What a day

I have been working every day since last Tuesday and I am tired. I woke up at 5am for the 8th day in a row and dragged my butt to work. Tuesdays haven't been that hectic in the past month because doctors are on vacation so I was hoping for a nice easy day without too much effort on my part. I sucked down my Dunkin Donut's iced coffee on the 30 minute drive to work and hoped that was enough to get me through my day.

I got to work,put my things in my locker and went to check the list of technicians who were working with each doctor. I wanted to cry when I saw cross-outs and arrows and only Laurie's name with mine next to a doctor who was scheduled to see 26 patients from 8am-10:30am. Usually we have 3,possibly 4 techs with this kind of schedule because rather than being seen in the usual FOUR hours,it's being squished into 2 1/2 hours. Then I saw that there was only one tech with the other doctor who had 19 patients scheduled. For this particular doctor,that would require three techs.

I was told one tech was being sent to help from another office and she would "float" between both doctors. I told Bill,a fellow tech and our schedule coordinator, that I wanted to bolt out the door. I asked if he could pretend he hadn't seen me and was it too late to call in sick for today? He laughed. He was the one working alone with the other doctor,bless his heart. He always puts himself on the worst schedule.

I didn't know where I would get the energy for this but I had to suck it up,yet again,and do the job. Luckily,a friend of my mom's was my second patient and she put me in a happy mood. Other than one whiney patient who drove me nuts,it wasn't a bad morning and I was so happy when I finished the last one. What a relief. Since my co-workers still had the afternoon to contend with,I volunteered to be the "late tech" which stays until all the patients have been seen by the doctor,so they could go to lunch on time. They were all happy. Bill was very grateful.

Even though this day did not look like it was going to be a very pleasant one,it ended up not being too bad since the techs who had Visual Field Tests,Disc Photos and Ultra Sounds to do,came to bail us out when they had the chance. That made a big difference.Team work is very important and to have a coordinator who is compassionate and who has a good sense of humor, really helps to make a bad situation into one that is tolerable.

Does your supervisor or manager make your life better or worse?
(Get it? Better or worse? Like when you have an eye exam.....Is it better or worse? Ok,I suppose explaining that doesn't make it funny but.....I'M TIRED!)