Last summer, when returning to work following the debacle of my mother's death, I made a decision: I was less than 2 years from retirement age. I would gut it out. However, I also would not do a single extra damned thing.
(Link to post about Mom's death here: https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/uj0sox/youve_got_some_nerve_having_a_death_on_company/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button )
I've never been big on volunteering anyway–unless overtime or bonus pay was involved–but I really leveled up. I muted myself in meetings. I kept my camera off. Instead of entering 400 orders a day, I did around 100. (My carpal tunnel thanked me.) When a triage was requested, I would pause for 60 seconds to see if another RN would pick it up. I did not offer to train new team members, and I did not offer to train for new tasks; though I did both if asked. I was still doing as much work as anyone else on the team, and no fault could be found with the quality of my work.
A few months ago we got a new task. I can't go into details, but it involved coordinating care for patients who were extremely medically fragile. Instead of actually being trained for the job, we were given an incomprehensible, complicated workflow that made zero sense. (In nursing, it seems like the more important a task is, the less training you will receive.)
It quickly became apparent that NO ONE understood Complicated Workflow, and it had been designed by people who didn't do patient care. As the person on the boss's shit list, I found myself assigned to it every day, for 12 hours a day. I was working with frustrated doctors, social workers, and care coordinators. And we all agreed that Complicated Workflow was a disaster. I was working way too hard with way too little result. I'm also incorrigibly lazy, and it pains me to work any harder than absolutely necessary.
So. Together with my care coordinator I created a spreadsheet to track patients. I instituted a report system for the next person taking the case. (Both things that should have been covered in a decent workflow, btw) We started just deciding what needed to be done and doing it. Suddenly, I had the easiest job on the team, with plenty of time to do….well, nothing really. I cleaned my office. (Finally.) I caught up on my laundry. I did a little mending while monitoring Teams. My foster kittens gained a following on reddit and facebook. I couldn't take triage, because I might have to deal with one of my complex patients or massage the ego of a doctor. I did what I was assigned, and not one iota more. Working to rule and loving it. I want to make it clear that all these changes were made for only two reasons. 1. To make my job easier, and 2. Provide good patient care in a timely fashion.
Last month my boss's boss asked if I could attend a meeting and tell her what I thought. Sure, whatever. I had absolutely zero idea what they were talking about. Some new project. It was clear there was a lot of anger, drama, and egos involved. It felt as if I walked onto the stage in the last act of a Jacobean play, and I told big boss lady as much.
The next day in a meeting, I was thanked for volunteering to spearhead the newest (complicated) project–and all the accompanying melodrama. A friend PM'd me. “You volunteered for the Jacobean Drama?” “Uh, no. I just agreed to go to a meeting, is all.” Later, my boss told me, ” Well, you've done such great work with Complicated Workflow that I just knew you'd be perfect for Jacobean Drama.”
So here I am, stranded on the stage, trying not to be one of the casualties. Doing the bare minimum has gone horribly wrong. Hopefully, I and my trusty care coordinator can streamline this mess, too. Then I can get back to posting cat pictures on Reddit.
(For those who may not know, Jacobean dramas are famously gory and people die really gruesome deaths. The stage is “littered with rushes in the first act, and with bodies in the fifth.”)