Category: Work Stuff

Work Stuff

The Aloha Girls

Karen

Our clinic has a new boss.

It’s one of those, “WHO you know instead of WHAT you know” people because he’s young, enthusiastic and absolutely clueless on what we do and how we do it.

He’s clueless, but charming, friendly, and eager to learn.

Which is a not a BAD combination, I suppose, but still – WHY do companies do that?!? Is there no wonder there are underlying tensions and buried jealousies? Not from me, I haven’t been there long enough, nor do I really know enough, to feel threatened or jealous, but I assure you, there are a few who not only feel that way, but are vocal about it, too.

Which is stupid and counter productive because how do these people hope to advance within the company when they are vocal with their criticisms?

So our boss is new. And he’s on a mission to impress the big-wigs at the company with his new and improved ideas. Which, to be fair, are quite good and I’ll be honest, the clinic could use a little organization (remember how chaotic it was when they trained me? Actually, I was never “technically” trained, I just sort of watched people and was smart enough to pick up on it faster than most).

One of the ideas he’s been implementing lately is a whole “we’re one big happy team” agenda and again, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Because we all have to work together and a lot of our job responsibilities DO bleed into each other, it’s a good idea to not only get along, but to get to know one another, too. There are two floors to our facility and it might be weeks before I see the girls downstairs and vice versa – though we all talk to each other every day, several times a day.

The boss man (because I have a boss woman, too), suggested we come up with ideas on how we could better “bond” with one another. One person suggested we dress up on Friday (it’s the slowest day of the week for us since we generally never have doctors in the clinic on Fridays – though it’s busy for the rest of us because we’re frantically trying to play catch up from the rest of the week).

The boss said, okay, fine, dress up, but you have to still wear your scrubs, just accessorize in some way.

The front desk girls come up with this attire:

aloha1

These are the Aloha Girls.

Cute, right?

And no. You don’t see me in this bunch because I was part of the “party-pooper” group. I HATE dressing up. Especially at work. I feel uncomfortable and foolish and I opted out of the “fun” exercise.

But the other girls loved it. We had a contest – each area competed with each other, but it only ended up being two areas that participated, so it wasn’t much of a contest.

The Aloha Girls won.

Another “thing” that was suggested was a secret pal sort of thing. We all filled out surveys about ourselves and then we drew names. We were not allowed to draw anyone from our areas because the point of the game was to get to know someone NOT in your immediate area. I am participating in this and I’m looking forward to leaving little surprises for my secret pal from time-to-time. We’re supposed to keep it a secret and then we’ll reveal who we have at Christmas. (I’m assuming this means we’ll have some sort of Christmas party).

Leave it up to new management to pull out all of the silly “games.”

Though it’s nice to break up the monotony now and again.

(By the way, the third woman from the right? Is my immediate boss. She has the heaviest, and most charming, southern accent I’ve ever heard).

Dear Diary, Work Stuff

Dear Diary: In the Middle of the Work Drama

Karen

Dear Diary:

I knew this was going to happen..

How could it not? You simply CAN NOT put a handful of women into one room, hour after hour, day after day, and NOT deal with the gossip wars. I’m trying so hard not to get sucked into the middle of it, but in not taking a side?

I’m each side’s confidante.

It’s incredibly awkward. Especially when I can stay objective enough to see both sides of the story. Each side has a valid point and though I understand the frustration and the resentment, it really does not do any good to get upset about it.

Everyone has faults, and quirks, and annoying things about them. (Except me – I’m pretty close to awesome, but that’s beside the point *ahem*). The trick, the true test of character, to me, is how you deal with all of these … erhm … complications. Me? I tend to just shrug them off because quite frankly, I don’t give a rat’s ass. I’m there to do a job. And though it’s important to me that people like me? My life will not end if they do not.

*shrug* Such is life.

So when one of the girls I work with takes an hour and a half for lunch (we are only allowed thirty minutes), sure, I get annoyed, but I don’t go out of my way to snitch to my boss about it. Or when one of the gals I work with is so anal about doing things PRECISELY by the book and sees the world through black and white lenses (though we all know that the world tends to be a pretty shade of gray because every person/situation is unique and you can’t apply a “one-size-fits-all” label), sure, there are times I want to rip those glasses right off her face, but I don’t, because what’s the point? It might be immediately satisfying but I have to work with this gal every day – I’m more interested in keeping the peace.

I also get REALLY ANNOYED when my co-worker makes a POINT of picking up the phone to make a call at the PRECISE moment that a patient is ready to check out. She does this on purpose so she won’t have to help them and guess who ends up helping the patient even though this person has already helped 3/4 of the patient load that day and is UP TO HER EYEBALLS in things to do?

Yep. Me.

That probably annoys me most of all. Because I CAN NOT stand people who will not at least make an effort to do their job. It’s selfish, lazy and why the hell are they employed anyway? But still … I get over it. Because I’m a FIRM believer in what goes around, comes around. I’m fairly confident that my boss is intelligent enough that she sees what is going on. And I’m equally confident that my performance will speak for itself.

So I keep my mouth shut and I release my irritation in passive aggressive ways and I (im)patiently wait for karma to make her rounds.

But in the meantime, the drama rages all around me.

This past Thursday and Friday were particularly bad for one of the gals I work with. (I work closely with three of the other gals – let’s call them gal #1, gal #2 and gal #4 (because technically, I’m gal #3). Gal #1 has been there the longest. So she tends to bend the rules a bit, which just annoys the every loving crap out of gal #4. (Gal #2 is laid back, a sweetheart and makes an effort to stay out of the drama – which is why she’s my favorite, actually). So really, the war is between gal #1 and gal #4. Gal #1 is going through a lot of personal problems right now. She’s caught in the middle of an awkward love triangle with her best friend and her husband and well … suffice it to say, she has been under A LOT of stress because of it. (Which is THE NUMBER ONE REASON why I don’t have a best friend. I can’t STAND drama and I refuse to get sucked into someone else’s drama). She took an hour and half lunch the other day in order to try and get a handle on it. But because we were short handed (gal #2 was off that day), that meant I couldn’t leave to go to lunch.

Now honestly? I didn’t really care. Sure. I was a bit annoyed, but I was so busy that I just didn’t give it much thought. But it was simply too much for gal #4 and she complained to our boss.

Gal #1 got pulled into the office and reprimanded when she got back from lunch. Which did NOT help gal #1’s stressful situation, but to be fair, she should have said something about taking a longer lunch so we would have at least been aware of what was going on.

And gal #4 complaining about gal #1 not doing her job? Is a little like calling the kettle black because gal #4 helps the least amount of patients and the ones she does help, she tends to make it SO MUCH HARDER than it should be.

She’s exhausting to be around, quite frankly.

And this is just a small sample of the underlying currents that I have to swim against every day.

It’s the battle of the alpha females, I guess. And though I’d classify myself as an alpha female, I’d also say I’m a SUBTLE alpha female in that I bide my time and wait for the other alpha females to hang themselves, because it’s going to happen eventually.

It’s just all so … silly in the grand scheme of things. Women are so incredibly mean to each other and I’ve never quite figured out why aside from the obvious jealously factor. I’m amused by the games, actually. It’s sort of fascinating to watch women nibble on each other, like a school of piranhas attacking a meaty piece of flesh.

No. I prefer to sit back, observe, strategize and bide my time. I prefer to study my cards a bit more carefully before I play my hand. Because it pays off to be careful and patient.

Trust me. *sadistic smile*

Getting into Shape, Life, Work Stuff

Irony: The More I Work Out, the More I Hurt

Karen

Irony number two: I have back issues. I have had back issues my entire life. In fact, I have a slight curvature in my spine. In fact, Dude has a pretty significant curvature to his spine.

And here I am, working for spine doctors.

How ironic.

I wonder if I did that on a sub-conscious level. I wouldn’t doubt it. My sub-conscious is sneaky like that.

I’ve been working out. A lot. Okay. Maybe not a lot. I work out every other night because I wash my hair every other day and I can’t stand the thought of not only having dirty hair on day two, but having dirty SWEATY hair on day two.

So I work out every other night.

I am doing EA Sports on the Wii. And then walking 45 minutes or three miles, whichever comes first.

And though my jiggles are jiggling just a little less, my back is hurting more and more.

I simply can’t win.

My back rarely hurts when I’ve got a little weight on me, but the moment I start losing that “buffer”, ouch.

But that is yet another thing I will endure because I simply refuse to buy bigger clothes.

It’s. Just. Not. Going. To. Happen.

People get into trouble when they buy bigger clothes. I will not be one of those people.

Sharing this bit of working out news is not the least bit exciting. Why? Because I go through spurts. I have gone through spurts my entire life. I get excited about something, I participate to death and then it sort of burst into a spontaneous ball of pretty spark and … nothing. The enthusiasm is gone. My drive is gone. I’m no longer excited about it.

Until the next spurt happens, and here we go again …

I confess. One of the biggest reasons I’ve been getting back on the exercise wagon is because of one gal at work. She began one of those crazy two-week diets at the beginning of the year where she wouldn’t eat any carbs, yadda-yadda-yadda for two weeks. Then she started introducing these foods back into her diet, and began re-training her body to eat healthy. Then she began to exercise and now? Four months later? She’s looking downright skinny.

I could do that. I too have the willpower to stick to something like that, but I simply choose not to. I prefer, instead, to just sort of bargain with myself all day.

“Okay look. If you want to eat this brownie now, fine. But you can not eat anything else fattening for the rest of the day.”

“It’s 8:00 o’clock at night – it’s too late to eat. You’re just going to have to ignore the hunger pangs. Go to bed. You can’t be hungry if you’re sleeping.”

Things like that. And yes. It works for me. In essence, I guilt myself into doing the right thing. But of course, just cutting back on eating isn’t enough, I have to start exercising, too. Because no matter what anyone tells you, you HAVE to exercise AND watch your food intake if you truly want to lose weight.

Period. End of story.

So yeah. I’m feeling a teensy bit jealous of the gal at work who’s losing all of her weight. I also admire the hell out of her. And when you wear scrubs all day every day? It’s so easy to pack on the pounds because there is no external restriction to remind you to scale back a bit.

I work with a lot of obese women. And if you ever wonder why there are so many obese people in health care I blame stress and scrubs. It’s an uphill battle. But the gals that I work most closely with? Are pretty good about watching their weight and though I’m not really one to allow other people to affect my life/attitude, it happens. And I’m thankful for their diligence.

This is a bit off topic, but the other day, I was talking with my “buddy” (we have buddies that cover our nurses’ flags and voicemails whenever we’re out of the office – which reminds me, my buddy is going on vacation for a week next month and OMG, I’m going to be super busy trying to do my work AND her work while she’s gone), and we were talking about … okay fine, we were gossiping, (though I HONESTLY try to stay out of the gossiping arena because that will get a person into trouble in no time flat), and I said, “Want to know a secret?”

And to my utter astonishment, she began crying.

In addition to feeling extremely uncomfortable, I was flabbergasted. What the … ??

She thought I was going to tell her I was quitting.

Bless her heart. The thought of my leaving truly freaked her out. I’m not quite sure how to take this. I mean, I’m glad she likes me. I’m glad she enjoys working with me (because let’s face it, I’m pretty awesome *snort*), but wow. Her reaction shocked me. And it made me really sad. Because though she has told me stories of how awful it was for her until I came on the scene, I guess I didn’t realize just HOW awful it was for her until I came on the scene.

The other two gals in my area? Are not bad people. I like them both. Sure. They both have their quirks, I have quirks, we all have quirks. And I deal with those quirks because people are different and that’s life. Getting upset over things you can’t control is a total waste of energy and I refuse to do that.

But wow. I knew there was tension between the other two girls and my “buddy.” But I guess I really didn’t know how serious that tension was until I saw her reaction to my “Wanna know a secret” statement.

Now I sort of feel like I’m stuck in this job. Granted, I have no intention of going anywhere any time soon because even though I don’t get paid squat, I truly enjoy this job. It challenges me and I really dig the crazy pace and all of the multi-tasking. But this whole flu shot thing every flu season fiasco? Is really not something I want to put myself, or the people I work with, through every year. I plan on waiting it out a few years to see how often these “flu epidemics” (*snort*) break out and go from there.

But if I ever choose to leave healthcare and pursue something else, I now have the added guilt of leaving this poor woman who has clearly attached herself to me.

And though I’m flattered she likes me, and enjoys working with me, I sort of resent the fact that now I will feel guilty for leaving, if it ever comes to that.

Does that makes sense? *sigh*

People are starting to share office gossip with me. I really wish they wouldn’t. I really don’t want to get sucked into office politics. I just want to go to work, do my job, have a few laughs and then go home. But I see what’s coming … invitations to hang out after work. And though, again, I really, truly like these gals I work with, I just don’t want to go down the hang out after work road. Because then you just add another element of stress to your working life, especially if you get upset with one another or you start feeling like you owe someone something because you’re “friends.”

I know that makes me sound stand-offish and snobbish. And to some extent, you’d be right. But I’m just trying to be realistic and I’m desperately trying to keep my personal life and my work life two separate entities.

I’m not sure how much longer I can make the distinction.

And guys, get this, on the 19th of this month? I will have been at this job for six months.

SIX MONTHS, PEOPLE.

Wow.

Work Stuff

This is What Happens When You Don’t Read Your Emails Very Carefully

Karen

You show up to a company meeting at 7:30 when it’s actually at 11:30.

AAAARGGHHH!!!!

I got up an hour early. I ran my butt off to get ready in time. I EVEN BOUGHT BAGELS!! And I drive into the parking lot and it’s like, “what the hell?? Where is everyone?”

And yet. I still go into the building. Why? Because the last time we had a 7:30 meeting, I was the first to arrive. Then, 7:30 came and went and STILL, no one was there except me and my boss. And finally, at about 7:45, people starting filing in.

So I thought, “Hmm. Maybe everyone is late, AGAIN.”

I walk into the building. The lights are off.

This is not a good sign, I think to myself.

I sign onto my computer and bring up the email about the meeting.

11:30!!

AAAARGGHHH!!!!

I was so embarrassed, that I hid in a bathroom so the early morning gal, the gal who comes in and turns on computers and lights, wouldn’t see me. I think I might have gotten away with what little dignity I have left.

So, lesson friends, read your emails.

Don’t skim them, like me.

*sigh* I’m such an idiot.

Work Stuff

Helping Our Veterans Shouldn’t Be This Difficult

Karen

The doctors I schedule for help a lot of veterans.

Which … cool.

Only. Any time we do anything for them, we have to run it be the VA office/organization so that they (we) will pay for their office visits and any tests that need to be done.

I’m totally cool with that. In fact, I would RATHER pay for our veterans, men and women who have sacrificed their LIVES in order to serve our country than say, people who sit around with laminated homeless signs and beg for a living.

(True story. We passed a man on the streets of Chicago with a laminated homeless sign. Now look. I realize that people fall on hard times. But there are so many programs, charities, churches that exist for THE SOLE PURPOSE of helping these people get back on their feet and off the streets. But let’s be real – when you have taken the time to seek out/make a laminated homeless sign, that tells me that you’re not really looking to get back on your feet but are perfectly happy to beg for a living. And THAT, I have a problem with).

Our veterans SHOULD be taken care of. We owe them. Period. But I get so frustrated with the process. There is so much red tape to go through – needless red tape. It takes FOR.EVAR to get anything approved for our veterans and it just shouldn’t be that way. These brave men and women not only deserve to be taken care of, they deserve to be taken care of in a TIMELY manner.

And trying to get physical therapy approved for our veterans is darn near impossible. Which doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Because the whole reason they come to our doctors is so they can heal and get better and what better way for that to happen than to be taught how to strengthen their weak spots and make them whole again??

It’s all so ass backward.

And the vets that visit our clinic? Are the nicest people!! They are always so pleasant and respectful … it just breaks my heart that it takes SO LONG to help them.

Work Stuff

I Will Not Be Bullied. Period.

Karen

Kevin sent me a link at work today …

Number of Flu Cases Drops by 50 Percent in Greene County MO
(Springfield, MO) — The number of reported flu cases in Greene County is now on the decline after a two-week peak period.

On Tuesday, the Springfield-Greene County Health Department reported 71 cases from March 18-24, 2012.

That’s down from 138 the previous period and 137 the week before that. A majority of the cases have been Influenza A.

Out of the recent 71 cases, 16 of them were among residents ages 5-14. Fifteen were between 15-24 years old.

There have been 479 reported flu cases in Greene County since September 18, 2011.

Shortly after he sent me this article, we got a company-wide email stating that the suspensions had been put on “hold.” But they still reserved the right to implement the plan if the numbers rose in the next few weeks.

*snort*

And can you believe that 479 people out of 275,000 people in my county constitutes an “epidemic??”

Really?

I have become the clinic mascot over this thing. I had a nurse stop me today to ask me if I had heard anything. I was the only person in the entire clinic who hadn’t taken the flu vaccine. And the final tally? Ninety-five percent of the employees at the hospital I work for had taken the flu vaccine.

That’s a lot of cattle mindlessly sticking their arms out for a shot of poison.

The conversations have been interesting these past few days. This was the first year that the hospital had implemented their new policy and from the sounds of it, they have some major tweaking to do. It’ll be interesting to see how this affects NEXT flu seasons round of poison vaccinations.

I’m pretty sure I’ve annoyed a few people at work with my talk, and firm disbelief, in this whole vaccination process. Some of these people have been getting flu vaccines for 30+ years and they don’t exactly appreciate my speculation on a possible correlation between getting vaccines every year and all of these mysterious diseases that we haven’t found cures for and no one knows where they originate.

I’m not saying there IS a correlation, but can you confidently tell me there isn’t some sort of connection??

Food for thought.

I also think people are a little annoyed that I wasn’t reprimanded in some way. Though I don’t think they WANTED me to get in trouble, I think they were EXPECTING it and when I didn’t, they were annoyed. After all, if this all washes under the bridge, then what’s to stop more people from refusing the vaccine next go-around?

At any rate, it looks like my job is safe … for now. I’ll stop talking about it … for now.

But just know this – you take my choice away or try and bully me into doing something I think is morally wrong and unnecessary? I will fight you tooth and nail.

Period.

Work Stuff

The Flu “Epidemic” is Reaching Epidemic Proportions

Karen

A fellow co-worker directed me to a company Intranet article about “getting the flu vaccine or else” article (though the company likes to call it a “choice,” it’s anything but a choice considering you either get the vaccine or be suspended), and I was amazed at the comments. For you see, in order to comment on these articles, you have to leave your first AND last name AND it’s your REAL first and last name. There is no anonymity on the Intranet – Big Brother is watching and Big Brother knows exactly who you are.

People are furious. ENRAGED is actually more accurate. It’s sort of comforting to see I’m not the only “crazy” person out there refusing to succumb to what I now like to affectionately call, “a syringe full of poison.”

Anyway. The comments? Are pretty freaking awesome. Nearly every comment touches on a point I’ve made here at one point or another. I thought a nurse had an excellent suggestion – why not just make the people who opt out of the vaccine wear a mask during the duration of the “epidemic.” (Remember, I use that term VERY loosely because I’m not convinced, at all, that there IS an epidemic).

Why indeed? I’d totally wear a mask if it meant I could keep working every day. And that makes sense to me. I’m not getting the vaccine, I’m potentially carrying this year’s flu strain and could potentially give it to someone else (that’s a lot of potentially, don’t you think?) so yeah. I’m more than happy to protect others from my non-vaccinated germs. (*snort*).

Another person brought up this point: the hospital is all about the patients – as it should be. It’s all about protecting the patients – as it should be. How, exactly, is it in the patients’ best interest to suspend a bunch of healthy people, making those left behind to work twice as hard and twice as long to cover the gaps left behind by the suspension?

An excellent point, I’d say.

I didn’t have time to really read through all of the comments (and there were a quite a few), but the ones I read? Were pretty spot on and I agreed with about 94% of them.

I was beginning to wonder if I was the only “crazy” person out there. I was comforted to see that I am not.

I just can’t get this image out of my head of us humans, all lined up, like cattle, being herded into a shed somewhere and being mindlessly vaccinated for some mysterious “virus” of something that changes every year and then coming out the other side, glassy eyed and dazed and all mumbling the same inane phrase because we’ve all become so used to being brain washed into doing what the group is doing that none of us has an independent brain cell left in our heads to say, “Wait a minute. WHY are we doing this again??”

Hi. My name is Karen and I’m a non-conformist. Give me a sound, logical reason why you want to me to go along with the pack and I’ll do it, otherwise …?

BITE ME.