I recently had a personal experience with a co-worker and would like some suggestions. We both work for the county Health Dept and are both contracted to another county dept. Now just to clarify she and I are the only 2 nurses directly involved in the particular program we work with, the others are all social workers.
But we are still expected to participate in certain things in the Health dept. One of the things is an emergency call tree. We were sent an email and told the next practice would be done during off work hours and to keep the calling tree info at home too. Well when it happened I got the call from the one on the list before me and then I had to call this co-worker since she was the next on the tree. Anyway I call her and it goes to her answering machine so I am leaving her a message as per our procedure when she picks up the phone. (If she had not picked up the phone I would just call the next person myself.) So I explain to her why I am calling and she is to call the next person on the list. Well she does not have the list at home so I have to give her the name and number to call. When I give her the number I mention that it might be long distance and she may need to dial 1 and the area code. Well she freaks out and says she can't call long distance. I ask her why, and she says she does not have a long distance company. I ask her how could she not have a long distance company and she says she is in the process of changing long distance companies. She keeps complaining to me and saying she can not do this. So I ask her if she expects me to call for her and she says no, but keeps complaining that she can not afford to make this phone call, because it will cost more since she does not have a regular long distance company. I explain to her that it is not like calling another state or country, it is in the same county, and I am not even sure if it is long distance. By this time I am very frustrated and getting angry. I am about ready to hang up and call the next one myself, she does this stuff to me all the time and I always give into her. So then I asked her what if this were a real emergency, would you not make the call because it may be long distance? Do you really want to break the "emergency call tree"? She finally agrees to do it and we end the conversation. My husband who has been standing there waiting for me heard this conversation and is ready to grab the phone from me to yell at her. He is more upset with her than I am, and I am pretty mad. I thought about reporting this to our supervisor, but I know it would come back at me and she seems to always come out of things smelling like a rose, and I feel I am usually looked on as petty. I even thought about asking them to change the order of the call tree! But I think if she is worried about her phone bill she should ask to be changed on the call list. If this type of thing happens again, I will just hang up on her and call the next person and then let the supervisor know what happened.
I know this isn't the angle you're looking for, but - as this is a work-related call, she or anyone else making this call should be reimbursed by the county for making the long distance call, right? Maybe if she knew ahead of time she could submit the bill for reimbursement of the call, she wouldn't be so resistant. That said, it is not your responsibility to check this out either, unless you end up being the one making the long distance call.
You are right we do have expense reports we fill out periodically for reimbursement for mileage, certain meals, and parking when we go to seminars and homevisits. Next time I will suggest she put it on her expense report, with the required receipt.................for probably less than 25 cents!
Oh how I wish I could do that! But unfortunately that is not an option. The first caller is the head of the disaster response commitee or someone she appointments. What I would really like to do is not to have to call her, or have her call me. We all have to record the time we got the call and the time we called the next person.
I never thought about recording the call. That might be an option.
And I really wished she had never picked up the phone, I would have been more than happy to talk to the next person on the list. She is very nice. LOL
Hmmm...too bad! Well...next time you have to call her let her know that you are recording the conversation for your own records in the event the call tree is not followed through with as it should be. Bet she'll call the next person on the list then. She can buy a phone card for those purposes if she likes. Suggest that to her.
Well...next time you have to call her let her know that you are recording the conversation for your own records in the event the call tree is not followed through with as it should be. Bet she'll call the next person on the list then. She can buy a phone card for those purposes if she likes. Suggest that to her.
nana2003
20 Posts
You are right we do have expense reports we fill out periodically for reimbursement for mileage, certain meals, and parking when we go to seminars and homevisits. Next time I will suggest she put it on her expense report, with the required receipt.................for probably less than 25 cents!
:)