Square peg - round hole

When I first became a manager it seemed like the job was pretty self explanatory. Technicians work with the animals doing medical stuff. Receptionists answer the phones and make appointments. Managers – well they manage stuff and owners and associates do surgery, diagnose and prescribe. Piece of cake! I will take that job! Give me a new name tag and a business card and I am good to go….off to go manage a veterinary hospital. That was day 1.

On day 2 I learned the real and sometimes ugly truth! Some technicians aren’t great with people and forcing them to do exam room appointments can be a nightmare and certainly not a top notch veterinary experience. Other technicians are so social that I needed a shock collar to stop them from wandering out of surgery to go up front to chat with the new puppy owner. Receptionists, I found out, only wish they had to answer the phones & make appointments. Those poor girls are on the frontline of disaster! Managers? PLEASE, just let me manage. I tried; in between begging my owner to let go and stop micromanaging, putting out fires, calming down irate clients, explaining to Mr. Jones that while YES, we do love animals we still are a business and expect payment when services are rendered, finding missing inventory and cats, restraining a pit bull while in heels and a skirt and actually trying to complete a single management task off the day’s to do list. I ended day 2 in tears, with a torn skirt, hair on my black blouse and the most disheveled hair ever seen.

Day 3 started with an epiphany and a new outfit! Stop trying to put a square peg in a round hole3. Just because someone has a title for their role in the practice doesn’t mean that role is black and white.

Day 4 was implementation day. Social technicians make GREAT exam room technicians. They love to talk and educate clients! Perfect! Happy clients, healthy patients and increased outpatient services. Anti-social technicians love surgery. Nobody to smile at and clients with 4 legs and fur who don’t talk back! Perfect! Happy technician, closely monitored surgical patients, no missed in patient fees and a shock collar I sold on E-bay for $50! Receptionists can do SO much more than answer a phone & make an appointment. I never saw happy people after being set free to serve our clients and serve them they did. Perfect! Ecstatic clients with coffee or water in one hand and a brochure on microchipping in another, pre-scheduled medical progress evaluations and a happy chatter going all around. Perfect! A meeting with the owner with a complete list of my responsibilities and how I would report to him allowed for him and the associate to do surgery, diagnose and prescribe! Happy manager, closely monitored practice and doctors doing what doctors do! PERFECT!

Day 5 – Happy, non-dysfunctional, well managed practice….. PERFECT!

Tattoos and Piercings and Professionals

I was in a discussion today about piercing and tattoos and if professionals should avoid them. Here are my thoughts on this. I think people should be able to do what makes them happy and comfortable. I also try my best to always judge people by their actions and not their appearance. On the other hand I certainly do know that extreme individuality makes people judge you differently and act differently and I bet it even holds people back from being successful. I meet lots of people and see lots of speakers and and everyone is very "normal" appearing but I would hope that if I went to a conference and there was a management topic I wanted to hear being delivered by a fully tattoo'd woman with an eye brow ring that I would still attend and not be distracted. I would hope that I would admire her individuality and right to do what she wanted that made her feel comfortable. On the other hand...would I hire her? Well based on my policy manual I couldn't but that would be the extreme. I have 2 staff with tiny nose studs and I myself am thinking of getting one. I find them very feminine and beautiful. I have staff with tattoos but most of them can't be seen. I too, have 2 tattoos but they only show in a bathing suit. I am trying to break in to the veterinary world as both a consultant and a speaker. I love my profession and am passionate about what I do and believe in. I have worked hard to earn my Associate and Bachelor Degree as well as my CVPM certification. would a nose stud make me less knowledgeable? I would hope not. So the debate rages on I guess. I may get the nose stud....and hope that I am not judged. I will see the speaker covered in tattoos but probably wouldn't be able to hire her as my receptionist. Not because I don't want to but because my policy manual for the practice I don't own states that I cannot. I would also feel that the extreme might be distracting and make clients uncomfortable. On the other hand a small nose stud or even a small tattoo on the back of her neck (I have staff with both of these) wouldn't bother me and I don't think would bother my clients. Why the difference? Small is not distracting and extreme is?? Not sure. I hope the day comes when we are all judge solely on how we treat people and what our skills are. I wonder if that will ever happen?