I'm a dentist, employer lied to me & kept my wages down

[putty]

What is the name of your state? Occured in MA, now living in CA.

A dentist's compensation is largely dependant on the types of patients he/she sees. Older patients require more work, younger patients require less work. Dentists are generally paid as a percentage of the work they do.

I got hired by a multiple-location office where I was to see patients. I was specifically told before hire that there was no screening of patients, that patients are distributed equally between the office director, another associate & I. Due to the fact that it's difficult to produce much work when starting, I requested to be put on a (minimal) salary until I build up the patient base. We all expected the salary period to last up to a month or so.

After a few weeks, it became obvious that while the director was seeing older patients and billing out ALOT of money, both the other associate & I were seeing only younger patients and struggling. I could not afford to be paid as a percentage and so stayed on the salary, as low as it was.

I became friendly with the front desk staff and slowly found out that office policy was that ALL new patients over the age of 30 were given to the director while patients under 30 were split between the 2 associates. Only certain over-30 patients (ones that did not require much work, ones that did not have insurance, ones that were "problem" patients) were OK to sometimes give to us. It got to the point where the director trained his assistants to greet the new patients in the chair, take xrays and report to him as to whether they believed the patient was worth seeing. If not, the assistant was to come to me and offer the patient to me, as the director was "too busy to see them".

Also, since emergency patients generally require expensive procedures, only the director was allowed to see them. It was the norm for me to read the newspaper while the director would have 3 emergencies waiting for him.

In a discussion with the director about my lack of productivity, he mentioned that they was no screening of patients, simply "luck that will turn around".

After 3 months of this, I had a meeting with the person who hired me (CFO of this company) and told him what I felt might be going on. He wondered why I was not producing. I suggested that he speak to the front desk staff to see how they distribute patients. He told me that he would get back to me.

At this time, I found out that the other associate had already tried this and was told that it was simply not occuring. Another associate that had since left to another office within the company tried as well. Of course, no one ever get back to me.

As I knew that I would be leaving to go back to school soon, I just went along and earned the salary while trying not to say anything that would get me fired. In total, I stayed there for 5 months, always on salary. On departing, I wrote a letter to the CEO, CFO & the director explaining in detail what the director was doing. I never heard a thing from them, as I'm sure they feared a lawsuit.

I can't help but feel as though they stole money from me by denying me the opportunity to earn money by doing the job I was hired to do.

As an aside, I know of things done by the director that would cause him to lose his dental license if the dental board had proof of it. He has his assistants do work that legally only a dentist is allowed to do. I made no mention of this fact in my letter to them.

I worked for them from October 2002 to March 2003.

Any thoughts or advice?

Many thanks.

[Sinsaint26]

There is nothing illegal about this situation. This is more of an office politics thing. The only thing you mentioned that would have any legal implications is the director's illegal activities which have no impact on you.

[putty]

Originally posted by Sinsaint26
There is nothing illegal about this situation. This is more of an office politics thing.

That's what I was trying to determine. I wasn't sure but that seems strange... One is allowed to purposely keep an employee in a situation where they are not able to earn a proper salary (in contravention of verbal agreements), deny that they are doing it, and go on like nothing?

Thanks for the reply.

[Beth3]

putty, you *might* have a cause of action for detrimental reliance. That is, that you were purposfully lied to (about the distribution of patients and therefore your anticipated income) during the recruiting phase in order to induce you to accept the job. You'll need to discuss that with an attorney if you want an expert legal opinion.

However, given that your employment was of limited duration, even if you have a case, your damages would very likely be minimal enough that the cost of litigation would significantly exceed any award or settlement you might receive. Additionally, the burden of proof would be on you to demonstrate that you were purposefully lied to. So all in all, your best option might just be to move on and consider it a learning experience.

[putty]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was told on another board. Proving that I was lied to would actually be pretty easy since they've done the same to other dentists as well as the fact that the entire office knew exactly what scam was going on.

Like you say though, I think the problem would be whether the potential gain would offest the cost in going forward. As much as I'd love to get these people I don't think I could afford it right now. Aaah, life experiences...

I appreciate the advice.