Mabel Drains the Life Energy From People
Mabel, who we all think is bipolar or has ADHD, talked and ran around all day long like usual. Mabel is 5ft. short, very petite, but her voice can cover the sounds of a wailing banshee. Mabel's voice is high-pitched, very loud and gets extremely screechy when she is excited. The type of voice that makes your teeth hurt.
The past months Mabel has been on a ego trip; giving orders to the other Vet. Assts., questioning the Drs. in front of clients, taking it upon herself to change the feeding instructions of pets that are boarding (she feels a fat Beagle doesn't need to get the amount of food the owner requested because it was that amount that made the dog fat in the first place. A change in feeding directions comes only from the Dr., not Mabel).
Every day that I work and Mabel is there, as soon as I walk into the clinic Mabel is in my face complaining about what other Assts. did wrong or neglected to do. Geez, I'm not even on the clock yet.
Saturday my first four hours were spent with Mabel following behind me wherever I went complaining about everyone else and giving me half hour updates on the appointment schedule. That means a litany of the scheduled appointments until closing time...10AM vaccines for this Dr., limping dog for that Dr.,10:15 recheck ear infection for this Dr., vomiting cat for that Dr. All day long Mabel reports the appointment schedule. Criminies, if any of us were concerned with the appointments we would look at the book ouselves. Many of us have told Mabel just that, but the daily reminder hasn't reached her brain yet.
I found our Isolation Ward empty of patients, yet dirty. I found out the last ISO patient left two days previously and I exploded. Well, exploded internally, but on the surface that everyone sees, I came across as very perturbed.
Mabel worked the previous day, didn't check ISO, blamed its dirty status on her coworker. Yep, I talked to Mabel; reminded her of the job duties as Vet. Asst., her responsibilities. She responded by saying, "I expect you to remind the other Assts. of their job duties and I expect you to use the same tone of voice you're using on me". And then Mabel turned her back on me and walked off. If I was just another Asst. I would have let it slide. But I'm a Lead, I'm Mabel's supervisor. Wanted to let it slide, but couldn't have Mabel thinking she had the upper hand.
I firmly called her back and gave her a very forceful reminder of what was expected of her. I also told her to pay attention to her own job and "While I appreciate suggestions on how to do my own job better, you aren't offering constructive criticism. You're making demands. I'm doing something I rarely do, I'm using my position as Lead to outrank you. Make suggestions, offer criticism, but I will not accept demands and I do not appreciate your holier than thou attitude towards the other Assts. and towards me."
Of course it went over Mabel's head, maybe because I used words such as constructive; words that contain more than five letters. Duhdaduh Mabel. At least my encounter with her didn't make her cry like she does when a Dr. tells her to stop talking, be quiet.
This is the greeting I got from OrphFin when I arrived home after a very tiring and stressful day at the clinic Saturday. His grin made me smile and I felt many of the unhealthy emotions leave my shoulders. When I am greeted like this after a hard day, ah, what a joy to be home.
The past months Mabel has been on a ego trip; giving orders to the other Vet. Assts., questioning the Drs. in front of clients, taking it upon herself to change the feeding instructions of pets that are boarding (she feels a fat Beagle doesn't need to get the amount of food the owner requested because it was that amount that made the dog fat in the first place. A change in feeding directions comes only from the Dr., not Mabel).
Every day that I work and Mabel is there, as soon as I walk into the clinic Mabel is in my face complaining about what other Assts. did wrong or neglected to do. Geez, I'm not even on the clock yet.
Saturday my first four hours were spent with Mabel following behind me wherever I went complaining about everyone else and giving me half hour updates on the appointment schedule. That means a litany of the scheduled appointments until closing time...10AM vaccines for this Dr., limping dog for that Dr.,10:15 recheck ear infection for this Dr., vomiting cat for that Dr. All day long Mabel reports the appointment schedule. Criminies, if any of us were concerned with the appointments we would look at the book ouselves. Many of us have told Mabel just that, but the daily reminder hasn't reached her brain yet.
I found our Isolation Ward empty of patients, yet dirty. I found out the last ISO patient left two days previously and I exploded. Well, exploded internally, but on the surface that everyone sees, I came across as very perturbed.
Mabel worked the previous day, didn't check ISO, blamed its dirty status on her coworker. Yep, I talked to Mabel; reminded her of the job duties as Vet. Asst., her responsibilities. She responded by saying, "I expect you to remind the other Assts. of their job duties and I expect you to use the same tone of voice you're using on me". And then Mabel turned her back on me and walked off. If I was just another Asst. I would have let it slide. But I'm a Lead, I'm Mabel's supervisor. Wanted to let it slide, but couldn't have Mabel thinking she had the upper hand.
I firmly called her back and gave her a very forceful reminder of what was expected of her. I also told her to pay attention to her own job and "While I appreciate suggestions on how to do my own job better, you aren't offering constructive criticism. You're making demands. I'm doing something I rarely do, I'm using my position as Lead to outrank you. Make suggestions, offer criticism, but I will not accept demands and I do not appreciate your holier than thou attitude towards the other Assts. and towards me."
Of course it went over Mabel's head, maybe because I used words such as constructive; words that contain more than five letters. Duhdaduh Mabel. At least my encounter with her didn't make her cry like she does when a Dr. tells her to stop talking, be quiet.
This is the greeting I got from OrphFin when I arrived home after a very tiring and stressful day at the clinic Saturday. His grin made me smile and I felt many of the unhealthy emotions leave my shoulders. When I am greeted like this after a hard day, ah, what a joy to be home.
posted by Stephanie @ 9:03 PM
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