Coworker Chronicles Episode 1
So, I have a coworker who is a little bit... snooty. There, I said it. She's courteous but never really nice. Never really open or relaxed. She's been a little better lately, and she is the person I currently work with the most. She's there until 8pm, and I leave around 10:30-11, depending on the day.
She's also one of those people who doesn't like to make mistakes, which is a good thing in my line of work, but she also doesn't like you to tell her she's made a mistake. I have been assigned to review her work, and she reviews mine. There's a system of checks and balances in every medical office for scanned records. Out of the blue today, she says pleasantly, "Hey, C, if you run across any mistakes I've made, can you give them back to me? I want to know if I'm making any mistakes so I can learn."
Now, I knew this was a lie. She wants to think that she does everything right. This has been an issue in the past, and everyone who works with her does not like to tell her she makes a mistake because she cops an attitude. And I knew that by pointing out a mistake she'd made, I'd get the brunt of her attitude and it would last for a few days. It's Monday, kids. But unfortunately, a few batches later, I found a problem. She'd written a batch number on the sheet for me to review, but that batch number didn't exist. I looked in the other batches waiting for my perusal, and I don't find the patient. I look in the completed batches, and that number does exist, but when I view the documents, it's still not the patient I'm to review. I look in the system everyone in the hospital uses to see if it's somehow magically in there, and of course it isn't. Crap.
Just in case, I reviewed all the remaining batches I had of hers, and still didn't find it. So I reluctantly walked over to her desk with the batch and said, "I'm not sure what happened, but I can't find this batch in the program." She immediately gets defensive. "Well, I know I scanned it," pointing at the page and her handwriting that has the incorrect batch number. I said, "Well, I've looked at all the other batches waiting for QA, I looked at the committed batch that has that number and it isn't for that patient, and I looked in the other program and it also isn't in there." Still defensive and almost accusatory, she said "Well, I know I scanned it. I remember scanning it." And I said, "Well, okay, I'll look for it again," and she snapped at me and said "I'll take care of it."
Now, if you were me, would you want to give her any more mistakes? I really wanted to find a gentle, diplomatic way to tell her that the reason I usually just fix her mistakes is that I don't want to encounter that attitude. I'm not thinking she's a bad person or an incompetent worker for having missed that patient. It happens. I'm not thinking anything at all, and honestly, who cares? That's why we have the checks and balances procedure in place, to catch each other's mistakes. She's very hard to talk to about stuff like this, so I don't really know what (if anything) I am going to do. I'm tempted to leave the review of her work until the end of the night and just attach sticky notes to it all, but that means that the patient's info won't get in until the next day, which was part of the reason I just fix her mistakes. And if you know how I operate, you know I"m not going to do that.
Have I mentioned lately how glad I am that I'm in school to get away from some of this silly adolescent drama? Oh, and did I mention that everyone I work with is older than I am and should act their age?
She's also one of those people who doesn't like to make mistakes, which is a good thing in my line of work, but she also doesn't like you to tell her she's made a mistake. I have been assigned to review her work, and she reviews mine. There's a system of checks and balances in every medical office for scanned records. Out of the blue today, she says pleasantly, "Hey, C, if you run across any mistakes I've made, can you give them back to me? I want to know if I'm making any mistakes so I can learn."
Now, I knew this was a lie. She wants to think that she does everything right. This has been an issue in the past, and everyone who works with her does not like to tell her she makes a mistake because she cops an attitude. And I knew that by pointing out a mistake she'd made, I'd get the brunt of her attitude and it would last for a few days. It's Monday, kids. But unfortunately, a few batches later, I found a problem. She'd written a batch number on the sheet for me to review, but that batch number didn't exist. I looked in the other batches waiting for my perusal, and I don't find the patient. I look in the completed batches, and that number does exist, but when I view the documents, it's still not the patient I'm to review. I look in the system everyone in the hospital uses to see if it's somehow magically in there, and of course it isn't. Crap.
Just in case, I reviewed all the remaining batches I had of hers, and still didn't find it. So I reluctantly walked over to her desk with the batch and said, "I'm not sure what happened, but I can't find this batch in the program." She immediately gets defensive. "Well, I know I scanned it," pointing at the page and her handwriting that has the incorrect batch number. I said, "Well, I've looked at all the other batches waiting for QA, I looked at the committed batch that has that number and it isn't for that patient, and I looked in the other program and it also isn't in there." Still defensive and almost accusatory, she said "Well, I know I scanned it. I remember scanning it." And I said, "Well, okay, I'll look for it again," and she snapped at me and said "I'll take care of it."
Now, if you were me, would you want to give her any more mistakes? I really wanted to find a gentle, diplomatic way to tell her that the reason I usually just fix her mistakes is that I don't want to encounter that attitude. I'm not thinking she's a bad person or an incompetent worker for having missed that patient. It happens. I'm not thinking anything at all, and honestly, who cares? That's why we have the checks and balances procedure in place, to catch each other's mistakes. She's very hard to talk to about stuff like this, so I don't really know what (if anything) I am going to do. I'm tempted to leave the review of her work until the end of the night and just attach sticky notes to it all, but that means that the patient's info won't get in until the next day, which was part of the reason I just fix her mistakes. And if you know how I operate, you know I"m not going to do that.
Have I mentioned lately how glad I am that I'm in school to get away from some of this silly adolescent drama? Oh, and did I mention that everyone I work with is older than I am and should act their age?
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