Crazy Co-workers

[NHLPN]

Oh my! I think I work with the craziest, absolute most bizarre co-worker - she has a real personality disorder!! She thinks everyone is out to "get her", she thinks she is always right,and plays games on the computer ALL day long!!! I am afraid of her. I am afraid to confront her or call her on anything that she may say to me that isn't very nice. I try to avoid her like the plague. I come into work, do my work, and try not to listen to her whine. It may sound insensitive, but I don't want to get sucked into her crazy world. She's the type that would make sure to make someone's life miserable if she hated them. (I have seen it) My manager feeds into this. Anyone else out there work with any psychos?

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

I've worked with depressed, delusional, paranoid, bipolar and downright crazy co-workers at one time or another. Some of them scared me to death -- one was fired for stalking another nurse. I've worked with aides and LPNs who spent the entire shift in a linen closet smoking (and sometimes they weren't smoking tobacco!), Aides who did vital signs by ESP and one aide who was repeatedly found in the patient bathroom masturbating. (We couldn't fire him -- it would be "racial discrimination," since no one actually had "proof" of what he was doing in there.) I've worked with nurses who called in sick from a tavern two hours after the shift started -- about once a week, (it took over a year to get her fired!) nurses who slept all night, and one nurse who aborted herself with a coat hanger in the employee bathroom during her shift and then left, leaving a trail of blood behind her. I've also worked with some great people -- smart, hard working and pleasant. I guess there are "crazies" in every job -- but sometimes I wonder if nursing attracts them more than other jobs -- or is the world more full of them than I thought?!