Saturday, August 23, 2008

Personalities

A friend of mine is miserable in his job because of one person, his immediate supervisor. He likes his job, but just can't take it any more and is forced to look for another one in a not-too-friendly job market. We have a few float pharmacists in our system who no one wants to see coming. They are either rude and confrontational or hopelessly disorganized, and some of our techs get almost physically ill at the prospect of working a shift with one of them. In my pharmacy career so far I've witnessed several situations where one person has been allowed to wreak havoc on an entire department -- that one person makes everyone unhappy, and the gossip and the behind-the-scenes eye-rolling goes on day after day and creates a crummy work environment.
I marvel at how these people came to their position of 'power' -- to impact so many people just on the basis of their personality and yet remain untouched and oblivious. There never seems to be a solution, and supervisors are reluctant to listen to complaints that are really just 'personality issues.' We all gotta get along, but I wish some people could get with the program just a little more.

With that, I'm headed off for a few days vacation!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was a very high anxiety level in one of my old jobs; extremely high level of expectation (naturally in a pharmacy!) complex tasks and activities, frantic pace, pecking order, and incessant backstabbing. Added to that, was a tactic I'd never seen before or since.

This is what it seemed like in my old job; the director in cahoots with the assistant would select someone in the department to be 'picked on' for the next year, then they'd plant subversive (subtle) clues to let the outspoken ones know to whom they should diss. Whenever this person's name was brought up, it was a departmental unifying tactic to supplant general situational dissatisfaction with derogatory complaints, and then when the 'pharmacy butt' finally figured out they were next in line for the ax, there was the personal emotional issues such as not being able to sleep, on top of previous overt discourtesies.

I wonder if anyone has seen this at their place of work, as well.

EC said...

Well happy late birthday to you!! That is just too neat that we have the same birthday. I got my great birthday present.... a house! Finally!