Or call your 21 year old at 1:45 a.m. to ask where she is and is she safe enough to drive home?
Do you go home from work at night in such a frazzle that you are up until 3:00 in the morning wondering how you could have done better in the day, or if you handled someone at work right, or if you missed something in your charting?
WELL I DO! I'm not bragging! I hate that I sit up and fret about the day, continually telling myself to stop reliving it... live in THE NOW......and that stewing about it can't change what's already happened in the the day.
Still, I fret.
I'm bothered by this stupid obnoxious hairy beast of a woman from work.
We'll call her "Joane".
Joane is a character that Carol Burnette would have a hay-day imitating. She is about five foot seven, has a large ponchy belly and saggy boobs, wears floods. Her shoulder length hair is brown, naturally curly and often disheveled. She wears thick glasses and sometimes goes crossed eyed when she talks to you to avoid eye contact. She brags about her multiple affairs with her old boyfriend, speaks louder than anyone else at the nursing station, and physically pulls doctors aside to tell them her dirty jokes. She's overweight and ugly and I'm getting to like her less and less as time goes on.
Well, today "Joane" publicly insulted our unit secretary, boldly telling her that she hates the way she laughs......... that she finds it obnoxious and doesn't find anything she laughs at funny! And that she just doesn't care for it a bit!
Can you believe the cajones on this woman? You'd have to know Joane. She has a very dry sense of humor and has no filters in her communication. But I was still dumbfounded!
I really wanted to throw in some snide remark about how foul, disgusting, and ugly I find her. I wanted so bad to give it to her! She's one nurse who thinks it's all about her. She monopolizes the aides, is in constant complaint that she is overworked, refuses or rebels when it comes time to taking another patient, and makes sure she reads the newspaper and gets her breakfast every morning regardless..... She thinks she is beyond reprimand, although I've seen her hauled off into the managers office, more than once for her attitude and rebellion! Oh, and did I say I find her rude, loud, pushy and overbearing? Well, that's "Joane"!
I wasn't sure how to respond to this rude comment. Here I am charge nurse, sitting right next to "Marg" (we'll call her Marg), wondering just how or if I should reply to such an awful comment. It was totally out of the blue and unfounded. I love our unit secretary. Largely because of her laugh and her bubbly personality and the way she is always singing. Not to mention that she is a stellar person and has something that Joane doesn't............A WORK ETHIC!!!
That blow went right to my heart!
Marg has been a unit secretary for ump-teen years and really knows her job better than anyone.
Marg stood up for herself. She replied....Well you talk much too loudly at the nursing station and you need to tone it down or take it somewhere else!
I was so proud she stood up to her, but I felt I needed to say something!
Did I stand up to Joane in defense of our beloved secretary? Yes! Just not in the way I invisioned it. You know how you go home and think of a hundred ways you could have handled the situation if you had your wits about you? But I was reminded of the movie "You've Got Mail", when Meg Ryan's character finally gets her digs in and off the top of her head lets Tom Hanks character have it. Out of her mouth right as she was thinking it, NO FILTERS! Then her own remark made her feel awful and out of character!
That movie is what I kept thinking of as I held my tongue and stayed quiet. I'd no sooner get my two bits in and someone would look at me like I have the problem. Then my defense would be nullified and I'd stand there upset at myself and go home to stew about that response.
So I simply said........"I love her laugh! She makes me happy and keeps me upbeat all day! I think she's great!"
Stew, stew, stew............ Should I have put Joane in her place? Should I have said what I really wanted to? I was finally given the perfect opportunity. A rare moment when Joane was so focused on her own opinion that I could have just said how rude I thought she was, and that I couldn't believe she would say something like that at all! Especially as she lacks grace and dignity in her own personality.
I just stuck to the K.I.S.S. principle..............
Keep
It
Simple
Stupid
I hope some day someone is able to put "Joane" in her place and make her shut her yap!
2 comments:
I think that was the perfect way to put Joanne in her place without stuping to her level of words! Great job defending Marge!!! And just FYI I wake up in the night thinking of all the things I should have done or need to do the next day, it SUCKS!!
You did perfect Mom. You have done exactly what you have been wishing of "Joanne", you've shown some tact. You turned a perfectly rude and obtuse comment - that could have left "Marg" feeling very insecure and guarded about who she is - and turned it back in on itself, reassuring "Marg" she is enjoyed, and by someone who is much more worth while than Mrs. Pudgy! Good for you!
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