A lesson from Military Docs about poor work environments

Some of my readers my recall my "banishment" from the most popular web site for premeds when I went ballistic on another poster for some blatantly racist comments. And though my IT knowledgeable DH has reminded me that as far as the web is concerned there really is no such thing as being "banished" from a web site, I've rarely visited the site in the 6 or so years since I was banned.

But today I visited the Military Medicine thread to get some insight on how Docs deal with hostile work environments since I know from my own work experiences that military medicine is notorious for high ranking, passive aggressive witches/women who make life hell for the doctors whom they outrank. And what lesson it was!!

I've always known that that the absolute worst thing you can do when dealing with a passive aggressive, coward/woman/bitch is let them know what they're doing bothers you in ANY way. And pretty obvious to the screaming banshee posing as a Vet Path I work with is REAL clear that I was very bothered by her talking about me with the Eggplant within earshot. In other words, I've been back in middle school since the bitch arrived in late October. But not long ago, I decided to flip the script so to speak beginning with playing my iPod just a little bit louder than I normally do so I can't hear them. But I first decided to go have a little chit chat with her in her office before hand after hearing them refer to me as "she" just one too many times. And let's just say I haven't heard "she" mentioned since then.

One thing I've learned in dealing with people like her is that they're "bad asses" when they have an "audience", but complete chicken shit's when you catch them one on one. They say you catch more flies with honey than vinger, so with the fakest smile I could muster, I told her that in my last few weeks here, if she had anything at all she wanted to talk to me about, to feel free to address me directly. And I said directly without blinking looking her straight in the eye, and without smiling.

Needless to say, my primary focus these days is to make the absolute best I can of things while I'm here because it's so clear than there's a good lesson albeit difficult one, for me to learn. And it's my intention to learn it well so I can use it when I'm in on the wards in my 3rd year of med school and beyond!

Finally, I have an in person interview at the NCI for a fellowship next week, so I'll be sure to let you know how that goes!!!