You see, some of the other doctors who work with the sleep lab get us to type their sleep studies. Its a long job by the time you do all the data entry and then the dictaphone typing but worked perfectly for me the last few weeks. Last night I typed for 4 hours and then this morning I did another nearly 3 hours of data entry! It was then time to head into the office to print out the reports and then take them over ready to be given back to the doctors. Its so nice to look on that top shelf and see a tiny pile of things that need doing. Not that its my problem anymore but I like the sense of accomplishment that comes with seeing all that work done
Anyway, yesterday..... I got in nice and early thinking that I would get ahead. Oh boy was I wrong! It was chaos from the moment I stepped through the door - the phones were all ringing, patients coming and going, letters needing to be typed urgently, test results that were urgent etc etc. Poor Deb was frazzled by the time I got there and the morning just kept going downhill. Thankfully the early morning chaos finally settled and we all ended up getting some work done. I was really pleased to see how quickly I could get through the pile of typing and before I knew it it was nearly lunch time.
I debated whether to have an early lunch or do one more tape and the tape won. That was such a bad move! The first side of the tape was a breeze but when I turned it over the static/wind/whatever was phenomenal and I could barely make out a lot of it. It took an hour and lots of playing back and forwards to finish what would normally have taken maybe 20 minutes.
Highlight of the day would have to be the phone call I took from a new patient. She wanted to make an appt but got all huffy when I had to put her on hold. I don't normally answer the phones - I'm there to type - but as it was so chaotic I was trying to help Deb out. So I find the next available appt for this woman and go back to the phone line. Its April.... he's a specialist so its really no surprise that you're looking 6 weeks ahead. I tell her "the next avail is x date" and she says "is that the NEXT avail" Insert heavy eye roll here. Her tone was rather nasty and clipped and she was impatient. OH yeah, she'd rung a few moments before and her phone had dropped out so when I had answered the second call she says "can you hear me now" in a really nasty tone. Anyway, I asked her if she could hold for a moment so that I could check the time and she says very huffily "this is costing me a fortune - I'm ringing from my mobile!" Sorry love but if you want to book an appt and don't want to be charged a large mobile call then TRY RINGING FROM A LAND LINE! I don't know if she expected to just be told come tomorrow at 10 and not give any details.... So she decided she'd ring back from work "I'll just take that appt and ring back from work" I had to tell her that if someone else rang in the meantime we couldn't hold the appt open for her without her details and she once again huffed at me
Thankfully when she rang back I didn't take the call but I could tell almost instantly who Deb was speaking to and had to giggle. Thankfully, I'd warned Deb about the attitude but she was still astounded by the rudeness.
We did have some very lovely patients sitting in the waiting room who had a little chuckle about how rude and self important this woman sounded. Needless to say her request for a cancellation will most likely be ignored! LOL
So that was the nasty part of the day
A lovely part of the day - one of the sleep centre doctors ringing to thank me very much for all my hard work getting his typing up to date *blush* It was almost indecent how much he praised me but oh so nice at the same time. Lucky I could fit out the door after that! He topped it off by sending over a card and box of chocolates as a thank you and good luck gesture
And THAT would explain why I did an extra 8 hours of work overnight! I figured it was worth doing when I got paid in chocolate!
During the afternoon we had lemon meringue pie and ice cream as celebratory/farewell cake and then I was given a gorgeous bunch of flowers as I left
This is why I keep going back to work for this guy. Its nice to feel appreciated for what I do. I understand that its not an essential in life but in past jobs I've been taken for granted and had things expected of me that just weren't fair - ie taking on a THIRD role when I was already doing my own plus another during holidays and someone walked out! I was working 16+ hour days and got to the skinniest I have been since primary school during that time. A few months later I quit. Or there's the boss who I had to make a complaint to DOCEP about in order to get my entitlements when I left and then had to hand my superannuation complaints on to the tax office. That finally got paid nearly 12 months ago - I haven't worked for him in nearly 6 years!
So now that I've caught up on all the sleep studies and returned them to work I feel like I really am finished (although obviously had a lot that needed to get out of my head!) I had a terrible sleep last night so I'm hoping I can relax this evening and we all sleep better. I just need long enough before this baby arrives to catch up on a little sleep so that I can function okay in those first few frantic weeks
Oh yes, I've been told that when I'm ready to look for work again that I should call them up but in the meantime I need to keep in touch and make sure I go in once the baby has arrived so that they can all meet him/her. I guess I've basically been guaranteed a job for as long as they have something available and with changes afoot there is likely to be more work. I was almost tempted to suggest I could continue working from home but thought I'd hold that one in reserve for now and see how things go with being a mum of three *wub*
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