Do practice managers get gifts from Santa? They surely deserve them. But if they did, what would a practice manager ask for? I wonder… 

Dear Santa,

I hope you are well.

This year I’ve been very good. Well, I think I have been anyway… I’ve done all my staff appraisals and their ‘return to work’ meetings when they came back after being off sick. I’ve successfully unblocked toilets, dried my staff’s tears and battled the daily challenges that life as a practice manager brings. Last week I even listened to Louise as she spent 30 minutes of our 1:1 meeting (which was all of it) telling me how Gavin on the next desk picks his nose in front of her – and I didn’t swear once!  

As always, I do have some Christmas requests:

• Please can I have sufficient patience to respond to all my team’s needs and questions, even though my job feels stressful and busy most of the time?
• Could I also have a big wad of extra financial resources to pay them all what I think they’re really worth, rather than just what’s available in our staffing budget?
• Please can you send me some kind of superpower ability to inspire and motivate staff during those weeks when work feels tough and unrewarding?
• And can I have a day – just ONE day – when I complete my to-do list? (Okay, that might be going a step too far…)

I know these are big asks, but surely, as an employer of hundreds of elves and working reindeer, you understand where I’m coming from?

Anyway, thanks for reading this letter and best of luck for Dec 24^th. No pressure, but I’ll be crossing my fingers…

Kind regards,

A stressed practice manager

P.S. Please, please can you find a way to help me avoid having to formally investigate Gavin’s nose-picking habits. I simply can’t face it! Thank you.