Working in the District

I can’t stand waiting. I just don’t have the patience. 

Sometime last year, as I walked into work I noticed the front door wasn’t unlocked so the patients’ couldn’t come in. The clinic has a sliding door with a grill, and I noticed the staff were already behind the counter, while a few patients were already outside peering in. 

Despite the clinic opening at 730 for registration, the door was still unlocked when I arrived at 745. 

It wasn’t the first time this had happened. 

It turned out that the person who held the key to the grill was on leave, and the other staff member who held the key did not arrive until 8am. The last time that had happened, I had reminded my staff to ask our patients to come in through the backdoor so they could at least sit in the comfort of the clinic.

Working in a district environment keep you humble, but life is distinctly a lot more laidback. There’s nothing wrong with a relaxed environment, but principles need to be stood by – the principles of punctuality and professionalism were very important to me, and the fact that my staff could occasionally be so relaxed over the small things really annoyed me to no end.

It was the lackadaisical attitude that really got to me, the lack of proactive-ness; or perhaps it was just the fact that they couldn’t put themselves in the shoes of others to see how it would look life from an outsider – the closed clinic front door with the staff members casually sitting behind the counter – with no sign, no information, no anything at all – in a city setting the complaints would have already poured in. 

Work ethics shouldn’t be compromised, despite the setting. 

Needless to say, I had to give a stern warning to my staff. 

You can take the individual out of the principle, but you can’t take the principles out of the individual.