On Tuesday morning when I ambled into work I checked the voicemail, email and mail, changed the voice mail message, ran the patient census and generally got myself ready for the day. As I opened my appointment book my gaze fell upon the words ‘fit testing’ and it was all downhill from there. FYI - fit testing refers to N95 masks not the gym. I guess one way to look at it is that I didn’t spend any time stressing about it, but I sure hit the ground running at 8:15 a.m. There were various crises of too much air movement in the chosen room, move to another location, computer malfunction of fit testing technician, completely frantic workplace overall (perhaps due to predicted bad weather the following day) short staffing in multiple departments and general facility wide anger with a good deal of it headed in my direction. A former coworker and myself agreed that there has GOT to be a better way to make a living. I was explaining the employer was fortunate my husband had had big dreams of a new house, unstable fishing industry and two university tuitions remaining or I would be history. She shared that her husband had been interviewing for jobs in other areas of the province three to five hours away as his term position is up in March and he is determined to work so that insecurity is her employment motivation. It is to weep for.
By the time I made it home Tuesday evening there was nothing left in the way of enthusiasm to take me to scrapbooking so you know I was in bad shape! It was so apparent that the man of the house suggested I walk the dog and made supper if you can believe it. After a sauna session I was unconscious before 10 p.m., which is a rare event for me. I’m reminded of a photo a friend forwarded which sums up my work requirements:
Employee of the Month
This is the level of dedication we expect from all staff -
keep up the good work!!!
Today was a catch up day as I’m off for a Tri-District meeting in the morning which promises to be as much fun as a root canal. I managed to get some paperwork done and try to remedy some mess-ups of late. I spent the final moments of my day negotiating with a teammate who will now be accompanying me to a conference in Montreal. First I was going by myself, and then she got a scholarship, which covers ‘some’ of the expenses so we can share the cost to bill the employer. The accommodation question – I was suggesting an Inn which would be less than half of the cost of the conference hotel although it is a 5-minute walk away because I’d put my education request in to the boss with a note saying I’d check for cheaper accommodation. The back and forth was her wanting to be closer to the conference center in case we got taken out to supper by the exhibitors, it was too far to walk after supper etc. etc. I was thinking ‘how did we get to the princess is making all the decisions when I was traveling alone until last week?’ I need another vacation.
This afternoon I was discussing with the Administration Assistant that she really looked like she was ready for the vacation she’s leaving on next week – family Disney World trip for March Break – and she agreed. She was explaining that she’d had a phone call from the Pepsi sales rep who told her the matter was “urgent” so she explained she had to leave to set up an important presentation could it be more critical than that? “Oh yes” he insisted that she must call him right back. As she said “I work for a hospital, I understand critical” but when she returned the call it was regarding the Pepsi order for the pop machine, which she had called in that morning, and to have it urgently filled she should have called the day before at 2 p.m. I told her that even a stranger recognized how stressed she was in her voice and thought the order was urgent. She maintained however that she had talked to Deloris with a southern drawl who asked if “ya’ll wont ta buy some spring watta, it’s on speecshal this wayke?” and she had politely declined. I told her I’d solved the mystery as the tone of her voice had caused the folks at the Pepsi plant to think she’d “escalated” meaning she had to be dealt with by the next level supervisor as in a call center.
This evening in a nod to the missed scrapbooking I finished up the construction scrapbook. I have been tired of the project for a bit as it’s very much the same and so it felt good to say “done” Now I can move on to the cruise album which promises to be less homogenous and will certainly bring good memories. As daughter # 3 is arriving tomorrow p.m. I was trying to get things in order so we can visit. I fear that her only special request of shake n bake chicken will not be fulfilled, as there are no ovens to be had locally until next week. Tonight my husband looked in the fridge at the prepared supper for tomorrow and said, “oh, slow cooker surprise again?” Sigh.
