Do you hate your job?

Yes

1 of 29

by Luningning Sugbu

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Hating one's job while not being able to survive without it is one of the worst contradictions I have been living with for over seven years.

I had invested a lot to my career, at one point holding a full time job while going to graduate school in the evenings and spending my vacation days in studying for my examinations and fulfilling other research requirements. In a few years, I was looking forward to gaining some research experience to be able to work in a pharmaceutical or diagnostics company where my thirst for knowledge and boundless curiosity might be fulfilled.

In the real world, expectations nor hard work do not always guarantee the desired outcome. I anticipated my graduation in the year 2000 with only three credits to go when tragedy struck. I lost my job and my ability to support my studies. My lofty definitions of an ideal job were transformed into desperate strategies for survival, regardless of whether self actualization is part of the package or not.

A physician's office laboratory is the last place I wanted to work in. The feedback of a lot of my friends are not very encouraging, not to mention the very mediocre compensation package that goes with a very demanding job.

Because of budgetary constraints in most physician offices, the laboratory personnel is expected to demonstrate skills beyond the scope of their job description. The lady doctor who's my boss knows nothing about laboratory rules and regulations or the intricacies of how accurate and precise laboratory results are attained. Her title as laboratory director is limited to showing her license as a doctor and affixing her signature to procedures and policies I formulated. Her sole aim is profitability of the laboratory and she unhesitatingly pushes me into performing any stuff, whether legal or illegal to ensure it.

Consequently, when inspection days from the Department of Health arrive, I face the challenge of concealing the traces of prohibited testing to dodge the inevitable penalty of closure which can eliminate my only means of survival.

Cultural differences and racial discrimination has seeped into office politics which was recognized by my boss as a potent weapon for exploitation. Because of minimal or total lack of education, most of my co-employees perceive influence as a source of power and it surely helps when the boss comes from the same country and speaks the same language. Lucky for them but certainly not for me who is a minority and is thus seen as having the lowest rank in the pecking order.

The area for drawing blood is filled with personnel who lack adequate training in phlebotomy and it should have been in my education and rank to institute procedures to be followed to ensure the integrity of the pre-analytical phase and timeliness of laboratory testing. But they adamantly want to have their way and makes it plain they want to dictate how I should be doing my job.

The ultimate insult is the expectation that when they knock on the constantly shut door of the laboratory bringing a patient's blood sample, I should act like a chef at a burger joint who makes sure the laboratory results requested are released as fast as the flipping of a burger on a hot plate that is unceremoniously tucked between a sliced bun slathered with mayonnaise,draped with lettuce and completed with a slice of tomato. Burgers satisfy the hunger pangs of an individual without the need for a doctor's diagnosis. On the other hand, matters pertaining to health when the body is not functioning as it should require more sophisticated and highly regulated procedures to be performed, therefore, skill, training and quality time are required to make laboratory results useful and beneficial to the patient.

Though my boss is aware of this conflict, she pretends not to notice and even encourages the discord to pressure me into doing more testing for her. Obviously, she expects me to perform miracles when she refuses to purchase the necessary equipment to do those additional testing. She doesn't even care that the laboratory computer system badly needs an upgrade because of obsolescence and the need to replace the back up drive that holds accumulated data.

As if office conflict is not enough, I have to contend with the company that supplies the laboratory with machines and chemicals for testing. The adage that birds of a feather flock together hasn't lost its truth. Cheapskates know each other's language and find comfort in dealing with their own kind.

This company with no more than two people juggling multiple functions refuse to provide technically skilled people to fix laboratory machines when they are malfunctioning or needed fine tuning. As if that is not enough, the chemicals for testing are not handled properly or stored at appropriate temperatures before being delivered so I have to deal with another set of problems when analyzing patient samples. I have to find creative ways to keep the machines running smoothly and to compensate for the unstable chemicals for testing if I hope to keep getting my paycheck.

In the equation of economics in my workplace, the laboratory personnel is considered as the most lucrative yet vulnerable entity. With the level of skill, education and training, a lot of revenues can be made from laboratory testing even though a cheap system has been put in place. Even if the act of going out of my way was not compensated by an ample yearly raise, it would have been enough to be appreciated for my efforts. Sadly, no appreciation has been given and I was told to always do what the boss demands because she owns the business.

Through the years, my emotions of hate were replaced with that of indifference. It is after all a dog eat dog world and everybody needs to satisfy their own material hunger no matter the effects of such selfish ends to other people.

Keeping my sanity required me to look at things objectively while finding ways of creating barriers for my protection. Life is a cycle and one day things will fall in my favor and I can finally say goodbye to this hateful contradiction I have to put up with for my survival.

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