Robby's Supposed Sexism in S2Ep 1 - My Two Cents
I’m seeing a few people say that Robby’s reaction to Al-Hashimi is sexist and truly I watched that episode and saw something completely different and I think that comes from life experience.
I don’t know if any of you have ever worked in a sector such as healthcare/social care/ education, but they are complete dumpster fires. You literally survive by doing the best you can to keep your own head above water, while trying to help the people in your care. It’s a horrible position to be in. Meanwhile you’re told by management you’re not doing a good enough job, but you can’t do a better job because you aren’t given the funding, the resources, the time. So, you and everyone else are still drowning, trying to meet impossible targets and deliver the best care you can to the people that need it.
Management then brings in the new person, in this case Al-Hashimi, who has all these wonderful ideas but no actual real experience of the situation, or practical application of their ideas in the environment. (remember she comes from working in the VA – they don’t have an ED. It’s a very different working environment.)
A shit ton more work on top of the work you’re already doing.
The implementation of things you KNOW are not going to work in this environment, hence wasting time and resources.
They’ve already commandeered your med students/attendings who could be working on getting down the number of people waiting in chairs without talking to you – plus they’ve already started to assert themselves into your position while you’re still in the position in front of everyone else in the ED.
The whole bagel thing is classic new person move to get everyone on side before they hit you with a program that’s going to involve you working your ass off more. I have seen it in practice, and I’ve done it myself as a new manager.
As for Robby not reading her documentation beforehand. Let me put it to you this way, after watching Season 1 of the Pitt, when do you think he’s supposed to have found time/mental bandwidth. We know he gets constant documentation from management over ridiculous redundant stuff such as the patient feedback forms in S1.
Keeping on top of that level of admin, while you’re in a ‘drowning’ situation is hard as fuck and I can tell you from my own experiences in a social care that I have shoved documentation like Al-Hashimi’s aside to deal with more pressing issues because a newbie’s ‘improvement ideas’ are less of a priority than the person having a mental health crisis or securing them funding for a placement that will benefit them.
As for challenging her in front of people, she is doing the exact same thing to him. She could have taken him aside and had a conversation with him in the breakroom, she could have waited until it was her allocated time to come in, she could have spoken to him before distributing patient passports and implementing the changes before he came in. Instead he arrived to these things already happening, fucking up his day long before it even began. Who else has walked into their own nightmare just like this? I know I certainly have and it causes major issues down the line on top of all the other stuff you’re trying to do.
In my opinion Robby’s reaction to her, it isn’t sexist. I believe he would have had the same reaction if it was a man sweeping in and doing the same thing. < have you thought about that possibility before throwing the sexism card around? His reaction if a MALE doctor did the same thing, close your eyes and think about it. It wouldn't be any different from this.
His dealing with this situation is one of a veteran ER doctor who is chronically fatigued, who has seen this sort of thing happen again and again, who knows that nothing changes that in the end, you’ll still be drowning.
Is Robby a flawed character? Definitely!
Is he sexist in this ep? I wouldn’t say so.
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