Workday Woes

I walked into work at 7am today, to a war zone. I could hear them from halfway down the hall, long before I actually got to the office door and opened it. M came around the corner just before I turned into the hallway that our office door opens off of. Her face looked like it was set in granite. I asked her what was going on. She never said a work. Kept right on going. As I rounded the corner I heard, "WELL THEN THE MOTHERFUCKIN PATIENTS CAN WAIT ANOTHER FUCKIN 15 MINUTES FOR ME TO GET HERE! AND ALLA Y'ALL BITCHES GOT NO FUCKIN BUSINESS TALKIN ABOUT ME BACK HERE SO GO FUCK YERSELF!!"

Excuse me? WHAT did you just say? I could not believe my ears. First, who in their right mind screams something like that, at the top of their lungs, when anyone walking by will hear them? Who does that? At work? Where patients and doctors and other staff could hear you? OK, stupid thought. No one in their right mind. Right mind being the operative phrase here.

I opened the office door and walked in to find E and C in the middle of the aisle that runs between the cubicles on my side of the office. E was less than 2 inches from C, and she was the screamer. Five of us are having to split the duties at registration at this location, on a rotating day basis, while the company is in the midst of moving/remodeling the area we'll be moving to in about 6 months. The weekdays are split up between E, M, T, A, and myself. It's made for some harried days at times. Still, it's part of the job. Suck it up, slap a smile on your face, and be a professional about it. Not these 4.

All four of them, on a regular basis, have bitched and moaned, whined and complained, bitten heads off too often and, in general been really immature about the whole thing. All four of them. They range in age from mid 30s to my age, and they're acting like teenagers; immature, unprofessional, backbiting, bitches.

I stepped in between them and told them this is neither the time nor the place for this, whatever your differences are you need to walk away right now and cool off. I have to give C credit. She'd already said, "I don't have to listen to anyone talking to me this way," and turned away.

E stormed out, M stormed in a few minutes later, and both C and M asked me what I thought. I told them I wasn't here when it started, I don't want to be in the middle of it, but I sure hope somebody has some explaining they're able to do. I can't be the only one who heard that, and you can bet our boss is going to know it 5 minutes after she walks in here today.

Turns out our boss was onsite at another location all morning. Each of them emailed her their version of the events. C is a coder, and not part of the registration rotation. M had covered for A during lunch on Wed., then covered her own full day at reg on Thursday, and when she walked in this morning, there were patients already waiting to be checked in with E, whose assigned day it was, nowhere to be found. M did the right thing. She clocked in, checked in the patients, and opened up the waiting room for them. Granted, they were extremely early. It was about 6:40. Their appts were for 7:30. They're told to come in at 7 so we have time to get the paperwork done. Someone almost always shows up before 7. M checked in the patients, locked the computer as she is supposed to for security reasons, and headed back to our office area to find out who was supposed to cover reg today and where were they. Apparently she and C were standing there talking it over and trying to figure out what to do when E walked in at 7:05. That's when all hell broke loose.

M packed her stuff, refusing to discuss it. Mainly because our supervisor sided with E, saying that she was raked over the coals as soon as she walked in the door for not being there before the patients arrived. To my mind, that's just plain wrong. No matter what the reason, no matter what's gone down, I don't give a good god damn what the hell happened, there is absolutely NO reason that excuses talking to anyone the way she was screaming at them, especially not in the work environment. Yet she is not being reprimanded, not disciplined in any way. Nothing. I doubt that M will be back on Monday and that's a damn shame. E gets away with treating people like shit, M and C get away with this drama/gossip shit, and we all lose in the longrun.

They called a meeting. They told us all we're under a lot of stress. True. They told us all we need to be more tolerant. Probably also true. End of meeting. What???? That's IT? You're not going to say anything at all about what happened here this morning? Nothing? Not a word? No one asked me what I'd seen/heard. I guess it didn't matter to have an objective recount of the situation. Or maybe that's what they were trying to avoid.

I've lost every iota of respect for these people. How can they expect anyone to want to work for them if they know nothing about setting professional boundaries? How can these women, grown women, act like this? Take so little pride in how they present to staff and patients?

I am confused and disheartened.

What the hell is happening in today's world where this type of behavior is rationalized, even in the workplace? It makes no sense to me.