Shaddup Already!





















2008-07-28

Huh?

Okay, so apparently I neglected to post that I had taken a summer job. So for those that asked, yes the vet job is a summer one. Actually I'll continue it through the school year until I either get my finances under control or I must quit because my delicate mental stability is unbalanced (more than usual).

Speaking of which, I just had the oddest conversation with my boss at the clinic. Yesterday I was frustrated and pissed off because almost everyone came into work hungover. The assistants stood in the back of the clinic and talked about how hungover/drunk they still were. Meanwhile, I was taking phone call after phone call. People were asking me to do stuff. I had two phone calls that had issues that needed attention and two puppies who had been adopted came in.

We're the official vet clinic for the local humane society, so when someone adopts an animal from them, if they don't have their own vet, the animals come to us for shots and neutering/spaying. When they come in we essentially have to fill out new client information and get the animals checked in. There is a bit of a time crunch because people will start wondering and then asking about the new dogs/cats in the back. It's not a difficult process, but it is time-consuming. So I felt like I was being pulled in 20 different directions while about 5 people are in the back complaining about how sick they feel.

That's the way my day started. Later on I asked an assistant to take a phone call about drug side effects in a dog. He gave me the answer that he gives me way too often, IMO. He said "you'll have to take message for the doctor." In my mind, he should have answered the phone and asked the questions that need asking and then decided if a doctor really needed to take it. I say this because whenever I try to get more information, I get jumped on for not getting the "right" information.

Since he refused to take the call, I asked another assistant to do it. This pissed off assistant #1 because he felt like I went behind his back. In reality, he was within earshot when I asked so there was no effort to hide that I was asking someone else. That to me goes against the definition of going behind someone's back.

At any rate he confronted me about it and I went on about how frustrating it is to not get help from the back when I specifically ask for it. Some clients walked in, the crowd dispersed and I was pissed. I tend to cry when I'm pissed and frustrated, so I left the reception desk and went to the restroom to try and calm myself down. It didn't work.

When I came out of the restroom it was obvious I had been crying. Apparently word had gotten back to someone who isn't management, but is managerial in her nature and the way the boss trusts her. Basically if she tells me to do something, I do it. I feel like she has authority, in other words.

When I went into the private office to calm down, she followed me. I vented to her about how hard it is when I go back and people scatter. I can't even tell someone that there's a client in a fucking room because they all leave when they see me. My favorite is when they're doing nothing, the vet is in his private office and the client needs to see a vet. I'll go back and say something like "Check skin in room 3" and I get "that's for a doctor, you'll have to find him." Thanks for being a sloth. yep, appreciate it, I'll run my tail off looking for the vet while the phone is ringing and other clients are waiting.

I should mention that customer care is priority for my boss. I've never really seen someone as dedicated to his principles of customer care as he is. He does NOT like his clients waiting and he does NOT want someone to stop taking care of one client to answer the phone or help someone else. Since those philosophies are in place, it is understood that everyone takes part in checking in clients. If there's only one or two people reception can handle that alone, but if the place fills up, assistants and even doctors are expected to go up and help. I love this attitude. In fact, when I was a client, I can remember being checked out twice by the owner (my current boss, the vet with most clout, obviously). One time he carried my dog out to my car for me. So he's not the kind of boss who says something and then won't do it himself.

There's so much more to my frustration, but it all boils down to assistants being unwilling to help, even though they're expected to. When the boss is in the clinic, they'll do it, but when he is out, they don't. The boss isn't there much when I am because this clinic is his second clinic, it's open 24/7 and he tends to work overnights. So he is either at his other clinic (that isn't open 24/7) or he's sleeping during my shifts. He has been there enough to observe that I'm dependable and a hard worker.

Okay, back to the story at hand, T, the one who took me aside and talked to me, told me to go home. She said she would make sure I wasn't in trouble for leaving early and that the boss guy knew the situation. So I left about 30 minutes early. Then I immediately got distrustful and upset at how I handled things. I don't know, I don't like to cry, but I guess it's who I am.

I did wonder if they sent me home because of what I had said or how upset I got, as in I was in trouble for it, even though they said I wasn't. I just haven't been there long enough to really know what to think. But T did say that she thought my expectations were appropriate, I do tend to trust her.

Anyway, I just got a call this morning from my boss. He wanted to let me know that he would be taking care of the situation and that I certainly wasn't at fault. Then he encouraged me to come back to work on my next scheduled shift. I will admit that I wanted to quit, but to really do it never crossed my mind. I think that's what was weird, his thinking that I might quit over this.

I guess I need to remember that the average age of the employee there is probably 21. There is definitely not a career minded attitude, even though many people make life-long careers of veterinary assistant (that is the term the clinic uses for the position I know as veterinary technician).

What I do know is that word has now gotten out about the blow-up yesterday. I will probably be blamed for the meeting they're having today. I would like to say that doesn't bother me, but it does. I would like for it not to, but again, I can't really change the way I feel about this. I will fight extremely hard against my first reaction of wanting to apologize.

I am also hoping that the head receptionist took me seriously when I called her about a big goof-up I made yesterday. I accidentally quoted someone the employee price for a vaccine, which is $15 less than the actual price. I told the head receptionist to please charge the excess to my account. Yesterday I was told to forget about it, they'd get over it, blah, blah, blah, but I can't do that. That lady is going to be pissed and she has every right to be pissed. I screwed up and couldn't fix it immediately, but I would like to make amends for it. It wasn't the clinic's mistake nor any other employee's mistake, so I don't want them to have to take the brunt of it. Apparently this attitude is unheard of. What do you guys think on the issue?

There was another issue that apparently I handled differently than other employees would have. I went back to bring a dog up to his owners. It was clear he had urinated in his cage and lay down in it. I didn't want to take him up like that, so I asked if we could hose him off. The kennel tech kept saying that he would still be damp, and I said I was much happier explaining that than the fact that we sent him home with fresh urine on him.

When we were done rinsing him off, the kennel tech actually thanked me for pressing the issue. She said she hesitated because she's not used to hearing that kind of request. I replied that, as a pet owner and client, I would be pissed if my dog came up covered in urine. She simply said that she thought most of the other employees were too young to understand that attitude. That makes me sad and it makes me wonder if I was told the truth when Atty was brought up wet. They always told me he spilled his water dish. That was believable, but can I still believe it now? I have to wonder.

Speaking of Atticus, I took him swimming in the pond behind my back neighbor's house. He had fun.

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