DO cheaters prosper?

OK, this situation is really making me mad . . .

DH is co-chief residents with a woman who has a reputation for being lazy, not particularly bright, but a huge suck-up. She was able to get a top oncology fellowship on the west coast solely due to her chief resident status - - even with the chief residency, everyone around her was frankly shocked that she got this fellowship and were surprised earlier when she got the chief residency position (apparently there had been record low applications).

This year, she had a baby and was entitled to six weeks combined vacation/maternity leave. She took time to study for the boards (which she failed!), vacation leave, multiple sick leaves for various perceived problems, six weeks maternity leave, six additional weeks unpaid family medical leave due to postpartum "issues" . . . and then just didn't come back.

So, my husband has been doing the work of two chief residents for five months. She came to the awards dinner for the chief residents, not looking particularly depressed, and chatting about how - - after not showing up at work for January, Feb, March, April, May, and June - - she is looking forward to starting her fellowship in July, planning her move to Seattle, has been looking for condos etc. Needless to say, the administrators in this case are ineffectual and don't have much recourse in the sense that they can't refuse to pass her since its a chief resident year. I know they all think poorly of her at this point but no one is going to do anything - - especially since they have dh running around doing her work and his work. I DO have sympathy for pregnancy and (real)postpartum depression and would feel badly for her if she had canceled her fellowship plans due to her these issues, but to me it seems very odd that you would be too sick to attend your job up until the very day that your high-powered fellowship starts.

So, I am angry that our year has sucked and I am also angry that someone has manipulated the system . . . and that she has basically used dh to get her fellowship. Does this kind of behavior ever catch up with people? What would you do in this situation. DO cheaters prosper?

That really stinks. Especially when you are bearing the brunt of the extra work.

I really can't say much about it, but DH has encountered similar and it is frustrating because it is the sort of thing for which someone would be let go in a "normal" job. But I think there is always someone (or two) like this in every program. Unfortunately.

I would say in some cases it does catch up with them in getting jobs, especially in specialties that are smaller. Or in getting a top choice job -- she will still get one.

[Cumberland]

I am a big believer in kharma. Her day will come, maybe not next week or next year, but it will come. Regardless, she has already shown her work ethic is not up to par so it seems logical she will have issues with the fellowship.

I think every program has one of these people. I am sorry your DH has to do so much extra.

Frankly, I'm shocked that she's being allowed to graduate after missing so much. That never would have happened in our residency.

I was thinking that as well. If I recall correctly, most people we have known who took more than the standard amount of leave (typically 6 weeks for maternity leave or other reasons) have to make up that time at the end and don't finish at the same time as the residents in the same program year.

Perhaps they are just glad to be rid of her.

[alison]

It'll come back to haunt her sooner or later. I hate lazy people--in my own work and dh's. Dh won't come home within the 30 hour work limit today because another resident's got a family emergency, they're waiting for a set of triplets to come and there's a C-section. Dh doesn't want to leave everyone alone today with all this work, while I'm sure that they would be perfectly happy to leave HIM with the work if they were post-call! But you have to be proud of your guy for having this kind of work ethic. I'd rather be married to the one with a conscience than the lazy one who's never been let down. She's got it coming.... Maybe not now, but in the near future.

Here's optimistic Alison speaking again: as frustrating as it is for your husband, I'm sure all the work he's doing isn't going unseen. Even though it might seem to go unrecognized right now, in the end, I'm sure there's no one who wouldn't be able to say something good about you husband.

Thanks so much for the kind replies, writing about it was cathartic and I am feeling a bit better. In response to the your questions, the co-chief in question has already completed residency. In internal medicine, the chief year is an additional year, only a handful of residents are selected to be chiefs, and it is such an incredible credential in the fellowship market that your opportunities multiply exponentially. So, what you can do in a place with chickensh*t and inept program administrators is: get the chief residency, secure your fellowship, then blow off your chief residency and make your co-chiefs carry your load. Nice, huh.

In addition to feeling protective over DH I think part of the reason I am so upset is that this isn't your garden variety lazy resident, this is someone who has calcuatedly worked the system since day one of residency, always taking care of number 1, getting others to do her work, and playing up to attendings. She has now basically lied about what is a serious problem - - postpartum depression - - and in doing so has made it harder for later women residents in the program who may ACTUALLY end up ill. She even went so far to tell people that she couldn't return to work because her baby, which is 100% healthy and was born TEN days before its due date, was PREMATURE. This is so offensive to me, using and manipulating such serious conditions . . .

I didn't think of the chief year as the extra year option. That IS way sneaky. Doubly sneaky and crappy about the illnesses for herself and baby. Hopefully it catches up with her.

[Rapunzel]

I hate to say this but the answer to the question "Do cheaters ever prosper?" is "Yes."

They do prosper - for a while, that is. That's why people "cheat" - take the easy way out - forgo work and delayed gratification. On the surface it appears to work for others so why not do it themselves? The problem is that they don't often see the cumulative results of this type of behavior years down the line. So, they blithely go about choosing the unethical way out, thinking there are no negative consequences.

But, in my experience they eventually get tangled up in their own webs. Sometimes it takes months - sometimes many years. But, it WILL happen. And, it is also my experience, unfortunately, that the "cheater" who receives her comeupance very often doesn't connect the repurcussions to her own actions.

[smiley]

That truly stinks that they picked her to be a chief! I haven't found a job yet where there hasn't been one slacker who unloads work on everyone else. However, everyone does notice the hard work of others, like your husband.
I would be so proud of the great job your husband does, and what a good job you are doing to help him weather the storm.

The positive side of this is that his coworkers will have great respect for him, and I would hope that this might get him more job offers, better word of mouth, and letters of reference that get him exactly where he wants to go. That's just my thought, I would like to believe that something good can come out of the most trying situations!

A postscript (and my last vent on this topic):

Last night, a resident saw my husband's "ill" co-chief . . . at a drug rep dinner.

You think she would at least be discreet about lying and feigning illness but apparently not.