I had an interesting day at work. My supervisor, the lead medical assistant, is completely insane and everyone knows it. She flips out on people at the slightest provocation and will yell, tear up, and lose it right in front of the whole office. I’ve seen her do it to almost every other MA during my year there. She’d never done it to me- she was very happy with my work, my personality, and our relationship with each other. Of course, knowing that she’s nuts I tempered my natural smartassedness and tried my best to be the meek and mild brainless drone that she likes in a subordinate. Not easy given my strong personality and desire to comment snarkily on any given subject, but I did it.
Today she flipped out on me. Lately she’d been checking written-up biopsies because of mistakes being made. I and one other MA were also checkers until yesterday- now she’s decided to do all the checking herself. She is not happy about doing it, either. This morning, as I was putting the biopsies in the bag to be picked up by the courier, I noticed two mistakes on the same biopsy that she missed. I must have lost my mind temporarily, because stupidly I thought it would be fun to point out to her that she missed those. (I was meaning it to be ironic.) Ha! What was I thinking?? Ion’t know.
She *flipped * out. Said “Fuck you”, snatched the paper out of my hand, started crying, and attempted to stomp off. I was having none of it, however, and had formulated my response many months ago when I saw that she was prone to these fits. I re-snatched the paper out of her hand, and I said “Oh, no. You may be able to do this to these other people, but NOT ME. DO NOT flip out! Take a deep breath or whatever you gotta do, but I will NOT accept this behavior.” Everyone was standing right there, but suddenly they were all extremely engrossed in whatever they were doing. But you could see they’re eyes bugging out of their head. We then went into a room and closed the door. Whereupon she apologized to me and complimented me as an employee.
Aw, thanks. It just goes to show, people will treat you however you teach them to. It took me a long time to learn that. If you set up boundaries and present yourself as a person to not be fucked with, people won’t fuck with you. And they’ll respect you. That was kind of a life-changing epiphany for me, and I’m always just so amazed when I see in practice that it really and truly works. You’ll never see me whining that someone is treating me like shit and I’m a victim. Nosireebob!
Waitaminnit. She made two mistakes on biopsies which you caught. Now she is pissed that you found them? Maybe I’m ignorant, but can’t a foulup really screw someone? I mean there are biopsies for ummm finding out if a growth is malignant or benign (pretty fucking important for the poor bastard waiting to find out), and she is more interested in the fact that you called her on a fuckup? FUCK HER.
She wasn’t just doing it to you, she was Doing It to patients whose lives may depend on those biopsies. Again, Fuck her. With a claw hammer. :mad:
IIRC, some profanity is allowed in other forums if it’s not over the top and in violation of the nature of the forum. (E.g., a question about the etymology of “cunt” would probably be fine in GQ, although calling someone a cunt in Cafe Society would not be.) I think the OP would have been fine in MPSIMS.
The story of my epiphany: I used to be so meek and mild. I’m very sensitive, and my feelings are easily hurt, so I was always very careful not to hurt other people’s feelings, to the point of being a doormat. Then as I got older, I finally realized that it’s essential to stand up for yourself, and a lot of times the issue is bigger than someone’s feelings- it’s often a matter of rights and respect! So now, while I will go an extra mile to spare others’ feelings still, if it comes to it I have NO problem being assertive and showing someone I must deal with that they aren’t allowed to treat me like shit.
And I should probably change the score to “trublmakr 2; psycho supervisor 0”. I had almost forgot that a couple of months ago this same psycho thought it would be a great idea to “motivate” the rest of us by flippantly remarking that we were going to be fired when she was testy. After hearing that remark 3 times, I went to HER supervisor, the office manager. I played it off like “Oh my god, I’m just a poor single mom, and I’m really worried that I’m going to be out of a job soon… do you really think we’re all going to be fired? Because I need to know!”
That put a stop to those firing comments, real quick. Ha.
My supervisor is totally insane, as I mentioned. She speaks of suicide often, she has major issues with food, and she is a complete control freak. She has everyone else in the office licking her asshole and running their tongues up it, bowing to her crazy demands and moods, and running scared. Not I, though… it’s good to be an alpha female.
But gads, that work environment has to suck. Of course I’ve got a thing about people talking about suicide. (I probably would have called the cops/mental health people by now, even knowing she’d be facing 72-96 hours, minimum time in a psych ward. I feel that strongly about it.) In this post-Columbine era of hypersensitivity, or even just after this past weekend, I’m sure she’d have some looong counselling over it. She may even benefit from it.
Completely agreed that her behavior is abusive and unacceptable in the workplace. After observing her for a year now, I’d absolutely say she needs to be, at best, on disability due to several psych and health issues, and possibly committed due to suicidal thoughts. My company, however, is a very small four-doctor practice with a staff of around 30. And plus she’s been there for 25 YEARS. She has wisely made herself indispensable. Everyone, including the docs, knows how she is, but she’s a permanent fixture. I have no doubt she’ll retire from there, given her agoraphobia. Seems that people who became established in one place before the advent of “appropriate behavior in the workplace” laws get to slide- their abuse to others seems to be more tolerated. I can only try to temper my frustration and keep in mind that at 46, with a variety of health problems and being a smoker, she won’t be there forever. A new day will dawn, and maybe I’ll still be around to see it.
In the meantime, I’ll be sure to occasionally remind her that some people bite back.
trublmakr, I’d meant that I’d have acted in spite of knowing how much it would inconvenience/piss off everyone else in the office. It’s not exactly a rational topic for me.
