Discussion My anxiety is killing me

[sdifox]

But it was a cattle prod you linked.

Yes, for dumb animals. Try to keep up.

 

[Iron Woode]

I mask, hand sanitize, I have had two shots plus my vaccine booster shot two weeks ago. My anxiety is over the top, trying to get people to put on masks in the hospital, trying to tactfully let unvaccinated people know they can’t visit grandma because she now has a roommate. Hand writing hundreds of patient & visitor passes daily. Having people come to my desk symptomatic wanting Covid tests.

My job used to actually be fun but there’s little joy left, the guy screaming that I needed to “ piss off, should be fired & wasn’t even fit to empty the garbage” had me crying in the rest room.

How do I make this job fun again, what do I do? I have to work, I am only 64 & need to pay rent & keep my insurance. How can I placate people & bring some fun back into my workspace?

I work in fast food and I am fed up with people who don't want to wear a mask due to whatever conspiracy theory they believe in. I am tired of their nonsense. I was afraid of going outside during 2020 due to my impending surgery and didn't want covid. I had lots of anxiety after surgery while waiting to be vaccinated.

In Canada, I had support from the Federal government for income as I couldn't work. That support is ending for us now and I am working part-time to pay for rent and bills. I am seriously considering trying out for security guard work as it pays better and I wouldn't have to deal with anti-maskers/anti-vaxxors.

 

[brianmanahan]

I worked at a dairy 50 years ago, herded cows, etc. We didn't have cattle prods. Cows are much more docile than humans.

holsteins and jerseys, yeah they're nice. worse thing they'd usually do is accidentally step on my foot.

some beef breeds like angus though... not so nice.

some of them have a mean streak so bad, i could never break it after months of trying.

 

[brianmanahan]

I think I am just going to quietly tell people to contact their elected officials & the CDC to discuss the rules. I am just the front desk person, I don’t make the rules & also the medical units make the final call. If I don’t call the unit, you aren’t visiting….period

that's a good idea. having a standard response, and a standard follow-up if people start questioning things and acting stupid, might "depersonalize" it and make it easier to do and to handle without having to give a single millisecond of thought about what they're saying.

maybe red can find something that has good insurance for 2 people?

 

[Geekbabe]

By the way...did you kill off the shopping queen? Site looks like it hasn't been updated in several years. (or maybe I just have the old one)

I have kept it up in case I feel like posting but hesitate, I don’t want to make it a cancer blog & am at a loss as to what to post.

 

[crashtech]

Anxiety can be very damaging to one's health. Whatever else you might do, I would think it imperative to discover a coping mechanism to soothe yourself and get some distance from emotional situations. I'm not qualified to suggest anything specific, but certainly there are professionals available to you that could help implement some remedies so that you don't end up crying in the restroom.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I really have no idea if it works or not but maybe try/look into some sort of meditation? Find something that relaxes/calms you that you can do at work when needed.

And yeah, as mentioned above, see if you can get security guard stationed near you.

Come to think of it, there absolutely should be a security guard around. Even at our hospital when you first go in and talk to reception there's a guard standing there. At least if someone starts to go haywire he can spring into action and the receptionist is not having to deal with that crap.

 

[WelshBloke]

I mask, hand sanitize, I have had two shots plus my vaccine booster shot two weeks ago. My anxiety is over the top, trying to get people to put on masks in the hospital, trying to tactfully let unvaccinated people know they can’t visit grandma because she now has a roommate. Hand writing hundreds of patient & visitor passes daily. Having people come to my desk symptomatic wanting Covid tests.

My job used to actually be fun but there’s little joy left, the guy screaming that I needed to “ piss off, should be fired & wasn’t even fit to empty the garbage” had me crying in the rest room.

How do I make this job fun again, what do I do? I have to work, I am only 64 & need to pay rent & keep my insurance. How can I placate people & bring some fun back into my workspace?

How's the rest of your team?

At our place it isn't quite us vs the general public but at the moment there's definitely a bit of a seige mentality.
My ward isn't too bad as we are not letting anyone off the street onto the ward unless under exceptional and prearranged circumstances.
The rest of the hospital there's pretty much big perspex screens on all the public facing desks and there are signs up telling people they need to mask up on hospital premises and we have our "don't be an arse to the staff" posters everywhere but we've always had those.
Security and hospital management here are really good about not leaving anyone to deal with crap from the public. Start shouting and you're going to get told to calm down by some massive security guards if you don't then you'll get escorted off the premises, any violence and you're probably going to get prosecuted.
Hospital receptionists in the UK are notorious for not taking any shit from anyone, I've seen them hand out bollockings to senior consultants before. I absolutely wouldn't cross any!

 

[PowerEngineer]

As far as health insurance goes, you should be able to claim COBRA rights for 18 months if you decided to leave your job now. It's not cheap as you need to pay 101% of your monthly insurance premium (losing any employer subsidy), but it would bridge you until you are eligible for Medicare. (And being 64, you should be starting to look at your Medicare options as they are surprisingly complicated.)

Sorry I cannot offer any better input.

 

[Muse]

As far as health insurance goes, you should be able to claim COBRA rights for 18 months if you decided to leave your job now. It's not cheap as you need to pay 101% of your monthly insurance premium (losing any employer subsidy), but it would bridge you until you are eligible for Medicare. (And being 64, you should be starting to look at your Medicare options as they are surprisingly complicated.)

Sorry I cannot offer any better input.

I did that. They send you a booklet. Take the time to study it. Yeah, like it's a textbook for a college course. IOW, figure out the rules, the whys and wherefores. When it came to decision time I knew why I was choosing as I did. That didn't make it the "right" choice, but I know why I was deciding as I did. I went with my HMO, who I'd been with a few years rather than a plan outside an HMO. The latter would have given me access to physicians not available to me with my HMO, but the HMO was cheaper. The HMO is also super high rated (Kaiser Permanente) and has internal cyber systems that make inter-system communications very very easy. Any of their doctors can see my records basically immediately on their computer screens. Best thing is I'm very very healthy for my age. The pandemic sucks for it, though, because I'm hesitant to try to go in for non-critical stuff and that's basically all I have. I'm once in a while emailing my primary care physician. He'll answer quick but usually very tersely. I haven't even seen a dentist in 2 years!

 

[Muse]

holsteins and jerseys, yeah they're nice. worse thing they'd usually do is accidentally step on my foot.

some beef breeds like angus though... not so nice.

some of them have a mean streak so bad, i could never break it after months of trying.

All our cows were holsteins. None of the dairy workers warned me IIRC about a cow stepping on my foot! I did walk the milking pens sometimes, I think with a rubber hose I could swat an animal on the ass to get it moving. Never had a cow threaten me at all is my sense of it. They were docile creatures. Of course, the younger cows in the herds were smaller and quicker than the old gals.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I wish you had a cattle Prod @Geekbabe , you could use it to convince people to mask up or GTFO.

 

[Ken g6]

Have a big jar of chocolate chip cookies in front of you, with a BIG SIGN. MASK UP to get a FREE chocolate chip cookie. NO MASK == NO COOKIE.

See how fast they get in line.

And how are they supposed to eat the cookie with a mask on?

I once smashed something messy into my mask before realizing it was there.

 

[Muse]

And how are they supposed to eat the cookie with a mask on?

I once smashed something messy into my mask before realizing it was there.

They've started up the free food samples at Costco. Everyone in there is masked. I take my sample, put it in my push cart and when fairly away from others slip my mask down and put said sample in mouth, pull mask up a proceed, chewing. A chocolate chip cookie, if not too large could be dealt with thusly.