SOS-I'm struggling with job related stress!! CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!! So, y'all know that effective, ohhh, a coupla weeks ago, I am no longer the VNA's front desk dame. Our Wilder office (HR, Executive, Marketing depts) merged with our W Lebanon office (clinical/ clinical support ) in W Leb and the Wilder receptionist took over front desk duties and I became office "gun for hire" and fair game for anyone & everyone to co-opt as their own personal lackey (of course, I do prefer the term "gun for hire" over "lackey") I knew I was going to be helping Cathy out--that much I was prepared for. But Family Support Services team wants me for data entry help for stats they have to submit monthly. The Hospice group wants clerical help. But what has really been sucking up the bulk of my time is being the Co-Warden of Supplies. Part of my job is ordering all the supplies--office supplies (which is a breeze) and now medical supplies (which I am learning bit by bit-- it's a lot to remember...for instance, you wouldn't believe how many different types of gauze and wound dressings we deal in-- it's insaaaane) The ordering part of it is okay...although it's a bit high pressure, thinking of being responsible for our patients steeping in an uncomfy swamp of piss in the event that I don't get their cath bag ordered in a timely fashion (so far I've been able to keep on top of it!!) But the real loathsome part of the job is that all the supplies-- office& medical are in this supply room that is now (as of this past Tuesday) locked up and only accessible via key card. We have 4 clinical managers who have card access to the room (instead of the supply room, I like to call it the Lare lair because Larry's desk is in there) one scheduler (Vickie) does, then Larry & me. But I have been officially designated the supplies point person--this official designation coming from an email the area director sent the other day that dropped my name about 50 times in it. There's something slightly queasifying about an all-agency email that has your full name mentioned in it.
So anyways...if anyone wants office or med supplies they have to fill out a form (the paperwork is in wall-mounted racks outside The Lair) indicating name, date & their needs and they bring this completed form to yours truly and I go in and fill their order for them. This is a switch from the former system in which they just went into an unlocked supply room and helped themselves to what they needed. So, as you might have surmised, the staff is not overly enthusiastic about this policy change. And WHOM d'ya think is feeling the brunt of the belligerence?? That'd be moi. I'm a bit sickened by it myself. I mean...y'all know how I feel about THE MAN (not warm & fuzzy) and now I seem to very much be an emissary of THE MAN. It seems--when I want to hold on to my sad pittance of a paycheck-- that my principles are pretty malleable.
Anyways, having to amp up my wit & charm (considerable though it is) in order to retain the good opinion of the resentful staff ...it's a smidge tiring.
Ohh! And then the other day, I take one o' the physical therapists into the lair with me to fill her order. I've taken staff in there with me before, but this was the first time I did it when Larry was in there. He came up to me afterwards and he's like:"I really can't have you taking people through my office like that" He seemed to be miffed that: A) our chatter was distracting him from a phone conversation and B) I took her in there to get one thing and she saw toe nail clippers that she didn't have and took those...and he, I suppose, perceived that as just the sort of gratuitous supply filching that it's his new mission in life to combat. And to these two points I just wanted to counter: A) it was not MY piss-poor planning that put your dumbass desk in the supply room, asshole and B) I was doing Penny's sign out sheet for her and marked down the g-d toenail clippers and furthermore, if she is willing and able to take those things to the yellow, craggy talons of an old person's foot, then she is MOST WELCOME to the clippers, along with a hearty helping of my sincerest admiration. And this further pissed me off because in past weeks, when we were arranging supplies and shelves in there he was asking for my input and said "I want you to think of this as YOUR OFFICE too." He musta said that a dozen friggin' times and has in other words encouraged me to go in there freely as needed & to have a sense of ownership of the supply room. I suspect he says this because he hopes when he's off at the other branches, I'm in there arranging & sorting things so he doesn't have to arrange & sort anything. It would be pretty sweet to have an office methinks, but I'd rather have my desk in the fucking parking lot than have to share an office with Larry. I was training in Springfield with this lady Delce (who's been with the agency since the dawn of time & has been ordering med supplies for much of her tenure) and Larry called her on the phone and joked that he was moving my desk into the supply room with his and I said (in a half holler) "NO ...WAY" And there was that pause in the middle of that, since I had to struggle to stifle the word "fucking". Anyways, even though I certainly do NOT want the lair as my office, it vexed me that he's so quick to change his tune, because I took this giant tour group of ONE other person through there and we forgot to use our library voices, and then he's all "I really can't have you taking people through my office like that" So internally I snapped back "It's my office too, FARTFACE, so I can bring through whoever the fuck I want to"
Furthermore, I think what he is proposing for supply acquisition SOP is pretty rude! I mean, management is already insulting the staff by putting supplies under lockdown. OK, in management's defense, if their research shows that the agency is hemorrhaging money via supplies then there probably is a sound method to this madness and probably there was some filching going on. But, I can see where the staff is offended also. Of course, it's easy for me to see their side (not being management myself, plus having very strong anti-TheMan sympathies to begin with). But it's also a classic case of "a few bad apples spoiling the bunch". There's plenty of clinicians, I am sure, who were perfectly sensible in their supply-taking, but they have to be micromanaged & policed now due to a handful of filchers. And of the filchers, I'm sure much of it was absent mindedness, poor planning, etc. Maybe it's very "Pollyanna" of me, but I don't think much of it can be truly attributed to calculated extortion. So anyways, not only are they having to fill out a form to have me obtain supplies out of lock-up, but I'm also now expected to SHUT THE DOOR IN THEIR FACE and say "Oh, you are not permitted to come in here with me. So sorry." That's effing redonkulous.
Instead of countering all of the preceding(very good) arguments I just said (paraphrasing here-), "That's fine for office supplies, but while I'm still learning what med supplies we use, I need to bring them in there with me so I understand what they want. I'm learning these products, but I am learning them by the name printed on the package, and the specs listed on the vendor website, but the clinicians that actually use this stuff have their own unique jargon for it a lot of the time. It's like we're speaking 2 different languages and it's really helpful if we can both go in there and look at the stuff." And he just sort of said "Hmm. Yeah." and nodded, but didn't really seem too enthused about conceding the point. Bastard.
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