Most of you who read my blogs know that I just recently got a peramanent gig with a small animal vet in ther area. The office is fairly small. In fact, there are four of us there who are full time. The Vet, of course, the “front office” person, the Pet Nurse/Technician, and me, the “anything that needs to be done” person.
I absolutely love my job. I get to love on the pets that are brought in to the office. I get to learn new things about animal care. I work with some really awesome people who genuinely care for animals. Oh, like any job, there are some low times. I cannot say that I am enamored of cleaning cages, or cleaning up pee, poop or vomit, or mopping the floors. But, I gladly do those things that are not so appealing because the rest of what I get to do is totally awesome! I can truthfully say that I am so very thankful for this chance to make a difference.
That being said. I am also the “person in the middle”. What does that mean? Well, I have a “realationship” with the front office person and one with the Pet Nurse/Technician. Some times, it is hard to remain like Switzerland and be neutral. Both the “front office” person and the Pet Nurse/Technician bend my ear about the other when there has been a particularly stressful day. Most of the time, I can remain in the “neutral” position.
What does that mean? Well, that means that I allow the other person to vent without joining in the farcas. Meaning, I ususally do not also offer up negatives when the person is venting. Some times, I will say to one or the other when they are venting that I feel they have a legitimate issue. But, most of the time, I only offer an ear for the person to vent. I may suggest looking at the situation from the other person’s point of view. I definitely do not add fuel to the fire. Rather, I try to put out the flame before it becomes a raging fire.
This is not always easy to do. When you have an office as small as ours, it makes life way easier when everyone works together rather than having two ends pulling against eachother with me in the middle. Being able to stand back and look at each person objectively, I see both their good and bad qualities….And, by far for both of these people, the good qualities out weigh the bad. They are both caring and kind people. The simply see situations from different aspects.
Example??? Well, the “front office” person is the one who has the first contact with most of our clients. So, when someone calls in with an animal they want seen, she wants to get them in as soon as possible, especially if they have an illness or complaint that needs to be addressed. That means that some days, we are overrun with appointments over and above the ones already scheduled. This makes the “back office”…(the Vet, Nurse and me) have to scramble to provide the best care possible in the time allotted. And, it shortens our mid day closing…this is the time we use to catch up on notes, mopping, pet care for drop offs, etc…. So, nerves get short and there is tenseness because we all feel the “pinch” the Vet and Nurse more than me…I just simply do what I am told, head down and plowing through it. So, the grumbling begins….
Converse…If the Pet Nurse/Technician is working diligently to get pets seen and things done for their release and the “front office” person is not in the “loop” about what is going on….it causes tenseness because she is the one who needs to let the pet owners know what is going on…or she is also the person who is being seen first if we cannot get them in a room right away… Needless to say, not all exams take just 30 minutes which is the allotted time. If they run over..well the “front office” person feels the “pinch” and wants to know what is “taking so long” and why…. Again tenseness.
When there is tenseness, people say and do things they might not actually do if things were calm and cool. So, I try to be the go between to keep the peace…I cannot always keep the flame from bursting into a full fledged fire. But, most of the time I am successful.
I am going to say something that just popped into my head…but it is totally true! The way I grew up…not making waves and trying to keep the peace in the house by being the go between or the person who tried to keep the ship afloat totally trained me for my current position. Trying to make sure that things go as smoothly as they can on tense days has to be someones job…..guess it is mine. I stepped into it.
The past week has been particularly difficult because we have had only one computer since of ours died. We had three people trying to use one terminal. Again, each had a different perspective as to what the computer was needed for. So, tempers were flaring and to everyone’s credit…when things got really tense and hot, everyone would go to their perspective corners and take a breath…By not siding with one or the other, I could efficiently work with both of them.
