Supposed Staff Meeting
I was supposed to go to a staff meeting to discuss how my work on MAR and medication audits was progressing. I was ready to go around 11:35 when I received a message from the office saying they weren’t sure if the meeting was still happening because my boss didn’t put it in her diary. Strange, since I knew she had noted it down at our last meeting. I thought, “OK, maybe she forgot.”
Five minutes later, I got another message: “Come to the office at 13:15. There will be a quick meeting, and the boss knows you need to start your home visits at 14:00.” So, I showed up on time, as I usually do. I was waiting for my boss to join us when I found out the meeting was just between her and me and had nothing to do with audits.
The Meeting
The meeting didn’t start until 13:30, and I was getting worried about being late for my first visit. My boss said, “Ahh, don’t worry. It’s only a few minutes away.” Then she asked, “Do you know why we’re having this meeting?”
I replied, “No, I thought it was to discuss audits.”
My boss said, “No, we had a short meeting earlier. This is a six-month review, and I’m worried because you’ve been off sick five times in six months.”
I thought, “OK, you didn’t include me in the earlier meeting. That’s not what I’d expect from you.” That was the first red flag.
I said, “I understand company policy and procedures. My absences were due to tension headaches. I spoke to my GP, but they won’t do anything unless I have them more often (3-4 times a week). In total, I was off for 8 working days.”
She replied, “I see the headaches started after your audits. Is there something we should look at?”
I explained, “Yes, a couple of times they started after audits, but it’s not related. These headaches can start anytime. I have no control over them.”
Then we talked about the audits. I mentioned that I wasn’t given enough time to complete them. She asked, “What do you mean?”
I said, “You gave me two days to complete 20 audits, with only 30 minutes for each. That’s simply not enough time, and sometimes you add normal house visits to my audit days.”
She said, “That’s how it is. If we need you to cover visits first and then do audits, then that’s what you have to do. Deal with it.” That was the second red flag.
Flashback to a Few Months Ago
About three months back, I was called into the office and asked to help the seniors with monthly MAR and medication audits due to a backlog caused by a staff shortage. Since I had done audits before, I agreed. It would be a break from normal house visits. We agreed I’d have all the time and support needed to complete them.
“She was so nice and convincing when recruiting me, and I fell for it.”
Lesson Learned
Back to the Meeting
I invested so much time bringing everything up to date. I created folders for all clients with their Temporary MAR charts, Topical MAR charts, and PRN protocols, all typed on my laptop to make them clean and readable. Before, the MAR charts were handwritten and messy. I spent over 20 hours of unpaid work researching PRN medications and creating PRN protocols for each client. And what did I get for it? A verbal warning for absences. Ridiculous.
Deep in my thoughts, I said to myself, “F..k It!!!”
I needed to go since it was 13:55. “Let’s finish this another time,” I said. I left for my first visit and, guess what? I was 10 minutes late. Not a big deal, you might think, but you don’t know what happened later that day.
That story is for the next post, so you can see why timekeeping is so important to me. Find out going to the following link >> https://bigbald.uk/diary/fire-hazard-due-to-being-late-for-domiciliary-care-visit/
