I QUIT!

I didn't expect to update this blog. As you can see, I haven't written anything in a long time. But sometimes, one just has to unload what's in his mind and heart. This one is longer than usual so please don't get too bored reading it.

For the first time in my life, I resigned from a job without another job lined up beforehand. The abrupt nature of my decision was not exactly a good plan, but sometimes you just have to leave a work environment that’s not conducive to your mental well being. Most companies in the United States have an Employment At Will clause. This means that an employer can terminate an employee at any time with or without cause. The employee can also resign at any time with or without a reason. This means a two week notice is not required.

I’ve been laid off four times and got fired once for hiding admission chart packs which I made myself. After that, I learned my lesson and never did it again.

I’m at the point in my life where I’ve saved money for a rainy day before sunny weather in my job life appears again. For that, I can thank my father and mother for teaching me thrift and frugality.

How did I end up in this position where I had to quit my job so suddenly? During my interview with the owner of the hospice company, she asked me if I was planning on retiring soon because most of her employees had worked for her for number of years. I told her I didn’t want to retire too soon because I needed to keep my mind busy, because otherwise I would just be bored. That’s the reason why I accepted the job when it was offered to me.

In the ensuing months, I learned what I had to do as a medical records clerk for hospice care. Most of the workers were easy to get along with except for one – the office manager. She always communicated in a negative way unless she wanted something from you. I always felt stressed every time to had to talk to her. This is what I wrote about her in my resignation letter to the owner of the company, except I redacted the second part, because I knew that the office manager will eventually see that letter, maybe even before the owner sees it:

May 24, 2019

J…. J…., RN, DON

A…… Hospice Care

Dear Ms. J…..,

I resign from my position as Medical Records Clerk effective my clock out time today.

Noel Delaspenas,

P.S. The long version:

When F... called Wednesday toward the end of the shift asking me to look for a phone call from Mercedes Benz that happened several weeks before, I asked her what I should priorize – what I was working on, or look for the message. I had already passed on this message to her on the day of that call and when I informed her of that call, she said “oh I’m already aware of that” and brushed me off (she does that a lot). She later asked for the phone number of that call while you were in her office and I gave it to her. The call was apparently regarding a last payment, which I know nothing about. When I received another call from Mercedes Benz on Wednesday morning (May 22), I passed on that message to F... as well. When F... called Wednesday afternoon, I was in the middle of auditing a chart which required about two years of corrections, several faxes from the pharmacy and Doctor L.. just came in, and J.. had just returned a medication list which I had to cross check with the Admission HIS (Hospice Item Set) worksheet you filled out. So yes, I was quite busy at that time and that’s the reason why I asked what I should prioritize. She got the impression that I was being sarcastic, so she went ballistic, rushing down to the Medical Records office to dress me down. She said nobody has ever talked to her like that before in that office. I did not engage her in her tirade, kept quiet, and went on doing my work (I faxed 4 pages of prescriptions back to Los Coyotes Drug after receiving the signed scripts from Dr. L.. just minutes before). It was after I faxed the scripts that I started digging into my notebook for the call from Mercedes Benz several weeks before. F... claims that she is always facing a deadline unlike the workers in Medical Records who don’t have a deadline like her, and that all we do is talk. I don’t dispute that she is busy and she has her priorities. I too, have been busy ever since I started working there and I have a different set of priorities. So I think my question was fair. Which should I prioritize at that moment?

(This is the part I redacted) I guess F... is not used to people not being subservient to her in an office setting and she doesn’t like being questioned. She responds to every question as if it’s a challenge to her authority. It gives the impression that she thinks she is always right. I usually just listen briefly until she finishes her sentence then walk away when she makes negative remarks every time I present her with something. She always needs to have the last word, and I’ve been trying to adjust to that in the past several months. If you can only hear her tone of voice when she addresses some of your employees. Unfortunately for her, if I feel that I’m doing the correct thing, I will speak up for myself, but for the most part, I have been holding my tongue because I’m aware that she is my superior. I also know that disagreeing with her is a no win situation for me. But I think asking her which task I should prioritize was a legitimate question.

I can deal with hard work, but it’s more difficult to deal with an overbearing office manager.

I am going to do her a favor and leave this job so she doesn’t have to deal with me anymore. I’ve always had a good work ethic and my job history over the decades reflect that. I have been well liked by my peers and superiors in past jobs because of that work ethic, and have always gotten along well with my coworkers. The difference now is that I’ve never worked for a manager or supervisor like F....

I don’t know how many people in this company have held their tongues when F... talks to them in a condescending manner (condescending with a fake or forced smile), but they need their jobs. I am not in the same position as them.

All the while, we have been working hard trying to catch up with the things your workers have put off for at least the past couple of years so that we can at least decrease whatever deficiencies the JCAHO surveyors may find. So for F... to say that all we do is talk in the Medical Records office is just plain wrong and she doesn’t seem to appreciate the work we do. We have been assigned to do illegal and unethical tasks, and work which are not within our scope of practice, and have had to turn a blind eye on them so that the work can be completed, even though having to do so goes against my moral compass.

If F... thinks I have a bad attitude, it’s only a reaction to her negative attitude. (The resignation letter ends here)

My plan for the job was to stay with them until the end of their JCAHO survey. At this point, I don’t see them being able to catch up on what they need to do. Not because I left them, but because they are so far behind even when they let unlicensed people log in under Registered Nurses names, to do Admission Assessments, Discharge summaries, and Bi-weekly RN notes (among other things that legally, only RN’s are supposed to do), as well as sign for the RN in the electronic medical records. This must have been going on for years and the employees must really owe the company huge favors for them to allow this to happen or accept it as a normal way of doing the job. We’re talking about office workers, a volunteer coordinator, and clerks who have been complicit. If anyone was to do an electronic forensics investigation of their electronic medical records, he or she may find that one RN is logged in at several different places at one time.

A few reasons why I didn’t think I was going to stay in that job very long:

·         The illegal and unethical practices.

·         Poor benefits such us medical insurance for me costing $400 a month out of my own pocket even though they were going to pay their own half of $400 also. They also didn’t have dental and vision insurance or a retirement plan.

·         Salary not commensurate to the amount of work and responsibility.

·         The negative attitude of the office manager

Well, the incident on May 22 just accelerated my decision. The office workers are mostly Filipinos. Just my opinion - I don’t think the office manager would dare to talk the way she does to Filipinos if the other person is of another race because she is probably aware that they will not put up with it. In a bigger company, this office manager would have already been reported to Human Resources. Well, our Human Resources person also works under the office manager and she gets her own share of being talked to in a condescending manner because she is Filipino.