Everyday is filled with laughter on some level in our office. Colleagues misbehaving badly make the day pass by a little faster.
This morning, as I was walked into the workroom, I noticed a colleague bent over and experiencing difficulty with a piece of equipment. However, I chose not to intervene. Instead, I said good morning, completed the task I walked in to complete and proceeded to leave the room. In doing so, I was asked, “How do you use this shredder?” Without looking back I responded, “That’s not a shredder.”
She had to laugh at herself, I chuckled and returned to my office. I figured she must have had a lot on her mind to confuse a laser printer with paper shredder. While I promised not to tell anyone in the office about what happened, I’m keeping my promise to an extent. Instead, of instant messaging everyone I have elected to share this occurrence with the world so each of you can reflect on moments that were comical, hilarious, uncalled for and caused you to take pause.
It was not so much embarrassing as it was funny. I’ve had moments like this one as well. I’ve been sharing with you all that I work for a hospital system and sometimes I end up in a clinical area. This is definitely outside my element and at times I too have been a little confused about what to do or in how to proceed.
As educated as I am, I was thoroughly surprised that I could not seem to wrap my brain around throwing a pillow in the trash. About two years ago, I returned a disposable pillow to the emergency room and a patient care technician asked me to throw the pillow in the trash can and place the pillow case in the linen cart. For some reason, I was unable to rationalize throwing the pillow in the trash can. Although, I understood beforehand that the pillow was disposable, I was clueless about her instructions. Realizing that I was clearly confused and embarrassed to say the least, the technician finally said, “give it to me”. Today, I can laugh about it, but at the moment it wasn’t funny.
We all have moments when we do not optimally perform. So take these moments in stride and laugh out loud at yourself.