This German Woman Can Hurt You

Feb 07, 2009 10:50

That last post was supposed to have been behind a cut. Sorry folks for crowding your page. I'll go back and fix it later.

So the harrassment for taking a third patient continued. It was coming from the Co-D scheduler again. For a minute I was able to say to myself "That's just her being her and I need to ignore it" but I couldn't. Day 2 the harrassment continued and was verging on verbal abuse. Day 3 the office assistant joined the chorus. I could have ignored it except for snide remarks like "I thought that since you get weekends off you're supposed to take more patients."

I wanted to ignore it. I'm still working on finding that line between overreacting to things and sticking up for myself. After the last phone call asking me why I wouldn't take a third patient, I was angry for hours. Now I do have a temper, and I do tend to fly off the handle, but when that happens I can usually calm down in about 10 minutes. Being angry for hours was telling me that it was more than just overreacting. I needed to do something.

So I called my boss. I told her that I didn't remember that changing my schedule meant taking more patients as part of the deal. She agreed with me that, no, taking more patients was not part of the deal. She spent time reassuring me that nothing else has changed. I don't have to take extra patients. I'm not expected to work 15 to 20 hours a day. She added that she did an investigation of her own and informed the management that the Texas Workforce Commission has a rule that no one can be forced to work overtime. It's against the law.

So I said "will you do me a favor and tell the scheduler to back the fuck off." I said that even though the team leaders and management agree to not overwork us anymore, that pressure is coming from somewhere and it needs to stop. She said she'd take care of it. She told me for the millionth time that I'm a good nurse and a valuable employee and she doesn't want to lose me. It helps to hear that. So I hope she has a talk with everyone else up and down the chain of command and tell them to knock it off.

Meanwhile nothing has happened with the ICU job. Every time I'm on that unit the nurses ask me when I'm coming to work there. I said "well they have my resume. I guess it's up to them." A few of them had said they'll talk to the manager and expedite things, but still nothing. Again, I know it takes time and I'll just wait and see what happens. As long as the pressure from my current job stops I'll be fine. I'll hang around a while.

This is my first weekend off and I'm diggin' it. Since the new schedule change happened after my weekend on, that meant I worked something like 11 days in a row with no day off. Then this week was very action-packed and eventful.

The most exciting development is that J became a U.S. citizen. I went with her to her swearing in. Her appointment was for 7 a.m. and we figured it would take half an hour or so. We were there FOUR HOURS!!! In all 2,030 people were sworn in that day. They had people show up at half-hour intervals to keep things under control. The actual ceremony was less than 15 minutes so most of the time was spent waiting and keeping each other entertained. That's easy considering that J is a one-person entertaiment bonanza.

She was looking over the Pledge of Allegience and I said "now repeat after me. 'and to the republic of Richard Stands'". I have no idea where I heard that but I thought it was funny. She cracked up. She'd giggle madly for a few minutes, quiet down for a minute, then break out in another round of giggling. She said "now I can't stop saying it". Sure enough when it was time to say the pledge, she couldn't not say it, and we were laughing and snorting ourselves silly.

When she took the oath though I was in tears. I have never been patriotic in my life but for some reason I felt overwhelmed. It might have been sadness for her though. She has to give up her Philippine citizenship and I know that it pains her to do that. She has waited a very long time to get her citizenship because of it. In the end she decided to do it in case her parents decide to come to the U.S. to live and they need a sponsor. She's worried about the quality of care they'll get if they stay in The Philippines versus being here in the U.S., although the way things are going they aren't necessarily going to get better care here. Plus there's no Medicare there and they would run out of money way before they ran out of the need for medical care. J feels better knowing that they're here so she can manage their needs if it gets to be too much for them to manage on their own.

Other highlights included our anniversary (nine years) and dental surgery for J. Yesterday we ran errands and had lunch at our favorite Chinese Restaurant. We came home and I crashed about 3 o'clock in the afternnon and slept until 6 o'clock this morning. I'm not joking. I was exhausted.

So today I thought I'd have some Internet and coffee time. I thought I'd play around a bit then clean off my desk.

This is what my desk looks like this morning.




My desk has never been this messy.......EVER. See those big manila envelopes? I don't think I mentioned that I don't have enough stress so I took on a transcription job for one of J's friends. He's having a hard time finding someone who will type about three hours' worth of work a week so I said I'd do it. So anyway, those are his tapes in there. It's actually pretty easy and it pays pretty well considering I only do it a couple of hours. But it's not the money. He just needs someone to help so what the hell?

Oh, hey. I think I see a pair of glasses in there I've been looking for.

So I'm brewing some coffee and getting ready to dive into that pile. The plan is to get a little work done then spend the afternoon seriously goofing off with J. We're going to look at some houses, maybe hang out at Barnes and Noble for a while, then head home for a few hours of quality time with the TV, a few rounds of Wii Fit and then some quality couple time too.

Tomorrow is laundry day. Beyond that I have no plans to do anything constructive. Productivity is overrated - right up there with personal growth and natural childbirth.

Inertia is my new friend.

quality time, relationship, work

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