"whatever you guys did..."

There is a woman at work. She is the "excitable" type.

She works in medical records and is a "fussy" kind of person. Very high strung. Anything that deviates from the exact norm is a crisis and a cause for a total flap.

Well, pretty much anything is the cause for a flap.

Something she does, no matter what happens, is blame me, or someone else, but usually me for the event. And I've only been here since May...

If the computer has an issue - often fixed by a reboot, her comment is "I don't know what you've [changed/done], but now it's not working."

Today I was following the fire extinguisher inspection guy around the building getting to know all the extinguisher stations around the building. Fire safety is now my responsibility too. Part of the "man about the house" component of my job, I guess. It happens more and more regularly. The only other guys are a doctor and a contract instructor who always hides in his office. So I am the "man on call" working with 54 women. Most (3/4) of whom are between the ages of 45 and 60 - but I digress...

I just got a call from her.

"[Cadbury], I don't know what you guys did to it when you were looking at the extinguisher this morning, but it's now fallen off the wall and it doesn't look like there is any way of re-attaching it."

I'm excited by the fact that she personalises every problem as being directly the result of my actions.

I will go look. I will find out that the extinguisher was mounted on drywall and the screws pulled out - just like one of the other stations i put in for repair today.

[put out]
And it's my fault. Of course.
[/put out]

[LATER EDIT]

When I went down to look at what had happened, she accurately identified the fact that the inspector had pivoted the extinguisher in its bracket. She also identified the fact that a heavy extinguisher was mounted just into drywall and not properly mounted. She helpfully advised me that she had taken note of the bracket in the lab which is also precarious and suggested I check the mountings on the rest of the building.

all good

all valid

all presented decently and appropriately

and i appreciate her pointing out the issues - really - i do. i need extra eyes - i am not everywhere.

but the initial call really put me off

i'm still the new guy here. i'm still edgy about being fingered as not knowing what i'm doing. which in an unfortunate number of instances, i don't.

because there is no documentation

i mean none

i got half a day's training on their systems

i am left to figure everything out on my own

and even with these inspections today. i get called at 9:20am for a 10am inspection and told i will just tag along with our 2nd in command (she is in charge while the executive director is on holidays). at 10am i'm told i'm on my own and to just handle it with the guy.

i have no clue where all the extinguishers are. they had no list. no map. i made the first list they have had. i had to go look for them in every area while he did each inspection.

i felt like a dumbass

like i do so often

good thing i was in politics and can fake aplomb in any situation - even when my boss had been publicly fired and is front page news or another has been charged with a criminal offense - both real situations i had to handle in the face of hostile media and police investigation(s)... but i digress (again)

so, i've put it on the work orders to fix the brackets

and realised that now that i am the "fire guy", in addition to being the computer dude, and the privacy officer, and toilet plunger, and toilet fixer, and dripping tap fixer, and the heating and cooling guy, and the on-call in the event of an alarm guy (during and after hours), and the pick-up the patient that fell in the bathroom guy, and the muscle in the event of a crazy person guy,

i am also the materials safety in the event of fire guy

which means i have to learn the WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System) for all the chemicals and crap in the clinic. which they only have a vague set-up for - mostly for stuff in the lab. they don't even have a proper listing of their hazardous materials (including specialised cleaning solvents and stuff for the x-ray machine and developer) and don't have an off-site nearby record of the specific location of any of the radioactive materials on site

"Why would we need that?"

FUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!

excuse me, but do you think that maybe the firemen who come to save your ass are going to want to know whether or not there are radioactive materials on fire nearby? do you think that it would be good to make sure that we have pre-notified materials location with the fire department? so that it comes up when we make the panicked 911 call? or they arrive in the middle of the night when there is no-one around to tell them about the radioactive materials they are about to breathe in?

i have an idea - do you have a binder or folder that contains the details of the last fire inspection and any of the notes?

fuck

good thing the stbx had a bizarro stupid unorganised situation with WHMIS stuff at her workplace some years ago and I helped her and her workmates write up their management requests to fix up their WHMIS and safety stuff - so i actually know something about all of this (stbx and her crew are all wrench and "fixer" people - not professional writers (one of the various things i do in life...). management had been ignoring their requests until i turned it into proper memo - then it became an emergency [yes - i am a communications god]).

([sotto voce] but i didn't ever provide any support to the stbx [eye-roll])

but again, i digress

i felt like an idiot

i had a person whose tone and words were shaped to make me feel that way

i have been given little documentation and am having to develop all my own shit

----

thanks for reading while i blow off a little steam