We have a new manager at one of my jobs. Every interaction with her sounds like she's following a script learned at a leadership seminar. It feels very fake and insincere, and we all wish she'd go away.
She likes the phrase "I offer my sincere, professional apology" for instance. She sent an email with the minutes to the staff meeting, and offered the above phrase to preface her apology for sending it later than, I guess, she wanted to. She used it when she sent me an email with someone else's name. I heard her use the phrase in person as well. It's like dealing with an android or autobot.
She's full of lots of other canned catch phrases. There's lots of talk about team building, over the top praise, and followed by turds containing threats if we aren't compliant, then ending with some more sugary, team building cliches.
Have any of you experienced this? I'm not a fan of scripting. I'm sure there is value in learning leadership skills, but not if it turns you into an obvious phony.
Why not just offer your sincerest apologies? Would be easy to ignore her and just go on about business. I often wonder if people who say things like that realize how Unprofessional is sounds and is. Met some like that in my practice. They never had an original idea, only read from the script. They were, however real good at taking staff ideas and presenting them as their own. Unfortunately they were ineffective, they only did what upper management told them to do and ignored problems at a lower level. That meant the staff pretty much had to solve their own problems the best they could with out any help or resources. Sort of a worthless position in the scheme of things. Toothless tiger?
Roll out. We're going to roll out, we did roll out, we are rolling out whatever it is. I just hate it. I thought it would have gone away by now but I still see it/hear it from time to time.
Specializes in Pediatric nursing: ED, forensic, neuro, triage.
Funny, for "is there anything I can help you with" depends on the setting. As a resource nurse in the ER, you find yourself asking that... and meaning it. Although many times you don't ask, you just do! In the smaller, clinic setting, it comes off as potentially more passive aggressive. Ugh.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
Roll out. We're going to roll out, we did roll out, we are rolling out whatever it is. I just hate it. I thought it would have gone away by now but I still see it/hear it from time to time.
Enemas for everyone who says it!
If you broke out in a soul-stirring rendition of "Roll Out the Barrel" every time someone said that, do you think they'd eventually get the message?
Telling us to say to frustrated residents and family (in LTC)
"We are doing things a DIFFERENT way today..."
AKA we scheduled very tight (based on census and NOT Acuity). Then there is no one to cover a call out, or to cover the person who needs to accompany a resident to the hospital or MD appt, or the poop hits the fan with a fall, or one of the dementia residents decides that TODAY is the day we shall practice every exit seeking behavior known to man, and some new ones!!
One of my positions had managers that used so many buzz words that honestly meetings got confusing because the nursing staff had no idea what they were trying to say.
Some that I loathed the most:
- "Everyone needs to get on the bus or your going to be left at the bus stop." (Maybe we want to be left at the bus stop....)
- "We will circle around to that issue later offline." (Huh? Didn't know we were online but ok.)
- "Jane Doe will take the lead on this subject." (Meanwhile, Jane looking bewildered, has no idea she is the leader on this subject.)
- "We will revisit that issue later." (Mmm, ok, you don't care, got it.)
- "We will run that idea up the flagpole." (No one literally has any idea what the hell that means but nod and smile to get this meeting over with))
- "We are going to punt that to XYZ." (Cant we just not punt that and deal with it now boss?)
That's only a few. Our favorite past time was compiling a list of the most ridiculous words and cackling over it regularly.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
One of my positions had managers that used so many buzz words that honestly meetings got confusing because the nursing staff had no idea what they were trying to say.
Some that I loathed the most:
- "Everyone needs to get on the bus or your going to be left at the bus stop." (Maybe we want to be left at the bus stop....)
- "We will circle around to that issue later offline." (Huh? Didn't know we were online but ok.)
- "Jane Doe will take the lead on this subject." (Meanwhile, Jane looking bewildered, has no idea she is the leader on this subject.)
- "We will revisit that issue later." (Mmm, ok, you don't care, got it.)
- "We will run that idea up the flagpole." (No one literally has any idea what the hell that means but nod and smile to get this meeting over with))
- "We are going to punt that to XYZ." (Cant we just not punt that and deal with it now boss?)
That's only a few. Our favorite past time was compiling a list of the most ridiculous words and cackling over it regularly.
Oh my god. Buzzword Bingo! You should have had cards made and bought prizes. Imagine during the meeting people keep jumping up and yelling Bingo! And then get to pick a prize. Meetings would be the same level of productive but a lot less excruciating.
I have little to no patience for the phone customer service calls where it takes a while to realize that you are talking to a computer generated "voice." When you can finaaly get a live person, they repeat everything you say right back. "Hi, ms customer service agent, i have a problem, my pants are on fire, today."....So what you are telling me is that your pants are on fire, is that correct? Same goes with those online chat things....I am convinced that they are very rarely real people.
I was ready to go ablosutely crazy trying to PAY Pearson Vue to take my RN exam. When I got my LPN it was a paper submission, no internet application and payment.
Well, somehow I had an online account with them anyways and I needed to get the old login information so that I could login and pay for the RN test....the call center was horrible. English was definitely not their first language, and when I got of the phone and tried to log in a few days later as instructed IT STILL DID NOT WORK! Dreading another call to the center, I found the chat window with someone who had equally got language skills. Told me to wait a specified time and "no worries" everything would be working then....NOPE. I finally got it fixed via live chat on my phone while I logged on in the tiny screen with them fixing it live on there end via text chat...I never thought the process would be so tedious just because they created an account that I didn't know about back when getting my LPN so many years ago. The security questions I had to answer were based on things 15 years ago...I don't remember that crap. Cell phone numbers changed if we changed providers back then!
Specializes in Float Pool-Med-Surg, Telemetry, IMCU.
My hospital has something called the "Five Bests" and periodically, administrators will corner us and ask if we know what the "Five Bests" are, generally while we are running around doing patient care. Also, "experience excellence". Those make me eye roll so hard.
And nope; I still don't know what the "five bests" are but my annual review has been good so I guess it hasn't hindered my practice thus far.
Kooky Korky, BSN, RN
5,216 Posts
Cross them and you'll see their teeth.