monkeymom's Diaryland Diary
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Just because you're the smartest person in a room full of morons, it doesn't mean you're Einstein.
Have I mentioned that I work with morons? Not that everyone in my department is stupid, far from it, but the people that I have to associate with on my shift, in the middle of the night? They're freaking idiots.
One of the things I do in my office at night is to monitor the gas, fire and code blue alarms for the hospital. When I need to leave my immediate area - to visit the Ladies, or to change the backup tapes in the server room, I have a mobile phone that I can carry with me, and I transfer the main phone line to that mobile, as well as the Code phone, and the Hospice phones. I very rarely get a call on them, but I carry the mobile so that I can respond to calls. The alarms on the walls, though, still have to be monitored, so I am supposed to have a live person come to sit in the office when I leave, even for a couple of minutes, which is all I need, usually, if I'm just going to the Ladies. It takes a couple of minutes more to change all the tapes, but still, I'm not gone more than five minutes, if that.
So on the day shift, and the afternoon shift, there are people around that have learned to answer the phones and respond to alarms, and they come in at regular times to give the operator a break, so she can run to the toilet or go out and smoke a cigarette, or go to the cafeteria to get something to eat. (I think there is only one operator who smokes.)
Sadly, on my shift, there isn't anyone smart enough to answer the phone if I'm not there, and that's why I carry the mobile phone. Because we hire the handicapped! And they all work the night shift!
I'm telling you this so I can go on to complain about how much I hate having to rely on idiots to remember when it's time to come in and give me a break! Well, there used to be an old guy who cleaned the kitchen, and he was actually pretty bright (except that he used to be a preacher and he thought I was going to hell because I'm a Mormon), so I trained him to answer the phones, and he was pretty good at it. He was very reliable, too, and never forgot to come over and give me a break. He moved to Colorado to live near his son, though, and I miss him.
So now it's a rotating job, and whichever of the cleaning people is carrying the pager on any given night is the one who gives me breaks, and they are pretty good about it. Sometimes they forget, but it's rare, and I can page them if I need them, so it's not a problem.
(Sometimes if the cleaning guy is too busy, I ask Anthony the security guard, but he's another idiot, and if I'm going to ask him to do me a favor, then I have to be nice to him. I hate that. I don't like to talk to him, because he is always trying to be funny, and when I don't laugh, he explains his jokes to me! I'm not laughing because you're not funny!)
Mostly the guy who cleans Surgery at night is the one who gives me a break during the week, and he's pretty reliable. He's pleasant about it, it's just that he's...well, he's not retarded, but he's simple. He's an interesting case, because he's married, and his wife is domineering, so he does all the housework and he also has to walk to work so she can have the car in case she needs it. He lives about three miles from the hospital and he walks in all kinds of weather, except that I've started giving him a ride home in the morning if it's really nasty outside.
So he's simple, but nice, and Andy does an excellent imitation of him that cracks me up! All Andy has to do is say one word in Rocky's voice, and I just about fall out of my chair laughing!
Last night Rocky gave me a break at 3 a.m., and I guess he thought he was going to be funny by turning the heat way down in the office while I was gone, because he's done it before to the other night operator, and he told me about it, because he thought it was so hilarious. So after he left the office, I noticed the fan was blowing cold air, and when I checked the thermostat, yeah, it was turned down to 60. Har. Har. I turned it back up, and I planned to tell him I didn't notice anything if he asked me about it, so he might be unsure about whether he had turned it down or not. (Which is my idea of a funny joke.)
That was at 3 a.m., and usually he comes back about 4:30, or 5 at the latest, so I can change the tapes in the server room - it has to be done at a certain time, when all the Saves are finished - but he never showed up. I could have paged him, but I was tired and didn't feel like having to be pleasant to him, so I just transferred the phones to the mobile, and went back to the server room to change the tapes. It takes no time at all, and I was back in the office in a couple of minutes, no big deal.
So he forgot to give me the last break, and I just went back and changed tapes, but when I got back to the office, a woman called who sounded upset and asked if I could page the Housekeeping person who was carrying the pager. That was Rocky, so I paged him and gave him the call, and a few minutes later he called me back, and said that call was from the wife of one of the morning cleaning staff, and she said her husband was dead this morning when she woke up! OMG, the guy was like 40!
Rocky asked me what he should do, should he call his department head and let him know? And I said yes, he should probably let him know, and Rocky was hesitant, so finally I asked if he wanted me to call for him, and he said yes, because he didn't want to!
I called and woke up first the department head, and then the morning supervisor and told them about it, and then the news was traveling, because when Barb came in, someone had told her as she came through the hospital.
This morning when I left, Rocky was waiting by the back door to get a ride home because it's snowing and sloppy out, so as his punishment for forgetting my break last night, I told him he had to scrape my car windows. On the way to his house, he said that his dad died in his sleep like that, and it had really upset him to hear about the death of the morning guy, so that was why he wanted me to call.
So it's always something. I didn't mention the thermostat, and I'm still planning to gaslight* him if he ever mentions it to me.
*"To "gaslight" someone is more than simply to create mischief. It means to manipulate a victim into questioning his or her own sanity and, if all goes well, to thereby actually drive the person insane. The term refers to the great 1944 suspense film "Gaslight" in which a greedy Victorian husband (Charles Boyer) conspires to convince his innocent wife (Ingrid Bergman) that she is going mad, the object being to make his planned murder of her (for her inheritance) appear to be suicide. Mysterious footsteps, "misplaced" objects, and inexplicably dimming gaslights (thus the title) are all part of his nefarious plan."
- TheWord-Detective.com
7:28 a.m. - 2007-04-12
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