After completing numerous clinicals and working as an EKG tech, I have observed and often dealt with nurses that are a prime example of what I don't want to be when I graduate. I also concede that I am a mere senior nursing student with no real-world experience.
1.) Night shift nurse who sits on facebook: Since when did it become acceptable to go on a computer and use social networking sites whenever you don't have work to do. In the time that you have sat on facebook you could have filled charts, done further research on your patients' needs, read nursing journals, assisted another nurse or CNA, or just do something that might help the morning shift. Instead, you sit on facebook trying to see if anyone you haven't seen in a few years got fat.
2.) The "thats not my job nurse": This kills me because as a tech I constantly hear this. "Mrs. Smith needs to go to the bathroom can you help her so I can do the EKG?" The reply from the nurse, "Ask the CNA...thats not my job." The nurse should really take a step back and re-evaluate your career choice because by not helping me you are not helping the patient.
3.) The nurse who openly criticizes patients or gossips with other nurses at the station: Guess what, people hear what your saying. You are making a fool of yourself and instead of complaining how so and so didn't bathe this patient during their shift, why don't you do it yourself? Be a professional, do your job to the best of your ability.
4.) The nurse who uses personal problems as an excuse to not care: I'm partial to this because I'm young but I don't care that you have kids, I don't care that your child has the snuffles and you were up all night. If you are unable to successfully complete the tasks of your job DO NOT COME INTO WORK. I have no sympathy for you. If I was out late partying and had a hangover and used it as an excuse would you care? An excuse is an excuse, either do your job right or call out, you are only hurting the patient.
5.) The nurse wearing winnie the pooh scrubs in an adult acute care setting: Your an adult. Dress like a professional, talk like a professional, and people will treat you like one.
6.) Nurses who always apologize to doctors when they call them: It is a doctor's job to take your call, listen to what you say, make decions based on the information you give them. Get some backbone, speak intelligently, and stick to the facts. If you show them you are serious, they will take you seriously and not blow you off as some stupid nurse who bothers them at home.
ugg, stuff like that kills me. i can't stand passive aggressive rude comments like that, i think its so cowardly.
+1,000,000
i am not in nursing...yet. however, i actually know how that feels.
it can be the nurse who has done a billion things, skipped her lunch, needs to pee and still has to do a million things, to the maintenance operator at a bank who has to make corrections, serve the client (all seven of them barking at her at once) and route requests to a different department. i don't know, but people see someone hunched over doing paperwork and they equate that to sitting on your *** doing nothing. i used to think that people were just ********** (don't get me wrong, they still are), but as time progressed, i realized that people simply don't understand the concept of procedure and compliance. actually, people don't seem to understand much of anything these days. period. i am surprised that there are folks out there who haven't accidentally strangled themselves with their own shoelaces in an attempt to tie them.
what makes things worse, is management (sidenote: there is a circle in hell for them) trying to correct this by getting service-providers to somehow change the way people perceive them. even at the risk of delaying their work and creating risk. unfortunately, management just succeeded in pitting front-line service-providers and end-users against each other.
apologies for jumping in like that, but any mention of end-users giving needless lip just chaps my onions to no end.
What's even worse is when its a CNA. I actually had a CNA say something similar to my coworker a few years back. "Why can't you do that, you just sitting around". Mind you the nurse had just got done doing a 2 hour med pass with other tasks and was actually preparing the meds sheets for the next month - a task in itself.
I agree. The aides who work on our unit complained to management that the nurses are just sitting at the nurses station while call lights are going off. We are now to get up and answer call lights and be at the call of the aides when they need assistance. I for one only sit down to chart and never get a break or a lunch and get out late daily. I love the aides on our floor. They are all hardworking and kind people. I help whenever I can but if I am going to get up everytime a call bell is not answered right away I will not get out of there until 3 AM and create all kinds of overtime and grief for myself. I do not think toileting or bathing is below me as I was an aide before I became an RN. I liked being an aide and if I had time to do everything my patients needed it would be done by myself. I WISH I had the time to know my patients in detail but I never have time to even read the chart and feel like I am flying by the seat of my pants all of the time. When bed alarms go off I do get up right away and go to the room. It makes me mad when I see nurses standing at the nurses station and don't move while a bed alarm goes off. That to me is not acceptable but being expected to answer call lights all of the time will not leave me time to do the duties the aides cannot. The aides just do not understand what the duties of a nurse are and that we are just not sitting but charting as fast as our fingers can fly for fear of getting OT. When I was an LNA I thought the nurses were just "sitting" around also.
On the other hand, I do see where a couple of the nurses who manage to get done on time do have downtime and those nurses should be helping with call lights if all of their charting is done. I have even asked a nurse I seen waiting around to help me with boosts rather than the aides.
Oh good freakin' grief...cut the OP some slack, would ya? I haven't taken the time to read through all of the responses but the first couple pages sounded like a whole lot of ruffled tail feathers.
I think the OP is not so far off. Nor did I think he/she was making broad sweeping generalizations about nurses in general. If you're honest, you and I both know the type of nurse the OP describes and doesn't want to be like...there's one or two on nearly every floor.
And don't dress down the OP because they are a EKG tech and not a nurse and could not possibly know what they are talking about. I was a phlebotomist while in nursing school and drew blood all over the hospital. I used that opportunity to keep my eyes and ears open to learn things about nursing I couldn't ever learn in nursing school. If you think that non-nursing personnel aren't able to understand what nurses do and what they go through you are sadly deluded. They may not be licensed RNs, but they aren't deaf, dumb or blind. Please, for the love of the cadeuceus come down off your pedestals...it's so much more humbling than falling off them.
I had lots of interactions with RNs and ran across plenty I looked at as role models and examples of what a good nurse embodies. But I also witnessed the dead wood, the bad apples and the just plain whiny, stupid and lazy and pledged not to become that brand of nurse. And now, as an RN, I feel the same way.
I say right on, Bloop23. You'll probably be a very fine RN. Welcome to the profession.
After reading some of these responses I'm glad I started this thread...lots of colorful responses. I have no experience in nursing, so if that is enough for you to discredit my opinion that's fine. I'm young, inexperienced, and not a nurse, but I am observant. On the other hand, you could view what I've wrote as an opportunity to see what people outside of nursing notice when they come onto the floor. As for some of the other comments, how long are most employees other than nurses on the unit? How long are visitors at the nurses' station or how long are visitors who just stop by there - 15 to 30 min seems reasonable.
If a relative of a patient came to the floor and saw a nurse sitting on facebook while they were asking them about how their mother did overnight, they wouldn't be to pleased. I could say others but I'm sure harmless examples would be taken out context.
Why are you personalizing all of this...again?
- You don't need to defend going on facebook to me. I just posted what it looks like while your on it.
- You don't need to justify wearing cartoon scrubs. But to me, they look ridiculous, and I (emphasizing I) think they make nurses look silly (except in peds, I'm sure someone will be like "I work in peds and they really make the kids happier) obviously they are fine in peds, obviously, obviously, obviously.
- You don't need to justify blowing me or anyone else off in the fifteen minutes I'm on the floor. *You're* right, I'm not there for 12 hours watching you work. But, although I might have thirty EKGs on que, I take the time to explain a basic summary of the pt's rhythm. I'm sure if any of you asked me, "Hey, how does it look?" and I said, "I'm busy, I don't have time to answer any question!" You would forever refer to me as the mean EKG tech. Guess what, it took exactly one sentence for you to form an opinion of me and my work ethic
Finally, I was surprised that everyone took general statements and applied them to specific situations where, what I said didn't apply. Obviously if you call someone at 3 am you would apologize for waking them up. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with using the internet occasionally on your shift. I'm talking about the nurses who take peronal liberties and abuse the internet, employees under them, or use their personal life as a crutch. If you need to personally defend what you do at work, your probably guility of some of the things I mentioned. If so, I really don't care, but I don't need 10 yrs of nursing experience to know when somone looks like they are slacking off or has a bad attitude. Nothing I said is clinical based, get over yourselves.
Would you prefer that no one replied? Or do you insist that everyone who replies agrees with you? If I may suggest, it seems fair to me to look at this thread and all of the variations of: "You aren't a nurse, so you don't know what you're talking about," and "Some nurses may do that, but I don't," in context. And, for many of us, at least part of that context is people who don't know what they're talking about attacking nurses generally. It happens on these boards--the endless "nurses eat their young" posts--and it happens in the real world. I once heard an aide, sitting in the report room, tell another aide, sitting in the report room, "I could be a nurse. I could sit on my ass and chart all night." I was tempted to point out to her that she had already perfected the first part, but I didn't have time, since one of my patients needed help to the bathroom.
I understand that some of the original post comes from a sense of idealism. But let's explore some other sorts of nurse you might not want to be: 1. the nurse sitting in triage waiting to be seen because a patient bit her; 2. the nurse being berated by an angry doctor for something done on the previous shift; 3. the nurse called to the manager's office because some family member got the impression that their ass wasn't being kissed with sufficient enthusiam. Or how about: 4. the nurse sobbing in the med room (pick a reason); 5. the nurse whose patient's mother just asked whether she should call the rest of the family to come right away, or wait until morning.
There are, certainly, some less-than-stellar nurses in the world, but if you say you aren't going to be like them, I say: prove it. One of the interesting thing about those nurses you don't want to be like is that they all think they are wonderful nurses, and most of the worst just love to pick apart everyone else.
The best nurses I've known spend little if any time finding fault with their co-workers. Excellent nurses have far too much to do. I'm a long way from that level, but I do have that much in common, that I have far too much to do. Many shifts, I work my tail off to get done that which has to be done, while I see my role models working just as hard, albeit more calmly, to get done three times as much. On the other hand, some of the things I'm busting my butt to do are things a few years ago I didn't even know I was supposed to do.
Do you want to be the sort of nurse whose patients tell you every day, "thank God for the wonderful work you do?" Good luck with that. Could you be satisfied to hear it once in awhile, or to have a patient ask hopefully, "are you back tonight?" That goal is entirely attainable. But you won't get there by focusing on what anyone else is doing wrong.
Let the OP dream! He/she has a vision of becoming a fabulous nurse:yelclap: After a year of Registered Nursing, he/she can come back here and tell us if he's/she's lived up to his/her expectations.:bowingpur
Here's my take on this whole thing, for what it's worth. A lot of what the OP said is valid; but putting apologizing to the physician and wearing cutesy scrubs in the same category as the rest of the things on his list, in my opinion, might be what has gotten everyone so riled up. Yes, he has no idea of what it is like to have to call the physician in the middle of the night. I work with nurses who have many years of experience, yet some still get a bit anxious about making that call. We do it because we have to, but I doubt that any nurse enjoys doing it.
At my first hospital job right after I graduated, I oriented on days for 3 months and then went to nights. You would not believe the difference. The charge nurse played Bejeweled constantly, stopping only to decide who she was going to assign the new admission to. Others turned the computers on to music and video stations to listen to while they did chart checks. I found this so distracting. These nurses were all much faster than me and hardly ever offered to help when I was behind. And these were nurses of all ages. So it does occur. I'm so glad I am not there anymore.
Making generalizations about anyone in any profession is just not a good habit.
most definetly there are times where i honestly am apologetic for waking a doctor up for something "stupid".
thankfully where i work we have an on-call in house doctor who can handle such calls at night so we dont have to call the primary in most cases for minor things that should have been taken care of during the day.
i work nights and i find that leaving a note on the chart for the doctor is more effective than passing something on to day shift to get done. i hear day shift can be insane, but they do see the doctor more than night shift does, and sometimes the day shift is too busy to get to things, or miss the doctor completely.
doctors are people also who have families and whatnot. if the original poster has access to an on call/ in house doc i would definetly take advantage of this as they take on call knowing that its their turn to deal with possible situations like this.
and at my work we pretty much have no internet access to anything, especially facebook. i dont have facebook, even. although the invention of personal phones having internet has thwarted this.
the internet thing is not an option really.
i am lucky to work with some hard workers. mostly.
and i cannot deal with nurses who say the phrase"its not my job" or "thats not my patient"
that is a huge pet peeve and i think thats wrong, although i can understand being so busy that there really is no time to help.
i will gladly forgo charting to answer a call light or take out garbage and clean if i have down time. there is always something to do.
as far as scrubs go, i really dont care what people wear. i think its important to have a bit of originality at work anyway. we have to wear uniforms in some form or another. where i work we all are supposed to wear navy blue.
and we do, but everyone is an individual and even sometimes older people like to see something than drab solids once in awhile. it seems stupid, but if something as simple as a shirt can get a patient to come out of their shell, its totally worth it (and im not a big fan of prints anyway, but who cares?!!)
nursing is such a hard but fulfilling job. these things just seem sort of minor to me. except the "its not my job" thing.
i think it helps to be a NA first. i was one and i would never take back that experience. NAs work so hard for the most part, and everyone is stressed and overworked. but when you take the time to help out someone, even though you also have stuff to do, you will hopefully make an ally in the process who will (hopefully) help you out when you are sinking.
its hard to be a solitary practitioner in health care. if it means apologizing to a doctor or doing a job that is not "nursing job" than whatever.
just do it.
it will come back around.
(karma and all that)
:grn:
oh my oh my, how interesting it must be to already know what you'll do and say. Especially the calling the doctor bit. You may not know that a nurse missed looking up labs earlier and apologizing for the late call that should have been handled sooner.... A nurses conversation with a doctor is possibly not for you to coment on until you have to make the same calls as yourself.
As for the rest, look me up on facebook in a few years while at work.... we'll compare nursing stories.
Our housekeeping department is good, I will admit. We have someone in house at all times for emergency cleanups.
I'm not an elitist, but housekeeping is not in my job description, IMO. I don't see what is wrong with saying that I went to college to get away from jobs that require a mop and broom. Since when did that become a bad thing? I feel that this is not a nursing issue but an employment issue. I don't remember anywhere in my job description when I was hired that I was going to be mopping floors. Nurses go above and beyond as it is. Why pile on more crappy duties that just blur the lines of professionalism (which in nursing, are already very murky?) What other job do you know of that requires their college educated employees to take out the garbage? I'm not going there. Hospitals can slash their budgets all they want. I draw the line there. If my patient's trash someday overflows in the middle of the shift because there are no housekeepers anymore -- yeah, I'll take it out -- to right in front of my manager's office door.
The reason why I don't clean up *some* messes especially (I previously mentioned stool) is because it is not sanitary. At my institution we do not have access to the appropriate supplies to clean this stuff with and be assured that we are not transmitting bacteria, etc. A paper towel, as one poster mentioned, does not suffice for biohazardous waste.
You are lucky you don't work in the NHS. domestic staff do not clean up: blood, urine, stool, vomit or anything stained with them. If a patient bleeds on the floor, the nurses (or assistants)mop it up, and THEN they go over it with bleach. Forget cleaning a dirty toilet- they will ONLY clean them if there is no feaces on them. No domestic cleaning staff after 6pm, unless they are on call, either. (on call is for deep cleaning only, pretty much)
After completing numerous clinicals and working as an EKG tech, I have observed and often dealt with nurses that are a prime example of what I don't want to be when I graduate. I also concede that I am a mere senior nursing student with no real-world experience.
1.) Night shift nurse who sits on facebook: Since when did it become acceptable to go on a computer and use social networking sites whenever you don't have work to do. In the time that you have sat on facebook you could have filled charts, done further research on your patients' needs, read nursing journals, assisted another nurse or CNA, or just do something that might help the morning shift. Instead, you sit on facebook trying to see if anyone you haven't seen in a few years got fat.
2.) The "thats not my job nurse": This kills me because as a tech I constantly hear this. "Mrs. Smith needs to go to the bathroom can you help her so I can do the EKG?" The reply from the nurse, "Ask the CNA...thats not my job." The nurse should really take a step back and re-evaluate your career choice because by not helping me you are not helping the patient.
3.) The nurse who openly criticizes patients or gossips with other nurses at the station: Guess what, people hear what your saying. You are making a fool of yourself and instead of complaining how so and so didn't bathe this patient during their shift, why don't you do it yourself? Be a professional, do your job to the best of your ability.
4.) The nurse who uses personal problems as an excuse to not care: I'm partial to this because I'm young but I don't care that you have kids, I don't care that your child has the snuffles and you were up all night. If you are unable to successfully complete the tasks of your job DO NOT COME INTO WORK. I have no sympathy for you. If I was out late partying and had a hangover and used it as an excuse would you care? An excuse is an excuse, either do your job right or call out, you are only hurting the patient.
5.) The nurse wearing winnie the pooh scrubs in an adult acute care setting: Your an adult. Dress like a professional, talk like a professional, and people will treat you like one.
6.) Nurses who always apologize to doctors when they call them: It is a doctor's job to take your call, listen to what you say, make decions based on the information you give them. Get some backbone, speak intelligently, and stick to the facts. If you show them you are serious, they will take you seriously and not blow you off as some stupid nurse who bothers them at home.
I agree with every one of your gripes except, possibly, the last one. If I have to wake up a doctor at 2 am, I would apologize for waking him/her up, just as I would if I called anyone else at that hour. It's not a matter of timidity, but courtesy. The ER doctors I work with practice this courtesy when calling their colleagues in the dead of night, so why wouldn't I?
In my experience, the doctor will take you seriously, apology or no apology, if you (1) state your reason for calling briefly and concisely, (2) be prepared with data, such as vitals, drug allergies and key symptoms, and (3) tell the doctor what it is you'd like him/her to do. If, despite those efforts, the doctor behaves belligerently or disdainfully or rudely, that's his problem, not the caller's.
i am going to jump on the minority wagon here, and say that i agree with most of what the op said, and also that the indignant responses surprised me quite a bit. for the most part, the characteristics described are unappealing in any profession, nursing included. to say that he "can't possibly know any of this" until he "becomes a nurse" is absurd, imo. are you then defending these actions and traits? i'll break it down:
after completing numerous clinicals and working as an ekg tech, i have observed and often dealt with nurses that are a prime example of what i don't want to be when i graduate. i also concede that i am a mere senior nursing student with no real-world experience.
1.) night shift nurse who sits on facebook: since when did it become acceptable to go on a computer and use social networking sites whenever you don't have work to do. in the time that you have sat on facebook you could have filled charts, done further research on your patients' needs, read nursing journals, assisted another nurse or cna, or just do something that might help the morning shift. instead, you sit on facebook trying to see if anyone you haven't seen in a few years got fat.
i don't find going on facebook at work, no matter what shift, ever acceptable. unless you're on break, and that's how you choose to spend your time. if it is, do it on a computer that isn't in a place where patients/visitors/etc can see you. even if you're "only checking it for a few minutes" during a shift, it looks bad. the person who briefly sees you do it doesn't know it's only a few minutes, and yes, assumptions are made. you might not think that's fair, but it's life; life isn't fair. you have control over the impressions you make on people.
2.) the "thats not my job nurse": this kills me because as a tech i constantly hear this. "mrs. smith needs to go to the bathroom can you help her so i can do the ekg?" the reply from the nurse, "ask the cna...thats not my job." the nurse should really take a step back and re-evaluate your career choice because by not helping me you are not helping the patient.
again, i can see what the op is getting at. there is a difference between a nurse being too busy at that moment to respond to the request, and a nurse who constantly says this. there are times i have to ask a cna to toilet someone, etc, because i am busy. i'm not a person, however, that will ask a cna to toilet someone every time. they're busy, too. a good response might be, "i'll take care of it" and ask the cna yourself. the tech, or whomever is asking, may see you first, and therefore ask you. they may very well not know who the cna is who is working with you and that patient. it doesn't take me long to use my little vocera and call my cna to say, "mrs. x has to go to the bathroom, i'm doing xyz, can you go in there?"
3.) the nurse who openly criticizes patients or gossips with other nurses at the station: guess what, people hear what your saying. you are making a fool of yourself and instead of complaining how so and so didn't bathe this patient during their shift, why don't you do it yourself? be a professional, do your job to the best of your ability.
there is nothing wrong with venting about patients or situations, it's normal and helps relieve stress. however, do it in a place where it isn't easily overheard, such as a med room. again, if it's out in the open enough for a tech on the floor to hear it, a patient in a nearby room, or passing visitiors, may hear it as well. i cringe when i hear coworkers talking about patients or other staff loudly and out in the open. it makes you look bad, and makes everyone else look bad, too. i will try to gently suggest they at least be quiet about it, but that can be met with a hostile response, as some people think they can do no wrong. the best i can do, personally, is not join in. i'm not "better" than anyone else, i vent plenty, too. i just try to be more discreet about it.
4.) the nurse who uses personal problems as an excuse to not care: i'm partial to this because i'm young but i don't care that you have kids, i don't care that your child has the snuffles and you were up all night. if you are unable to successfully complete the tasks of your job do not come into work. i have no sympathy for you. if i was out late partying and had a hangover and used it as an excuse would you care? an excuse is an excuse, either do your job right or call out, you are only hurting the patient.
i come from the childless camp, and while i can understand that there can be situations that come up with one's children, i don't think that means that the parent of said children deserve special treatment. i work with a nurse that was put on 8 hour shifts (she normally works 12's) as she neared her due date. she has another child at home. my scheduled hours were changed, because so-and-so didn't have childcare to work a particular shift. not my problem, sorry, if you think that's cold-hearted so be it. her position was technically day/night rotation, meaning that it is feasible she'd have to work either shift at any point. lining up childcare is her problem, not mine, and i don't believe my hours deserved changing (without being asked) to accomodate her babysitting dilemma. to compare this to coming in "hungover" after a night of partying is not an appropriate comparison, however. i don't feel sorry for people that would be that stupid, either. if someone needs to call in for a shift, just do it; i don't care what the reason is (and usually we don't know what it is, anyway). just do it early enough so that a replacement can be found for you.
5.) the nurse wearing winnie the pooh scrubs in an adult acute care setting: your an adult. dress like a professional, talk like a professional, and people will treat you like one.
i already posted on this topic in the thread devoted to it, so i won't reiterate everything here. i just agree with it.
6.) nurses who always apologize to doctors when they call them: it is a doctor's job to take your call, listen to what you say, make decions based on the information you give them. get some backbone, speak intelligently, and stick to the facts. if you show them you are serious, they will take you seriously and not blow you off as some stupid nurse who bothers them at home.
i don't see anything wrong with a quick "i'm sorry for waking you" statement. not all md calls are made during the middle of the night, though, and some nurses will apologize no matter what the time, and no matter what the reason for the call is. i will apologize if i called later than would be expected on a lab value, for example. i did that recently, called a particularly gruff surgeon a few hours after the result was back. mostly because i was slammed that day, i didn't see the order to call the result soon enough. he asked why i was calling it so late, and i said, "i apologize for that, this is the first chance i've had." he said ok, and that was the end of it (and this was from a surgeon that will normally ream you a new one). if i call a second time on someone, with info i either forgot to tell them the first time, or that i wasn't aware of the first time, i'll apologize, too. i'll apologize for calling with what i think is an unnecessary reason, but the patient insists on it (sometimes, you can't talk someone out of wanting you to do it, the situations obviously vary and i have told patients what is and isn't appropriate for an off-hours call). to apologize for everything (i mean, really, "i'm sorry to bother you, but your patient has an o2 sat in the 60's and we're getting ready to code him"? no apology necessary!).
i think mostly, the op didn't really offend me because i don't see myself in any of his points; therefore, i don't take it personally. how can you argue about them being "sweeping generalizations" if they don't apply to you? if they do apply to you, perhaps you should take a step back and really look at it. the examples given don't apply to every nurse, and like i said earlier, are not things you'd have to be an experienced nurse to know you don't want to be. once you have some experience as a nurse under your belt, it's ok to facebook at work and loudly gossip about patients? i'd sure say no. stop taking things so personally, and twisting the points made in order to justify being offended.
Specializes in Infusion, Med/Surg/Tele, Outpatient.
I don't want to be the kind of nurse who only 'gets through' the shift. The kind that can't remember to assess an IV site or CVC site. The kind that doesn't bother to ask the pt when his-or-her last BM or void was. The kind that leaves a dressing on for 10-14 days without looking to see what's underneath but documents on it anyway. The kind of nurse that doesn't verify med orders before signing off the MAR. The kind of nurse that witnesses a pt signing a blank consent. The kind of nurse caught sleeping at the station and then objects to a drug test. The kind of nurse who hears 'snoring' and doesn't investigate for agonal breaths.
Thread has turned out great. Thanks for all the responses good and bad, let's keep them coming. Also, thanks to all the posters who didn't take my original post out of context, I appreciate it.
Before the Allnurses.com sponsored grammar police burst through the window above me, I'm typing this from my mobile.:)
maria28
10 Posts
+1,000,000
i am not in nursing...yet. however, i actually know how that feels.
it can be the nurse who has done a billion things, skipped her lunch, needs to pee and still has to do a million things, to the maintenance operator at a bank who has to make corrections, serve the client (all seven of them barking at her at once) and route requests to a different department. i don't know, but people see someone hunched over doing paperwork and they equate that to sitting on your *** doing nothing. i used to think that people were just ********** (don't get me wrong, they still are), but as time progressed, i realized that people simply don't understand the concept of procedure and compliance. actually, people don't seem to understand much of anything these days. period. i am surprised that there are folks out there who haven't accidentally strangled themselves with their own shoelaces in an attempt to tie them.
what makes things worse, is management (sidenote: there is a circle in hell for them) trying to correct this by getting service-providers to somehow change the way people perceive them. even at the risk of delaying their work and creating risk. unfortunately, management just succeeded in pitting front-line service-providers and end-users against each other.
apologies for jumping in like that, but any mention of end-users giving needless lip just chaps my onions to no end.