Wednesday, Feb. 02, 2005 - 10:17 p.m.
I believe that temping may show me the best and worst of people.
There is something about this kind of job that makes most people (rightly) assume that you are in transition, desiring something else. And people are often encouraging and helpful when they can be.
To update, I was working at the real estate appraisal temp job. That one lasted a long time, from before Thanksgiving until the end of January.
However, on Thursday, two weeks ago, the manager told me he had to let me go and not to come in the next day. That kind of sucked, but he was really nice and offered to be a good reference.
The next week I worked at a sunglasses company in the customer service department. That place was depressing! But the manager of the department took a liking to me and offered to send my resume to a friend of hers that works at a publishing company. If she really did or if anything will come of it, I do not know.
This week, I started a month long stint at a radiology center, as a paper pusher. That's the only term I can think of really. I get the medical transcriptions from the transcriptionists, match them up with bill sheets, and take them to doctors to sign. I also check for typos. But mostly it's a lot of shuffle, shuffle, staple, paperclip, shuffle.
A woman I work with asked me today how old I was. And then what I'd studied. Then she told me to try some stuff (and gave soem examples I'm not sure if I can actually use or not), but was mostly really really encouraging. "You're young and you can definately get a good job so you should try."
I think this comes from two things, especially with her.
One, she is s a foreigner. She comes from Russia, but a Ukranian family. So she speaks Ukranian and Russian and English. (Her husband is a Swede raised in Finland and also tri-lingual). She came here with a degree in her country that means almost nothing here because she has to get credits from an American university to use it and cannot pass the English classes.
So to her, I have the opportunity to do a lot because I have perfect English and also know another language.
*side note:
Talking to this lady about language, which seems to come up whenever I meet people from other countries, brought back to my mind a desire to try teaching English. I don't know if I'd be good at it or even if I'd like it if I tried, but I'd kind of like to try.
*end aside.
Also, I believe there is an age thing. This kind of job seems like something one takes when they are working toward something (like the other girl I work with that is in college right now) or have hit a point where they are settling.
She even offered to give me some information about local colleges (since her son is 17 and looking now so she has it).
Good things about people.
And of course, these are often dampened by the people that make me frustrated with humanity.
Yesterday, I was picking up signed papers. One thing I noticed was that it was as though I were invisible.
The doctors made a point of pretending that they didn't see me. And something about that feels really rude to me.
Worse though, while I was walking this old lady came up to me and started to ask me a question.
She said that a lady had told her to tell her when her bladder was full so that they could do the test and she thought it was full. Poor lady looked really uncomfortable.
This receptionist or nurse came up and was like "who told you that, did they give you their name honey?" talking to her like a child (and I *hate* that!). And then told her she'd tell someone and to wait in the waiting room.
While I was wandering around grabbing papers, I heard her in an employee room laughing about the little old lady and what she'd said because "she just had a tiny bit of water like 1 minute ago."
It took lots of effort to not march in there and confront them. Their job is help people feel better, so what gives them the right to judge those people?
Plus, I've had that kind of test. You have to have a full bladder for the ultrasound to work so you have to drink a bunch of water and wait, and doctors offices being what they are you usually end up waiting a while. And that can be really painful. Not to mention, if this lady is there for a bladder ultrasound, she probably already has issues with her bladder and it's not a stretch to think that she might feel "full" sooner than someone younger.
I just don't understand the way people treat each other sometimes, especially when these are the people that should care enough not to. I mean, call me an idealist or an optimist, but you should go into medicine (even the lower positions) because you want to help people feel better. That should make you a caring person.
And caring means not acting like you're above others.
Like the doctor today that I had to deal with.
I was told to take some papers to the x-ray room to get signed. When I got there, uncertain if I was in the right place, I asked where I should set them. The doctor grabbed them from my hand, looked at them and goes "Dr. whatshisname (sorry memory's shot) just walked out the door. You should go find him."
I was like, "I don't know who he is." and the guy points in the direction he went. So I said "well, what does he look like?" and he said "I can't do anything with these. I can't help you." I asked if he knew where the other doctor was headed and he repeated that he couldn't help me and said "why don't you go find someone that can."
So, I returned to my department and told the girl I worked with about this. I think she thought I'd gotten the wrong room because she then walked me back to the room where she set the papers on his desk (because actually technically he was supposed to sign them - or at the very least we're supposed to leave them there rather than hunt down doctors), but he yelled out the door at her saying "I already told her I can't do anything with these why did you bring them back to me!"
I do not care that he is a doctor. Your knowledge, or even status in a business, does not allow you to treat other people like they are ants. We may not do the big acts like interpretting the x-rays, but we do do something necessary to process. And even if we didn't that wouldn't matter. He could have said the same things without being an asshole, but he was a clear cut "i'm-better-than-this-person" kind of guy, and it pains me that people like that get to have that profession.
