Personal Vendetta or Witch Hunt?

Several weeks after I blogged about the fire alarm and intercom system at work (http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2010/03/fire-drill-that-didnt-work-so-well.html) that got me in trouble thus receiving a final warning (http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2010/04/final-warning-how-i-got-in-trouble-due.html), and despite my charge nurse reporting the same thing using the proper channels, our findings have not been addressed or maybe just totally ignored.

 I’m starting to believe what my friends have been telling me all along: that the safety officer/head of security has made the incident a vendetta against me by reporting my blog to the human resources department instead of looking at our concerns. I have not arrived at this conclusion easily, but the actions of the two departments who handled my write up didn’t seem to be concerned about how the alarm system did not work so well. Rather, they chose to find fault in the messenger instead of addressing the message. Maybe they took offense when a lowly employee found something they didn’t foresee.

This may be unrelated but there has been a rash of write ups against the Mental Health Unit staff in recent weeks, so maybe the administration is on a witch hunt for one reason or another.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to walk the straight and narrow path so they would not find another reason to counsel me again, or worst, fire me for exercising my freedom of speech.

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Final Warning! How I Got In Trouble Due To Blogging

              

               In case anyone is wondering why I’ve been so quiet lately, it’s because I feel like my wings have been clipped or the wind has been taken out of my sails, partly through my own fault. A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog about a fire drill at work and this has gotten me in a whole lot of trouble: http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2010/03/fire-drill-that-didnt-work-so-well.html . The problem was I sent that link to the safety officer of my workplace to read about my concerns regarding the fire alarm system. He in turn forwarded my email to the human resources department who addressed the issue in a different manner that I totally did not expect. It was not the content of the blog that they scrutinized but the time of night I posted it. The time stamp on the bottom of each blog post gave me away. My mistake was that I was not supposed to be blogging while at work. If I did it during my break time it would have been okay. When they looked at my time card and compared it to the timestamp of the blog, they got me where they wanted, regardless of whether my concerns were legitimate or not. They also looked at other posts and saw similar timestamps. I received a Final Warning counseling for that.

                I usually post at that time of night because, in another country, that is when my friends are ending their day and most likely to go online and read it. Well, losing my job is not worth the small number of hits on my blog just so my friends can be updated. I regret the error of my ways wholeheartedly and for my Good Friday penitence, I swore that I will not post during work time again.

Although I feel that my concerns were legitimate, it was the time and method of my reporting it to the proper authority that I erred. I was hoping that they would have been at least a bit appreciative for my bringing a problem to their attention. In the end, I realize what I did was stupid and I exercised poor judgment for sending a link. Now that I’ve received my final warning, I wonder what they are going to do to address the problems with the fire alarm system. I haven’t heard from them about that yet. After all, that blog was written not as a criticism but as a safety concern for the patients we serve and the people who work in the building. I suppose because I’m at the bottom of the totem pole, I don’t get a response to my concerns, but they can find reason to write me up for a final warning. Because I have no defense, what can I do other than go meekly with my tail between my legs. I don’t know if they missed the point of my email or ignored it completely and just considered the time stamp of the blog. However, I accept their verdict. You can be the best worker in the world (which I’m not), but if you take a slip like this, nothing is going to save your job.

A few years ago, the Dixie Chicks made a documentary movie called SHUT UP AND SING. I should do myself a big favor by keeping a low profile, just do the job I’m paid to do, stop writing, and just SHUT UP AND WORK!

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Recent Happenings In Life

A couple of weeks ago there was an earthquake in our area at 4 a.m. while I was off from work so I was asleep at home. I didn’t feel a thing and never woke up. I only heard about it in the news later. Maybe my dizzy spells had something to do with not feeling anything because in my head I’m already shaking and swaying.

Also about two weeks ago, we admitted a patient in the middle of the night and while I was checking his belongings for things not allowed on the unit, he gave up a cell phone, wallet, and his barbering tools. Then I noticed he tried to hide something from me while I was checking his jacket pockets and when I asked what he had in his hand, he showed me another cell phone. The first one must have been a decoy.

While it is somewhat difficult, I found out that it is possible to read the newspaper while using the elliptical trainer even if you use a programmed workout which changes the speed and tension of the pedals. The difficult thing is turning the page of the newspaper because you have to take both hands off the handlebars.

I could possibly be in trouble for blogging about our recent fire drill at work because instead of notifying the safety officer by email or incident report about the problem, I sent him a link to the blog post instead. So far about four other people from work have read it and at least two of them were managers. Even though I made them aware about the possible flaw in the system and I didn’t identify the location of the building, the way I notified them could be problematic for me. It has gotten me very concerned for my livelihood. They haven’t called me yet but we are supposed to have a regular staff meeting very soon.

                 I recently changed my blog’s layout and background but there seems to be slight bug in the way the background was programmed because it gets cut off in the middle and doesn’t cover the whole webpage. I hope the programmers find a fix soon.

                This could be my last post for the month of March. I can’t believe a quarter of the year has gone by already. How time flies. Happy Easter everyone!

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The Fire Drill That Didn’t Work So Well

We had a fire drill at work Monday night. Almost everything went well with our response time but there was one or two flaws in the system. If we weren’t pre-warned where the fire was supposed to be, we wouldn’t have known where to run to with our fire extinguishers. First the things that went right. When the alarm sounded, the patients were evacuated to a predetermined spot in the building and all the doors which unlock automatically when a fire alarm is tripped were covered by the remaining staff members in the unit. Three other staff members each grabbed a fire extinguisher and proceeded to the fire location.

 Now the things that didn’t go as planned. We heard no announcement on the intercom about where the fire was supposed to be. The reason for that is aside from the intercom system inside the nurse’s station, there was no other way to make an announcement from the rest of the building. If there was a real fire, the security guard would have to go in the psych unit, unlock a door to expose the fire panel which indicates what part of the building the alarm was set off. Security would then have to run to the nurse’s station to tell the staff there to announce “Code Red” and at what location. In the meantime, time was being wasted and the fire would have grown bigger.

Usually the overhead paging system is accessible from any telephone in the building so that the first person who observes the fire can trip an alarm then use the phone to announce “Code Red” so it can be heard throughout the whole building. Well, there is a disconnect in the way the building and the phone system is set up and the people who ran the drill had no answers except to notify their supervisor about it.

Another flaw in the system is that the lone security guard on the night shift has to do rounds across the street and is not always near the fire alarm panel. If there was a real fire and security was away, the staff would have to run around the hallways of the whole building to look for the fire. Yikes! It doesn’t seem they like planned the system very well.  I hope I’m mistaken and that there is really a paging system that we just don’t know about, but need to know ASAP.

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