Dusting Off My Soapbox

As some of you know, I am a nurse. The clinic I work in is an outpatient clinic that happens to be located in the University Hospital. The hospital provides our housekeeping services. Usually, the housekeeping is taken care of after hours and many of us never even see the person who does this service for us.

Well, this week a new guy started. When we came to work yesterday, we noticed that no one's trash had been emptied (the main task for the housekeeper to accomplish). One of our gals up front, who by the way is more than eager to point out others errors, called the main office and requested service. No problem, it definitely needed to be done. We could have done it ourselves, but since the person was new, they wanted him to come up so he would know what he needed to do.

One of my favorite people in the whole hospital because he has a contagious smile and incredibly graceful, loving spirit brought our new guy up. New guy (I know his name, but am protecting his identity) was eager to apologize and go over what he had forgotten. New guy also happens to be profoundly deaf and learning disabled. He was quick to admit that it takes him several times to learn a routine, but he was going to try his best. No problem at all, I thought. Favorite hospital person and I lead him around the office and kinda talked about what we expected. We have a lot of trash cans so I offered to pull them out (some of them are kind of hidden) at night until he learned the ropes. He was grateful.

Next is the point where I dusted off my soapbox:

"You shouldn't do that, you know?" Coworker says.

"Do what?" I ask.

"If he can't do his job properly, then they need to find someone else who can." Coworker spits out.

"Because I want to pull out the trash cans so he knows where they are?"

"Exactly, they can't just hire people like "that" and then expect the rest of us to cover for his incompetancies." Coworker said.

I almost lost it, seriously. I don't have a lot that I am passionate about, but the equal treatment of all people, regardless of race, gender, disability, etc. is high up the list. New guy is really nice and trying to learn. Who of us hasn't sometimes needed a refresher for our jobs or other routines. How dare coworker to immediately disregard providing any assistance and immediately write him off as "not being able to do his job." Hello, its only his second day! Same coworker also complains because she doesn't want her tax dollars "supporting" people who won't help themselves (according to her terms). Well, sister, you can't have it both ways. Either we make provisions and help people work, providing them with increased self confidence, self reliance and an income... or, you send everyone with a disability home on their second day and force them to rely on the government to meet basic needs.

Anyway, that's my dish for today. I had to pray for the patience and love like Jesus has to even want to deal with coworker today and not point out all the piddly things coworker forgets to do or does imperfectly.

But, thanks for listening... Or, I guess, reading is more accurate.