Does the job of RT suck?

Wow.  While surfing the net I came across this thread about the profession of RT.  It starts as one humble student asking questions about the field of RT:  "I want to be a respiratory therapist but everyone keeps asking me why? What do they do? So any respiratory therapists out there, what is the answer?

It lead off to a bunch of RTs trashing the profession:  "Don't do it!  This job sucks!  We get no respect!  RTs are the hospital's bitches, etc."

I wanted to be a teacher once, and the reason I decided against it is because I bravely went out of my way to approach some of my favorite teachers to ask them if teaching was a good career. They both told me it sucked and the pay sucked. 

So I ended up as an RT.  I like being an RT, yet I still dream of being a teacher and sometimes wonder how my life would have been different had those teachers said something nice about the teaching profession.  Two of my neighbors right now are teachers, and they both love their jobs.  Plus they get all summers off.  Plus they get paid better.

I agree with one fellow RT who wrote:  "If you hate your job so much get a new one."

Sheesh.  Get a life folks.  There are definitely times I get frustrated during the course of my work.  Just this past week I was ticked off at my bosses because they aren't proactive and don't go out of their way to make our jobs better.  They would rather sit and not make waves that might make their jobs harder.

Yet that's life.  No matter what job you do there's going to be things about it you don't like.  No job is ideal as the AARC pictures the profession of RT to be here.  Ideal is for dreamers and people who vote for socialists like Vladimir Putin.  In the real world nothing is perfect: Failure happens, Death happens, Poverty occurs, Dummies exist, People starve, Politics is real. 

In the real world people who eat bad, smoke and drink seem to live to be 80, and people who exercise and take care of themselves still get sick and die.  It's unfair, yet life is unfair.  Regardless of who you are, there is a risk to anything you do.

Yes, and smiles are fake.  Some person who says, "I feel great," is really having a bad day.

Sure, that's life.  Yet whether or not you smile and show your happy face and love your patients and love your coworkers and get along with people is up to you.  You can make it what you want.  You can say, "Yes, I'm having a great day!" even when you're really not.

Yet if you say, "My job sucks," then people will view you as the guy who hates his job.  Yet if you say, "I love my job," or, "I'm doing great today," people will see you as the cool guy who is always happy.  You can be the negative guy people want to avoid, or the happy guy people love to be around.

Life is what you make of it.  Complain sometimes to the right people, and don't lose your spirit.  Complainers are seen as unhappy and say more about themselves than what they are complaining about.

Does the job of RT suck?  It only sucks if you want it to suck. 

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