what you could side step into or pivot into career-wise, make a list of the stuff that frustrates you the most at work. Then think back and add the things that annoyed you when you first started that you’ve since gone and fixed.
Our quiz is built on research matching 22 allied health job descriptions against non-clinical ones, and a lot of it lines up with exactly this:
- 🔁 The same problem keeps breaking and nobody fixes it: Operations Manager, Program Manager, Product Manager
- 🕳️ Patients falling through the cracks between services: Program Manager, Project Manager, Chief of Staff
- 🔍 Getting rushed past a problem before you’ve worked out what’s going on: Data Analyst, UX Researcher, Business Analyst
- 🧑🏫 New grads or patients left without the explanation they needed: People & Culture, Customer Success, Community Manager
- 📝 Reports that are accurate but bury the important bit: UX Writer, Content Marketer, Business Analyst
- 🤝 Never quite getting the insurer, manager or patient over the line: Sales Development Rep, Account Executive, Marketing Manager
- 🧭 Being told exactly how to do it, same rhythm every day: Operations Manager, Chief of Staff, Content Creator
If you want the long version, the quiz does this properly. 14 questions, and it tells you which roles fit.
This first went out to Post-MDT subscribers on 27 September 2026. You can read the original edition in the archive, or get the next one in your inbox.
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