Being a teleradiology imaging assistant sounds fairly impressive on paper, but what it amounts to is being a glorified switch board operator at a company which is becoming more and more something I despise: a call center.
Now, to be fair, unlike some of the more hellish and evil call centers out there, we actually serve a useful and necessary purpose. Unlike, I don't know, Comcast or every motherfucking student loan agency on the planet, we actually help people. Sometimes, we even save lives. That helps me get through each shift, especially since I've come to learn in my two years in this position that hospital patients need all the help they can get. Because hospital staff, those learned individuals who are responsible for curing the sick, are almost all fucking morons.
I spend each work day on the phone, for hours, with a wide assortment of doctors, nurses, medical assistants, physicians assistants, technicians, and operators. A disturbingly large number of them are ignorant, irritating, lazy little prats. And so stupid. Doctors are whiny and pretentious, techs get paid entirely too much for how little they do-- they're like the Congress of hospitals-- and don't even get me started on your average nurse practitioner. Rather than rant your eyes out, I'll just say this: I have very little faith in the American Healthcare System.
Hence my decision to reduce my work hours. The irony is, since I started my new shift, I've been working more hours than usual; I've actually managed to accumulate consistent over-time, which just doesn't happen. I blame the incessant mewling of my near empty bank account.
Over the past few weeks, it has been pointed out at work that I've been in an extra foul mood. I didn't do anything to dissuade them of that idea, though it is patently incorrect. I'm always in a foul mood; my neutral emotional state is grumpy, and it just goes down hill from there. The difference is that I'm a credible actor; it would be unprofessional to snarl at my colleagues, so I expend a great deal of energy acting less grumpy than I truly am.
Lately, however, I haven't had the energy to pretend I'm not a cantankerous, misanthropic mess. Perhaps because I've been working so much more than usual. Maybe I'm just over the bullshit, and like Bilbo, I'm in need of a holiday.
That being said, I felt it was time to take some time off, and so for the first time in about seven weeks, I've not picked up any extra shifts. I get to sit back and enjoy a four day weekend. After that, I'll have a short three day work week, and then my vacation officially starts! I'll have a solid week and a half of free time, during which I'll get to meet Felicia Day (more on that later) and then go to Pax!
The real challenge is going to be figuring out what to do with myself besides that.
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