I Didn't Lift a Finger

I walked into work yesterday.

“He’s got some news for you,” my co-worker told me. Of course he did.
“What, did the jackass tell my boss now? That he needed to come in later and still leave at the same time, reducing his hours again?” I asked her.
“Oh, I’m certain he’ll tell you,” she replied a sly smile on her face.
“Hmm, ok,” I said, returning to my work.

Later on into the shift I was focused on getting the part of my work that had a deadline done. During this I was just conversing casually with them both.
“Well,” he began, “while we are sharing news, I’ve got some news of my own.”
This should be good. I’ve been waiting for this the past couple weeks.
“After much discussion with my wife, I’ve decided to go back to school,” he continued, “of course, I can’t work my hospital job, and this one, and do school at the same time, so I turned my two weeks in today. My last day will be February 8th.”
A huge ass grin comparable to the Grinch was fighting its way to the surface of my face. I kept staring intently at my work so I could continue my facade of nonchalance.
“I feel bad,” he said as if he was probing for a reaction from me, “this is such a cool gig.”
I fought the impulse to roll my eyes. I was used to his bullshit and I didn’t even give a damn that he was going back to school. For all I knew it was an excuse as well.
“Well,” I finally said, trying to keep the elation from my voice,” you got to do what you got to do.”
I then returned to my work.

After he let the lab my co-worker turned to me.
“You weren’t kidding when you said you’d get him out of here,"she said with a little bit of awe slipping in her voice.
“Nope, I wasn’t,” I looked at her smiling, “and I even went on holiday.”

Could You Please Pass the Salt?

A co-worker of mine constantly half-asses and bullshits his way through his shift. I really like the guy, as a sit down and chat over coffee kind of guy, but for the love of God, please don’t milk the clock when there is work to be done. He has a supervisor position in a major hospital here and the job with me is his second of the day. He’s trying to put his senior in high school through Harvard (if he gets in). Really, warms the heart, but if you take on a second job, you need to take on the consequences of it i.e. fatigue. Needless to say, I was a bit miffed when he decided to leave his shift two hours early this week, deeming that my co-worker and I could handle it.

First off, he wasn’t even completed with his work. It meant additional work for my co-worker and I to do.

Secondly, where the hell does he get off deciding that we could handle the work and he could leave? Granted, we work as if he wasn’t even there because he hardly even lifts a finger. I was more miffed at what he did and how he did it as opposed to leaving work early.

I wrote my boss a polite e-mail, detailing what happened, how I was frustrated due to him just leaving like that, and that this wasn’t his first time doing it.

The next day I find out that my boss has mentioned to everyone in my department that I had sent her an e-mail about him. Now, if there had been anything pertaining to them in the e-mail, I wouldn’t have minded. Hell, I expected her to tell my co-worker. However, I fail to see how a confidential correspondence between I and my boss becomes “need to know” for everyone.

My favourite part was when I saw her e-mail in reply to mine. She stated that my co-worker had left her a long detailed message about why he left early. That we were lucky to be able to work when it was slow. That he was a different category of employee, so that made his hours flexible. That he was coming from the perspective that if work is slow you are to leave (which is apparently ok). That she is well aware of who is doing what in her department when it comes to workload and that my co-worker and I could easily handle the work load left (uh, wasn’t arguing that).

And the real gem of the mail was the last paragraph. She said that although I acted with the best intentions, I am the only employee e-mailing her about work flow and other issues. That she knows what is going on in her department, and to let her handle the work flow and issues of her staff and to focus on my work and my work only.

Ya know, if she had just typed “Fuck Off. K. Thx.” it would’ve saved her a paragraph of typing. Then again, it probably isn’t too P.C.

I don’t know if she’s feeling threatened or what. I still find myself wondering how she was able to procure and maintain a management position for so long with these stupid antics she gets up to. I also know she was a supervisor with the co-worker in question at the same hospital for 4-5 years.

One of the benefits of my job is minimal to no supervision. That translates into my boss doesn’t know what happens unless someone tells her or it bites her in the ass. Apparently, I am the only one in my department that has the balls to tell her, because really, who likes their ass bitten at the end of the day? I know I don’t.  However, after today, I’ll even pass people the salt and pepper.

Nightmares really do come true...

A few weeks ago I had this dream. Typically, my nightmares consist of my doing or not doing something and it having dire consequences. Such was the case with this one. Part of my job entails pausing a machine, loading specimens, and resuming the machine. If this machine doesn’t got off when it is supposed to, it is as if someone threw a wrench in a bunch of gears: everything goes to hell in a handbasket. In this particular case, it would piss off a whole bunch of doctors and affect patient care.

Fast forward to today: I somehow forgot to hit the resume button.

Yeah, not good.

Everything is coming off late and it is all my fault.

I believe as the lab manager put it when the techs told him: “ Oh good, at least we have someone to blame.”

Yeah, thanks alot.

Then again, the tech told him we could blame one of the other techs as opposed to me, and the manager jokingly said: “Nah, I think we should stick with her (me), she can handle it, he would probably just cry.”

Well, at least he has my personality down, but it still doesn’t stop me from beating myself up about it. I feel terrible: I hate screwing up.

I’m trying to tell myself that the worst thing that could happen is a slap on the wrist, it is obviously an accident. I am just not looking forward to having to sit through it all. It just makes me feel worse.

The bright side? I won’t have to worry about making THIS mistake again.