How to spot a vampire

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For job hunters: How do you tell the difference between the kind of nurse you would like to work with/ work for, and those that you should avoid at all cost?

(Vampire: A blood sucker who initially presents as a pleasant and charming person, only to be your worst nightmare later on)

Over the years, I've picked up on some cue's that might make you consider running out the door as fast as you can if you spot them.

10 rules to avoid the undead

1. It's way to easy to get a job here.

2. The person places way too much value on their own lengthy experience. It's one thing to use your experience to support an opinion, but when a person repeatedly says "I've been a nurse for X # of years..." in a manner that suggest everything you think is stupid, and everything that they think is brilliant.

3. Gossip hounds. People who are quick to talk bad about other co-workers.

4. Lazy. They can tell you 10,000 ways to kill time at work. None of which involve being productive.

5. Moody. These are harder to spot if you happen to catch them on a good day. Your first cue will usually be when they erupt like a volcano on someone else for creating a minor annoyance.

6. Attractive. This is an unexpected one, but its a fact of life that most very attractive people have had a lifetime of gratuitous attention while showing very little effort to actually be a likable person. Of course, its not always true, but something you should definitely investigate before leaping right to the conclusion that it would be so great to spend your days working alongside that beautiful young princess or prince.

7. Bar flies. Anyone who talks about partying a lot, or references in any way how much they enjoy drinking alcohol.

8. Possums. They are the extremely passive people with no backbone. Whenever there is a workplace issue, they instinctively, and without fail, fall over and play dead. These people can be very destructive to the work environment because anything management wants, you can count on the possums to give their silent approval.

9. Brawlers. These are the ones who walk in the room speaking out loud something like " that little SOB down in telemetry don't know who she's messing with..."

10. Back stabbers and neck biters. These ones who simply can't resist getting you into trouble. They don't know why, but it just makes them feel so much better about themselves to ruin your career. These folks can be particularly harmful, but it's relatively easy to spot the red flag if you are paying attention. They can't help but tell you why they feel so cheated in life!