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Original poster

Awkward (and other) questions about MNers jobs-following on from *Pinocchio's 1st thread.

409 replies

mignonette · 13/10/2013 15:02

Following on from this thread by Pinocchio -

"I thought this would be a good way for us to get answers to those awkward questions we would never dream of asking someone to their face in their place of work.

These are questions relating to my life that i would love honest answers to.

Hairdressers - When someone with bad dandruff/psoriasis sits on your chair, do you shrug it off, or do you quickly have a look to make sure it's not lice? Are you able to tell the difference right away or does it need investigating? And do you really want to know what my plans are for the day, or would you rather work in silence?

Teachers - do you get annoyed when parents write in homework diaries that a specific piece of homework was too tricky for their child? Do you take it as an insult to your teaching skills?

Waiter/waitresses - do you expect people to offer to clean up their children's mess before they leave, or do you just shrug it off as part of the job? If you're busy and haven't had chance to clean a table yet, and a new customer came up and asked for a cloth to clean it, would you be offended?

I'm a trainee SLT so not quite sure if I'm qualified to answer any questions regarding that line of work yet.

But i have experience working in a Subway sandwich store, a library, a gym and as a cleaner. So i can answer any cleaning, book or sandwich questions that are burning away inside you all"

Pinocchio I hope you don't mind me C+Ping your original post but wanted you to have the credit for this follow on as is such a great thread!

OP posts:
ZingDollyChops · 14/10/2013 08:06

Estate Agents - do you lie?

BoffinMum · 14/10/2013 07:54

I'm a school governor so can answer that.

We've got complementary professional backgrounds, and we each 'adopt' a subject where we engage with it in more depth. There is also a series of committees, such as curriculum and standards, buildings, finance and HR and we each belong to one or two of those. We also have designated governors for child protection and so on, and they go on extra courses.

Delayingtactic · 14/10/2013 07:54

Didi I would definitely get a second opinion for a number of reasons. Firstly it may have been a junior orthopods who saw you (our most junior members of the team rotate around different specialties and may not actually have that much knowledge in Ortho).

Secondly there are loads of sub-specialties in Ortho so it would be better to see a consultant with an interest in young hip injuries. I agree with your GP - that is a pretty broad diagnosis made on examination alone and nowadays MRI allows us to see a number of injuries that some argue should be repaired in the young patient.

I've never known a boss to take it personally if someone asks for a second opinion. In fact, a second opinion is often offered if you can see a patient is struggling to accept your management plan. Either the second doc agrees with you, in which case the patient is more likely to comply, or they have another plan, in which case the patient gets the treatment that they are more happy with.

EhricLovesTeamQhuay · 14/10/2013 07:04

terrortremor

Foster carers are recruited these days with the expectation that a placement could potentially be until 18 or beyond. Apart from emergency carers they are moving away from the distinction between long and short term carers in most areas as they push the goal of permanency for children. I know carers who have raised their children from toddlers to adults and where they have stayed past 18 or returned for uni holidays etc. Successful placements should be until 18 or thereabouts, it's never ideal when children have to be moved.

Szeli · 14/10/2013 06:50

Namey Thanks! Sorry for the name mix up. So, would I just approach a local school?

MH folk, do you ever feel clients are wasting your time? Or shouldn't be there? I'm Bipolar II but I feel like when I see my consultant or my weekly psyc nurse visits I'm just nattering at them and feel embarrassed they've had to come all the way out to my house. The nattering does help tho...

LtEveDallas · 14/10/2013 06:41

Facinating threads, I'm only about half way through the first one, have learned loads!

I have a question for Estate Agents. How exactly do you value a property and why when I 'Zoopla' the property is it always a lower estimation than yours?

I'm currently a Career Management Officer in the Army, but have done lots of other military jobs if anyone is interested.

LedaOfSparta · 14/10/2013 06:35

I'm an operating department practitioner if anyone has any questions about that. Our patients often have some good questions for us but we don't really have much time to expand on explanations.

I have a question about school governors, what is your main role? Or does each person have a different focus?

HolidayArmadillo · 14/10/2013 06:30

The midwife question, I genuinely don't mind at all being sworn at if the woman is scared, in pain or feeling out of control. I won't tolerate it if she is just being rude though. As for the mess, it's often the midwife who creates the mess not the woman so I only have myself to blame for the chaos around me!

MooseyMouse · 14/10/2013 06:04

nameymcfacechange

Many people call helplines about dire situations and lots talk about feeling suicidal. We encourage people to talk about suicidal feelings because the act if talking about it can be a huge relief.

If someone hints at suicidal feeling "I can't stand my life like this" or "Every day is a nightmare" we always ask if they're feeling suicidal.

To assess their risk you ask (worded more sensitively)

  1. are you suicidal?
  2. have you made a plan for how you would end your life?
  3. have you gathered the things you need (e.g. Pills)
  4. have you begun an attempt? (E.g. Taken pills / cut yourself)

The more they answer yes the nearer they are to suicide.

Helplines have different policies if someone is at risk of suicide. Some will stay with the caller through a suicide attempt and won't intervene without the caller's permission. Others would seek help for a caller if they have any details about their location.

I have taken lots of calls where suicide has been discussed but only three where the caller has attempted suicide on the phone. One of them accepted help. One refused help but someone arrived in time. One I don't know and that's hard.

The support you get afterwards varies. Some helplines are great at staff support and some are crap.

If anyone ever feels suicidal, calling a helpline can really help. Samaritans are open 24 hours a day 08457 90 90 90
(I don't work for Samaritans).

TheFurthestStar · 14/10/2013 00:44

I'm a personnel administrator in the RAF.

I'm hoping to go into NVQ assessing when I've served my time, does anyone know any good or bad points of the job?

eggyweggies · 14/10/2013 00:27

Where are you a missionary, thanksamillion?

Original poster
mignonette · 14/10/2013 00:21

Didi

Changes are too frequent for most trusts and certainly make staff feel less in control. Loads of redundancies, restructuring of trusts/teams/geographical areas that cause nothing but harm to patient care and a fasttrack to burn out in staff.

Yes there can be a lot of grumpiness in the teams and admin staff can bear the brunt of that Sad. Our Admin team are very much part of the whole team and they have saved me from myself, keeping my diary and I.T straightened out. They are also the first line when it comes to drop in visits by clients. They greet them and that requires support from us because drop in visits are usually made by clients that are fraught. They rarely drop by because they just want to say Hi!

Don't tolerate rudeness. Often people slowly slip into a state of surly grumpiness/shortness with staff and don't realise how rude they are being (bit bad in a MH prof really) and a firm pulling up 'Did you get out of the wrong side etc' can help nudge them along the smiley path. Or at least the pleasant path.

OP posts:
Didiandb · 13/10/2013 23:53

Actually writing my last post has made me wonder...

I work in NHS admin and I often find the long term staff, ones who have worked in NHS for over 10 years are worn out, grumpy and unhelpful if not downright rude! Now our health board has been through loads and loads of changes of how it's run and I know I people get worn down by that but I wondered if others have the same experience of staff in NHS or if it's just the people I work with!

I am naturally happy and helpful at work but sometimes it's hard when people are so unhelpful always.

Still18atheart · 13/10/2013 23:48

Thank you Edam and CakesOnaPlane

Didiandb · 13/10/2013 23:46

:) aww mignonette thank you. I work as admin for a mental health team! It's not my ideal job at all, I've fallen into it and in this economy I'm glad of the job to be honest. The job doesn't overly stretch me mentally but my workmates are (mostly) nice and we have a laugh and the job is so flexible which is great with a 1 year old pfb!

We don't have many computer systems to use but if there are new ones I normally get trained as I am the youngest in the office - I just read the manuals a lot to help myself! I also find that I am quite pleasant to the IT people who train me, they don't seem used to that so are always extra happy to help me if I'm stuck! It pays to be nice :)

KateBeckett · 13/10/2013 23:28

Thanks! Babies are definitely in the plans for the near ish future hence these thoughts being on my mind!

Original poster
mignonette · 13/10/2013 23:27

Didi I am sure you are not a 'boring office' worker. What do you do? what kind of work? Do you like it? What would you like to move up to or are you working at the level that suits you most at this stage of your life? Do you have to adapt constantly to new I.T systems (something I can struggle with)?

OP posts:
Original poster
mignonette · 13/10/2013 23:25

Kate

It is possible to 'train' your urinary bladder to be less responsive to being full. There are stretch receptors in the bladder wall (which is a muscular bag) that feedback to the brain allowing messages to be 'sent' to you to empty it. If you persistently override these messages at an early stage, you can lose some sensitivity in the same way that you can train them to be overly sensitive. Other people get faulty feedback where they have to void even small amounts of urine because they have an oversensitive/active bladder. The specialist in Urodynamics within GenitoUrinary Medicine is the person to ask for. I would advise you to make great efforts to empty your bladder regularly asking for classroom cover if necessary. It also helps mitigate bladder infections too. Gussie will provide further info, better than mine I am sure. Smile

RE the other symptoms you have I would encourage you to go see your GP. Not that I am suggesting that you have anything to worry about but it would be a good idea bearing in mind your history (possibility of a little Hernia forming) and to get a clean bill of abdo 'health' prior to conceiving if that is a future plan.

RE Medical and Counselling Records, 7 years is the legal minimum although ours are kept on site (in the CMHT) whilst the patients care spell is active. That is, they are receiving active treatment and have not been discharged from nursing or consultant care. When they are discharged the records go back to Central Psychiatric Records but they are never destroyed until 7 years after a patients death and even then not always. They have teaching, longitudinal research value too.

RE what happens if we witness/participate in a distressing event-

I am meant to have a rigorous and protective programme of supervision. Managerial w/ my line Manager; Clinical with a more experienced colleague; Peer Supervision with a colleague of my choosing. We can request peer supervision any time and the other types are timetabled once a month although they do get cancelled. If something happens such as a client committing suicide or us being caught up in a traumatic incident such as aggression we also see the Team Psychologist for a debrief and supervision to examine and learn from what has happened. We can request this too. We are expected to seek supervision for tricky cases such as problems w/ transference and counter transference (Transference happens in psychotherapy when a client places an emotional reaction that is related to someone in his or her personal life onto the therapist and counter transference is the therapist responding to this).

Sadly many of my colleagues still achieve the parlous state of burn out for all kinds of reasons. Psychiatry has a natural shelf life I feel.

Choc Thanks for answering and like the idea of you 'rewriting' particular passages that you enjoyed. I too get transported by particular writings.

OP posts:
Didiandb · 13/10/2013 23:24

What a brilliant thread!!

Delayingtactic I have a complicated one for you! My hip was injured with forceps while giving birth to DD1. Ortho consultant wiggled me about a bit and diagnosed torn cartilage, which can't be fixed and means I'm unable to do high impact exercise. GP disagrees and has sent me back to same doctor for another opinion. I feel a bit awkward about that! GP wants me to ask for a MRI scan. Will the ortho consulant be ok with this do you think? It's NHS not private so I'm so aware of wasting time and money!

I'm a boring office worker so doubt anyone will have questions for me! But DH is police so I will ask him anything if it helps!

Inthechelseahotel · 13/10/2013 23:11

terror I am a short term foster carer and the longest I have had a child is 3.5 yrs and still counting Grin

NameyMcChangeface · 13/10/2013 23:04

really hard for me, that should say.

NameyMcChangeface · 13/10/2013 23:02

Thank you for that insight wicked. I was asking mainly because I had considered volunteering for the phone line myself, having known and been close to many people with various emotional and MH problems, I thought I would be able to empathise and have been told I'm a good listener. I was just worried that perhaps because I've heard and know so much already, it would be really for me to detach after hearing distressing things, but then again I do feel that due to experience, nothing much 'shocks' me anymore so I don't know if this would be an asset. I think you're right about the training though and you can only really know once you're in that situation.

wickedwitchNE · 13/10/2013 22:55

Namey I volunteer for the Samaritans - in the case of difficult calls it's not so much the (excellent) training that helps 'prepare' you as the support that is available. There is a lot of focus on volunteer care, and a big emphasis on debriefing both during and after the shift (to another Samaritan obviously, either colleague or supervisor). There is a volunteer support team too who will get In touch afterwards to check up if they think you might need it.

The point is, like many jobs, not to take your 'work' home, both for your emotional health and callers' confidentiality. If I couldn't separate whatever happened on shifts from everything else in my life I wouldn't do it. Difficult to go into more details as obviously different people will cope/react differently, I guess you'd just assume that anyone volunteering for this kind of position should feel that they could cope with it or are quite resilient. Training helps draw out those who realise they wouldn't. Trying not to minimise or generalise though!

ZingDollyChops · 13/10/2013 22:50

doin

that's new! thanks for that!

NameyMcChangeface · 13/10/2013 22:50

All sorts of people can be governors Szeli. The most common types are Community, Authority, Parent, and Staff. If your child wasn't a pupil at the school at the time, you could be either Community or Authority. Community governors are appointed by the Governing Body to represent local community interests. IME these are often local independent business people with connections that could be an asset to the school, however there is no definitive criteria. Authority Governors have to be appointed by the Local Authority.

It is absolutely possible for a 26 year old make-up artist to become a governor. Smile People's professions are only one aspect to the role. Many Governing Bodies carry out skills audits to identify the strengths and gaps within the group, so even if you felt your job has little relevance, it could be your people skills and book-keeping which make you a good candidate for example.

Only the school could say exactly what they were looking for in a governor, but in my view the most important thing is enthusiasm and a genuine desire to be involved in the improvement and effecient running of the school.