How hard will you work after Medical Residency?

Since Childhood, everybody has chased the dream of having the workload lighten up once the education part of life is over. Same goes with medicine. Once into Medical School, we realize the amount of work we have to put in it. Every day Medical Students slog through various rotations, schedules, USMLE, reports etc. This list goes on. 

Once the medical school is over, getting into internship is a shocker. If you thought medical school was tough, then you have no idea what an internship would be like. Once the internship is over, the pressure does ease off in the later years of residency but not significantly. There is always more to do and learn.

So for those who wonder if being an attending physician is easier than residency or not, then the answer is NOT. The workload of an attending physician is similar to or worse than that of medical interns. But there are some good differences:

1) The scutwork and running around is reduced.

2) Number of patients the attending physicians take care of  are higher, but then their schedule is not interrupted by conferences and classrooms.

3) With experience, the medical decision making becomes easier and attending physicians do not have to refer to clinical data and research too often.

4) Compensation improves and takes the brunt away from hard work. 

So there is more mental work than physical work after becoming an attending physician, which is a blessing. But it is still hard work and for most of us. There is more responsibility, more rewards. How hard did you expect to work after medical residency?