No One Wants This $267K Job With 3 Months of Vacation

Dr. Alan Kenny is offering a fellow doctor a $267,000 annual salary, three months of vacation, and a half-share of his New Zealand practice, the Guardian reports. And with 6,000 patients, his business in rural Tokoroa is booming, to the point where Kenny can't take time off. But no one wants the job—he hasn't received an application in four months. The problem: No one wants to ply their craft in the middle of nowhere, where social life is limited, the WiFi stinks, and, as he says to the New Zealand Herald, people perceive jobs to be "dead-end" ventures. The Telegraph describes Tokoroa as "the city that almost was," with an unemployment rate of 22% and where going to the market in your PJs is "secretly accepted."

Kenny's typical day does sound like a grind. He tells the Herald that on a recent workday he punched in from 8:30am until 6pm without lunch, seeing 43 patients (recommended amount: no more than 25 daily). This problem affects not only him, but other rural practices: According to the CEO of a support network for GPs, most rural positions are filled by international med graduates who stay only a short time, with vacancies taking up to three years to fill; Kenny himself was recruited from the UK, but stuck around for 30 years. The only other New Zealander at his six-doctor practice over the past two years has been his own daughter. Still, Kenny says he's offering almost double what GPs make in other parts of the country, and considering the town has a median income of around $11,500 a year and offers inexpensive housing, he's still hoping for a taker. (Being a professional mermaid pays well, too.)