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ok, I need some help figuring something out for my mother
DarkSymphony
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
so I went back to my parents house to stay for a day or 2 to help out around the house, do some fun things with them for a bit and just hang out around the place. Well, my mom has been horribly upset and I finally found out why:
she works at a hospital as a secretary in nephrology. Or however you spell it. Ok, so about 2 years ago there was a woman who worked there named tammy. She hated my mom and it was for a very childish reason. There are 2 desks that involve using the phone to register patients for being seen and whatnot. Both phones are supposed to be on at all times and my mom is the main person who takes in calls. She enjoys it and has been doing it for about 5 years total now. So, Tammy HATED taking in calls because when she was hired, they sorta mislead her by saying she wouldn't need to do it much, but would only need to join in with it on the busy days. This turned out to be very untrue, as they had her joining in on the call taking nearly every day. She had other tasks to do so she would always bitch and moan about it, saying she had other stuff to do and couldn't be bothered to do that part of it. So, when my mom would try and tell her "look, that's part of your job you have to do it when our boss says you gotta do it" she would get a little angry and tend to take it out on my mom. There are numerous people there who also observed Tammy's behavior and often described her as loud pushy and a little obnoxious. She would often make phone calls to her friends and chat/gossip for a bit before getting back to her job. At one point she was so upset at my mom for constantly calling her out on not doing her job, that she threw 2 money bags at my mom and hit her in the back. She had to go to the doctor to get it checked out because she thought a rib was bruised or broken. Turns out that wasn't the case, but the fact remains that it happened and people witnessed it. This went on for a good year and Tammy was trying very hard to get my mom fired. Well it all came to a head one day and they gave Tammy an ultimatum to either look for a new job and leave a 2-week notification or be fired.
Tammy found a new job. Fast forward to today and there is another woman who works there named Debbie. My mom had expressed an idea of how to do something more efficiently to a manager and he thought it was a great idea. However, this debbie girl was upset because she said to my mom that it was her idea and that she went behind her back to tell the manager this new idea. My mom had actually told the manager that it was both of theirs idea based on the fact that the 2 of them had a meeting with one of the nurses to come up with new ways to run things. This was a documented and easily backed up meeting as to where the idea came from both of them. It was agreed that one of the 2 of the girls would go to their boss and tell them. The nurse stated it didn't matter who did, but to tell them it was both of their idea. So basically, this woman got butthurt because of something she felt was 100% credible to her and her alone. Well, my mom was forced to have a meeting with her boss today by herself and he told her a ton of things that were completely untrue and easily backed up by other peoples witness and by reports. This debbie woman was saying my mom was sabotaging her work by intentionally not filing certain records or taking certain records off of paperwork to make it look like debbie really wasn't doing her job. He also stated that one time when she was sick at home that she didn't call him about it. She had been out sick at this job twice in 5 years and had reminded him she did infact call, but that his pager was broken and had to be fixed, but had left the message with the phone arrangement area called PASS which is what you're supposed to do if you can't reach him. He retracted his statement and said "oops, rewind that, pretend I never said that".
This manager is never spending any time in the office to see any of these things happen or not happen and is going on the word of a woman who is angry at my mom. The nurses don't wanna back my mom up because they just don't wanna get involved. He is suppsoed to visit the offices once a week at minimum, but he never does. He only sees the nurses, doctors and secretaries if he calls them to his office 4 floors up for meetings. He told my mom he's not firing her, but that it's a good idea she looks for different work. She asked him if she had a deadline since this was all absurd and she had no way of proving the things that can't be proven. He said no, but if he gets more complaints then he'll have to write her up. He mentioned that she needs to have the phone off and let the other girl take the calls when there are patients in the room, which is exactly how she used to do it until he himself told her that their phone statistics are to low so that she needs the phone on 24/7. She explained this to him and he said "oh yeah I did say that, well you need to go back to the way you used to do things then". to which my mom said "yeah, before you forced us to change it".
so now, my mom is an upset mess and frankly I'm horrendously pissed off at how these people are treating her. This debbie woman really wants to get my mom out of the job so that she can have the front desk to herself. Debbie HATES that she's hidden in the back on a smaller desk in a smaller office and doesn't have a chance to chat with the doctors and nurses.
so now, after this ridiculously long winded account, is there anything my mom can do about this?I gave her a bunch of really good advice about how to never appear weak in the face of any of these things and to go out of her way to show them that she does a good job. She's consistantly proven her worth by faxing and emailing non confidential documents to show the work she's doing, but he's just not having it.
I'm convinced he is sick of the complaints he is getting and is completely uninterested in their validity. So, if anyone read this and would like to give me some info or pointers on what I can have her do, that would be awesome.
she works at a hospital as a secretary in nephrology. Or however you spell it. Ok, so about 2 years ago there was a woman who worked there named tammy. She hated my mom and it was for a very childish reason. There are 2 desks that involve using the phone to register patients for being seen and whatnot. Both phones are supposed to be on at all times and my mom is the main person who takes in calls. She enjoys it and has been doing it for about 5 years total now. So, Tammy HATED taking in calls because when she was hired, they sorta mislead her by saying she wouldn't need to do it much, but would only need to join in with it on the busy days. This turned out to be very untrue, as they had her joining in on the call taking nearly every day. She had other tasks to do so she would always bitch and moan about it, saying she had other stuff to do and couldn't be bothered to do that part of it. So, when my mom would try and tell her "look, that's part of your job you have to do it when our boss says you gotta do it" she would get a little angry and tend to take it out on my mom. There are numerous people there who also observed Tammy's behavior and often described her as loud pushy and a little obnoxious. She would often make phone calls to her friends and chat/gossip for a bit before getting back to her job. At one point she was so upset at my mom for constantly calling her out on not doing her job, that she threw 2 money bags at my mom and hit her in the back. She had to go to the doctor to get it checked out because she thought a rib was bruised or broken. Turns out that wasn't the case, but the fact remains that it happened and people witnessed it. This went on for a good year and Tammy was trying very hard to get my mom fired. Well it all came to a head one day and they gave Tammy an ultimatum to either look for a new job and leave a 2-week notification or be fired.
Tammy found a new job. Fast forward to today and there is another woman who works there named Debbie. My mom had expressed an idea of how to do something more efficiently to a manager and he thought it was a great idea. However, this debbie girl was upset because she said to my mom that it was her idea and that she went behind her back to tell the manager this new idea. My mom had actually told the manager that it was both of theirs idea based on the fact that the 2 of them had a meeting with one of the nurses to come up with new ways to run things. This was a documented and easily backed up meeting as to where the idea came from both of them. It was agreed that one of the 2 of the girls would go to their boss and tell them. The nurse stated it didn't matter who did, but to tell them it was both of their idea. So basically, this woman got butthurt because of something she felt was 100% credible to her and her alone. Well, my mom was forced to have a meeting with her boss today by herself and he told her a ton of things that were completely untrue and easily backed up by other peoples witness and by reports. This debbie woman was saying my mom was sabotaging her work by intentionally not filing certain records or taking certain records off of paperwork to make it look like debbie really wasn't doing her job. He also stated that one time when she was sick at home that she didn't call him about it. She had been out sick at this job twice in 5 years and had reminded him she did infact call, but that his pager was broken and had to be fixed, but had left the message with the phone arrangement area called PASS which is what you're supposed to do if you can't reach him. He retracted his statement and said "oops, rewind that, pretend I never said that".
This manager is never spending any time in the office to see any of these things happen or not happen and is going on the word of a woman who is angry at my mom. The nurses don't wanna back my mom up because they just don't wanna get involved. He is suppsoed to visit the offices once a week at minimum, but he never does. He only sees the nurses, doctors and secretaries if he calls them to his office 4 floors up for meetings. He told my mom he's not firing her, but that it's a good idea she looks for different work. She asked him if she had a deadline since this was all absurd and she had no way of proving the things that can't be proven. He said no, but if he gets more complaints then he'll have to write her up. He mentioned that she needs to have the phone off and let the other girl take the calls when there are patients in the room, which is exactly how she used to do it until he himself told her that their phone statistics are to low so that she needs the phone on 24/7. She explained this to him and he said "oh yeah I did say that, well you need to go back to the way you used to do things then". to which my mom said "yeah, before you forced us to change it".
so now, my mom is an upset mess and frankly I'm horrendously pissed off at how these people are treating her. This debbie woman really wants to get my mom out of the job so that she can have the front desk to herself. Debbie HATES that she's hidden in the back on a smaller desk in a smaller office and doesn't have a chance to chat with the doctors and nurses.
so now, after this ridiculously long winded account, is there anything my mom can do about this?I gave her a bunch of really good advice about how to never appear weak in the face of any of these things and to go out of her way to show them that she does a good job. She's consistantly proven her worth by faxing and emailing non confidential documents to show the work she's doing, but he's just not having it.
I'm convinced he is sick of the complaints he is getting and is completely uninterested in their validity. So, if anyone read this and would like to give me some info or pointers on what I can have her do, that would be awesome.
DarkSymphony on
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No, that's not how the real world works. It's how old women like to think the world works, so they like to go all high school mode on other women.
Elevate it to HR and make sure she starts documenting everything.
The current situation with Debbie is typical office crap. Stop worrying about Debbie and start worrying about yourself is the best advice. First, she needs to demand things in writing - that if they want something done that has been overlooked, then it should be written down.
If he has actually said - I'm not firing you, but find work elsewhere - Call HR immeadiately. They can fire you, they can write you up, they can lay you off, they cannot HALF fire you. Its a hostile work environment.
When the boss has complaints about your work, you need to focus on the specific job tasks that are expected and not being met. None of this - well she said, or she complained, etc.
Stop worrying about how Debbie wants a bigger desk, FFS. Focus on the work.
Write it out, both of you sign it, and thats it. If the Manager wants to get in your face and tell you that, thats not how we do it around here - call his boss. They've all got one, even in the Healthcare industry.
Edit: The fact that this is the second time this has happened leaves me wondering though. Maybe the problem isn't the other people.
If she's not bold enough to do it, then probably all she can do is keep her head down and see what happens. She should definitely be going to HR for his threat, and maybe speak to someone knowledgeable to find out if his little threat counts as "creating a hostile work environment". I'm pretty sure it does.
From what you've said, your mother is an intelligent, capable, and responsible medical secretary. Three qualifications that are not easily found nor bread in the character of people who take those jobs.
You didn't give any information to the size of the institution she works on (Nephrology floor, ICU, physicians office, etc.), but in most places you can easily do a lateral transfer to find better people to work with.
I don't agree that this is 'every day life', because no one should be treated like that in the workplace. I wouldn't really recommend HR (ESPECIALLY in a medical environment), because I doubt that she'll get any satisfaction and she'll just have to go through the ordeal again.
Your mother deserves better and I assure you that if she starts looking for other positions she'll find a group of people who respect and love her for the hard work she puts in and she'll have a better environment as a result.
As an aside, from again my experience working as a nurse in several hospitals and settings from general care to the ICU to outpatient, the majority of people in the 'business' of healthcare (secretaries, bureaucrats, HR, etc.) are some of the most unintelligent, obnoxious, and difficult people to work with. Clearly your mother doesn't fit in, and that's a good thing.
Have her move on, find a job and a setting that will take advantage of her talents and experience.