Last month I was promoted to supervisor of the Cardiology Lab. Eight years ago, two of the cardiologists I worked with at the hospital joined a group that was starting a Chicago branch. They recruited me to head the lab but since I had to go through the main office there were obstacles to me coming on board. One of them being money, the other my benefits. After so many years at the hospital, I really didn't want to start over. So I turned them down and I would help out on my day off and do testing. In less than a year they had gone through two techs and approached me again. This time I stated what I needed in order to come on board and also what I could offer them. Again we couldn't come to an agreement. As for the docs, they apologized since that part was out of their hands. I came to learn that this was a big group with offices in 3 of the western suburbs, board of directors, blah, blah, blah. I wasn't too upset, I had my job. But then a few incidents happened that thoroughly pissed me off and one of the docs told me I would never advance there. I took vacation time.....I was pissed and needed downtime. As my time off was coming to an end, I told David I didn't want to go back, so he told me to quit. I knew I wouldn't...couldn't do that. My last morning off, I greeted him by again saying I didn't want to go back and he sleepily answered, "So quit". That morning I got a call from the Chicago office manager offering me the job again, without thinking I answered YES. When David got up I told him what I did. I was in shock...what did I do? What about the money, the benefits? I'm going backwards... I'm going into the unknown.
Thank God she called me back. Seems I shocked her as much as I shocked myself and she wanted to make sure I had accepted. Thankfully they had agreed on the things I had asked for. Whew! Two weeks later I was reorganizing the lab.
Seven years later we have grown from 2 docs to 8 docs... from 2 receptionists to 3 with 2 M.A.'s, 3 nurses, 1 nurse practitioner, 1 research nurse, 1 asst. manager and 5 techs, including myself.
Things have been running smoothly and we finally have a full staff. As we grew, I went from tech to testing coordinator ( which to me sounded like a glorified scheduler) and now supervisor. Since I started I headed the testing lab, I ran daily operations. I seriously didn't think that what I was doing was much different than being the supervisor. HA! boy was I wrong.
The daily operations portion isn't bad, there are quite a bit of things the office manager took care of that I didn't have to do. Now I am. The sucky part of the job that I didn't anticipate....the actual supervising of others. Things do change once those same people you work with now see you as their boss and there always has to be a squeaky wheel. To say I was overwhelmed this past month is an understatement. Thankfully I have a great office manager that is not only my boss but has become a friend. She saw me sinking and offered her hand. It's now a transition, which basically means I can do what I do best and work together on the drama and BS.
I am breathing easier today...now if the drama and BS could be handed off as easily at home...I'd be all good.
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