I just finished my first week of training at the blood center I am working at. It is 6 months of training and I am enjoying learning everything. I am now being trained for 6 weeks with non-nurses so we can all get a phlebotomy certification.They stop there as certified phlebotomists and I as the RN will go on to be trained in therapeutic apheresis; allogenic, autologous, etc.
I am training with these soon to be phlebotomists and they are all nice but I get the feeling they are scrutinizing me. Maybe it is because I am a new grad, younger than most of them, and I am the only RN amongst them. They just rub me the wrong way for some reason.
It maybe all in my head and I may be over analyzing things. But sometimes I think some of the questions they ask me are inappropriate.
For instance 'how old are you?' one woman asked me that the second I told her I am a nurse. Is she surprised that I actually became a nurse considering my age and the fact that I am single? Most of these women are married or not with children and older. It does not bother me that they are but sometimes I get a vibe that they are gauging whether I deserve to be paid more than them because I am a novice in this feild and some of them have been phlebotomists before and I am very new to this. As the nurse I will be over seeing their work and taking a supervisory/leadership role. We are all training together so I could care less if I am not an expert because that is why I am in training. But at times from these women in particular I feel they judge me as an expert though I am new to all of this.
Also I notice one girl everyday keeps on commenting on how I bring my lunch to work. They always go and buy lunch together and I stay at the office and eat my lunch and relax. I kinda like the quiet and not having to talk to anyone for half an hour. This girl is nice, but it's not that big of a deal if I don't go out with them for lunch. I brought my own and I want to eat it and not waste my lunch break looking to buy something to eat. It's like they are in a click and I am outside of it. She kept on commenting on it so much so I felt I had to give her an explaination for why I brought my lunch.
Also they give us a lot of paper work to read about company policy and I was making sure to read all of it and I did notice others just skimmed over theirs and started working on the assigned work sheets. By the time I finished reading they were almost done. I was working on my and one woman ask me 'do you need any help?' I told her no thanks that I am ok.(in my head, i'm like I can read, focus on yourself not me) For me it's not a race. I want to make sure I understand everything they want us to. But it irked me she would ask me that, though she tried to come off as nice. And she kept on looking at me after I declined. I just gave her a smile and kept on my work.
Sorry to rant but little things like this just make me not like these women at all and truth be told if not for us training together I would never have a real converation with them in real life. To me they are rude.
It bugged me a lot after I left work but I decided they they are not even a factor and we are not even working at the same centers and even if that is the case I would be the one in charge not them.
At times I also feel the fact that I dress nice and professional to work (and a lot of them really don't), causes them to scrutinize me more. I have not dealth with this kind of behavior in the work place usually I get a long with everyone, rather when I go to social events with competitive and katty women. So it's kinda weird to get this vibe in the work place.
Has anyone also had similair experiences with co-workers?
