I said this you understood that...

Yesterday an incident at work really tested my patience.

I was asked to work with a new recruit who was still on supernumerary status after 3 months on the job. I was baffled as to why this should be so. Anyway, as the other carer refused to do it, I decided to give it a try. After all, I was also once new and had to be shown the ropes by someone else (whether they liked it or not)!

We set about the daily tasks as usual but I noticed that in spite of knowing what to do, this person did not demonstrate any confidence in their ability to work. To be honest, I was starting to get worked up as I felt I was being slowed down. I tried everything I know how to get my colleague to increase their pace but this stalled. After a while, I decided to call a spade a spade and just told the person that they should work with speed and efficiency.

Unfortunately, to them, this translated as 'rush the service users'. I explained that she had got it all wrong and went ahead to demonstrate what I meant and the person said that they had understood. Even one of the service users told this person to work with some confidence and not be afraid of doing what needed doing. At the end of it all, the impression I got was that all had been understood and no offence was taken. How wrong I was!

The person misinterpreted what I had said and stuck with their distorted view of what I had said and 'spread the word'. When I heard about this from somebody else, I simply went to this person together with whoever she had told and explained myself again making it very clear that their perception of the situation was wrong. The person admitted that they had got it all wrong and seemed to apologise.

I am not one to hide things and I am not afraid of confrontation. My reputation is more important to me than jewels and I will do all in my power to protect it.

The lesson I learnt from this is that body language can and does often lead to a situation being misconstrued and that is something that must be watched when communicating. The complaint was my method of communication, not the content of what I said. Personally, I used gestures to drive my point home. Maybe the person did not like it. I would not know.

Am I put off mentoring? Actually no. I will be doing it again if asked to do so.

It is important to note that no service user suffered any neglect during this incident and so my priority on the job was top marks!

Take care y'all.