Have you ever been patronized by your boss or a higher up? What did you do to overcome this challenge?

[creativelily]

Hello,

I had a meeting with my boss on zoom. I had been working on a project with a small team (roughly 18 people). The meeting was not pleasant and I was not prepared to face what my boss said. I asked my boss if I should prepare for our meeting. This person said to bring myself, no preparation needed. My boss started the conversation with frustration and said "What's going on with me, concerned about my work ethic and that is concerning since I am in nursing school." Said that I was making mistakes on the data. 

I was shocked to hear that from my boss. When I thought I have been contributing to the project. I have been working on a project that deals with working with the community. I don't want to give a lot of information regarding the project to remain anonymous. We recruit and collect data from individuals. There are times where I run into an issue related to technical problems. Sometimes technology doesn't work out (for e.g. the website would freeze, information would get lost even though I have entered and ensured entries were added, I would redo everything again) I have been double-checking entries on the computer. I would inform the lead coordinator about this issue and would remediate the problem. Most of the time, the lead coordinator would say "we will fix it later and there's not an issue." I would write down on the notebook about the issue and on the work form. Some would bring up my mistakes to my face and I would offer to change the errors. And they would just brush it off, saying "We will take care of it." No one has really come up to me and wants to tackle the problem. 

I had no warning regarding this matter. I have explained this to my boss. I said that I have been double-checking and making sure the checkboxes were all checked. I felt belittled after what my boss had said about my performance and alluding to nursing school is not meant for me. Most of the time, the boss isn't there during shifts. This person doesn't see that I am actually out there in the community, building short interpersonal relationships with strangers, confronting challenges in each neighborhood. There are times that I am talking to people (some are low-income, very sick individuals, or individuals with disabilities, drug abuse, or alcohol abuse talking to me about their problems; and I don't have all the answers to give them). I am there during shifts, seeing strangers eye to eye. I am out in the community during cold or sometimes hot days (thirsty, hungry, tired, cold, or sweating). My boss doesn't see my contribution, rather just belittled and patronized me. My boss doesn't know what I had to go through to get into nursing school, my experience, and doubts about whether it was a perfect fit for me. It took me 5 years of deciding back and forth whether I had it in me to apply to nursing school. I overcame those challenges and decided to pursue a life-long career because I am passionate about helping others. I want everyone to be healthy, to have access to resources so they can succeed in life. For my boss to patronize me over technical issues and is not even there to see my performance and contribution, made me feel small.

My boss also said that If I make this mistake on the next shift, they will no longer add me to the schedule. It was a threat to me. Recently, this work email was sent out to everyone stating those very same mistakes during shifts last week even I didn't work last week and I thought to myself, maybe I am not the only one making this mistake? But why was my boss patronizing me? I am concerned that I will have to face this boss in one of my semesters. 

Have you faced the same challenges? or something similar? What did you do to redeem yourself?

[Hannahbanana, BSN, MSN]

Remember your boss has a boss too, who is probably on his neck about data quality. If there were errors made by others during a period where you were not working, that makes me think it’s not just you. But still, this isn’t working out and really, it doesn’t matter what you think about your job performance. 
Get another job. Nursing school has enough aggravation all by itself, you don’t need this. Start looking. Suggestion: hospital unit clerk, which might have the possibility of more hours flexibility than a patient care job like CNA.