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The NHS. A cruel mistress
Aug. 7th, 2007 06:03 pmWork has got slightly worst since last I spoke of it. I've somehow gotten to the stage where people feel okay to tell me which other people in the office they hate, and it turns out it's a bit of a seething hotbed of tension. Also, people are just rubbish. The guy who was meant to be on call for any urgent calls we couldn't send anywhere else today went out three times, and never told us who was covering for him. Even after I asked the first time he came back in, and the person who was covering for him told him to let reception know.
I get chewed out every now and then for forgetting to put a message for the on-call person through straight away, or forgetting to take all the details, when half the time people just say their name for a message, like they'll just expect the people to know who they are. I know I should take all the details anyway, just in case, but you know. Yesterday someone apparently said it was "shit" I hadn't taken a phone number down for the person who was calling them. WHEN SHE NEVER ANSWERS HER PHONE ANYWAY. I'm starting to develop my own slightly seething hotbed of tension.
And I also get to watch racism in action. There's another girl who works with me, as a temp, and she is a) black, b) lovely, and c) French. And about ten times more capable and professional than me. The other week someone came to the front desk and had a long conversation with her, then at the end said something about finding it difficult to understand her accent, asked if it was French, then did that raising-your-eyebrows thing when she said yes. And then today, she was on the phone with a woman whose name I won't give out, but is second only to Speedy Gonzalez in Spanish/Hispanicness, who asked for a doctor who didn't work there and an appointment we knew nothing about. After asking what's the girl's name was and asking if it was Polish, she finally needed to speak to a person who had just left, and when told she couldn't suddenly said the girl wasn't doing her job properly, and demanded to be passed to an English person. The irony, it was not lost on us. Nor was the rubbishness.
It's still nice enough weather for ice-creams though.
I get chewed out every now and then for forgetting to put a message for the on-call person through straight away, or forgetting to take all the details, when half the time people just say their name for a message, like they'll just expect the people to know who they are. I know I should take all the details anyway, just in case, but you know. Yesterday someone apparently said it was "shit" I hadn't taken a phone number down for the person who was calling them. WHEN SHE NEVER ANSWERS HER PHONE ANYWAY. I'm starting to develop my own slightly seething hotbed of tension.
And I also get to watch racism in action. There's another girl who works with me, as a temp, and she is a) black, b) lovely, and c) French. And about ten times more capable and professional than me. The other week someone came to the front desk and had a long conversation with her, then at the end said something about finding it difficult to understand her accent, asked if it was French, then did that raising-your-eyebrows thing when she said yes. And then today, she was on the phone with a woman whose name I won't give out, but is second only to Speedy Gonzalez in Spanish/Hispanicness, who asked for a doctor who didn't work there and an appointment we knew nothing about. After asking what's the girl's name was and asking if it was Polish, she finally needed to speak to a person who had just left, and when told she couldn't suddenly said the girl wasn't doing her job properly, and demanded to be passed to an English person. The irony, it was not lost on us. Nor was the rubbishness.
It's still nice enough weather for ice-creams though.
