4 months in…

I have been working at the hospital for 4 months, and I still believe it was the best move I could have made in my life. I still love my boss, love coming here to work, and love being around medicine all day long. But if I only had rosey things to say, this post would get old veeeery fast 🙂 So let’s jump to the dirt:

The level of inefficiency (especially in the area of Information Technology) is UNBELIEVABLE!!! There is no strategy, only fire fighting. I’m glad to be working on the business side where we get to complain about IT, and that I’m not working in the IT organization where the leaders were default promotions that did not necessarily happen out of merit, but out of seniority and longevity. I work with women who have been in their jobs as IT leaders for 18 years and they have become extremely counterproductive at what they do. It is my firm belief that the number of years you stay at the exact same job are directly proportional to your level of ineptitude. I see this theory proven time and time again. There is no drive, there is no goal, there is only “do what we feel like until someone screams.” Well, I’m about to scream!

I can stand here on my corporate soap-box and point out all the things that are wrong with this place, but, to be honest, I have found a certain bliss in the fact that I’m the “new one” here and I’m really not expected to bring much to the table. I get to sit back and learn. The expectations of me are so incredibly low for the first year, that I seem to wow every single person I meet. I guess they’d never seen someone who is focused on actually getting something done throughout the day. I’m actually so productive with what I have to do, that I still find time to blog, take 1 hour lunches, and play Sudoku during the work day… and I’m STILL productive. I don’t feel the urge to stand out and prove myself, because I see myself being here for a very long time, and I’ll have plenty of chances to prove what I can do. It’s quite nice to take a slower pace to my career, as opposed to trying to press my face against leaders’ faces to get them to notice me.

One big work-quality difference between my last job and this one is that I used to be so tied up in useless meetings that I never had a free time to actually get work done. Now, I have all the time in the world, but I don’t feel like I’m getting much done unless I’m having a meeting with someone. It’s quite interesting.

Anyways, I wanted to check in and tell you that I’m having a good time learning new things, and I’m having a GREAT time nit-picking on all the things that are wrong with this IT organization 🙂 Sometimes I think I could do the job of the CIO a lot better than he could and feel tempted to apply for that job. Then I remember I’m a pompous ass who should sit back and learn a thing or two about the business before wanting to take it over after just 4 months.

So I sit back, relax, and let the praise come to me for the great job I’m doing 🙂

abi