Faux Pas?

[kaasirpent]

Got to work a little late, today, and parked right next to someone else also just arriving. She got her stuff together before I did and went into the building. When I arrived a minute later, she was signing in. So an employee, but not one who normally works out of this site.

Got on the elevator with her and she asked, "Which floor?" I said, "Four," and she pressed the button. I thought she looked vaguely familiar.

Then she asked how I liked the new floor. (Two floors of the building have been redesigned recently. The color scheme is . . . bright. Like someone fellated a box of Crayola and then used the result to paint our walls.)

It's Friday. I had a rough night (leg cramps; long story). Without considering, I said, "Well, it's there. I mean, the colors are kind of bright, but I guess I'll get used to them eventually."

And then she said, "Those are ICARE colors."

A small digression. ICARE is my company's "Shared Principles." It stands for Integrity, Customer-First, Accountability, Respect, Excellence. We are constantly bombarded with it. It's painted on the wall across from our elevators. It's on our intranet. It's on our web site. It's integral to our annual self-assessments. I had just, you know . . . never noticed that there were colors associated with it. End digression.

So, it was at that point that I realized I was talking to Someone Important™. It was at that point that I finally realized why she looked vaguely familiar. She's one of the vice presidents.

Heh heh. Whoops?

But then, she said, "When we" -- don't think I didn't notice the presence of this word; I did -- "were selecting the color scheme, I thought it looked like someone spilled a bag of Skittles and said, 'Oh, there's our color palette right there!'"

We laughed. Then another higher-up (only three layers above me in the organization) got on the elevator and he and she talked. She bade me to 'have a good day!' as I left the elevator on the fourth floor.

I can only hope she didn't see my badge. Which I was wearing, prominently, in plain sight, name in a nice, bold font.

Heh. Heh heh. Heh?

I guess I should be really glad that I didn't blurt out what I've been calling the office on my Facebook page: Romper Room.

Comments

Re: Reply to Izmeina

[kaasirpent]

UGH. That sounds like a hell-hole, and I'm sorry anyone has to work under those conditions. Of course, it being a nursing home is even worse, because as bad as the staff has it, at least they can leave. The residents are stuck there.

My mother and I spent a lot of time in two different nursing homes back in 2003/4 when my grandmother had to spend some time first in one that was out of town and then in the one in my hometown.

The things I've seen appall me. APPALL.

Re: Reply to Izmeina

[izmeina.livejournal.com]

Yesss. It's one thing working in a toxic corporate culture. It's much worse when you actually live in the place and cannot escape.

What the goblins don't seem to realize is that even the demented oldies can see right through them. Actually especially the demented people. They pick up on the non verbal reality not the corporate fantasy. Atmosphere is one of those things that you cannot fake. And if there's a culture of fear it permeates everything.

All the perceptive managers we ever from the old days who were real nurses not bean counters used to say that if you want your staff to be kind and caring to the residents you have to be kind and caring to them too. So so true. Even the nicest person with the best of intentions ends up passing on the parcel of misery if they are constantly being made to do more with less by bosses who are all sticks and no carrots

These sorts of managers walked the talk by being kind themselves and making it as easy as possible for staff to do the right thing for the residents. Starting with the simple matter of simply having enough staff
The goblins set about making it more and more difficult to do the job of actually caring for the oldies. They cut the care staff, contracted out the cleaning and constantly pulled people off the floor to attend box ticking nonsense without any regard for the residents. Looking after their needs became a non core activity. It was like they were putting obstacles in the way. And when we would point this stuff out at the endless staff meetings they would tell us how their staffing ratios were 'world's best practice' and 101 other managerial mumbo jumbo excuses

And the so called government supervisory authorities are a bunch of lap dogs more concerned with paperwork and box ticking rather than resident care.

It seems to be pretty much the same everywhere. I remember some of your posts about those homes and how miserable they were. It must be even worse now with all the belt tightening and budget restrictions in the USA.