Being a "Government Employee"

So I have finally settled into my job as a HFEN (health facilities evaluator nurse). The job is that of a regulator and pretty much looks for the negative. Although I am not afraid to say "that isn't the right way", I tend to be more of the teacher as opposed to the regulator.

I could probably deal with that side of things in this job if the office was a pleasant place to be but 50% of the supervisors have MAJOR personality/emotional issues. I would speak my mind to 4, maybe 5 women out of 30 in the work place. Otherwise it is a watch over your shoulder and be careful what and to whom you speak. I should say we are not talking about just simple gossip, I am talking about backstabbing nasty stuff.

I recently had to serve a Citation (it comes with a $1000 fine) to a facility in the east district. It involved a long ride and was my first one so the supervisor had to go. She chose another newbie (the previously mentioned "Spackle Make-up Lady"). SML drove the state vehicle on the way out there even though I did not mind using my vehicle. I got to sit in the back and smell the natural gas until that tank ran out and we switched to regular gas. Both the super and SML put their seats back as far as they could, causing me to sit sideways. The physical discomfort was minimal to the rest though.

I think it started to get really bad after seeing the prisoner bus at the gas station. Super and SML felt so sorry for those men in shackles. Super's son was arrested and had spent time in jail because he was black........not because of the drugs found on his person. SML just could not understand how a friend's son could have gotten 12 years for armed robbery just because he approached a guy at an ATM saying give me that money and indicated that he had a gun when the guy tried to resist. They used some other directions and went off on an exit I had not used on my previous trip, when I mentioned this I was pretty much shot down. So we got to drive all over the fields while SML and Super talked smack about why anyone would chose to live out there, how stupid they must be, etc ad nauseum. Like, this is where lots of your food comes from and if these people did not feed you, you would be shit out of luck! So we have been driving for a while and cross a major road. I mention that we should turn here and get our bearings again, nope! Super is going on. I have already done the professional courtesy and called the facility to let them know we are going to be late. Meanwhile SML and Super are laughing about it being an adventure and I should enjoy it. NO! YOU DUMBASS BITCHES! It is not an adventure. We had a 1p appointment to serve a citation for a serious incident to the facility. The facility has to write their plan of correction at the time we serve it.

So eventually we get there and serve the citation. We go to lunch while they write the plan of correction. That means we have to go where the Super wants even if it is expensive. She does not know where it is of course and it takes us some time to get there cause they still won't stop for directions (I do interject that if we had taken my car we could have found it easily). We have a really long lunch and I drive the car now. We are approaching the turn to the facility and Super has to throw in "have you missed the turn", no you can't turn onto the street, you have to take the next one.

The ride home is equally nauseating because they want to stop at the casino with a state vehicle, I am driving now and remind them that we are in a state vehicle and there are people watching. The final big thing is when Super mentions that her daughter thinks all filipinos are stupid and lazy. SML throws in some smack and Super says, well maybe 95% are, not all of them. The best thing is that Super is a minister's wife and give so much of her time to her church, she has also mentioned her church gave her the Jaguar she drives (I wonder if the parishioners know that). SML also considers herself a very serious catholic. She goes by the rules and would not even do a u-turn in a clear area. I thought there were some rules in the church about how to treat your fellow man, I must have missed the one that said it is ok to look down your nose at people that are different from you.

I am sure that not all government offices are like this (otherwise I would be the same as SML and Super) but it has reinforced my belief that unionization is not really desirable because there is no getting rid of a bad employee. They run to the union and it is just too much work to get the out so the workplace becomes complacent. Inefficiency is accepted as the norm, efficiency is not desired. I don't do well with that cause I can't pretend to be something I am not.