Changing from a good(?) Outpatient job

CAREER & BUSINESS

So I've been contemplating switching settings and looking for a new job lately. I'll try to give all relevant info, but if I miss anything please ask in the comments.

For context, I'm 30 and live on long island in NY. Currently live in my parents basement with my fiance so we can save money by only paying $500 a month for rent. I work with a heavy Neuro population, often my schedule is half general ortho and half a combination of Parkinson's, MS, MD, SCI, etc.

Current job: 

Small outpatient private practice. I work 4 10s (Thursdays off). We do 1:1 treats for 40 minutes each and 60 minute evals. So at most 15 patients a day if they are all follow ups. And we get a 30 minute unpaid lunch. No dedicated doc time. Pay is $84,000 base salary (slightly below new grad). We do get quarterly bonuses based on productivity but it's $1,000 at most. I get a health insurance stipend for $550 a month to use however I want. I also get a 4% match 401k that's I've been taking advantage of. And I get approximately 3 hours of PTO accrued every bi-weekly paycheck. I graduated in December 2024 and started here in March 2025. I have not gotten a raise to date but that would happen at the end of next month (September). I owe my boss/company some grace because they kept me on staff and working while studying to pass my boards (which took me 3 tries while working here). This company has already expanded a bit since I have been here by opening a second office, and my initial hope was that if the company exploded I would be in at the ground floor. 

Now for the issues. Firstly, it's a 35 minute commute each way making my day feel close to 12 hours. Since expanding my boss has stepped away from treatment and is doing more admin/CEO things after opening our second clinic. We had a big grand opening ceremony where we all went to celebrate. My boss then thanked everyone: family, coworkers and patients alike. Everyone close to him got a specific individual shout-out, except for me, even the 2 new grad therapists that hadn't even started yet got one. My supervisor (assist clinical director) is not a great mentor or leader. He is not very personable when it comes to difficult topics. The first issue was right after starting being told I need to wear different pants. I was wearing althetic pants just like my colleagues, but was told my pants were not professional looking. Nobody else was told to change. Then my supervisor had a meeting with me to call a difficult neuro patient to discharge them due to poor compliance and recommend them to home PT. Which I did. But then was told I shouldn't have done it and I needed to have better coaching on it, in the company wide group chat putting me on blast. After that my boss sent a company wide email about a cell phone policy, but my supervisor had a meeting with me discussing it further and mentioning that if it doesn't change I could be terminated. I brought up that everyone in our work chat is texting all day long, sending gifs and AI images. So when I asked if everyone would be having this discussion he replied "if I need to have the discussion with others I will" basically confirming it was only something about me. Then just last week I had to leave early to get to a family member's wedding and I rushed out after finishing my last note, my supervisor texted me saying to please make sure I clean up equipment before I leave (which I always do, but didn't because I wasn't closing today due to leaving early). Meanwhile he leaves stuff out ALL DAY LONG and I often clean his equipment or dirty table up so I can use it or the space. And the last thing is that (and this is probably anywhere) but a lot more talk is "we really need you to do this for the company" type stuff. Which just never sits right for me. Like if you want to thank me and push me to work harder, I need more than "great job". I know most of my issues are with my supervisor but I don't think he will be going anywhere as he was hired a couple years ago with the intention of him being in that role.

TLDR pros: small clinic, 1:1 treats, 4 10s schedule, 401k match, $2500 con-ed credit, AI software for note writing.

TLDR cons: low pay, feeling singled out with specific issues, dealing with a difficult patient base (Neuro heavy) and not getting credit or raises for it, and a really annoying/bad supervisor.

Other jobs options I'm looking at include:

- NYU Langone (I have a contact there).

- School based PT at BOCES (I have a connection with my brother who has worked there for years).

- Applying to this local cash based clinic much closer to home (biggest fear with this is if the owner sucks I think the job will also suck).

Currently I am thinking of applying to places to see if I could get the jobs to begin with and then asking to shadow for a day to see what it's like.

Just coming here to ask more experienced PTs and people who may have been in a situation like this before to know if I'm overreacting.

Posted Aug 13, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

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