Category: Work Stuff

So. This happened…

… and then I got a call from a number I didn’t recognize and when I listened to the voicemail, it was from my boss and she said, “Don’t worry about coming in to work today, the roads are just too bad.”

And I was like, “What?? That’s NEVER happened in the 25+ years I’ve been working,” and because that was so weird and I was a little dumbfounded, I called her back.

“Jill. Are you SURE you don’t want me to come in? I don’t live very far …?”

But no. She said to stay home.

I just hope patients don’t brave the roads and show up to a clinic that may, or may not, be open to see a doctor who is most likely not there to see them.

It should be an interesting day tomorrow fielding calls and rescheduling people.

But I’ll be honest, I’m glad they told me to stay home. I’m not usually a scaredy cat to drive when there’s bad weather, but when it’s nothing but chunky ice like you see in the above picture and it’s sticking and about an inch thick?

*MEOW*

I’m more relived that the boys aren’t going to school/class today. Because the thought of THEM out there driving in this mess gives me gray hairs. It’s bad enough that Kevin went into work, but he went in so early this morning, it was actually BEFORE most of the ice was dumped on us so I know he made it to work safely … (Now to get him home safely).

So. No work day. I have the entire day laid out in front of me and I don’t even know where to start. Do I read? Blog? Vlog? Clean house?

(HAHAHAHHAHA on that last one.)

I think I’ll just sit here, sip my coffee and munch on my dry Eggo and simply enjoy the fact that it’s going on 9:00 o’clock on a week day morning and I’m snug-as-a-bug at home in my long johns and hoodie.

UPDATED:

I had my doubts on whether calling off school/work was a good idea, but the roads are pretty chunky/crunchy with some heavy-duty ice, so it was the right call. However. Getting to school/work today will be a challenge.

So.

I’m feeling cocky and my ego has grown two heads today.

I’m feeling more confident about my job. I’m getting faster and more efficient and I’ve been asked (okay fine, I just sort of took it over because I’m one of those annoying leader-type people) to train the new girl.

(And I’m not okay with her just sitting there and watching me – who learns that way? I have to explain what I’m doing and WHY I’m doing something, so I’m talking a lot. And I’m sick of listening to my voice, quite frankly).

The nurse’s secretary is also new. And she’s a little freaked out when it comes to precerting testing through insurance companies. Granted, it’s not fun. And a pain. BUT, there’s a … trick to it. You just have to know what the insurance companies want to hear.

Granted, I’M NOT LYING. But when you precert tests, you sort of have to think outside the box and read between the lines on the doctor’s notes because they don’t often come right out and say what they’re looking for or trying to rule out.

Anyway. I found out that this girl came out of the nurse’s area crying on Friday, after I left early, because she was frustrated. And no one wanted to help her.

Enter Super Karen.

I know. I know. But dad gum it, how is anyone supposed to learn anything if no one takes the bull by the horns and freaking SHOWS them?!?

She gushed all over me. And told me, once again, that the nurses loved me and thought I was the best scheduler, hands down.

Even though it was really cool to hear that, I was beyond mortified. Okay. Let’s all agree I’m awesome quietly, shall we?? No need to broadcast that all over the clinic.

*ahem*

Anyway. I’m afraid it’s gone a teensy bit to my head. I found myself strutting around the clinic today and I was, erhm, a little more vocal than I have been. And more opinionated.

And I know where that usually leads me – Hello Trouble.

It’s time to rein it in and shut my mouth. And mind my P’s and Q’s.

And continue to be QUIETLY awesome.

HA!

It’s widely understood, if not openly admitted, that I have one of the most stressful, non-clinical, jobs in the clinic. My job is so misleading it’s almost funny … if I were only in the mood to laugh.

In fact, since we’re on the hunt for a new scheduler to fill the shoes of the girl who “voluntarily decided to pursue other job opportunities outside of the hospital” (which translates into “we actually fired her and don’t want to freak you girls out so that you’ll end up quitting and leaving us high and dry”) they listed the job as an internal job opening only. The job “description”, boy, do I use that term loosely, was unbelievably understated and flat out wrong. In fact, about 80% of the “description” were duties we don’t even do.

Let’s put it this way – we are on an active mission to redefine our job description with the hospital. Because honestly? We do a combination of about three different jobs, jobs that have their own departments and staff devoted to the task, at the hospital. But somehow, the scheduler’s job at my clinic has been a dumping ground of duties that no one else wants to tackle. “Oh. We need the toilets scrubbed?? No problem! We’ll just “ask” the schedulers to do it.”

And no, I’m not exaggerating and no, I’m not bitter – that’s just the way it’s been over the years. And because the girls before me didn’t have the … courage (?) to stand up and say “STOP WITH THE ADDED DUTIES”, management has just sort of continued to dump duties onto the schedulers because well … they would do it. And once someone has been designated to do something, it takes nothing short of an act of God to UNDO the damage.

So we’ve been trying to get the hospital’s attention on everything that we do so that one of two things will happen (or ideally, both – but beggars won’t be choosers at this point): 1. Reallocate duties to someone else thereby taking pressure off of us and/or 2. give us a SIGNIFICANT pay raise because you’re paying for one person to do three jobs.

Um. No.

We, the schedulers (there are now three of us), put our heads together and we all agreed on our job duties. I typed it up and submitted two and a half pages to our boss so that she could submit it to the hospital administration.

The job description they published? Had five, FIVE, bullet points of very vague, and very different, duties.

I think this is beyond disturbing because one – IT’S TOTALLY WRONG. And two, how is this fair to the incoming scheduler? He/she is being mislead and lead right into the hornet’s nest.

Is it any wonder that they’ve had two girls go to lunch only to never return over the years? People have actually walked out on this job and yesterday?? I could totally understand why.

There are many aspects of this job that stress me out – from the moment I clock in to the moment I clock out, I feel like I’m running. Everything, everything, I do has a deadline. I must answer nurse’s flags, and voicemails, within 24-hours of receiving them. I must stop what I’m doing to help a patient that walks to my window. Then I must resume what I was doing, assuming I can remember where I left off, the moment they leave.

I must drop what I’m doing to answer pages from the hospital, which are usually questions about the orders I sent or to double check to make sure I have an insurance pre-certification number on the order, otherwise, the patient’s insurance company will not pay any, or all. of the test that is being performed and the hospital has to eat the cost.

And that makes the hospital very, very cranky.

Then I resume whatever it was before I was paged, assuming, of course, I can remember where I left off and assuming I don’t get interrupted again – which I will because there are so many aveneues to pursue in my job that it’s not a question of “if” but of “when.”

Then I have to make phone calls to other hospitals to set up appointments for referrals – and this is assuming they WILL schedule before receiving records from me. And if they need records, then I must stop what I’m doing and fax them records AND THEN follow up to make sure the patient was scheduled so I can make a note in their chart and to satisfy the nurse whenever she has time to go back and make sure I’m doing my job.

If there isn’t a note, I get a flag – which must be answered within 24-hours.

And then I have to go through my faxes to see if the tests I’ve submitted for approval, either through the military or VA, have been approved. And if so, call the patient and schedule them. If not, why not? (Note to self – make time to research and make more calls … and this is only on ONE patient).

And then there are the voicemails – even though I have requested people not call me multiple times because it really does slow back my call back process (because I’m having to listen to ten messages from the same person), people leave me multiple messages because OH MY GOSH, I CALLED YOU TWO HOURS AGO AND HAVEN’T HEARD BACK FROM YOU AND I’M IN PAIN AND I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE AND …

Yeah. You and everyone else in the clinic, ma’am.

Look. I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but people, it’s not all about you. *GASP* I know people that come in to see us are in pain, otherwise, they wouldn’t be coming in to see us, but we juggle eight, EIGHT, doctors and have on average, ON AVERAGE, 80 to 90 patients EVERY DAY … we have only been blessed with two hands … be patient, for the love of God.

And then we have patients who simply walk in and expect to be scheduled to see their doctor. That used to absolutely PISS me off to no end – thank God we complained enough to our boss that that doesn’t happen anymore. We’re not a walk-in clinic. We simply can not stop what we’re doing in order to take care of a person who walks in off the street and let the patient who has been in the clinic for several hours and is desperately wanting to finish his/her business and go home to collapse into a painful heap wait – how is that fair?? It’s not. And thank God we were able to convince our boss of that. So – if people walk in and request an appointment, they now get a card with our names and numbers on them and are sent on their happy way leaving us to research that patient and to ask the nurse if it’s even okay for our doctors to see him/her. Because our doctors are SURGEONS – if people are not SURGICAL then our doctors can’t help them. They must go back to their primary care physician for other options.

Reality.

And that’s only the watered-version of what I do. You must put all of that into a noisy, hectic, fast-paced atmosphere, and constant interruptions, and imagine me keeping my shit together long enough to focus on whatever the hell I’m doing. My job is exhausting because there is NEVER any down time and I’m NEVER caught up – ever. E.V.E.R.

But even after all of that, I’m okay with my job. I do, after all, thrive on it. I LOVE the fast pace, the multi-tasking and the sheer challenge of it all. And when I get overwhelmed, I simply put up my “Next Window Please” sign and screw everyone else – I have to ground myself or the top of my head will simply blow off.

No. The reason I nearly walked out on my job yesterday was because I was on the phone, ALL DAY, with insurance companies. I had a full day of pre-certifications. I reserve Fridays for pre-certifications because they take so much damn time!! (We don’t usually have doctors in the clinic on Fridays – we love Fridays). I take one step forward and two steps back with every patient that I have to pre-cert a test for (like an MRI or a CT). The insurance companies want to make sure that the test is medically necessary before they will agree to pay for their portion of it.

And yes – OF COURSE I get that. But I have to give them clinical information – what the test is, what are the patients symptoms, what is the doctor trying to rule out, has the patient tried any conservative treatment? And most of the time – I have no idea what the hell I’m talking about.

Google is my best friend. I’m not even kidding.

It’s a crap shoot – sometimes, I can breeze through the process – other times, it’s like pulling teeth and I start sweating because I know, I KNOW, it’s going to go to review, which means they either want me to fax supporting documentation or I have to turn it over to the nurse and the PA has to call the insurance company to give them more in-depth information.

That is the aspect of my job that I hate the most. Because if they don’t approve the test, and the patient is set to have the test before we get that approval, I have to call the patient to reschedule the test and then have to listen to them bitch at me.

It sucks. IT ROYALLY SUCKS.

And an entire day of that? Is nearly more than I can handle and I can handle A LOT.

But to be fair, yesterday was my fault. My stress was sort of self-imposed. Because I hate pre-certifications soooo much, I tend to put them off until the last minute and if they go to review, well, I make more work for myself. So, starting Monday, I’m on a mission to make sure I’m one week ahead on these stupid pre-certs. That way, if they go to review, I have a little wiggle room before the patient is scheduled to have the test.

I’m also on a mission to campaign for the hospital to either hire someone specifically for pre-certifications, because honestly, it’s a full-time job now, especially now with ObamaCare hovering on the horizon and freaking insurance companies out so much they have changed their policies and made them so approval-phobic. If we could just farm that responsibility off on someone else, then my job would be less stressful.

But I don’t look for anything like that to actually happen because why??? Why should they hire someone when the schedulers have been doing it all this time and they are paying them peanuts to do it?

It’s time for me to get serious about looking for another job. I can feel how stressed out I am – it’s like my heart never slows down anymore and I don’t want to die young … especially for this job.

It’s just not worth it.

I’ve only been at my job for a little over one year and I might end up being one of the veterans in my area very soon.

Drama. Lots of drama yesterday. I went in early for a meeting and I was probably the most vocal I’ve been, and will be, for quite some time. I don’t know what came over me but all of my frustrations sort of just … spilled out. I’ve mentioned, a time or two (or 50) that my job is stressful. And my stress grows and festers to the point that I’m often times finding myself exploding over the most stupid stuff.

A new girl started the other day. And she actually used to do the job that I’m doing now. So she mentions this as we’re all sitting around waiting for our office lead to show up and, well, lead the meeting. And this girl mentions she used to do my job.

“I’m sorry,” I say jokingly and the room laughs. “This is the most complex and stressful job I’ve ever had”. I laughed, but I’m afraid it was more of a maniacal sort of laugh.

And no one disputed me on that fact. They all know, know, that yes indeed, my position is the most stressful job among all of the front office positions. And I’ve been told, numerously, that no one would want my job.

It’s not exactly comforting to hear that.

As is usually the case whenever you have a company meeting, we went over things we could “improve” on and clarified a few things that might have been “confusing” to some of us.

And then we went back to our desks and had a “mini” meeting for just the schedulers.

Only, one of us wasn’t there. Apparently, one of the other schedulers was sent home and no one really knows why. But rumor was it was due to “disciplinary” reasons. Now this girl has been working there for years and years and as with any job, duties have evolved, technology is different and things have changed. Only, this gal doesn’t want to change along with it, so she sticks to her habits. Which are inefficient and sloppy. So, she periodically gets into trouble for only doing a half-ass job or doesn’t do it at all.

And she gets disciplined, gets sent home, comes back with a “new” attitude and does a good job until the cycle begins again. So honestly, none of us were really surprised that she was sent home – *yawn* – wash and repeat.

An incident happened between two of the other schedulers and they sort of duked it out in front of our bosses. Which, actually, was probably a good thing because honestly, I would rather get stuff off my chest than allow it to weigh me down. So it was sort of nice to clear the air, but, one of the girls was very upset and quite honestly, I don’t think she’ll last much longer either as I’ve caught her filling out applications.

Hey. I’m not judging. You have to do what you have to do and if you’re truly unhappy with your job, then find another one. Just be careful because jobs are not exactly easy to find nowadays (Thanks to Obamanomics).

So that leaves me and one other girl. And though I’m fond of this girl (I’m fond of all the girls, actually), she drives me nuts because she has the personality where EVERYTHING is a BIG deal and she just exhausts me with her “issues.”

I have no idea what’s going to happen this week (the one gal was told not to come back until Tuesday) and who knows how fed up the other girl is and how long she’ll stick around and the only thing that I keep thinking is, “maybe I’ll finally be able to move into the 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. slot” because I work the 8:30 to 5:00 shift now.

I know that makes me sound insensitive, but honestly, it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there right now – the strongest survive, right?

I just hope I’m strong enough.

So last Wednesday, I got this burr up my butt and I applied for a job.

A technical writing job. *breaks out in a sweat just typing that out*

First of all, I was surprised to see there was even a technical writing job advertised … and especially for this area. I think I had convinced myself that there wasn’t a technical writing job in the whole Midwest region. I think I got that idea from school – when I graduated with a technical writing degree ten years ago.

And I don’t know, maybe there wasn’t any technical writing jobs in my area ten years ago … but there are today.

Kevin has been keeping an eye out for me on the job front. And he’s sent me two technical writing job listings so far. And the companies specialize in areas that I happen to have experience in: banking and healthcare.

But I dragged my feet (I.E. – life happened and I was simply too busy to think about it, quite frankly), and the opportunities passed me by.

I don’t know why I went ahead and applied. The position’s deadline had long passed but I thought, why not. What’s it going to hurt? What’s the least that could happened … nothing.

So. I applied on Wednesday. And to my utter surprise, I got a call back Thursday … at 9:20 a.m.

What the …

I spent the rest of the day in shock. And digesting how this would change my life. Even though I hadn’t gotten the job, I could get the job and … then what? Part of the job requirement included about 20% travel time. Did I really want to travel? Would I have to dress up every day? I mean, wearing scrubs every day is a pretty sweet gig, ya’ll. I’m comfy and don’t have to think about clothing combinations, you know?

I called the gal back Friday morning, first thing. And she wanted to call me back later in the day to have a phone interview.

At 2:30, she called me back and we talked. She told me a bit about the job and asked me a few questions about myself and my “experience” (I.E. none in the technical writing world) and said she would let me know if she wanted me to come in for a face-to-face interview.

I was on pins and needles all day Monday. I checked my cell phone all day hoping, and yet dreading, a call back. I mean, how cool would it be to actually work in the field I went to school for?? And yet … I like my healthcare job (except for the stupid flu vaccine REQUIREMENT) and I love the girls I work with so …

At 4:45 p.m., I got the call. She wanted me to come in Friday morning for a face-to-face. I agreed, of course, and then spent the rest of the week with a giant black cloud of nervous energy above my head.

I went out and bought a business blazer for way too much money at Dillards. However, I can wear this blazer to everything (it’s charcoal gray) and I’ll likely have it for the rest of my life.

Friday morning came and instead of dressing in scrubs, I donned business attire. I wore black slacks, a white button down oxford shirt, my blazer and heels. I looked sharp.

And way over dressed. Because when I arrived at the company, the people going into the building were all wearing jeans.

Swell.

I walked into the reception area and I signed in. The receptionist gave me a visitor badge to wear and I sat down to wait for my interviewer to come get me. This was the type of organization where you couldn’t go into any of the doors, or use the elevator, unless you had a pass key.

My interviewer greeted me and took me up one floor to a room where another woman was waiting. I sat in the “hot seat” with a woman on either side of me and spent AN HOUR answering the toughest questions I could possibly be asked. I gave believable, GENERIC answers, but that wasn’t good enough. They wanted SPECIFIC instances of the scenarios they were asking me about. Most of the time, I gave them specific situations, later, when I had been there for a while and sweat was dripping down my torso and THANK GOD I had a blazer on because by the end of the interview, my blouse was soaking wet (literally, I had to hang it up to dry when I got home), I started making shit up because OMG, I was so sick of being asked questions and being pounded that I honestly didn’t care if I got the job or not. A few times, I just flat out said, “I’m sorry. I honestly can’t think of a specific incidence at this time.”

And at one point, I even laughed, rubbed my brow and said, “Ladies. You’re killing me with the questions.”

Luckily, they laughed. But I’m pretty sure that wasn’t exactly “approved” interview behavior. But honestly? I didn’t care at that point – I just wanted the hell out of there.

Kevin seems to think that since they kept me for an entire hour, they were interested in me. He said, often times, he would interview someone and if he could tell, right off the bat, that he didn’t like the person for the job, he would cut the interview short because what was the point? He wasn’t going to hire him/her.

Which is a good point and encouraging, I suppose, but honestly? I think I sucked. I left feeling equal parts annoyed (with myself), disappointed (with myself), relieved that it was over, and sad because I’m convinced I wouldn’t get the job.

It’s a strange place to be, I assure you.

But then I got to thinking (always a dangerous past time) – did I really want the job? In addition to the travel (which honestly, I’m okay with), I would be working in teams. ALL THE TIME. In fact, everything they do is through teams. GAH. Teams. I just remember what that was like in college and I usually ended up doing all the work because no one else would take the imitative and do the work. And the work itself? Sounds boring as hell.

There. I said it.

But it sounded like they had some SWEET benefits. For instance, they work in jeans and often times, you could make arrangements and work from home. Which, I’ve blogged about before, is not necessarily a good thing for ME, per say. I lack discipline. And motivation. But if I was working FOR someone and was receiving a steady income, I’m pretty sure I could get over those self-imposed hurdles.

They asked for writing samples. I didn’t have any technical writing samples to give them. I haven’t done any technical writing since college (save for the school websites – which they are aware of, I might add. And by technical I mean, the schools dumped piles of information on me and I was responsible for organizing it and then putting it into a coherent, cohesive website).

So I ended up giving them an essay-type style of writing and a piece of fiction. And if you’re sitting there with wide eyes and open mouth because GAH, that has absolutely nothing to do with technical writing, wait … it gets better. I handed over my writing samples, laughed and actually said, out loud, not just in my head, “Now don’t laugh.”

OH MY DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN, WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!?

It was like I was handing my writing over to a critique group, not a prospective employer!!!

Geez. I’m so stupid sometimes. But I was nervous and I always do, and say, stupid things when I’m nervous.

Anyway. It’s over (thank the good Lord above) and honestly? I don’t expect a call back. The gal said she would let me know either way and I’m pretty sure the one-sided conversation will go something like this:

“Hello, Karen? Thank you for coming in and speaking with us, but I’m afraid we’ve decided to hire someone else.”

*sigh*

I’m not the world’s best interviewee … can you tell?

Live and learn.