YABVU to generalise in this way. Surgeon 2 and 3 sound horrible, but there are arseholes in any profession. I’m not sure why you object to surgeon 1 because he’s absolutely right. He could earn a lot more money for a lot less work as a surgeon in Australia - my husband is a surgeon here, my cousin is a surgeon on East Coast Australia. Be a bit careful saying fuck off to Australia then because plenty of NHS doctors have (or had before covid anyway!)
My husband does oncology. You would not believe how hard he works. He’s in the hospital for around 12 hours then gets home and does several hours more work catching up on admin etc. His job is so much harder because stuff just never seems to go right in the NHS, which isn’t a comment on the individuals he works with necessarily (although some are lazy), but when stuff goes wrong, patients suffer, which is his responsibility not the person who forgot to order the pre op bloods or whatever. So he tries to ensure that it doesn’t go wrong, for the patient’s sake.
For example, if he has say 3 cases on his list, if the list is delayed then the third case gets cancelled for lack of time. That’s someone with cancer who may well have come off chemo for this operation, who may well have waited ages because of the pandemic. So he fights hard to get that patient done (even though it’s less work for him to cut the list short and just do 2). So yes, he will leave very clear instructions about what he wants done to ensure that patient is ready when they are sent for because too often, things are delayed when instructions aren’t followed. And patients suffer.
That’s one example, there are loads of things that he needs to be done right by those around him in order to him to be able to treat people effectively. I would hope he is never rude but I also don’t doubt lots of people think surgeons wanting stuff done right (and being firm about asking for it) accounts for some of the slagging off this thread has seen.
If you want surgeons to be meek and mild and not demand high standards in an ever deteriorating context of working in the NHS, then please bear in mind the effect it will have on patient outcomes. I am conscious that many NHS staff are overworked, under appreciated and underpaid. And it’s shit. But surgeons still have to do their best for the patients.
It doesn’t excuse speaking to your PA like shut or throwing things, but the generalisations about surgeons on this thread are a bit much when the plenty of surgeons that I know are just working incredibly hard to properly discharge the massive responsibility they hold and work in an environment where you often need to be firm for anything to get done.