Author:
Debbie
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Date Posted: 02:09:06 01/18/03 Sat
The worst job I ever had? Like Diego, working in the "food service industry" while in school. Serving "John Q. Public" regularly exposed me to more lunatics than I ever encountered working in the psychiatric field.
Having said that, though, my worst MOMENT in a job was when working at the psych hospital in Bermuda, probably the equivalent of a state hospital in the States, only a heck of a lot more "relaxed," I guess you could say. There were only two of us in Medical Records, and while my shift started at 7:30 a.m., my boss didn't mosey in till a couple of hours later. (Being The Boss and a Bermudian, she could afford to have a very "lacksadaisical" attitude towards work.) Our department was isolated, yet had no panic buttons, "budget constraints" being the official reason given whenever we asked for them for security reasons. Unlike the general hospital, the psych hospital didn't have security guards on duty during the day, only at night when the wards were locked and the patients asleep (go figure). I used to regularly find the Security guy snoozing in the lobby when I got to work, catching up on a few z's till his shift ended at 8:00.
Thus one morning I found myself alone with a patient who'd wandered into my office, nothing unusual since virtually all of them were on open wards and freely roamed the hospital. However, in this case I happened to know that "Sinclair" was a convicted rapist who'd been transferred to us from Her Majesty's Prison near the end of his sentence, which recently had expired. Now that he had been transferred from the only locked ward to an open ward, he decided to "go walkabout" and ended up in my office.
Given the state of "Security," I knew I'd have to deal with him myself. Ignoring my stern reminders that he knew he wasn't to be in there and would have to leave, he just kept looking me up and down "appreciatively" while saying, "You're looking good, you know. No one can hear us back here, no one would even know I'm in here..." Which unfortunately was true! For some reason, instead of being scared (then), I found myself really, really p***ed off. Pointing to the door and in my best "schoolmarm" voice (? where THAT came from) I told him, "I want you to leave RIGHT NOW! And there's the door!!" and started marching him towards it. Surprisingly, he actually came trailing behind me, looking like a naughty and very frightened schoolboy, all the while apologizing, "Yes ma'am, I'm sorry, ma'am..." as he went out the door, which I promptly slammed shut and locked. My boss and the hospital administrators were naturally horrified when they found out, but we never did get any panic buttons installed --"budget constraints," of course...
Okay, I've done my bit. Someone else's turn now -- worst job or worst job experience?
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