Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Scrambled eggs anyone?

It never ceases to amaze me the many and varied ways that people can find to annoy one; especially when working with them! The personalities at the clinic where I'm doing my internship are "unique" to put it nicely (coming from me that's typically complimentary but not meant that way in this instance.) Some of them are not completely bad eggs but they are all frustrating in the very least. I'll give a quick rundown and should also remind you readers that I'm a Southern girl in the Northeast...

First there's "The Empress," fondly called because of her tendency to shoot the messenger. A terrible temper, short fuse, and quick explosion characterize this brilliant internist. I do not shortchange; she is very smart and an excellent doctor but God forbid you be the one to deliver any bad news, no matter how trivial. You can never do anything right, nothing satisfies her, and it is always your fault!

Second, "The Hawk," who is characterized by her ultrasonic hearing and nosiness. She always must micromanage and have a talon on the pulse of everyone's business; even when it's none of hers. She chides for not "owning a case" but gets angry when you make "Dr. decisions" without consulting her. It's always a no-win situation with the Hawk.

Third, "The Drama Queen," who has no filter and says out loud (very loud!) exactly what she's thinking or feeling at any given moment. She is very devoted to her patients but the rest of life she believes revolves completely around her. She also has no sense of time management so a day spent working with her rarely ends before 8 or 9 p.m. even when there is only one patient.

Fourth, "Master Non-communication." He thinks alot of things but fails to share them with his support staff. Result?? No one has a clue what is going on with any of his patients on any given day. From the opposite perspective, he never listens unless you beat him with the information repeatedly. He is also really good at derailing those around him from accomplishing their task making simple things take hours. No matter what decision you make i.e. consult him prior to doing or do something and inform him afterwards, it is always wrong.

Fifth, "The Colonel," who runs his department with military efficiency and expects other departments to do the same. The problem? They don't and then he becomes upset and his department gets off kilter because the top is now unstable.

Sixth, "Two Face." She is quite fun when not working with her and has a good sense of humor. When on the job, though, she becomes a know-it-all who can do no wrong and criticizes every move someone else makes. There is no consideration for the other side of the story.

Seventh, "Mr. Ego," an oncologist who always believes in a cure and cannot admit he is ever wrong. Jumping to conclusions is his specialty and not listening to anyone else his hobby.

There are more but those are the key players without mentioning "Gigi, the hooker" who is also the top administrator since the clinic was sold to a group of business investors... The common denominator is that they all have huge remarkably fragile egos. Imagine spending every day walking around with a bunch of eggs surrounding you on every front. That's how this internship feels!!! 68 days left and I just hope I'm not jumping into a worse frying pan for next year. Now there's an idea; perhaps I should scramble the eggs...

1 comment:

Mary said...

I'd kind of like to hear more about Gigi the hooker...just kidding :)

I currently only have one coworker and am dreading when I have to change jobs and deal with people again!