Working for a living?
I keep finding myself in these situations and I always end up hating it. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am lucky to have a job, but really, I know that this isn't the job for me. I don't actually hate the job itself, I hate the nature of it... that it becomes so menial and routine and the human interactions that come along with it are often negative or neutral. Although there are some times where I can make the nurses at the triage smile, or perhaps have a nice little chat with my colleagues, customers or shop keepers - I'm still left with this emptiness.
Here I am once again seemingly stuck in a hopeless cycle that robs you of your soul and passion. I work, and let me tell you something about this kind of work. Its the kind of work that drains the energy from within your veins. It offers the much awaited monthly salary and the occasional moment of serendipity when you witness one of life's precious moments unfolding before you.
Well it is a hospital, and that's one of the places where some of the most life changing events occur. Child birth, kid's first doctor's appointment and all of those things but frankly, I don't think that its a place I can imagine myself working in for more than a couple of years. Well, at least until I get my hands on a substantial monetary foundation for my further education.
Sure it is a joy to interact with the tiny sickly patients but, well, dealing with their paranoid and often overbearing parents whom you have to subdue is an exhausting task. One which requires a lot of tact and patience. I mean, I don't want to snap at the already flustered patients. They came to be helped not chastised, however sometimes my colleagues and I can't really help ourselves. We are after all people too. One thing I've learnt is to appeal to the parents' rational side.
Once, I believe it was on the 9th of August, national day. We were highly understaffed and over burdened by the rush of patients. the Emergency Pharmacy just could not handle the bulk of the prescriptions, and the Outpatient Pharmacy was closed for the holidays, so really, we had no other staff to call on. Patient waiting time stretched from the usual 5 minuites to an outrageous 1 hour, so obvously, many patients complained. Many just stared at us, busy and practically falling over ourselves trying to fill the prescriptions. Parents kept trying to get me to check how long it would take for their Queue numbers to be called and I had reached the end of my rope. I was practically throwing bottles of syrup into the baskets, hoping that one would shatter and perhaps earn us a moment of sympathy. I mean we were stressed TOO!
Some parents gawked at me from the edge of the counter, practically at our faces. Obviously they are on edge because their children are crying and so on, maybe they forgot that we were people too, and that some of us had been working for over 5 hours already.
I took a deep breath as I prepared to handle a customer trying to get me to check the progress on his prescription. I just said, simply, "Sir, to look for your queue number and your place in the queue would take me time, and would frankly be unproductive towards your cause... the cause of getting your medicine to you, so please, if you would allow me to just fill in more prescriptions instead of having me check, it would probably be more productive and you're probably more likely to get your medicine sooner" his face morphed from an angry expression to one of sympathy. He gave me a weak smile and took a seat. Phew, I thought. One less angry person.
Draining huh?! I was speaking so calmly when I was furious inside. Now imagine saying that to about 10 more patients. Sigh... sometimes I would just like to ignore them all... but then again...
Perhaps this is the first time I would ever admit this in cyberspace but I realize that I would much rather be with children than adults. See, when an adult does something wrong against another person, you know that they know what they're doing - because at adulthood, a moral judgement has already been established - and their intent is clear, it is to receive some sort of satisfaction in intentionally hurting the other person, you see them becoming plastic, two-faced and deceptive... with little kids though, they don't know what's wrong and what's right so, that two-faced-ness never happens. Children are so transparent. Their motives are clear. "I want that candy bar so I'll take it, and I won't even try to hide it."
What I love the most about small children... they can't seem to suppress their laughter or sadness. If they enjoy something, they erupt into giggles, if they hate something, they'll cry. With adults... tsk tsk. Why is there a communication breakdown with adults! Why can't we all just express ourselves like children do?!
I wonder what life as a teacher would be like...
Here I am once again seemingly stuck in a hopeless cycle that robs you of your soul and passion. I work, and let me tell you something about this kind of work. Its the kind of work that drains the energy from within your veins. It offers the much awaited monthly salary and the occasional moment of serendipity when you witness one of life's precious moments unfolding before you.
Well it is a hospital, and that's one of the places where some of the most life changing events occur. Child birth, kid's first doctor's appointment and all of those things but frankly, I don't think that its a place I can imagine myself working in for more than a couple of years. Well, at least until I get my hands on a substantial monetary foundation for my further education.
Sure it is a joy to interact with the tiny sickly patients but, well, dealing with their paranoid and often overbearing parents whom you have to subdue is an exhausting task. One which requires a lot of tact and patience. I mean, I don't want to snap at the already flustered patients. They came to be helped not chastised, however sometimes my colleagues and I can't really help ourselves. We are after all people too. One thing I've learnt is to appeal to the parents' rational side.
Once, I believe it was on the 9th of August, national day. We were highly understaffed and over burdened by the rush of patients. the Emergency Pharmacy just could not handle the bulk of the prescriptions, and the Outpatient Pharmacy was closed for the holidays, so really, we had no other staff to call on. Patient waiting time stretched from the usual 5 minuites to an outrageous 1 hour, so obvously, many patients complained. Many just stared at us, busy and practically falling over ourselves trying to fill the prescriptions. Parents kept trying to get me to check how long it would take for their Queue numbers to be called and I had reached the end of my rope. I was practically throwing bottles of syrup into the baskets, hoping that one would shatter and perhaps earn us a moment of sympathy. I mean we were stressed TOO!
Some parents gawked at me from the edge of the counter, practically at our faces. Obviously they are on edge because their children are crying and so on, maybe they forgot that we were people too, and that some of us had been working for over 5 hours already.
I took a deep breath as I prepared to handle a customer trying to get me to check the progress on his prescription. I just said, simply, "Sir, to look for your queue number and your place in the queue would take me time, and would frankly be unproductive towards your cause... the cause of getting your medicine to you, so please, if you would allow me to just fill in more prescriptions instead of having me check, it would probably be more productive and you're probably more likely to get your medicine sooner" his face morphed from an angry expression to one of sympathy. He gave me a weak smile and took a seat. Phew, I thought. One less angry person.
Draining huh?! I was speaking so calmly when I was furious inside. Now imagine saying that to about 10 more patients. Sigh... sometimes I would just like to ignore them all... but then again...
Perhaps this is the first time I would ever admit this in cyberspace but I realize that I would much rather be with children than adults. See, when an adult does something wrong against another person, you know that they know what they're doing - because at adulthood, a moral judgement has already been established - and their intent is clear, it is to receive some sort of satisfaction in intentionally hurting the other person, you see them becoming plastic, two-faced and deceptive... with little kids though, they don't know what's wrong and what's right so, that two-faced-ness never happens. Children are so transparent. Their motives are clear. "I want that candy bar so I'll take it, and I won't even try to hide it."
What I love the most about small children... they can't seem to suppress their laughter or sadness. If they enjoy something, they erupt into giggles, if they hate something, they'll cry. With adults... tsk tsk. Why is there a communication breakdown with adults! Why can't we all just express ourselves like children do?!
I wonder what life as a teacher would be like...
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