Why is there gossip in
the workplace? This is something that Dave Ramsey hates, but there are 4 reasons,
in my opinion, as to why it exists.
No Transparency.
The communication between management and staff is little to nonexistent. The only way the employees learn about what’s going on in the company, good or bad,
is through the employees whispering to each other.
Favoritism. The
employees see that certain coworkers are always in the boss’s office (or
behind) and they get away with doing no work, coming in late or calling off excessively
and there are no consequences. This upsets those who see it and while in the
breakroom eating lunch, they gripe about it with each other.
Suggestions are Ignored. In
meetings, when employees are asked for their input regarding certain issues, it
is disregarded. Why did you ask then?
Not Enough Work.
If there is not a lot of work for the employees to do, they turn around in
their chairs and talk to their neighbors. And what are the topics of discussion?
How there’s no transparency,
favoritism and how suggestions are ignored.
Everything is nice and
calm and then all hell breaks loose as someone comes running down the hall yelling
for you to call a Code Blue as they grab the crash cart.
A Code Blue is a common
thing in the hospital setting. You have your own experiences, let me tell you
about mine.
One of the things that I sometimes
do is wheel patients off the floor when they are discharged or wheel elderly
visitors to the front entrance.
Why?
Sometimes it’s just to
get off the unit, other times it’s to assist the nurses or the wait time for
the volunteers were too long. In the part of the hospital that I worked on; the
volunteers did not wheel the patients down, so it was on us staff members to
help the patients.
You’re at the nursing
station when the fire alarm begins to sound. What do you do as a Unit Secretary?
Is there a fire in your department? What do you tell the patients and visitors?
These are the things you
must know. Watch the video above to find what they are.
One thing that you should
do periodically is read the company handbook. Hospitals are always updating it
to keep up with changing times, to protect themselves from litigation or as a result
of litigation.
Important updated changes
usually, require that all employees read and sign off that they understand the
new rules.
Have you ever floated to
another unit and had no idea where the pantry was? Or what the code to the
medication room was?
It would have been nice
if that Unit Secretary had created a cheat sheet or an SOP (Standard Operating
Procedure) for the unit.
Although everyone thinks that
every unit does everything the same, they do not.
For example, one part of
the hospital where I used to work at the nurses, CNAs, and even the Unit
Secretaries wheeled the patients outside when they were discharged, while the
rest of the hospital called volunteers to do that for them.
If a Unit Clerk floated
to your unit is there a binder where the extra supplies are kept? If there is a
key to get to the extra supplies, will the float unit secretary know which key
to use to open the door?
I just want you to think
back to when you were a new secretary. Didn’t you wish that there was some sort
of manual that would have made your new job easier?
So, why not do the same
for your fellow Unit Secretaries?
