Work expansion-should I care?

[Civex]

50% Rant warning

Basically, looking for opinions on whether or not I should give a shit at work. Our department (somewhat aggressively) expanded our coverage area this summer into a new area. I am *not* directly involved with the expansion, but I am expected to cover 5%ish of the time for people who primarily work in this area. (PTO, emergencies, etc.) I am happy to say the area I primarily work in excels-we shoot for perfection, and have had only minor issues 1-2 times in the last 18 months.

My issue is that we took over an area and I don't think we are really doing a great job. I would say we are basically doing an equivalent job for a higher cost (eating into our departments resources.) I am expected to occasionally help out, but am basically told that doing the job to the level I believe is right isn't cost effective. While possibly true, I have a hard time taking that we are going to step into an area and perform at a lower level (or even equivalent) for a higher cost than the previous team. If this was solely business, whatever, but we work in health care. I am probably being idealistic, but I don't feel good about putting in 50% effort for people.

I will just about guarantee my lack of, "buy in" with the new area will come up on my review, which is where I am worried this may come to a head. I don't buy in because I think the people who, "own the area" are doing a sub par job, but one of them happens to be my direct supervisor.

TLDR: Our department expanded, supervisor is involved in expansion, I think they are doing a shit job, but when I push for higher standards am told it is too much work. Do I just back off and keep my head down? Especially if I'm called out on it at review time? I don't really want to be involved at all if we aren't going to do our jobs well.

I'd love to hear people's opinions because lately I feel like I'm being made out to be the bad guy for feeling that we can do better. Kind of feel like my supervisor is creating a guys club that goes on doing the least amount of work possible. Am a guy, maybe I should get on board. MMM details-likely 5-7 years from FI (maybe a year from FU money), and since we are late 20s, I doubt we will explore RE for at least 10-15 years.

*I do try to put in full effort when I cover the area, but it is super frustrating when I talk  to patients and they are frustrated and feeling like they are falling through the cracks. I get so many justifiably angry and confused patients and it really makes me not want to be involved in this area at all.

Thanks for listening-fairly good shot I'll delete this tomorrow.

[zolotiyeruki]

Man, that's a tough spot to be in.  I have a couple questions:

1) Are you in a position where it would be easy to find another job?
2) Can you, in your position, continue to provide the higher level of support to patients when you're doing the work?  If so, and you did so, what would be the consequences?

[Freedomin5]

I’d also validate the patients’ concerns and offer to escalate their valid concerns to your manager or the responsible supervisor, or direct the patient to the responsible complaint channel. In the past I’ve also validated client concerns and then given them my supervisor’s email so that they can complain directly...and then very helpfully sent my supervisor an email to give them a heads up that a complaint may be coming in with details regarding the poor service the patient will be complaining about. Escalate enough of these patient concerns and eventually someone higher up will probably hear of it and bear down on the responsible parties. At least your supervisor won’t be able to ignore it because you are then placing the ball firmly back in their court. If it comes out that your supervisor has been receiving multiple complaints about levels of service in their department and that they didn’t do anything about it, that would not reflect very well on them.

TL;DR Give a shit for the patients and advocate on their behalf, and simultaneously don’t give a crap about playing the organizational political games.