Familiarity: Implications to the Nursing Profession
I found this in a site where there was no indication as to its author. But whoever said: “We pretend to work because they pretend to pay us” was both joking and telling the truth. “Work, are like women or men. You can't live with them, you can't live without them.” With every company we successfully enter, we bring with us the culture of the previous company. And when we successfully leave the present job, we leave the people there a part of us and brings with us, a part of them that you can either turn into coal to fuel your hatred or include in your memoir to keep you on your toes.
It is natural for your immediate superior or your boss to monitor you and look out for your faults – that's his job. But when right in your face, you can see the shortcomings of your immediate superior while your boss ignores them, would you keep your cool? You may be seething silently every meeting, eh? Now, what if they start seeing your shortcomings?
To drink inside the school is strictly prohibited, right? Now, how about to drink while working? Definitely a no, right? Well, what if your boss does that? What if he drinks while he's working and relates to students while under the influence of the alcoholic beverage? One “blind” faculty said, “That's entirely fine to me as long as he can do his job.” If you are just a subordinate, what is your idea of the exact specifications of his duties and responsibilities? You would know if you have been in the same position or you are a very observant and insightful person. The next question would be, with such background knowledge, would you blow the whistle?
This is where the entanglement of friendship comes in. There are certain cultures that makes it difficult for an individual to blow the whistle on someone who continuously act or misbehave at work. It is quite difficult if favors have been exchanged for so many occasions, you lost count. If this is the culture of a company, then you would not find it in yourself the motivation to improve on your performance, would it? After all, if such a behavior is being permitted by the over-all boss, then you might as well join the bandwagon, right?
This underground policy is an outrage. It is ridiculous and downright unprofessional. But it happened and may still be happening up until now. Why are then, most of the subordinates doesn't speak up? One reason only – fear. Professionalism has nothing to do with it. When you are afraid to be laid off or be on the “hot seat,” constantly monitored, waiting for you to commit a mistake, then fear is but a constant companion. When you do make a mistake, you will then have to be humble and apologize and accept disciplinary actions they impose on you. When this happens to you, you don't know whether to laugh or convulse in rage. Yes, it did happen – to me.
Everyone have shortcomings and failures. Everyone encounters problems on a daily basis. But there are problems in life that are too much for some individual that their entire life is thrown off-balance, every facet of Life affected – including their career. Because you already know that this company has such an underground policy, you hope that they can find in their hearts to understand your situation in lieu of your shortcomings. But what if you were answered with a statement like this: “Everybody has problems. If everybody can still attend to their duties while having such problems, I don't see a reason why you would be different.”
As nurses, one of the first topic during Fundamentals of Nursing is about Man. That man is a unique biological creation and though we have the same biological components, we are unique in our own way. Hey, even identical twins are not the same! Each of us relate to problems on different levels. Remember: “No two situations are the same,” as much as no two individuals are the same. If so, why such rationalization?
And then, you get hurt. You see where you stand for the first time – that the boss is okay to misbehave, commit mistakes while they ask you to dance on thin ice. An absurdity, you say. Well, people, it is. And so you leave that work with a heavy heart. Out of respect and professionalism, you don't speak out. You don't tell on them. You let them on their ramblings on your shortcomings, while you take it poker-faced.
So, why this article then? It's not everyday that such people get lucky in the Nursing Profession. It's not everyday that they encounter people like you who stayed and keep their eyes closed out of fear that they would be on the “monitoring” list of the boss.
You see, working as a professor for the Caring profession is but a simple task. But when it gets tangled with the strings of “camaraderie,” “brotherhood” or “friendship,” everything gets misty.
To end this ramblings of mine, I would leave you one of the many words of wisdom that Father taught me: “Never express the bad reputation or bad inner workings of the company you work in. Never say they are rotten eggs while you are employed there. If you say they are rotten, then you are also included in the brood of these rotten eggs.”
Yes, I left the eggs.
