Population studies are fascinating. Who we are and what makes us tick as a society is very interesting. There are the loud ones that suck up all the energy in a room. Who demand all the attention and woe to the ones who get in their way.
They might not be correct but damned if they aren’t sure that they are. Any attention to them is good attention. In today’s parlance, they are the “pick me” group. Often at the cost to other people. Especially at a cost to other people.
Think of Johnny in the movie Airplane!. Always there with a quip, always there to unplug the runway lights. Anything for a little attention.
I find this group exhausting. Thankfully, this is not the vast percentage of society. We would all be exhausted all the time.
There are the in-betweeners. The group that wants attention, but the right kind of attention is best. These are the ones who plod along and are okay if they are recognized sometimes. It doesn’t have to be all of the time.
It’s all good to them.
Then there is the third group.
The quiet ones.
AKA the overlooked ones.
The ones who work quietly in the background, hitting all their metrics, hitting all their targets. Caring for their patients, often skipping lunches without the bosses knowing because it was what was best at the time. After all, they can eat later. Sometimes in the car on the way home
The ones who volunteer for extra hours so that the loud one who has been complaining about not getting their fifth vacation of the year approved (and it’s only March). Not because they want to work the extra hours but just to shut the pick me one up.
The ones who are rarely recognized for being the team players that they are.
Yeah, them.
This is an under-estimated and under-understood segment of the OR and, really, all of healthcare.
The under the radar workers who might as well be screaming “Don’t notice me!”.
Them.
The ones who are never nominated for awards, not because they are not worthy of recognition but it bothers them to be in the spotlight. And so they just toil away in the background.
Until they don’t. Then the lack of their presence is noticed.
Big time.
And they are blamed because group 1 and group 1 feel the lack.
Do yourself a favor. Befriend one of them. Be nice to them.
It’s like the lab personnel. Be nice.
Maybe they won’t leave.
Because your department won’t feel or run the same without them.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 