Have you ever been fired?

I have, on 4 occasions.

I suspect, in the course of a practice, that it's impossible to please everyone. That has certainly been my experience in the past 30 years of practice.

In this blog, I'll describe four dermatologists who fired me and why (if I know why) they did so.

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One dermatologist fired me for no particular reason that I could tell. I still, to this day, don't know why.

Another dermatologist fired me because my reports were "too long" and she couldn't understand them.

Another dermatologist fired me because, in her opinion, I took too much time to turn out a report. When I looked into the specifics of her complaint, it took no longer for me to make a report for her patients than for any other dermatologist with whom I was serving as a consultant.

Another dermatologist fired me because I discovered an error I had made on a follicular neoplasm (a benign one). When I wanted to set the record straight in an amended report, he objected, indicating that he might be sued for negligence. Despite my reassurances that this was my error, not his, no amount of reasoning would budge him. After discussing the situation with my attorney, I decided to proceed with the amendment. The dermatologist never consulted with me again.

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In all of these examples, I was somewhat curious about why I was fired, but it bothered me down to only a certain point and no further. None of the examples above would have caused me to change what I was doing in my practice. Yet it has never been satisfying for me to practice knowing that there are those who are not pleased with my work.

If any of you have had similar experiences, I am curious about why you were fired and what kind of effect it had on you.