New Job = Stress

I feel like I have been doing alright at work so far. I'm not picking up on things perhaps as quickly as they would like me to, which is frustrating for both of us. The problem I've been having with the training I'm going through has to do with both speed, and organization. There are 10+ instruments that I need to learn, all with their individual techniques, quirks, trouble-shooting approaches, rules about paperwork, etc. And the way I am being trained, they are not teaching me about one instrument, letting me practice it, and then moving on to the next; we fly around the building from one instrument to the next gathering little bits of information along the way as we go and hopefully cover all bases by the end. And there is added pressure due to my trainer leaving to go to school and wanting to be out of the schedule as soon as possible.

By the end of next week I have to have passed several "competencies" with supervision. I am getting more confident with more practice, but it is all pretty stressful, and whenever I do something slightly out of line with procedure, I get barked at. Add to that the newness of being on my feet all day, regimented breaks for going to the bathroom or grabbing a snack, and rapidly changing day vs. night shifts that throw me for a loop, and I'm really hanging on by a thread sometimes.

So that gives you some background as to where I am at right now... *then* ...

I come in today, and get word that there may be some problem with me getting "approved" to take my pre-nursing physiology course this Spring, which starts next week. I registered for this class over two months ago. There almost no hope of switching to a different time/section at this point (all sections are full). When I put in my application for the job, I put in a very clear note compounded with the pdf application stating the times and days that I could not work due to my class. I also brought this up several times, with multiple people, including my supervisor, during both interview sessions, and everybody including him said it would be fine.

But when I met with him today, he acted as if this was some big surprise that I needed that time off for my class, expressed what an inconvenience this was to both himself and the rest of the lab, told me that it would not be allowed, intimated that I had been doing a shoddy job so far in my training, and expressed that my job was on the line over this scheduling issue. WTF!

I held it together in the meeting with him, asserted over and over again that this was a necessary course for me, that it would set me back a whole year to not be able to take it this spring, and reminded him repeatedly (and respectfully) that he should have been aware of this issue before hiring me due to our multiple previous discussions.

Afterward, I went to the breakroom to take my 10 minutes and the person who has been training me was in there. I asked her if she was aware if my supervisor would ever hire three people at once with the intention of "testing" them and planning to fire one ultimately. She paused, said she didn't know, and asked me what our supervisor had said. At this point, I started crying and couldn't stop for a while.

Then, in walks the HR person, notices that I am crying, and asks if she can help. I explain to her, through my gasping crying, what has happened, she asks me clear logical questions confirming that I did in fact put in writing my need to have those times off for my class and that I had verbal agreement from my supervisor prior to being hired that it was okay. The person who is training me kept playing the politician and saying she could see both sides, but the HR woman said that our prior agreement should hold, and said that she would talk to my supervisor on my behalf and either he or she would get back to me.

I went on a 20 minute walk after that to try to pull myself together and stop being emotional. I ended up running into a friend who also works there, and we walked together and talked about what had happened, and she told me about her own issues at work. I was somewhat cheered up by the time I had returned.

I also reminded myself that I have not yet put in notice at my old job (which is on hiatus during the semester break), and that I have not yet unregistered from the "extra" classes that I was planning on taking if I couldn't find full time employment by the time the term started. One of those classes is phlebotomy, and it is quite difficult to get into, so I didn't want to drop it until I was very sure that the work situation was going to be stable and doable. So I have backup, but I need to know by the end of the week on both fronts (my old job, and the courses) if I am going to be working, or not.

I went back to work, jumped into running samples again, and when I was loading some vitamin D tests on a machine, I ran into my supervisor and he came up to me and asked if I knew what I was doing. I told him (confidently) that yes, I did. He said that he had talked with so-and-so and that they decided they would be able to work with my school schedule.

So for the time being, everything is okay.

One of the work-arounds for my schedule is that I am potentially going to have to work 6 days a week until the term is over, i.e. every Saturday. And I am willing to do that, though it will be hard to power through sometimes I'm sure, if it means everything will work out.

So that was my day. Things seemed to smooth out somewhat by the end of the day, but I am still anxious about this development, about my supervisor's threat that I need to shape up and prove myself, and everything in general. I needed to vent somewhere and get my experience down, so there you go. Hopefully the next post will be happier.