Well, the ball is officially rolling (and picking up momentum) at work. More and more issues are cropping up regarding the head of my department and some come complete with specific instances. If this doesn't all end up affecting any change, then I will know that this isn't the place to work for much longer. I still think that, largely, the issue lies with communication, but it doesnt help that that issue coincides with so many other deficiencies.
As for non-work, things are going well considering this is the stressful holiday season. Looking very much forward to Christmas and a short getaway for new years.
Finally got an elliptical and even managed to assemble it with Tia with a limited number of half-articulated frustration profanities. Huzzahs all around! Now I realize just how out of shape I actually am. I think I got winded climbing up on it the first time. Baby steps to fitness.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
The week that twas
The beat goes on at work, though an albatross has been lifted. I finally had the opportunity to air my grievances against the powers that be and it was, if nothing else, cathartic. I realize that I also now managed to put myself into a safer spot by being the whistle blower. Anonymity will prove no saving grace, but plastering my bitchfest around ought to be at least good for some safety because the one word that no company likes to hear is retaliation. My coworkers will be talking to HR as well and hopefully a cohesive argument will come together and things will move in a better more positive direction at work. If nothing else, I feel good having stirred the pot and pushed back rather than curling up in the corner and hoping.
Other than that, it has been a lot of work days followed by more work days. Many days spent surfing the floor with my cart-o-stabby things hawking central line possibilities. It is easier to just accept it for the time being, though I REALLY want to just use a week of sick calls and take a trip somewhere sunny and warm. Anyone know a wealthy benefactor?
Don't have a lot of drama of otherwise spectacular happenings to report. Looking forward to trying to put together my new elliptical machine without the loss of much blood or the spilling out of too many profanities. I'd bet the over if I were you.
Other than that, it has been a lot of work days followed by more work days. Many days spent surfing the floor with my cart-o-stabby things hawking central line possibilities. It is easier to just accept it for the time being, though I REALLY want to just use a week of sick calls and take a trip somewhere sunny and warm. Anyone know a wealthy benefactor?
Don't have a lot of drama of otherwise spectacular happenings to report. Looking forward to trying to put together my new elliptical machine without the loss of much blood or the spilling out of too many profanities. I'd bet the over if I were you.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Sunny side
It is REALLY easy to get bogged down in your own personal drama. We all play the martyr now and again and see only the negative side of things. Woe is me abounds. I know, at least, that is how I have felt of late at work.
Truth be told, though I do truly abhor the upper reaches of management for the way they talk down to everyone else and their take it or pack up your shit and go mentality, I don't have to see them often. Too often for me to be sure, but not with any real frequency. Yes, I am going to try like hell to find a more ideal situation and yes I will continue to vent on my personal bully pulpit, but I will also try to find some perspective. Although, I am finding that sometimes perspective finds you.
I work around the truly sick all day. I see people at their last breaths too often. I don't, however, feel very connected. You have to distance yourself or you would go crazy. But, in the midst of it all, my cousin has come to visit. She is now dealing with her 4th bout of cancer, has had more body parts removed than a Camry in a chop shop, has lost her job and insurance and yet remains overwhelmingly upbeat. I am amazed. I wonder how I would deal with the same. I doubt I could persevere nearly as well.
So, in the interest of perspective I will say that, to a person, EVERYONE I work with has been on my side (at least to my face :) and supports me. I will also say that, it isn't a bad place to work even if I am alone pushing a cart all day. I will also say that I finally at least said my piece to the people that matter at my organization and I feel good about that. In the meantime, time to put my head down and try to make it to the end of the year as my near term goal.
Off to finish up another football Sunday.
Truth be told, though I do truly abhor the upper reaches of management for the way they talk down to everyone else and their take it or pack up your shit and go mentality, I don't have to see them often. Too often for me to be sure, but not with any real frequency. Yes, I am going to try like hell to find a more ideal situation and yes I will continue to vent on my personal bully pulpit, but I will also try to find some perspective. Although, I am finding that sometimes perspective finds you.
I work around the truly sick all day. I see people at their last breaths too often. I don't, however, feel very connected. You have to distance yourself or you would go crazy. But, in the midst of it all, my cousin has come to visit. She is now dealing with her 4th bout of cancer, has had more body parts removed than a Camry in a chop shop, has lost her job and insurance and yet remains overwhelmingly upbeat. I am amazed. I wonder how I would deal with the same. I doubt I could persevere nearly as well.
So, in the interest of perspective I will say that, to a person, EVERYONE I work with has been on my side (at least to my face :) and supports me. I will also say that, it isn't a bad place to work even if I am alone pushing a cart all day. I will also say that I finally at least said my piece to the people that matter at my organization and I feel good about that. In the meantime, time to put my head down and try to make it to the end of the year as my near term goal.
Off to finish up another football Sunday.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Figuring stuff out
I hear it from many many people, or the spouses of those people........career confusion. There are those, like me, who just drop out of life as they know it (and in the process, commit themselves to a year in an arctic tundra) in order to open new doors. There are those who take even longer. There are those of us who don't or can't pursue that opportunity at all. There are others that simply won't because of the fear of the unknown.
Even making a change affords no guarantee that the door you open isn't one you would shortly thereafter wish to bolt closed once again (or wall off entirely cask of Amontillado style). We conceptualize and hope that any change will be for the best, but barriers continue to crop up that you cannot anticipate.
My own example was going through nursing school and hating, hating, hating a majority of what I was asked to do while in school on the floors of the hospitals. If I wasn't cleaning up after incontinent patients, I was cleaning out trach tubes, emptying catheters, or bathing the invalid. I could scarcely conceptualize myself in a career doing those things day in and day out for years. It wasn't until near the end of the program that I got a glimmer of hope: interventional radiology. A place where patients flowed in and out and the day rarely involved any of the things that I found so horribly unpleasant. The same could be said for short stay, PACU, and OR jobs. Or in psych units, clinics, infusion, or research. The avenues are limitless and seem only to be confined by my own knowledge (or lack thereof) of opportunities. However, where things only that simple.
What I have learned thus far in my brief nursing career (and other careers pursued) are the following: Some places don't understand training and have a poor idea of the experience (see: lack of) of new nurses, educators, etc. (Here's looking at you Willy Falls). The situation becomes a complete dumpster fire quickly and the only way to escape the conflagration is to drop and roll your way out.
All places promise far more than they deliver, whether it be hours, work conditions, or training schedules. There is always a discrepency between what is said at the interview and what becomes upon hiring and, I should note, it is never a discrepency in your favor.
Managers can't help but meddle. I have not been a manager, so I cannot speak from experience, but it appears more often than not that managers sit idly at fairly reliable intervals (perhaps there is an internal clock of some sort......like a managerial circadian rhythm) and dream up reasons to tweak, twist, or turn things on there head for either their personal amusement or to muck up the works so it appears they are indeed doing something. Rarely, it should be mentioned, are any of these changes well thought out (if thought about at all) and even more rarely do they actually prove to accomplish anything other than flustering the drones such as myself.
Workplaces are, if nothing else, unpredictable. You may well be finding your right career, but may end up around all the wrong people in doing so. Or, nearly as bad, a few bad apples may make the workplace less than it could be.
I am sure there is a point to be found somewhere, but I am not the one to seek it out. To all those who seek out something better, more compelling, or just different.........I have been there, am still there, and will probably be traveling there all my life and I wish you all the luck in the world.
Even making a change affords no guarantee that the door you open isn't one you would shortly thereafter wish to bolt closed once again (or wall off entirely cask of Amontillado style). We conceptualize and hope that any change will be for the best, but barriers continue to crop up that you cannot anticipate.
My own example was going through nursing school and hating, hating, hating a majority of what I was asked to do while in school on the floors of the hospitals. If I wasn't cleaning up after incontinent patients, I was cleaning out trach tubes, emptying catheters, or bathing the invalid. I could scarcely conceptualize myself in a career doing those things day in and day out for years. It wasn't until near the end of the program that I got a glimmer of hope: interventional radiology. A place where patients flowed in and out and the day rarely involved any of the things that I found so horribly unpleasant. The same could be said for short stay, PACU, and OR jobs. Or in psych units, clinics, infusion, or research. The avenues are limitless and seem only to be confined by my own knowledge (or lack thereof) of opportunities. However, where things only that simple.
What I have learned thus far in my brief nursing career (and other careers pursued) are the following: Some places don't understand training and have a poor idea of the experience (see: lack of) of new nurses, educators, etc. (Here's looking at you Willy Falls). The situation becomes a complete dumpster fire quickly and the only way to escape the conflagration is to drop and roll your way out.
All places promise far more than they deliver, whether it be hours, work conditions, or training schedules. There is always a discrepency between what is said at the interview and what becomes upon hiring and, I should note, it is never a discrepency in your favor.
Managers can't help but meddle. I have not been a manager, so I cannot speak from experience, but it appears more often than not that managers sit idly at fairly reliable intervals (perhaps there is an internal clock of some sort......like a managerial circadian rhythm) and dream up reasons to tweak, twist, or turn things on there head for either their personal amusement or to muck up the works so it appears they are indeed doing something. Rarely, it should be mentioned, are any of these changes well thought out (if thought about at all) and even more rarely do they actually prove to accomplish anything other than flustering the drones such as myself.
Workplaces are, if nothing else, unpredictable. You may well be finding your right career, but may end up around all the wrong people in doing so. Or, nearly as bad, a few bad apples may make the workplace less than it could be.
I am sure there is a point to be found somewhere, but I am not the one to seek it out. To all those who seek out something better, more compelling, or just different.........I have been there, am still there, and will probably be traveling there all my life and I wish you all the luck in the world.
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