You Know You Are Old When

[Mendonsy]

 

[ultrarunner]

As the merger was in process HR had each employee list their qualifications and duties…

For most it was simple… scheduler, sterile processing, environmental services, surgical RN, surgical tech, PACU RN, CNA, etc…

When it was my turn everything stopped… a lot of what I was doing would be taken over by corporate and I don’t hold any medical licenses… my degree is engineering, business minor with contract administration and management…

New company said my position would not carry forward and I declined the offer of engineer…

A compromise was reached as Chief Engineer but no longer salaried…

Turns out hourly is more lucrative but who knew…?

More recent corp said I can no longer be Chief Engineer as most hospitals are Union but my location isn’t… I did offer to join the Union if that would help…

So now I’m Facilities Operation but with the same responsibilities…

The corporate world is interesting but the one size fits all can be wasteful and not cost efficient…

I had some surplus equipment to dispose and one of our doctors wanted it.

He offered $400… great.

Corp requires it go through legal which required a site visit to determine Fair Market Value… the process took 6 weeks and the Doctor no longer interested.

I said $400 was fair.

Corporate spent $2,000 between legal and determining Fair Market Value and came up with a appraisal of $375.

The end result was I rented a lift truck and spent 4 hours on the clock hauling it to a medical equipment recycler…

I’m sure in somebody’s mind it all makes sense.

 

[Eagle1]

As the merger was in process HR had each employee list their qualifications and duties…

For most it was simple… scheduler, sterile processing, environmental services, surgical RN, surgical tech, PACU RN, CNA, etc…

When it was my turn everything stopped… a lot of what I was doing would be taken over by corporate and I don’t hold any medical licenses… my degree is engineering, business minor with contract administration and management…

New company said my position would not carry forward and I declined the offer of engineer…

A compromise was reached as Chief Engineer but no longer salaried…

Turns out hourly is more lucrative but who knew…?

More recent corp said I can no longer be Chief Engineer as most hospitals are Union but my location isn’t… I did offer to join the Union if that would help…

So now I’m Facilities Operation but with the same responsibilities…

The corporate world is interesting but the one size fits all can be wasteful and not cost efficient…

I had some surplus equipment to dispose and one of our doctors wanted it.

He offered $400… great.

Corp requires it go through legal which required a site visit to determine Fair Market Value… the process took 6 weeks and the Doctor no longer interested.

I said $400 was fair.

Corporate spent $2,000 between legal and determining Fair Market Value and came up with a appraisal of $375.

The end result was I rented a lift truck and spent 4 hours on the clock hauling it to a medical equipment recycler…

I’m sure in somebody’s mind it all makes sense.

but it covered someone's rear....not their fault

 

[ultrarunner]

But covering too many Rears is how you end up buried…

Back in my college days a lot of emphasis was on Thinking Outside the Box and Empowering employees to solve problems.

It seems that much of corporate is about being politically correct and cya…

My strong suit is performance as in getting it done…

Not once has a surgery ever been cancelled on my watch due to a problem with the facility.

During the merger all accounts payable was transferred to corp but corp dropped the ball on ATT Voice and Internet and Waste Management.

In other words these vendors not paid and past due notices sent to corp so clueless here.

Everyone coming to me so I dig deep and find the Hospital is 17k in arrears with ATT and service suspended…

No one in corp could help… it had to go through channels…

Hell with that, I put it on my own personal credit card because the emergency Admin Corp Card has a 10k transaction limit and was declined…

Waste Management similar but was not affecting internal operations as no ATT…

 

[Eagle1]

But covering too many Rears is how you end up buried…

Does not seem to matter to corp drones.

 

[bdhsfz6]

 

[orezok]

As the merger was in process HR had each employee list their qualifications and duties…

For most it was simple… scheduler, sterile processing, environmental services, surgical RN, surgical tech, PACU RN, CNA, etc…

When it was my turn everything stopped… a lot of what I was doing would be taken over by corporate and I don’t hold any medical licenses… my degree is engineering, business minor with contract administration and management…

New company said my position would not carry forward and I declined the offer of engineer…

A compromise was reached as Chief Engineer but no longer salaried…

Turns out hourly is more lucrative but who knew…?

More recent corp said I can no longer be Chief Engineer as most hospitals are Union but my location isn’t… I did offer to join the Union if that would help…

So now I’m Facilities Operation but with the same responsibilities…

The corporate world is interesting but the one size fits all can be wasteful and not cost efficient…

I had some surplus equipment to dispose and one of our doctors wanted it.

He offered $400… great.

Corp requires it go through legal which required a site visit to determine Fair Market Value… the process took 6 weeks and the Doctor no longer interested.

I said $400 was fair.

Corporate spent $2,000 between legal and determining Fair Market Value and came up with a appraisal of $375.

The end result was I rented a lift truck and spent 4 hours on the clock hauling it to a medical equipment recycler…

I’m sure in somebody’s mind it all makes sense.

Before retirement I was a Facilities Manager for a school district. Everything in a school district is the property of the State. Some of it comes back in as total junk. Some is equipment that was never used. Most is somewhere in between.

If someone wanted to buy something we would put the item on eBay with a short buy time and set minimum bid at the amount the interior was willing to pay. If no one bid, we considered it as valued at less than our minimum bid amount.

We then declared that amount to be the fair market value with no bid which then released us to dispose of or sell to any buyer at our posted price.

Problem solved.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

You weren't supposed to stick your nose right in.

Didn't have to! Noses were at the wrong level.

 

[scootr]

You are old when ...
"One for the road" means peeing before you leave the house.

 

[goeduck]

Hired as Director of Engineering and over the course or mergers and acquisitions my roles have expanded and contracted…

At one time I branched into patient care when we had the first Femtosecond laser for Cataract on the West Coast and I was the first certified.

During the pandemic Security was added under Facilities which included screening to enter.

Starting at 4 am made me highest from management onsite during the very early morning hours and able to address transient population caused issues affecting operations.

From 5:30 am to 7 am I’m at the front desk and actually enjoy it and as long as I have network access it works for me.

At 5 am I do external security sweep and take report from after hours contract security… mostly clearing doorways of people camping and their belongings and tagging problem vehicles.

4 am it’s the steam boilers, vacuum pumps, medical gas, etc…

Upgrading HVAC is the project that has taken a life of its own.

Much of contract administration and purchasing now goes through corp headquarters post last merger.

I’ve had some nice wins outside engineering such as appealing a county tax assessment saving the hospital over 50k annually, slashed our medical gas expenditures by 50% and cut uniform and linen expense by 55% simply through management…

You are a good man for doing all of that. Just think of the knowledge you have from doing all of that.