New manager at work

There have been some big changes at work lately. We were all called to the main part of the lab for an announcement the other day. It turns out our personnel manager had been fired. The rumor is that there were some inappropriate e-mails and texts to one of the employees. I guess the search begins for another one!

New standard operating proceedure at work

Last year at work, our night shift was so short staffed that the supervisors were having trouble filling (finding volunteers) all of the openings. So, the higher powers decided that there should be a policy to fill these vacancies. Needless to say the majority of the staff is not liking this new policy. Here it is in a nutshell:

If a shift remains unfilled 72 hours prior to the shift time, the supervisors get to tell somebody they have to fill it. The supervisors assign based on reverse seniority and make sure the proper mix of staff is working. The employees get to turn down one shift and if they do it a second time, there is some documentation that gets put into your permanent file.

This also applies to sick calls in which you may get 5 hours notice before you have to fill a shift.

Back to the proper mix of staff. The reason I am especially not keen on this policy is that I have quite a wide skill mix. I do 3 out of the 4 departments, including Blood bank which has fairly limited staff. In fact, I am next on the list as the 5 people that have less seniority than me have either already filled their turn or they do not do blood bank.

So wish me luck that we have lots of volunteers to fill all of the openings and that no one calls in sick!

Work Update

I am officially off of all of my night shifts! That totally made my year!

Blood alcohol -vs- the breathalyzer

Last weekend, I was made aware of a court ruling that could have me visiting the courtroom a lot more in the upcoming months. It turns out that the breathalyzer is under fire due to the company that manufactures them. They apparently won't release the breathalyzer's computer software that the courts are requiring in certain cases. Here is a link to the Star Tribune article. To combat the potential of dismissed cases, local precincts are now opting to do urine or blood alcohol tests instead. Hmmm, I wonder who does the blood alcohols? Yep, you guessed it, lab personel. This past weekend, I worked my overnights and I drew 3 legal alcohol levels. My coworkers each drew 3 as well. That is 9 total. I don't mind doing them as I know I am helping the cases, but it takes officers off the street for an extended amount of time versus the breathalyzer and me away from the lab work I am doing for 20 minutes. The actual blood draw only lasts about 5 minutes but the paperwork for chain of custody takes an additional 15 minutes. More importantly what I don't want is another piece of mail like I got last week.

This is my subpoena, I am to appear in court for this case. There is still the chance that it will settle out of court, but they have to send it to me anyway. I have never received a subpoena before, but apparantly what they ultimatley ask is how I drew it. For instance, the ask about the expiration date of the kit, they ask whether I checked to make sure the required powder was in the collection tube, and whether or not I used an alcohol pad to disinfect the area. Simple questions, but a little nerve racking never the less. I guess I just have to think of my willingness to do whatever it takes to help revoke the drivers licenses of the guilty!