Frustrating

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Lauri

I made a mistake at work yesterday. I still haven’t sorted out what happened. They called me after I got home to ask me what I did and what I called to whom and how I got the room number. I don’t remember. For the second time in a week I was doing two jobs. I am an eight hour person. And these were jobs usually done by two ten hour people. On a normal day I can handle both ten hour jobs AND get some of the weekly maintenance done as well. Yesterday was not a normal day. The mistake wasn’t harmful to anyone, but it frustrates the hell out of me that I made it. But nobody in corporate America cares of we can handle two ten hour jobs in an eight hour day without mistakes. As long as it doesn’t cost them money. Sigh.

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25 Responses to Frustrating

  1. thewanderingbutterflyeffect says:
    January 3, 2012 at 9:32 am

    Ah shucks! Don’t beat yourself up over it! We’re not Superman/woman! If they’re working you that hard it’s not within your control. šŸ˜¦

    Reply
  2. madtante says:
    January 3, 2012 at 10:01 am

    Boy, howdy!

    Of course you’re frustrated then frustrated on top by the 5th time you’re “reminded to fill out a cover page for TPS reports.” ugh

    Reply
  3. homebody says:
    January 3, 2012 at 10:12 am

    Be gentle on yourself… It sounds like you are already handling way, way more work than you should have to and way than an ordinary person could handle without multiple mistakes.

    Reply
  4. robpixaday says:
    January 3, 2012 at 10:37 am

    Oh, wow…..
    (((((hugs)))))

    They’ve got some nerve. Too much work for a person is TOO MUCH WORK FOR A PERSON!!!!!!!

    I’m sending MEGA-FROWNS in their direction!!
    šŸ˜¦
    šŸ˜¦

    Reply
  5. stevebetz says:
    January 3, 2012 at 11:16 am

    Bummer. I do think a lot of companies have figured out how to get by with a LOT fewer employees b/c in a tough economy people feel “happy to have a job” and put up with crap that they normally wouldn’t otherwise.

    Reply
  6. Hangaku Gozen says:
    January 3, 2012 at 1:06 pm

    Cripes. Been there. Nothing you can do except apologize, though maybe you could start “slacking” on things like maintenance. I hate it when the institution you work for thinks it can squeeze the work of three people out of one: employees burn out much quicker, safety procedures get overlooked in the name of “just get it done,” and if something happens, you get blamed, not the bean-counters who figured they would be saving tons of money by not hiring the staff they really need on the ground.

    Anyway, ((hugs)) for you, dear. Take a deep breath and enjoy being human in all the good ways.

    Reply
  7. doranyc says:
    January 3, 2012 at 1:37 pm

    Ugh, I hate that. It IS frustrating but it sounds like you are keeping it in perspective which is good. Happy New Year, Lady!

    Reply
  8. Cap'n Stephel says:
    January 3, 2012 at 2:38 pm

    *hug* It doesn’t sound like it was really your fault if you were doing work that’s technically meant for more than one person. *sigh* ____ years until retirement?

    Reply
  9. amelie says:
    January 3, 2012 at 3:22 pm

    That sucks. Why are there so few staff, did they lay people off? At my old job people just did not show up. No one got fired over that, but I did get called into the office to explain why I was showing up an hour early. They did *not* like that.

    Reply
  10. Redscylla says:
    January 3, 2012 at 4:34 pm

    Boo on them, expecting you to do 2 jobs. Of course, mistakes will happen when you have that much riding on you. *hugs*

    Reply
  11. Lauri says:
    January 3, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    Thanks so much for all the kind words! It turns out after all my fretting all night I went in and looked at the report and I DIDN’T MAKE A MISTAKE AT ALL. I called a blood result to a nurse. She took the report, read it BACK to me, as we have to do, and I noted in the computer who I called it to and when AND the fact that she read the result back to me along with the patient’s name and room number. Then, two hours after I have gone home she calls the lab and says “I have never heard of this patient that this Lauri in Micro called to me.”
    Two hours. THEN she realizes she has never heard of the patient? When I was saying the patient’s NAME she didn’t realize the patient wasn’t hers? We have to ask to speak to the Nurse in charge of “so and so” to give results. We are not allowed to give them to anyone else.
    So, right there on the report printed out from the night before was the room number AND the name of the patient I had called on. All exactly as I thought. The only problem was, the patient had been discharged two days before. The COMPUTER said the patient was still in the hospital. I hadn’t made a mistake at all. The computer did. This time.

    Reply
  12. robpixaday says:
    January 3, 2012 at 5:24 pm

    ::runs over and kicks the computer so hard it bytes the dust::

    Yay, then?
    You didn’t screw up!!!!!! The computer did it!!!!!!

    Reply
  13. Aussie Emjay says:
    January 3, 2012 at 6:22 pm

    I’m glad it was nothing to get really worked up about – it sucks that you had to have a sleepless night before that was realized.

    Reply
  14. littlemiao says:
    January 4, 2012 at 10:11 am

    Aw. *hugs* At least it wasn’t your mistake, but even if it was, it sounds like the workload is completely unreasonable. The Miao Brothers are worried that you’re not getting enough naps.

    Reply
  15. AuntieBellum says:
    January 5, 2012 at 3:20 pm

    It’s hard not to be extra self-critical.

    Hope things settle down so that you won’t have to do so many people’s jobs. Doing one person’s job is more than enough.

    Reply
  16. fatcatfromvox says:
    January 13, 2012 at 2:19 pm

    I’m playing catch up on blogs, sorry for the late comment, but: HUGS! And pleh to them. And to computers slacking off! šŸ˜‰

    Reply
  17. 1petermcc says:
    January 13, 2012 at 6:41 pm

    I’ve just been through some unpleasantness with Hewlett Packard via another company which ultimately ended up with some health issues for me after they sacked my 2 IC.

    The younger team members thought I should just let the unfairness stand but to my way of thinking we should make a moral stand over how folk are treated. Contract IT work is effectively unregulated in Oz.

    I get the feeling that you may be employed under the concept of treat everyone poorly because they can always do better. Personally, I get better outcomes from staff with treating folk as I want to be treated.

    Reply
  18. Lauri says:
    January 13, 2012 at 7:35 pm

    You guys are all right on. Companies today (even hospitals!!!) do not care about loyalty, either towards employees or loyalty of employees towards the companies. And the attitudes of workers in all fields are suffering for it.
    I am sure that most people still do their utmost to do a good job, but it sure makes us wonder why sometimes. Well, no it doesn’t…we do a good job because it’s unthinkable to do anything but our best.
    Let me explain the workload….I don’t have to cover that many people very often. But, it has happened four times in the last three months where I am doing my own job (and I work eight hour days)…so if I am working in a ten hour person’s job I have to get my stuff done in eight..no problem. But, if another ten hour person in that same department calls in sick and I happen to be there I get to do both jobs. On most days it’s not a problem because Microbiology isn’t one of the labs which stuff has to be done STAT. Bacteria take days to grow.
    Just once in awhile we get a huge bunch of stat tests and this day happened to be one when I was covering those two jobs. So….don’t think I do that all the time! No way!!!

    Reply
  19. 1petermcc says:
    January 13, 2012 at 7:44 pm

    There are some weird ideas from “business managers” these days. Locally Myers off loaded their experienced staff who had a higher pay rate than the Juniors.

    Looked great on paper I assume but the outcome is folk don’t shop there any more because the staff can’t answer questions, but even worse, they are unmotivated. I don’t think it’s that easy to get customers back in retail.

    Reply
    • Lauri says:
      January 13, 2012 at 7:52 pm

      I can NOT figure out how these managers can’t see how harmful this is. In the hospital setting you have people shuttling in and out of different areas constantly, so it LOOKS like we don’t know what we are doing. We have ways to find OUT what we are doing, but, as many of us have told management over and over and over, if you settle people into certain jobs and give them respect and make them “specialists” at what they do the place will run more smoothly and efficiently and the customer, in this case the patients and the doctors, will have more trust in us and feel better about coming to us.
      Pinching pennies while throwing away millions of dollars. It’s inconceivable how these managers’ minds work. The only way they can think of to save money is to cut staff.

      Reply

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