Frustrated as hell
ACU Frank
2,188 Posts
I have an employee - very good at her job - who is constantly sick, injured, or (best case scenario) standing next to her disabled vehicle waiting for AAA.
Prior to today, we have called EMTs four times during her two-year employment. (That's called foreshadowing, literary buffs!)
This morning, she was SUPPOSED to be attending a Senate hearing that I lobbied to get her invited to. The hearing started at 9, and her boss and I were listening to the live audio feed wondering whether she was going to have an opportunity to speak. At 10, we got a call from one of her co-workers that an ambulance was on the way because she had hurt herself. (We're not sure why she wasn't at the hearing.) Somehow, she had shocked herself changing a light bulb. Her heart was racing and she was dizzy and her NITRO PILLS weren't helping.
Keep in mind these four points:
1. She has been cautioned several times about the amount of time she is in the hospital. (Yes, I know that sounds cold, but in two years she has lost about 40 workdays to hospitalizations.)
2. The light she was changing was in the bathroom. The bathroom still had one light functioning, but she needed the other one so her staff had enough light to PUT ON THEIR MAKEUP.
3. Makeup emergency was apparently the reason she couldn't wait for the maintenance guy, who had already scheduled a visit for early afternoon TODAY.
4. She didn't even ask our 6'4" employee to help. I don't care what gender the light-bulb changer is, but it should preferably be THE SIX-FOOT-FOUR PERSON!
Now I have a work comp claim - an OSHA recordable NEAR ELECTROCUTION at that, a manager (whose branch was already blowing up) that will be out for the week, and no representation at a Senate hearing.
So, by now you're probably wondering what question I might be about to pose. I don't have one. I just wanted to kvetch.
Thanks, I feel better now. (Not really, but it was the polite thing to say.)
Prior to today, we have called EMTs four times during her two-year employment. (That's called foreshadowing, literary buffs!)
This morning, she was SUPPOSED to be attending a Senate hearing that I lobbied to get her invited to. The hearing started at 9, and her boss and I were listening to the live audio feed wondering whether she was going to have an opportunity to speak. At 10, we got a call from one of her co-workers that an ambulance was on the way because she had hurt herself. (We're not sure why she wasn't at the hearing.) Somehow, she had shocked herself changing a light bulb. Her heart was racing and she was dizzy and her NITRO PILLS weren't helping.
Keep in mind these four points:
1. She has been cautioned several times about the amount of time she is in the hospital. (Yes, I know that sounds cold, but in two years she has lost about 40 workdays to hospitalizations.)
2. The light she was changing was in the bathroom. The bathroom still had one light functioning, but she needed the other one so her staff had enough light to PUT ON THEIR MAKEUP.
3. Makeup emergency was apparently the reason she couldn't wait for the maintenance guy, who had already scheduled a visit for early afternoon TODAY.
4. She didn't even ask our 6'4" employee to help. I don't care what gender the light-bulb changer is, but it should preferably be THE SIX-FOOT-FOUR PERSON!
Now I have a work comp claim - an OSHA recordable NEAR ELECTROCUTION at that, a manager (whose branch was already blowing up) that will be out for the week, and no representation at a Senate hearing.
So, by now you're probably wondering what question I might be about to pose. I don't have one. I just wanted to kvetch.
Thanks, I feel better now. (Not really, but it was the polite thing to say.)
Comments
I also recommend the EAP for you just because you need someplace to go where you can really let off some steam.
I am sending you waves and waves of best wishes. You need them.
Nae
If she has lost 40 workdays in the last 2 years due to illness, etc, and had taken allowed vacation days, how do you know she is "very good at her job". She hasn't been there enough for you to tell. Sounds to me like she has "very good" staff.;)
Accident prone people are people who either are not really paying attention or are people who subconciously want to get hurt (for the attention or because they want to check out).
I believe one should start with counseling (on paying attention) and move on to an EAP if necessary. Everyone has accidents now and then, but people who are prone to them are also prone to something else.
:angel:
I don't have a death wish; at least that is what my therapist tells me.
It sounded more like Frank's employee may be a bit of an 'airhead'? Is she blonde, Frank?
I get a lot of bruises too, but it is because I am thinking of too many things at once (I still have a sore left foot and a mark on my knee from tripping over my open drawer a few months ago, not to mention all the little bruises that have come and gone since then). As I said, accident prone people are not focused. When they become a liability to themselves and others it is time to do something. Frank's person is in that category.
When you start having enough accidents that you have to be repeatedly taken to the hospital, it will be time to have a sit down with you too (about your sleep). Accidents caused by physical limitations are in a different category. However, even those can get to be too much as we should become aware of what our limitations are and then act accordingly.
As I said, we all have accidents. It can be due to not paying attention, lack of sleep, not being aware of things coming our way, or any number of reasons. But people who put themselves and others at serious risks repeatedly have issues that need to be addressed.
I believe one should start with counseling (on paying attention) and move on to an EAP if necessary. Everyone has accidents now and then, but people who are prone to them are also prone to something else.
:angel:[/QUOTE]
I'm glad somebody mentioned some of the reasons many people are accident prone. Most people I know who have a lot of accidents are very easily distracted...my 4-year-old granddaughter is well on her way to being one of those types because she's always looking at something behind her, or off to the side, so she constantly trips over her feet, cracks in the sidewalk, her baby sister, etc. We're trying really hard to teach her to to watch where she's going, not what's going on everywhere else. Unfortunately, she comes by it honestly - her mother is the same way and is always falling down or hurting herself because she isn't paying attention to what she's doing. When I'm with her and she's carrying the little one, I find myself bracing to catch the baby because mom didn't watch where she was walking and tripped!
I've also known more than my share of those who were accident- or illness-prone as an attention-getting device, or to get out of doing things. We've had several employees who make a major crisis of every sniffle or scratch. They'll miss a week of work because they got a bruise. And we all know that there are doctors out there who will write people off work for literally weeks for the least little thing, so all these employees have to do is say "it hurts" and the doctor says "how long do you think you need to be off?" Several employees I've known seem to thrive on getting attention (even negative attention) for how much time they've had to be off for hospitalizations, surgeries, and medical procedures.
Are you sure this whole magilla isn't kharma? (Yours not hers.) I mean, you're due some sort of a bop on the head at some point simply for the "blond" reference.
O:)
Sharon
:angel:
I don't really have much room to talk. My hair is really thin, but since I am female I can wear it longer and it helps cover up my scalp...most of it anyway.
True. Even when you have a baby, they kick you out in less than 48 hours.
Frank, maybe there is something more to her condition than meets the eye. Maybe the doctors have discovered she's really from another planet or, I know, she's a vampire! Just remember, whatever the issue might be, by the time she gets back to work you're going to have to decide whether or not to give her a hug so be thinking on that. Oh, and I hope you didn't forget to send her flowers, from the company of course.
Sharon
Maybe they kept her for a psych eval?
I am being serious with this statement. Not that I am serious often, but surely the hospital has reports of her 'injuries' and they may feel she is a risk to herself...
I decided to run this scenario by one of our case management nurses. Her expression was priceless.
1) Employee sufferred a bad burn (where electricity left her body)
2) Employee has a heart condition and they are having trouble getting her stablilzed.
3) Employee might be expressing other symptoms which the doctors must check out.
She also started talking about psychological issues and attention seeking disorders. If I remember right, you said she has had 40 days off this year for hospitalization. If so, and if they are due to injuries, you need to get her into an EAP.
Good luck!
Nae