Complaints

At lunch today, someone in upper management asked if any of us had Goggled our self? I told them that my husband Goggled me and it listed a national organization for work that I'm a member. Just for the heck of it, tonight I Goggled myself and the first thing that pops up is this blog. Holy Cow! I guess I'd better watch my words and thoughts! But what fun or freedom is that?

Anyway, I was going to write more about the survey from work but.... I just will anyway! You know you're getting "old" like that cartoon character "Maxine" when you don't really care if the bosses read about your day at work or not! I could be that much closer to retirement! :)

I mentioned that the survey did not paint a very pretty picture of me as a supervisor and in fact the one comment that the majority did "disagree" with was being "satisfied with supervisors response to complaints." Of course, I am wondering what do they mean? Is it a certain type of complaint that they have.... pay, processes, policies, people.. that I don't address satisfactorily? Is it how I address their complaints? We are not allowed yet to ask our staff for feedback, so first thing this morning I listened to a complaint from a staff member.

"Miss Rayna (many of them call me that, I used to think it was respectful, now I'm not so sure), so-and-so (a co-worker from another department) wants me to tear the stickees off the label sheets before I give it to her. She says it cuts her hands." At 8:00 am in the morning, I am not always at my brightest, so I said, "What?" as I scrunched up my face and eyes in concentration. She replied, "You know, the sheet of labels we use for the patients. It's got a strip of paper around the labels (she shows me how she takes off the excess adhesive paper that surrounds the labels and wristband); she (s0-and-so) wants me to take it off before I give it to her."

My first response... NO, I take that back what I wanted my first response to be was "So what!" But then I remembered that I do not satisfy my employees when it comes to complaints, so I must be careful here! So, I swallowed and asked, "What would be the problem with taking off that strip of paper before you give it to her?"

"You mean that I could do it just for her and not all the time?" At this point, my eyes widen and the eye brows go up and I'm beginning to wonder if someone got into the survey results without my knowledge and she is setting me up for a cruel joke. She continues, "We used to take the stickee off for Doctor S0-and-so because he didn't like it. Now he's not here and we don't do that anymore." I replied, "Well, I noticed that some of you still do this as I've seen the 'stickees' in the waste basket."

"Yes," she said, "some still do this. But do I have to do it all the time?" I took a deep breath and I asked, "Are you OK with taking off the stickees to help keep so-and-so happy? Wouldn't that be easier than having her be upset with you, especially since you have done it before for another person?"

"Yes, I guess so. So-and-so (another staff in our department) says that she calls him all the time to tell him to take off the stickees." OMG! I have another staff person that won't take the stickees off the labels, just to keep the peace. At this point, I'm not sure who is feeling and thinking more "crazy".... my staff, so-and-so from the other department, or me? They are right... 100%.... I do not know how to satisfactorily respond to their complaints. With complaints like this, who does? Maybe a primary school teacher?