Do You Purposefully Avoid Rank in Place of Employment

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

In my experience (and I've worked at ....at least 5 hospitals in my 3.5 year career so far lol) it all depends on the workplace. I work in Pathology so obviously we have technicians, technologists and pathologists, the latter being doctors. I myself am a Pathologist Assistant, so I do their dirty work, dissection of surgical specimens and such, and so work with them quite closely. I always address them professionally, using title (Dr.) and last name, but one thing I've noticed while jumping from hospital to hospital is that in a more busy environment, where pathologists will be mixing with PAs and residents and surgeons, everyone calls each other by their first names. It never bothered me, as I am treated with respect and they defer to my expertise when it comes to hands on work but I do find myself thinking about it at times but meh... what are you gonna do.

[qcbaker]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Not at all controversial

Well, the disclaimer was just about my opinion on meritocracy. Some people seem to be really invested in the idea of "you can do anything as long as you work hard enough at it" and don't like when people suggest that might not be true. Its gets to be a political discussion real quick and outside of just not being in the mood to argue about that, its also a no-no on this forum lol.

Either "above" or "below" respect is earned not demanded. In the hospital case it can not function properly without the head of surgery or the guy that dumps the trash cans.

Totally agree. In the case of the trash can guy, at my old job he would come by every morning and empty every trashcan at every desk. There were a LOT of desks. So I would always pull out the bag from my trashcan and tie it up before he got to me, then when he got to me I'd just hand him the bag to put in his big wheeled can, take the new bag from him, and put it in the can myself. I get that its his job to take all the trash and clean and all that, and maybe I just tend to overthink things, but I just felt like such an asshole if I just let him 100% clean up after me while I sat there and watched.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by qcbaker

Well, the disclaimer was just about my opinion on meritocracy. Some people seem to be really invested in the idea of "you can do anything as long as you work hard enough at it" and don't like when people suggest that might not be true. Its gets to be a political discussion real quick and outside of just not being in the mood to argue about that, its also a no-no on this forum lol.



Totally agree. In the case of the trash can guy, at my old job he would come by every morning and empty every trashcan at every desk. There were a LOT of desks. So I would always pull out the bag from my trashcan and tie it up before he got to me, then when he got to me I'd just hand him the bag to put in his big wheeled can, take the new bag from him, and put it in the can myself. I get that its his job to take all the trash and clean and all that, and maybe I just tend to overthink things, but I just felt like such an asshole if I just let him 100% clean up after me while I sat there and watched.

Almost 30 years ago I started my career in environmental health and safety as the trash can guy. Many did the same as you. They were balanced by the douches that would put full cups of coffee in the can though. You have any idea the mess that can make?

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

Originally Posted by qcbaker

but I just felt like such an asshole if I just let him 100% clean up after me while I sat there and watched.

omg same here, it bothers me so much. Although I do realize how ironic it is that me being bothered by it is more demeaning to him than if I wasn't.

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Almost 30 years ago I started my career in environmental health and safety as the trash can guy. Many did the same as you. They were balanced by the douches that would put full cups of coffee in the can though. You have any idea the mess that can make?

That's nothing! We put body parts and leaking old blood and colon juices

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by StraightOuttaCanadaEh

That's nothing! We put body parts and leaking old blood and colon juices

Those came later in the safety part.

[qcbaker]

Originally Posted by StraightOuttaCanadaEh

omg same here, it bothers me so much. Although I do realize how ironic it is that me being bothered by it is more demeaning to him than if I wasn't.

I think it depends on WHY you're bothered by it lol. If you're bothered because you think the job itself is demeaning and dont like seeing someone being demeaned so you help out, then yeah that could be seen as even more demeaning. But if you're just uncomfortable because watching someone else clean up your mess makes you feel like a selfish asshole who cant even take 30 seconds to help out, then I don't think that's more demeaning to him lol.

I always try to make stuff easier for my servers at restaurants for the same reason. Yes, its their job to clear the table, but if I don't stack up the menus nicely so they can easily just take the stack after they take our order, or if I don't stack the plates and put all trash/silverware on top when we're done, I feel like I'm just being a lazy jerk who wants everything done for him.

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

Originally Posted by qcbaker

But if you're just uncomfortable because watching someone else clean up your mess

yeah this is why. I also clean up as much as I can when I'm out at restaurants, stack plates together and scrape the leftovers onto the top plate. I also for some reason fold the napkins even though that doesn't matter lol. I guess it just looks neater. I am very bothered by people leaving trays of their garbage in cafeterias. I don't know how they get up and go. What went wrong and at what point in their lives for them to think it's okay to do that. Boggles the mind

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by StraightOuttaCanadaEh

yeah this is why. I also clean up as much as I can when I'm out at restaurants, stack plates together and scrape the leftovers onto the top plate. I also for some reason fold the napkins even though that doesn't matter lol. I guess it just looks neater. I am very bothered by people leaving trays of their garbage in cafeterias. I don't know how they get up and go. What went wrong and at what point in their lives for them to think it's okay to do that. Boggles the mind

I do this as well. For me I think it comes from having been a busboy at one point in my life. I can't not do it, it bothers the crap out of me.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by qcbaker

I think it depends on WHY you're bothered by it lol. If you're bothered because you think the job itself is demeaning and dont like seeing someone being demeaned so you help out, then yeah that could be seen as even more demeaning. But if you're just uncomfortable because watching someone else clean up your mess makes you feel like a selfish asshole who cant even take 30 seconds to help out, then I don't think that's more demeaning to him lol.

I always try to make stuff easier for my servers at restaurants for the same reason. Yes, its their job to clear the table, but if I don't stack up the menus nicely so they can easily just take the stack after they take our order, or if I don't stack the plates and put all trash/silverware on top when we're done, I feel like I'm just being a lazy jerk who wants everything done for him.

Originally Posted by StraightOuttaCanadaEh

yeah this is why. I also clean up as much as I can when I'm out at restaurants, stack plates together and scrape the leftovers onto the top plate. I also for some reason fold the napkins even though that doesn't matter lol. I guess it just looks neater. I am very bothered by people leaving trays of their garbage in cafeterias. I don't know how they get up and go. What went wrong and at what point in their lives for them to think it's okay to do that. Boggles the mind

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

I do this as well. For me I think it comes from having been a busboy at one point in my life. I can't not do it, it bothers the crap out of me.

I do this every single time. I even had a server yell at me for it once. Who knew that stacking the plates actually made her job harder? I guess they develop a technique and deviations from that mess with them. I still do it though.

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

I do this as well. For me I think it comes from having been a busboy at one point in my life. I can't not do it, it bothers the crap out of me.

I think for me it comes from being born and raised in former soviet russia in a fairly strict middle eastern-ish family. Communism and middle east don't mess around, you gotta shape up quick. Otherwise you get beaten lol

[DarkPira7e]

Originally Posted by qcbaker

Totally agree. In the case of the trash can guy, at my old job he would come by every morning and empty every trashcan at every desk. There were a LOT of desks. So I would always pull out the bag from my trashcan and tie it up before he got to me, then when he got to me I'd just hand him the bag to put in his big wheeled can, take the new bag from him, and put it in the can myself. I get that its his job to take all the trash and clean and all that, and maybe I just tend to overthink things, but I just felt like such an asshole if I just let him 100% clean up after me while I sat there and watched.

I wanted to point out that with our facilities staffing, I take time to say hi to them and engage in conversation. I work in the evening so there's more time for me to talk to them. The guy that comes into my office every night doesn't talk to anyone but me, he's a really nice guy and has helped me get to my car one night when there was 2 feet of unplowed snow. He radioed to the other guy to grab the mini plow and plowed a little pathway for me. It kills me to think that people among my midst work so hard to lay rose petals at the feet of a radiologist who yells at them, but ignore the person who works hard to clean up after all of us.

I also wanted to comment that I do understand why addressing people by title can be important. If they ask me to I will, but I don't do it by default. I'm beginning to think maybe it's because I'm just rebellious and want people to know I value them for the work they do, not the title they hold. Maybe the way I show that is backwards??!

[nikitopo]

I believe one reason of the rudeness of the IT people is in the way they were educated. They have been told that IT will be the profession of the future, but they have not been told that the majority of IT will just serve other professions. For example an IT guy will fix another person's computer in a company, but this is not how the company will make money. It is basically support and in most situations it is either boring or it is not paid enough. So, these people realized this when they went to work and they were left in a kind of trap situation. It is not always easy going back to educate yourself and choose a different major and there aren't too many positions focusing entirely on IT.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by StraightOuttaCanadaEh

I think for me it comes from being born and raised in former soviet russia in a fairly strict middle eastern-ish family. Communism and middle east don't mess around, you gotta shape up quick. Otherwise you get beaten lol

In Soviet Russia table clears you.