Iām trying not to get too annoyed with my coworkers but... this shit isnāt hard.
my head receptionist is honestly getting on my nerves. we donāt work the same shifts anymore, usually, but occasionally weāll open together. and often times sheāll just do the labs that come in, sometimes send the online checkin forms, maybe do the next-day surgery paperwork, meanwhile Iām taking care of the emails, usually the voicemails, the scans, the faxed script requests, and checking the meds that got filled the night before. she can be kind of self-important and that gets in the way of work too. like, I get it, youāve been in animal care basically since you left high school, youāve been a receptionist for 8 years, you act like this job is your life, but then you go and act like the work is beneath you? the work is the work, dude. she does have to do manager-y things, like taking care of health certificate things, taking care of money stuff and collections calls, and she makes the schedules, but thatās what happens when youāre experienced. you have more job responsibilities. when weāre opening together I get the vibe that she gets annoyed having to take incoming calls. sheāll leave me up front to help in the back; sometimes sheāll restrain a pet for someone because in the mornings usually thereās only one doctor and their two assistants. but that leaves me up front, by myself. Iāve ended up checking in all the drop-offs before while sheās just doing some highlighting on paperwork.Ā
and Iām honestly pissed that I got pulled into a meeting with the head vet and lead receptionist back in april because I apparently wasnāt performing adequately for how long Iād been there. Iāve talked to my new coworker about this and she feels the same-- we werenāt trained properly. things werenāt explained to us well before we were left more unsupervised, so of fucking course I dropped the ball so much. I had to figure a lot of how the hospital works on my own. but thatās not whatās upsetting-- itās that Iāve watched both the head and lead receptionists make mistakes that got me pulled into a meeting, and they just get someone complaining about it and thatās it. I donāt care that theyāve been there so long, it just means they should know better.Ā
there was one day the doctor I thought hated me and thought I was incompetent (until I finally had a minute to talk to her and apologize for something I guess?) got soĀ mad at the lead receptionist because she had booked a quintuple appointment that ended up backing up her whole day. 5 pets at once in and of itself isnāt a majorĀ issue, but what the doctor was mad about was how it was booked. when we book regular, 1-pet doctor appointments, we block them off for 40 minutes. if itās a double, depending on the client, weāll usually book off a 60 minute block, 30 for each pet. some clients are chatty or have a lot of questions, or theyāre just special, so sometimes it ends up being 40 minutes per pet; you just have to know who youāre booking and which doctor youāre booking with, and that took me a while to learn. but multi-pet appointments typicallyĀ are 30 minutes per animal. Iāve only ever booked a triple at most. this was five petsĀ and they were booked for 20 minutes each. you canāt do full exams, shots, bloodwork, so on and so forth on five pets in that short a time. I was there, the lead receptionist was not, so I got the brief earful from the doctor (not directed at me obvs, but I understood her frustration). but something like that wouldāve gotten me pulled into another meeting. the lead receptionist has booked rechecks as technician appointments too, which youāre not supposed to do unless the doctor OKs it. just. shit like that. she should know better.Ā
and when I started I was told to look at the appointment notes when people came in-- I seeĀ āNCNPā (new client, new patient) on an appointment and my instinct is to grab the new client paperwork. Iāve been going through the physical files and Iāve been doing a LOT of our wellness plan contracts, and it annoys me to hell and back when thereās a pop-up alert AND I put notes right at the top of the appointments, sometimes in capital letters,Ā to have the owner sign such-and-such form, and they donāt fucking give anyone the paperwork. I hate coming in later in the day to see that things from the morning hadnāt been done-- there was one owner I needed new client paperwork from who was right there and did we get it? no. I end up taking care of notes left in our worklist from the head receptionist to send wellness plan contracts via docusign to owners that were literally just in; they could have just printed the contracts and had them sign them while they were there. a lot of the ones sent on docusign donāt even get looked at, not to mention we only have so many weāre allowed to send before we get charged extra. the one surgery we had today had a follow-up for needing a signed copy of her wellness plan agreement on file, and did it get signed? no. they had one petĀ to do the monday surgery paperwork for on saturday. they could have done what I did today: upon seeing the same follow-up for a surgery we have coming in tomorrow I printed out a copy of the contract and put it in with the papers that need to be signed. itās not. fucking hard. I donāt care if you have extra responsibilities as a head receptionist, you donāt get to be lazy about theĀ āmenialā work because thatās still part of your damn job, even if itās to a lesser extent. she doesnāt check the reception worklist terribly often either, which is annoying as hell when thereās things she could easily take care of that end up becoming my problem later in the day.Ā
I donāt dislike doing scans or faxes or checking meds, but I do dislike doing literally all of them when Iām working with other people. honestly I feel like Iām the one doing all of them period. they havenāt trained the new receptionist very well, probably less well because sheās worked at another clinic before, and honestly I donāt think she knows what to do with a lot of the scans and records and such. she knows where the checkin sheets go, but like... for example, days like today I come in and they give me the brief rundown of the morning. it was busy, the phone calls ended up not really slowing down until after 5, and I understand when things are crazy like that youāre just trying to stay on top of taking care of the calls. the surgery paperwork didnāt get done for the next day, usually thatās a morning thing, but I did that later. it happens. I was told the new girl was kind of taking care of the emails, but of course the phones didnāt stop so they piled up. but when I looked, I got most of it taken care of in a few minutes. Iāve noticed the new girl doesnāt usually touch emails that have records from ER visits or specialist notes, so Iām not convinced they taught her what to do with those. and itās not hard-- I actually really like those emails, because you just have to download the files and thatās it. nothing to respond to, no message to pass along to a doctor or tech (I mean, besides the records themselves; we pass along those records to the doctors to review). we have a folder called MyScans which is where the scanner sends the PDF files once theyāve been scanned in, and I just use that folder as a catch-all for things that need to be attached to charts. today there was a lot. morning checkin sheets had been scanned in but not labeled or attached, which is fine. I scanned a few more, downloaded a few records, and the scans list was considerable. but in 10-15 minutes I had everything labeled and was able to attach all of them-- between calls of course, so itās hard to measure how much time I actually spent on it. maybe itās because thatās the one thing I was able to do when I started, and since thatĀ āmenialā work became mine so the others could do other things Iām just really quick at it, but Iāve had crazy mornings and still been able to get a handle on most everything by the time the closing shift people came in. it was a 3-person day today too, so I closed by myself. by the time the mid-shift person left, I had done all the confirmation calls, the surgery calls, done all the surgery paperwork, made the calendar for the next day, finished all the bullshit fake future appointments for everyone that came in today just before close, and because the last appointment was out 20 minutes before close I was able to close out the money stuff and just be done by a few minutes after 7. and thatās on top ofĀ doing all the fucking scans, all the faxes, labeling and attaching all the files, calling owners for such-and-such reason, answering calls... how is it that I can do almost literally fucking everything and still manage to keep up? while the head receptionist acts like itās so hardĀ and so stressfulĀ doing what she does. meanwhile (my new coworker mentioned this today too) half the time we go to the back and sheās in the office with the practice manager laughing about something or other; theyāre talking and looking at instagram a good bit of the time, and while the head receptionist does do our social media stuff... she still canāt get our next monthās schedule out to us until literally the last day of the current month? with how busy she supposedly is doing management shit? today one of the doctors and his assistant on that appointment were looking for his puppy patient, and sheād taken the puppy into the office to hold her and take pictures; she went out into the hall in treatment holding her and I heard the doctor half-jokingly goĀ āyou canāt just steal my patients...ā but like. Iām up front answering the nonstop phones and scanning shit and doing things for the doctors and Iāve got 3 things on my plate at once all day and you get to just wander around with a puppy you took from her exam room and hang out in the office?
I really should ask for a raise.
I get that Iāve only been there for a year and sheās been in the business for 8 years, but that honestly just seems unfair to me. I get that sheās got more responsibilities than I do, and honestly Iām glad Iām not the one making the collections calls. but Iād understand if, given her greater responsibilities, she could only do like. a fraction of theĀ āmenialā shit I do. but she acts like itās beneath her, and things just go sitting for hours until I can get to them because it was ātoo busyā. sure. yet somehow I can still manage it. and I have time to check the worklist and see things from the night before that should have been taken care of either the night before or that morning, if I couldnāt get to them at night or if they were entered after I left.Ā
and Iām trying to be understanding with the new girl, because this hospital is honestly really fast-paced compared to the one she was at before, and I didnāt even have experience when I started so I can only imagine all the things I fucked up on my first few months.Ā but also... sheās worked at a clinic before. sheāll leave clients on hold for a really long time, take her time after putting them on hold, sometimes even explain the situation to me or whoever else is up front (if itās a question I can answer, fine, whatever, but when I get a brief rundown and tell her exactly who to go to, sometimes Iāll have to tell her more than once before she gets up to find that person)... and while I appreciate that she does well with the notes for herself on sticky notes, she manages to fall far enough behind on all of it that she ends up staying 30-45 minutes after her shift is supposed to end becauseĀ āI just need to finish entering my notesā. Iāve tried to gently nudge her to enter notes as things happen, and if something interrupts you, just write a note to yourself to get right back to it... because Iāve had a number of occasions already where someone will call, sheāll talk to them and not put anything in the computer but she āhas a note for herself to get to itā, and then maybe 20 minutes to an hour later weāll get another call, either from the same person or someone related to the case, and we have no idea what was talked about, because she still hadnāt gotten to entering it yet. there was one last week, and I was lucky I happened to have listened to a part of her conversation with an owner-- they had given us permission to release info to rescues because they were trying to adopt a new pet, and the rescues often do vet checks just to make sure the people theyāre adopting their animals out to are responsible pet owners. we just canāt release the info until we get permission from the owner. well I heard part of that call, and maybe 20 minutes later I answered a call from a rescue asking about this owner; opened up the profile, didnāt see any alert (usually we put theĀ āowner gives permissionā note in an alert that pops up when you open their profile), but I remembered the call she was on and asked if it was that owner. she said yes, so I proceeded with the call, but like... come on. thatās not something you need to put on a sticky note to get back to later, you can literally enter the alert while youāre on the phone with the owner. that way itās done and it doesnāt sit on your to-do list all day, and that way when the rescue inevitably calls 20 minutes after the owner does, whoever answers that call knows they donāt have to call the owner and ask for permission. if I hadnāt heard part of that call and thought to ask the other girl if that was the owner sheād spoken to, I probably would have done just that, and looked like an idiot to the owner because she had literally just called us. that was luckily an innocuous one, but sometimes we have owners going back and forth with us and specialists, sometimes we have owners asking questions or ordering meds and those need to be taken care of today, and we get multiple calls about it, but the notes havenāt been entered... like, you canāt just leave that shit for later. weāre working in a live, time-sensitive environment. weāre working as a team. not everyone is aware of what everyone else is doing in the hospital, thatās why we rely so heavily on the computer. we enter notes and we enter them quick, that way if someone calls and talks to someone else, they can see the previous interactions right there. no guesswork. we donāt have the time to go looking for whoever talked to this person and asking them what was said; thatās how you end up behind. today her shift ended at 5 and she didnāt leave until almost 6 because her notes werenāt done. Iām still doing at least 95% of the scans and taking care of pretty much all of the emails, and thatās the bulk of what the job is outside of phone calls after the morning. and yet I manage to log all my conversations as they happen, get everything attached where it should be, leave notes for the appropriate people, and get out on time. and corporate really doesnāt want to pay us overtime, so it annoys me too when sheāll sit there while Iām doing three things at once and talk about her personal life, like.. donāt you have notes to finish? instead of letting it keep you half an hour late? I do enjoy the conversation, I like that we can be personable with each other at this job, sheās a sweet girl and she means well... but thereās a time and place for it, and thatās when thereās absolutely nothing left to do.Ā or when the only things that need doing are, like, labeling and attaching checkin sheets, or something like my side project. I can talk and do those things at the same time.
like, this was my first hospital environment, and Iāve still never had lists of things to get back to later. I mean... notĀ āthingsā like conversations to log; Iāve had lists of automatic payments I need to set up, or foods I need to set aside for an owner, or a call I need to make eventually. maybe I was just trained well when I was in my research lab back in school-- we were taught to log everythingĀ in the database. every phone call, every email; I remember even once writing an email to my professor at home on my own time and after hitting send, immediately feeling like I needed to open the database and log it. it was just an instinct. Iām not always the bestĀ at it at this hospital, but Iām trying to be better about it. but I do know that if I donāt put it in right after it happens or if I donāt put it on a sticky note to get right back to it after Iāve been interrupted with something else, Iām going to forget. and inevitably someone will talk to that person about something at some point later that day, and if they donāt know about my interaction with them, it could be confusing or lead to miscommunication or something. I donāt know how she just doesnāt have that same sense of urgency. things doĀ pile up, and fast, but working in a hospital before, you should already have a sense of your priorities. things that are not pressing: bullshit fake future appointments, labeling and attaching checkin sheets, scanning and attaching things from the day that have already been taken care of (like faxed script requests) next-day surgery paperwork, printing and highlighting the next-day schedule. if there really is no free time, those can be put off til the end of the night and taken care of after close. things that are slightly pressing: entering prescription and food requests (though MOST of the time those can be done on the phone with the client), checking meds that have been brought up from pharmacy, faxing prescription requests, etc., logging ER visits, specialist notes, and radiology/histopathology results when those come in (unless the results were sent out for stat review, or unless they show something that needs to be brought to someoneās attention. stat reports were sent out stat because they wanted results while the patient is there, so those need to go right to the doctor). things that are pressing: confirmation calls for next-day appointments (when itās that time of the day), confirming surgery appointments and giving pre-surgical instructions (because sometimes you are what determines whether a pet will come in properly fasted or whether theyāll need to reschedule because the owner or the babysitter or whoever didnāt know not to give food after midnight), logging client interactions and making notes to put in the appropriate lists so they are brought to the right peopleās attention in a timely manner, checking emails and downloading attachments, attaching those to charts if theyāre urgent. things that are immediately pressing: phone calls, checking in and checking out clients. there are exceptions to those levels of importance, but you have to have the common sense to recognize when something is more immediately pressing than something else. there was one day when the new girl was saying that sheād finish up her notes and then start on future appointments, meanwhile I was backlogged taking care of the things she didnāt know how to do on top of the things I normally do; the next-day confirmation calls still needed to be done, so I tried to gently emphasize that those calls were more important; yeah corporate wants us to make those bullshit appointments but they can wait. honestly sometimes I wonder where her priorities are. for having worked in a vet hospital environment before... shouldnāt you know these things? sheās been with us for a few months now, thatās plenty of time to recognize that future appointments can be done after close if they need to be, and sometimes theyāre a good time filler at the end of the night when the last doctor is running behind and youāre just waiting for them to finish up. confirmation calls... kind of need to be done. usually thatās a morning thing, but theyāve become a mid-day/early evening thing now that weāre sending online checkin forms; we like to wait for those to come in, because if an owner has sent it back we mark them as confirmed. fewer calls to do.
I just. ugh. I havenāt complained in a while I guess. Iām annoyed that the head receptionist put me on 3 saturdays this month too, when she had me on 3 saturdays last month. I will have had two weeks with two consecutive days off in the last 6-8 weeks at least. I will have gotten two saturdays off in two months. meanwhile the head receptionist gave herself 3 weekends off this month. I donāt remember how many it was last month, but it was at least 2. I was told (and the new receptionist was told) that it would be basically alternating saturdays. the new girl got 3 weekends off last month too.Ā
I get that the head receptionist has MS. I know itās hard for her with the pain and insomnia and MS hug and everything else MS comes with. but just because I donāt have a diagnosis... that doesnāt mean Iām not struggling too. I have pain and fatigue too. and she knows this, weāve had many a chronic-illness-struggle-bus talk when we work together. I spend a LOT of my off-time crashing and recovering from having to beĀ āonā like 6 days of the week. and even my one off-day at a time doesnāt feel like off time, because I end up piling errands and chores into it and I donāt actually get much rest. when I crash itās like my battery dipped to 5% and I need to nap to get back to 20%. my last crash nap, I realized Iād finally gotten tired enough to crash but when I woke up I was just back toĀ ānormalā tired, which still involved yawning til I cried. even our closing doctor today asked how I was doing after close, because apparently Iāve been looking more tired than usual. I told him, well, about as well as can be expected, since they have me on almost every day of the fucking week, most saturdays for the last two months and now this one apparently, I canāt afford therapy anymore, and my body is falling apart. not in quite so many words, but you know.
yesterday wasnāt great. today was better but also not great. yesterday I ended up staying until just past 9 because things got so backlogged during the day. the surgery and drop-off paperwork for today hadnāt been done, none of the stupid fake future appointments had been made all day (but thankfully one of the techs helped me with that), and I had scans and file attachments sitting in that one folder all day that needed to be labeled and attached. the confirmation calls needed to be done and I ended up doing them around 5-6pm after handling like.. everything else. the new receptionist stayed almost 40 minutes after her shift to finish her notes yet again, while I was scrambling to stay on top of literally everything else. same with today, but it was only like 15 minutes. she kind of tried to start on confirmation calls after sheād already gone like 10 minutes over but I told her not to worry about it; there werenāt all that many that needed to be done and sheās already staying late for no real reason almost every day. I donāt want it to be on me that sheās getting overtime. because corporate doesnāt want to pay us fucking overtime.
yesterday just.. I donāt know what sheās doing all day that she ends up so behind while Iām doing at least 90% of all the other work. I get that when itās one phone call after another itās hard to keep coming back to things, but somehow I make it work. Iām not staying a half hour after my shift ends to write in my client contacts, theyāre already done. Iāll take notes on a sticky note sometimes when Iām talking to the owner, sometimes if itās just a PR call Iāll type it up in the window while Iām on the phone and edit after the call. but literally as soon as that call ends Iām entering in my client contact note. I type it up fast, I get it to whomeverās attention I need to, and I move on. if I get interrupted, I keep my sticky note so I remember to get back to it. Iāve been doing that since I started, and this is my first job as a vet receptionist. this isnāt her first rodeo, like.. what was she doing at her other clinic? if Iām backed up at the end of my shift, itās because I put off the less pressing things and once the phones are turned over I finally have uninterrupted time to just get it done. but unless someone called or emailed at 6:59pm none of what Iām doing is entering client contacts.
last night just sucked. I didnāt mean to stay that late, and I probably wouldnāt have if a few of the techs and I didnāt have a mini bitch session (tbh, much needed). when I went to leave, there was a huge semi truck parked diagonally across the part of the parking lot where we all park, had its ramp down and everything delivering stuff to the 7-11 that shares our building, and I really thought for a minute that I was blocked in. after staying 2 hours late, that was the last thing I needed. but thankfully they parked with the cab JUST far enough away from this van thatās always parked in the end spot that I was able to back out of my spot and squeeze between them.Ā
then as I was crossing the intersection I hate to get home (itās crossing a major highway, and people literally always run the red light so it scares me sometimes to cross it), someone in a huge SUV decided to round the corner and slide over to the left, into my lane, without looking and without a turn signal. thankfully I learned to drive in this area so Iāve taught myself to expect stupid shit from literally everyone all the time, so I already had my hand on my horn the second I saw them round the corner. in my trying to move away from them, Iām sure I scared the poor person in the lane to myĀ left who had just crossed the intersection with me. Iām just glad nobody got hit, again the last thing I wouldāve needed last night.
and then after all this I came upstairs to change, closed my curtains... and I thought to myself that something smelled weird. I thought the cat mightāve maybe tracked poop out of the litter box again; he has little rock poops and sometimes has constipation issues; I think sometimes he struggles with getting them out because Iāve found little poop nuggets outside the box before and I know he knows where heās supposed to poop. maybe it just doesnāt come out til he thinks heās done. but nope, not poop this time. he left a nice pile of vomit right on both blankets on my bed.Ā
I guess it couldāve been worse. couldāve been on my pillows. the blankets arenāt hard to wash. the comforter is a bitch to dry, but itās not the end of the world. it just... really was the cherry on top after the day I had yesterday.
today was kind of busy, but it felt busier for me. even with my new coworker I still have to do all the wellness plan stuff because she doesnāt know how to yet. I end up taking a number of the worklist tasks. I end up doing all the scans and all the emails. sometimes sheās helpful and saves some things out of the email, and sheāll enter line items for them.. but sheāll put a note saying the document is attached and then not attach it. and I find it hours later when I go to actually attach it. I might just be quick at it because it was one of the few things I could actually do and do well when I started. but that just means it should be easy as hell for her to do too. same with entering medication checks-- I literally hate coming in at 12 for my shift and seeing both people up front with a fullĀ āmedications to be checkedā basket sitting on the back counter. somehow whenever I open I manage to get those all in. you literally just have to pull up the patientās chart, read the initials on the label (thatās who filled and checked the medication) and enter your initials saying you verified. then you put it in the med drawer, alphabetically by last name. itās literally that easy. all the mindless, simple tasks that I was doing when I started... still seem to be my job. the lead and head receptionists wonāt do it, god knows. theyāll maybe put some papers in the scanner if they happen to be up. the lead receptionist will sometimes label them. but thatās it. I feel like Iām doing the bulk of all that. and I donāt MIND. like I said, Iād rather be doing that than the managerial stuff. but Iād like to not be doing 95+% of it. it would be nice to have some help, divide the work.Ā
I have another project to get to; office manager and head vet want me to go through all the files in the back room so we can rip out those shelves and make it into a little employee lounge area. and I can do it-- I actually have a list of all the physical file numbers, and what Iām going to do is look up each folder number in our system and determine which ones can be tossed and which need to be scanned in. hopefully that shouldnāt take more than a few days, provided I have time to actually work on it. I havenāt had time for it this week yet, except for a few minutes before close tonight. I only work on that when I have nothing else to do. thankfully the head receptionist gave me one shift this month that I can use to just focus on that. I did ask for that-- I let her know that if I was going to get this done by the end of the year like the office manager said, Iād need to have time to dedicate to it. and I think it took me 2 months just to get through the front files. this shouldĀ go faster, since none of them are scanned in so I donāt have to go scrolling through the scans looking for new client paperwork and hours disclosures. I just have to determine which ones are still active clients, which ones I can inactivate, which ones are already inactive, so on. itās drudging work, honestly, but I like feeling like Iām getting something done. I was so proud to see the shelves in the front get taken out, like.. that was thanks to my work getting the files scanned in. we had a contractor come in the other day to talk about plans for the space. Iām not sure when theyāre planning on getting the new countertop and retail shelves in, but I know itās happening. once I can get the back files done thatāll be nice too.Ā
I worry that I donāt know how much time I have left at the clinic. I havenāt really voiced any thoughts about leaving. but at my current pay this is even less sustainable than it already was. my paychecks were reading ~$800+ every other week because of the extra hours Iād been able to put in once our COVID shifts ended. but even with extra time, my first paycheck after my birthday was just over $600. with health insurance taken out.. this just isnāt going to work. half my rent is $750 a month, and now thatās more than half my pay. I havenāt applied anywhere yet, and honestly it breaks my heart to think about leaving the clinic, but I do need to earn more. and momās being a little more convincing about me getting a remote job somewhere even tangentially related to my field. it would be safer for me to be able to stay at home. and I need the money.Ā
Iām starting to realize that sheās probably right, that not all office jobs are like my last one. I told my mom Iām just not the desk-job type person, because I really, truly feel like Iām not, and she saidĀ ā...youāre doing a desk job right nowā. maybe itās just that here I feel like Iām getting something done. I can drag myself through just about anything if I know thereās an end goal and itās within reach. even if itās boring. at my old job it was neverending, and my work was pointless. it was slapping bandaids on a rickety, unstable wooden roller coaster. if I fixed one problem, that fix inevitably caused another problem. anyone would feel discouraged by that, I think. momās trying to get me to look at technical writer jobs. thereās one company sheās familiar with that would pay something close to what the feds were offering me. and I donāt think Iād have to be cleared. I could live on that money. and if itās a remote job, I could move anywhere. somewhere more affordable. maybe even closer to friends. holding on to that idea makes me feel a little better about things.Ā
maybe today Iāll take a look at those jobs. I need to process claims for Jasperās most recent ER visit too. and call another doctorās office about setting up an appointment. I decided to spend today in bed instead of on the couch downstairs. itās my one off-day this week, I just want to rest a little.
