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PaperclipPerfector  23hr ago (text post)   748 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 10, 2026

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I recently had my third child and my much younger brother broke his leg. As a result, I’m spending a lot of time in doctors offices, medical offices, and physical therapy outfits.

For whatever reason I started to notice that every one of these places have these big horseshoe front desks with somewhere between 6-12 women working. They’re generally between 20-60 years old, natural blonde or dye job, mostly slightly overweight or seriously overweight, at least one tattoo, and all of them pretty miserable. These are the working women proles. When people talk about the outrageous healthcare costs, I can’t help but think that it’s all a racket and jobs program. Healthcare companies make a nice margin and get an army of women that toe the line with “public health” and collect a paycheck.

I’m 42. It wasn’t always like this.

I’m saying this all tongue in cheek for Friday fun. But I am kinda curious what people think about the socio-economic-political forces that are driving this.

Is it the same in the UK? In China? I’ve been to a Chinese hospital. That seemed like a lot of young village type Chinese in white uniforms and hats.

What makes these people so miserable? Do people go into this field and turn into this stereotype? Or do the stereotype people get attracted to this field?

My last two healthcare visits (a GP and a physio) had a desk with one person behind it. I can confirm they were 20-60 (like, ah, most of the working population, I presume) but you didn't get the other particulars right.

I’ve occasionally seen a horseshoe desk, though much more rarely than a “bank teller” setup or just a single desk.

I concur that any of these desk types are almost always staffed by women, and that those women are between 20 and 60. You know, like most American workers.

None of the rest fits my experience. It’s like you’re sending a message from an alternate dimension, maybe the same place from which Ben Shapiro pulled his fiction.

Okay, hold on. I have a cousin who fit a number of those checkboxes, and she totally worked healthcare support up in the Midwest. No word on her desk style. I think she’s moved on to education now that her kid is in school?

The women womanning desks in Tokyo hospitals are brisk but usually cheerful, or at least straight-forward and professional. I certainly wouldn't call them miserable.

A couple of things are happening here.

Part of it is the decline the secretary - it used to be that most of these people would be one capable secretary, those women now work "real" jobs and much of the duties have been outsourced onto doctors, outlook, and other similar stuff. Some of the job remains, but the talent pool is...lower.

Healthcare often actually involves razor thin margins, immense government subsidy, unions or government employees and all kinds of other crap. Someone has to man the phones and officially do the job. Usually they don't, so you hire more people hoping that enough women at the desk creates some function.

It doesn't. During training usually I did my job and the front desk's job.

I find this conversation so triggering so I'm a bit disorganized here but other poster's have noted an element of claims and other things, usually the people sitting at the front desk are the front desk staff and do front desk things, but it's not necessarily going to be obvious if it isn't also an MA workstation, or someone who does insurance stuff, it just seems like a homogeneous pile of women.

I’m 42. It wasn’t always like this.

William Baumol (yes, that Baumol) coined the term "pink collar" in 1967. The category referred to teaching, nursing, secretarial and social work--the kind of work disproportionately done by women. You might not have noticed it 30 years ago (and certainly you would have seen less obesity and fewer tattoos) but the basic dynamic has been in place for decades at least.

I would suggest that these people are not so much miserable as they are irritated by the presence of patients. In most medical practice today, the patient is not the one paying the (lion's share of the) bill. And if you are not the one paying the bill, you are not the customer. A really good day for most medical office workers is one in which a large number of cancellations or no-shows allows them to spend the day scrolling their phone (or, a touch less cynically, getting a lot of insurance billing paperwork done because there are no humans distracting them with questions or, worse, complaints). They get paid the same either way.

And the office workers you're talking about were probably not attracted to "this field" so much as to a flexible-hours, prestige-adjacent job with air conditioning and low physical demand. Ideal conditions for parents of young children, of course, but also not a terrible compromise position for childless individuals who would prefer to not be working at all but aren't in a financial position to actually take that route.

I haven't seen any horse-shoe desks, including at the multiple hospitals I've worked in, in Scotland. But blonde receptionists? Could buy two dozen for a dime, thanks to inflation. I can't say they've been particularly bitter, but in smaller towns, my female patients and pub acquaintances have told me that they're almost always incredibly nosy gossips. That's the main perk of the job.

I can't say they've been particularly bitter, but in smaller towns, my female patients and pub acquaintances have told me that they're almost always incredibly nosy gossips. That's the main perk of the job.

This kills the crab doctor-patient confidentiality.

I'm surprised you missed the hoe-flation joke. Had it all lined up for you.

The word "hoeflation" did come to mind while reading @Rex's original post.

However, given that "hoe" in modern colloquial usage generally pertains to young women with at least some sexual relevancy (e.g., "im glad he doesn’t have hoes but why does he not have hoes??? am i fighting for a spot no one wants??!!"), it felt too expansive and/or flattering to apply the term to the following demographic as a whole:

20-60 years old... mostly slightly overweight or seriously overweight

Plus, given the ubiquity and expectedness of hoeflation, I already have it mentally priced-in, hence the doctor-patient confidentiality aspect was more novel to me.

At my dermatologist recently, it was all female receptionists, but they were pretty diverse otherwise, and mostly pretty cheerful.

In general, dealing with healthcare claims and companies is miserable. This is these people's whole job.

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