I tattled......

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Uh oh.  I did it.  And now I have the shit storm tornado to deal with.

There are four of us that work the front desk.  Each Doctor has two front desk people, of which I am one.  One of my co-workers has been there for a year, and I've been there for almost two.  Of the other two, one has been there for 5 years, the other for much longer than that.  

When I started working there, I asked why we weren't charging the tax on the copayments as we had at my previous workplace.  Which was it's own shitstorm as my coworkers were unhappy that they would have to do so much more work.  I was baffled at their complaints, as figuring out the tax takes approximately 15 seconds or so.  It's a percentage.  Really, what it so difficult?  Well, time marches on, and everyone seemed to figure out the easiest way to do it.  Except, that, over the past few months, I noticed that tax wasn't being added consistently.  Finally, I went to our OM (office manager) and mentioned that I was baffled as to why tax wasn't being added (because that means the Doc has to pay it) in every instance.  Which led to a staff meeting where this was discussed.  I admit the OM handled very well, making sure no one was pointed out.  Until one of the long term front desk people mentioned that she didn't bother when the copay was under $30.  Then the Doc pipes up and says "Oh, so then I'm paying the tax?" and understandably requests that we make sure that we add the tax to every copay, no matter how small, because over time, it really adds up.  

So, she gets really pissed.  And then later asks me if I'm the one who spoke to the OM about it.  And I  said "yes, I did", and that's when the shit hit the fan.  I spoke to the OM that day at lunch time outside of the office as I didn't want to throw gasoline on the flames.  She actually said that I probably shouldn't have admitted it, and that I could have said that the OM noticed while reviewing reports.  Maybe.  Perhaps.  But I'm afraid that's just not me.  If someone says "did you do this" and I did, I admit it, for good or ill.  I guess my mother's lessons on honesty worked, lol.

I won't go into the problems this has caused me with the two longer term coworkers.  However, in a stupid attempt to patch things up I did go to each one and tell them that I regret that I didn't ask them first.  To which the longer term individual was gracious.  The 5 year coworker leaned down and said nastily "Oh, we aren't angry (?), but we will never trust you again".  If she could have shot lasers out of her eyes, I would be cinders by now.  Not angry my ass.  

So, what's really got me up in arms is that I am the one being punished when they were the ones in the wrong.  Perhaps they should have asked themselves why I didn't approach them.  And it's really cold up there now.  I think I'm gonna have to bring a little heater to put under my desk.

Love, 365