vestmoria

on one of my lasts posts, most of the people that answered agreed with the idea I'm on the spectrum. I don't know. I don't see anything wrong being myself.

I'd just like some serious answers from neurotypicals explaining to me why my question triggered my coworker so much:

Manager called me to ask if I can take an extra shift at a different unit because they're short staffed due to illness. I agreed.

Because that unit sometimes overfills and nurses there have to take care of more patients than the ratio agreed with the union I called the unit to ask how many patients they do have today, to have an idea if my shift tomorrow is going to be an easy or a difficult one.

The coworker started yelling and calling me an idiot and using some other choice words, so I said "ok" and hung up.

I didn't yell at her, I simply asked the question in a neutral tone, and I still don't get the animosity.

20 minutes later the same person calls to inform she called our manager and tomorrow I don't have to work at that unit.

All this stupid drama because I asked how many patients they have? I simply don't get it.

Am I really this autistic?

I changed workplaces within my hospital to a similar unit. I also tried applying to other units to see what's there but got rejected.

I quit my old unit because I didn't feel supported or respected by management there, but doctors and half of the nurses are people I can work with and are actually people that helped me become a better nurse. I'm going to miss working with most of them. I'm ready to work with them again.

Managers speak with each other, even if they publicly hate each other and 6 months ago I wasn't as good as I am today, something reflected in their internal memos. I'm on the introvert side and I'm quite sure I'm on the spectrum. I write this because a workplace is also a popularity contest and my old manager was an extrovert who always thought I didn't talk to her to spite her (I didn't talk to her because I wanted to work and she was a perpetual, boring nuisance). People forgive you if you're likable and for this manager I was not. Her favorites always got away doing less and were treated way less harshly than me.

On my last week three coworkers told me separately I'm a good nurse, which surprised me, one even suggested to go to ICU. Nobody told me that at my unit. Ever.

Shifts without management were a bliss: there was nobody there to bully or micromanage me. During these shifts I was more engaged, inquiring about medicines, diagnoses and explaining to patients what their vitals meant, what their medicines did or how they could help the patient to recover more rapidly. Most of the patients and families were not karens and were grateful. I also learned to make a quick exit with the karens.

I'm going into my new unit with this attitude: keep learning, keep asking, ignoring the nurses who try to mob or to ridicule me for asking questions, gray rocking the drama queens and gossips, always telling the charge if a nurse who's supposed to teach me lazies around and wastes my time, to establish boundaries, to stop being a doormat, to ask the doctors to keep learning.

I'm not doing this only for the money, but because I actually like knowing what medicines do, explaining patients what their EKGs mean and how the system works, even if it's broken.

I think, however, some managers will never consider me due to the internal memo this first manager wrote about me and while I have a job, the only way to access better paying positions or ICU is if a manager vouches for you and writes a better memo or even a recommendation.

That’s why I ask if managers see and value if an employee is engaged, even if he has a bad record, is an introvert, is a bit on the spectrum and doesn't want any stupid drama.

I've got a new job as a nurse but I'm still comparing positions, maybe something better comes along.

What I want to say to any of my potential new managers:

one of the reasons I left my old unit is how colleagues give report there: some give report about patients that are no longer there. I just don't get it. Patient is gone, it's not our problem anymore. Who cares where he is now? Give report about the patients I have to provide care to!

Some interrupt report to talk about what they did on the weekend or if the coworker only works 2 times per month, they give report about the 2 weeks they spent not working. It baffles me that they feel offended if I remind them they have to give report and can talk about their private lives when they're done. A report that should last 10 minutes lasts 40. It's tiring and I don't care about their lives.

Others, after giving report, remain in the room to loudly gossip about god knows what in the room... while another nurse tries doing her job and give report. If I remind them I cannot hear report, they feel offended. You do understand it's very difficult to get the information I need to do a good job under this circumstances.

Others interrupt their report to rant in minute detail how they transferred a very heavy patient or how they had to fixate an aggressive one. It's never a short rant, it's always a five minute one where some nurses feel they have to compete and tell an even more egregious story about other obnoxious patient. It's ridiculous. I just don't understand why they cannot move on, get to the point, give report and tell me what meds I have to give him if he has another crisis. I find this very tiring as well.

I really don't want to work with people like that. It's tiring and nursing doesn't have to be. I'd like you to pair me with the nurses who like to do their job, get to the point when they give report and go home with no drama involved. If after this conversation you feel that I'm not going to be a good match, then simply say it so, so neither of us wastes time and I keep looking for a unit with a better work culture.

To me this makes perfect sense: I tell a potential employer what I need to work better while offering him the chance to be upfront and tell me if I'm a good or a bad match.

Any drawbacks?

countries I have in mind are most of the EU, east Asian and south American multiparty democracies, our neighbors Canada and Mexico.

As I see it, these countries share with the US more than with other countries, like African, central Asian or south Asian countries, where liberal democracy and its practice only exists on paper. Up to now, we shared common values like the rule of law, free markets, freedom of the press, political liberalism, atlanticism for our security, our trust in science, institutions and facts... The US was an ally, an indispensable one you might add, even a benign one in some circles.

Now this ally has turned to a bully in an incredibly short period of time: in less than a week trump has started bullying Denmark so they sell Greenland to the US, threatened about taking the Panama channel back, also threatened most of America's trade partners with tariffs if they don't do what he wants, pausing aid to Ukraine, in effect condemning that country to be absorbed by Russia within the next 2 years, he even wants an American flag on Mars... what for?

I don't see why he thinks our trade partners wont also raise their tariffs to our stuff if we do so. What I also don't understand is why he blames the victim (Ukraine) and cozies up to putin. Not even Reagan would have done something like that.

Autocrats in the world are sure having a good time watching our disunity work to their favor.

I wonder what's going to replace the post WW2 and post cold war order, now that liberal democracy is being so successfully attacked from the maga right and people trust more what they read on their ecochamber than what centrist, established media report (I'm not saying that the Washington Post, NPR or the LA Times are neutral, but are more neutral that fox 'news' or 'news'max).