How Do People Treat You Differently When You Tell Them That You’re A Medical Doctor?

This question was originally posted on Quora.com and was answered by Amy Chai, MD, Internal Medicine, MS Epidemiology



I often overhear or observe people treating the office staff and the medical assistants like dirt. They will scream at them and berate them.

Then, as soon as I walk in, they are all nice and pleasant.

I guess I am lucky that people do not treat me like crap, but it is kind of hypocritical to treat people differently based on perceived status. Really, it is like “lying” to me if they are acting nice when really they are angry and mean. In that case, their civility is just an act. I find that to be uncomfortable. If you are going to be nasty, be nasty to me as well. I consider it a challenge, and I can probably fix it. (I have cured many people of being nasty, when actually they just were depressed or something)

Once I was running an office in a shopping plaza with a couple of other businesses. I sent the other businesses Christmas cards as a sign of good will. The owner of the other business thanked me profusely for the card, explaining that she had never received a card from “a doctor” before. I did not realize that she thought of me as someone who was so different from her that I would not even give her a card. Since then, I have had many similar experiences with people who assumed I was not “like a normal person.” They assumed they could not talk to me due to my status.

On the other hand, I have had people talk behind my back, assuming that I have “lots of money.” I have also had people tell me to my face, “I wish I had your money.” MKAY…..really, your plumber probably makes as much as I do. I have also had someone KEY MY CAR because I was in the doctor spot. This was not a douche-mobile, by any means. It was a Dodge Intrepid, a few years old. Not exactly “jealousy key” material. They keyed it because I was the doctor and they assumed I was RICH RICH RICH beyond anything I deserved.

There is jealousy (they would not be so jealous if they went through what I have gone through) and there is intimidation/awe (I guarantee this is all in their head, as I do nothing to incite it.) People can be weird.

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