WORKING HARD? HARDLY WORKING
My current job has its share of cons.
I work for a psychiatrist, an addiction specialist who manages a set of clinics. As a result, he is constantly in and out of the office (Fourteen clinics across the state of Massachusetts yields a lot of frequent driver miles). It's not surprising, in fact, if the doc stays out on the road for an entire day, leaving the management of his main office to yours truly.
But being in the drug treatment business, he has to constantly change the locks on the front door. That's where the cons I mentioned come in. You didn't think I was referring to negative aspects, did you...? No, I meant real criminals. Addicts off the street are always trying to break into the office, even though there are no drugs on the actual premises. Apparently, having a plate beside your door that reads "Drug Treatment and Counseling" misleads people into thinking that we take the addicts' drugs and store them in a cabinet or something. Sure, we do tend to prescribe drugs to get people off other drugs, stuff like Naltrexone and Albium. But I don't know if these substances can get you high. And anyway, the doc doesn't keep that stuff in the office. Maybe addicts are just stupid.
Back to my rant: Since I started this job about a month ago, there have been numerous occasions--at least once a week, in fact--when I have arrived at the front doorstep at nine o'clock in the morning and found myself locked out. This would be okay, if the doc eventually showed up to work. But many times, he has had conferences and appointments in places as far off as Waltham, locations that are an hour away by car. The first time it happened, I actually waited on the patio until 12 pm, when he finally showed up.
However, before you get too outraged, I've never had to squat on the porch 'til noon since that day. Why not? Turns out, after that initial episode, I mentioned what happened to another employee of the clinic, who had endured the same problems with the doc until she politely requested a transfer (which took several months to grant, incidentally). This person told me that if I ever found myself locked out again, to wait only an hour-and-a-half, and if the doc still didn't show up, leave a note, then find something more productive to do with the rest of my day. Also--and this was the really important part, I thought--I could bill the clinic for the entire day.
I accepted the advice with a grain of salt, not expecting such an incident to repeat itself. After all, what responsible clinic chain overseer would throw valuable money away by locking his employees out of the office? But fast-forward just a few days later, and I was enjoying a late-morning nap on my comfy bed, in my warm, toasty apartment. Naturally, both the nap and the toast were being paid for by the Addiction Prevention Clinical Partners of Boston.
So in hindsight, perhaps I have nothing to complain about when it comes to my job. After all, there are worse fates than having to leave work at half past ten, especially if you're being compensated for the entire day. Still, I have found myself locked out of the office so regularly (like I said, at least once a week) that I find myself lacking motivation to even show up on time. Why bother, when there's a good chance my boss won't even be there, and an equal likelihood the deadbolt will have been changed, and I'll be going home at 10:30, anyway?
Clearly, what I need to do in order to increase productivity is find a way to bill the clinic without having to show up to work at all. Then I'd be free to pursue early-morning naps on the weekdays, which I believe constitutes the American dream.
My current job has its share of cons.
I work for a psychiatrist, an addiction specialist who manages a set of clinics. As a result, he is constantly in and out of the office (Fourteen clinics across the state of Massachusetts yields a lot of frequent driver miles). It's not surprising, in fact, if the doc stays out on the road for an entire day, leaving the management of his main office to yours truly.
But being in the drug treatment business, he has to constantly change the locks on the front door. That's where the cons I mentioned come in. You didn't think I was referring to negative aspects, did you...? No, I meant real criminals. Addicts off the street are always trying to break into the office, even though there are no drugs on the actual premises. Apparently, having a plate beside your door that reads "Drug Treatment and Counseling" misleads people into thinking that we take the addicts' drugs and store them in a cabinet or something. Sure, we do tend to prescribe drugs to get people off other drugs, stuff like Naltrexone and Albium. But I don't know if these substances can get you high. And anyway, the doc doesn't keep that stuff in the office. Maybe addicts are just stupid.
Back to my rant: Since I started this job about a month ago, there have been numerous occasions--at least once a week, in fact--when I have arrived at the front doorstep at nine o'clock in the morning and found myself locked out. This would be okay, if the doc eventually showed up to work. But many times, he has had conferences and appointments in places as far off as Waltham, locations that are an hour away by car. The first time it happened, I actually waited on the patio until 12 pm, when he finally showed up.
However, before you get too outraged, I've never had to squat on the porch 'til noon since that day. Why not? Turns out, after that initial episode, I mentioned what happened to another employee of the clinic, who had endured the same problems with the doc until she politely requested a transfer (which took several months to grant, incidentally). This person told me that if I ever found myself locked out again, to wait only an hour-and-a-half, and if the doc still didn't show up, leave a note, then find something more productive to do with the rest of my day. Also--and this was the really important part, I thought--I could bill the clinic for the entire day.
I accepted the advice with a grain of salt, not expecting such an incident to repeat itself. After all, what responsible clinic chain overseer would throw valuable money away by locking his employees out of the office? But fast-forward just a few days later, and I was enjoying a late-morning nap on my comfy bed, in my warm, toasty apartment. Naturally, both the nap and the toast were being paid for by the Addiction Prevention Clinical Partners of Boston.
So in hindsight, perhaps I have nothing to complain about when it comes to my job. After all, there are worse fates than having to leave work at half past ten, especially if you're being compensated for the entire day. Still, I have found myself locked out of the office so regularly (like I said, at least once a week) that I find myself lacking motivation to even show up on time. Why bother, when there's a good chance my boss won't even be there, and an equal likelihood the deadbolt will have been changed, and I'll be going home at 10:30, anyway?
Clearly, what I need to do in order to increase productivity is find a way to bill the clinic without having to show up to work at all. Then I'd be free to pursue early-morning naps on the weekdays, which I believe constitutes the American dream.
posted by Phil at 11:06 AM
1 Comments:
p.s.--yes, I did in fact write this post from the comfort of my bedroom, where I returned after being locked out of the office yet again.
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