A Day in the Surgery Waiting Room

I recently spent a day - well, a morning - in a surgery waiting room at a local hospital. I half expected to see people pacing back and forth, chain smoking and making themselves even more jittery by drinking too much coffee. Boy, is that image out of date!

First of all, there’s no smoking inside public buildings in this state, so if they wanted to smoke, they had to go outside. Good, the rest of us could breath. Secondly, the hospital did provide coffee, but it was just regular or decaffeinated - nothing fancy - and I don’t think I saw anybody do more than sip it. It was almost as if they took it because it was there, it was offered, but they didn’t know what to do with it after they got it. Or maybe it was something to occupy their hands.

And lastly, nobody paced. I don’t think anybody had the energy, since they had to be there at 6 AM, meaning they probably got up no later than 5 AM. I saw lots of yawns, lots of closed eyes and heads canted to the side. I even heard a couple snores.

I was tired myself, and it was hard to concentrate on the story I had brought along to entertain myself. I found myself wondering about the people around me, about the way they dealt with their worry, nerves and concern. I people watched, trying to analyze their method of dealing.

Some came in family groups of 5 or 6, and perched in the chairs like a flock of birds, chattering away about highly important stuff, like how long it took them to reach the hospital from ... whereever they had been. Was this normal conversation for them? Did they ever delve into subjects of more substance, and this day’s stress made them resort to a long discussion of such fluff in an effort to keep their minds occupied? Or were such subjects the stuff their lives were made of?

Another such group planted themselves in front of the monitor that displayed which patient was in pre-op, OR, or recovery, and stared at the monitor as if only their presence and will power could get their loved one through this ordeal. When the nurse came to say that one of them could go in to see the patient in pre-op for a moment before he was taken to the OR, they debated among themselves for long moments before deciding the let the spouse go in.

Others consisted of a pair, usually a spouse and grown child of the patient. In these instances, I frequently saw the grown child trying to convince the parent to try his computer, or electronic book, or an app on his new phone ... as if it was the (grown) child’s responsibility to keep the parent from sitting quietly, lest s/he fall into utter despair waiting for her/his spouse to be repaired and returned.

And then there were the single people, probably spouses, sitting alone and occupying themselves as best they could. Some brought a book and at least tried to look like they were reading. Others brought a book but never made any effort to open it. Others stared at the television screen. There were two sets, one set on politics and the other on sports. Not something I would choose to watch, no matter how bored I was.

I hope everybody came out of that room with news at least as good as what I got.

So Predictable

I knew it would happen. I hoped fervently that it wouldn't, but when it came time, the Republicans just had to show the world exactly where their loyalties lay. And it certainly isn't with the workers who keep the factories, banks and other facilities running.

Well, why would it be? First of all, we're a dime a dozen to them. If we refuse to work, or demand a paycheck that reflects our contribution, well, they'll just hire someone with less gall, maybe send the factory or whatever to another country.

Secondly, we can't line their pockets with lots of folding green stuff. How can they get re-elected without plenty of that?

And suddenly, to do anything to show that we are unhappy with the way things are going at this point – for instance, to protest on Wall Street – is to be un-American! Apparently, the only American way to think is the Republican way!

The only thing I can hope for is that they over-play their hand so badly that others begin to see them the way they really are, too.

Spread the Sickness

I have a friend who retired from her job a couple years ago and now works as a temp. She loves it except for one thing – the guilt the temp agency tries to lay on her every time she has to call in sick. As she thinks back through her employed life, she realizes that several employers pulled that guilt card on all their employees over the years.

She remembers at least once when she and the other employees that could drag themselves to work were trapped for 8 hours a day in an office where every second employee was coughing his/her head off. She remembers that particular winter because one employee took it upon herself to make the rounds of the entire office area every couple of hours, spraying the air with antibacterial aerosol, in an effort to keep the relatively healthy employees ... relatively healthy. It was, she says, a very long winter.

Every so often, you hear about a study about lost productivity due to illness. Every time I hear about that, I wonder how much time and productivity would be lost if a sick person wasn't guilted into coming to work when they should be home, taking care of themselves. If the sick employee stayed home for a couple days, and was actually well when s/he went back to work, how long would it take for that person to get caught up? How much extra would the other employees have to take on to muddle through those 2 days?

On the other hand, Employee A isn't feeling well, but comes to work anyway. Because A doesn't get the rest s/he needs, s/he is sick at work for 3 days. During that time, A is lucky to be working at half capacity, is prone to make mistakes, and infects a number of co-workers. So, let's see, 3 days of work is half done, so A is 'only' 1 ½ days behind, except for going back and correcting mistakes that were made. Sound like an even trade to you? Does it stay 'even' when you start counting in all those other employees who caught that same sickness and continued to spread it to other employees? And some of them are sure to seek a doctor's advice, so it seems to me that tips the scales a bit further.

Doctors want you to stay home and take care of yourself when you're sick, and they make their money on people being sick. Employers, apparently, want employees to spread the sickness.