Category: Office Politics/Leadership Development

January 26, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I was completely overwhelmed last night. There is a bit of political tussel at work about committee responsibilities. It’s easy being Assistant Boss because that’s the title I have, and I’ve reached a point in my career where I realize the titles are not that important. The important part is that I have specific responsibities in areas of our organization that actually mean money. I have to make sure we meet certain metrics, state required projects need to be completed, clinical quality measures reached. And if we don’t meet these metrics or get these state required quality projects completed, it means millions of dollars in fines. We are also a bonus driven organization, so when the physician group meets certain metrics than there are certain calculations to our compensation that happens. Sometimes I look out at departmental meetings and a fellow physician will be spouting nonsense about appointment times slots and 15 minute this and 30 minute that or why they aren’t included in certain meetings, and I’ll go into a trance and stand there and nod but I retreat into my own inner universe. I’ll think to myself “penny wise, pound foolish” and think about my networth or about the plastic pollution crisis or about my EMR inbox and the patient results I need to respond to. So much of the world is penny wise and pound foolish. I need to retreat into my inner universe at a lot of meetings, so I can just stand there, keep my mouth shut and move our department painfully forward.

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January 15, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I am really happy this morning. I am really happy because I have always had so many kumquats in my life. Kumquats are a citrus and the kumquat tree is relatively easy to grow. It bears these small little fruits that you can eat the entire thing including peel. My mom has given me kumquats. Friends have given me kumquats. We have a kumquat tree and my mother-in-law always has them in a square plastic container of food from the garden that we need to eat. She puts it in the center of our large kitchen island to prompt the family cooks to use that ingredient. There are always kumquats.

But we should appreciate our kumquats because through the power of Ecosia, I now know that organic kumquats are $10 a pound. Isn’t that crazy? $10 a pound when I’ve neglected previously gifted kumquats. I know kumquat trees are relatively cheap as I see them at the local home improvement stores a lot yet the organic fruit is $10 a pound. We have two kumquat trees in our front yard. We also have a lemon and lime tree. We always have fresh lemon and lime, and now kumquats.

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January 10, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I love anyone who feeds me. I think this is true for everyone. Especially if you feed me home-made fancy waffles with Belgian sugar pearls (which I had never heard of before). The expresso had no sugar and no cream and it didn’t need it, because it had this lovely waffle to go with it.

I’m sitting at my kitchen table a bit later in the morning than usual. 7am. I have to drink my coffee first. I’m finally using the Starbucks Hiroshima Mug Nurse Lan gifted me years ago. I don’t know why, but I had saved it in it’s new packaging for several years. I’m not sure if I didn’t think I deserved to drink out of such a nice mug or that I wanted to use up the old ones. But at some point it seemed ridiculous especially since the house is so decluttered from our almost 2 year long minimalism streak, to not use something that was lovingly gifted to me. Also I have a Instagram friend FamilyThemes who always profiles their mugs, and it seemed to me we should enjoy not only the coffee that comes in the mug and the mug itself – which I think is her entire point.

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January 7, 2020

by drplasticpicker

What a horrendous day yesterday. I was expecting to have a Georgia Senate Election party, and had far-fetched dreams of making peach cobbler for desert. The senate still flipped but then there was an attempted coup in Washington. Seriously, as attempted coup by a bunch of idiots who were taking selfies. They were domestic terrorists which shows the world how stupid terrorists are. I came home after a normal morning clinic and having tried to deliver good care and actually to attend to departmental needs and concerns, and I expected to have a “We Flipped the Senate” party with Peach Cobbler in honor of Georgia. Instead I fell asleep on the couch in the afternoon watching live-stream CNN, as the newscasters just sounded like my Facebook Feed friends. I wonder if I can become a CNN analyst?

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December 15, 2020

by drplasticpicker

“I’m OK.” We use this reply so much. Your supervisor essentially called you out and reprimanded you unnecessarily and incorrectly (not my department) and you said, “I’m OKAY.” Your beloved aunt is now dying of pancreatic cancer, and you say “I’m OK.” Your family is in big financial doo doo partially due to personal decisions and mostly due to larger societal factors, and you reply “I’m OKAY.” It’s the first holiday season since someone died, and you are sleeping in a crappy call room eating crappy turkey from the cafeteria while COVID-19 is ravaging the ICU. How are you doing? “I’m OK.” But Dr. Plastic Picker now asks, are you really? Are you really OK?

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November 1, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I will never forget this Quarantine Halloween 2020. It was the Saturday before an historic election where so much is on the line. I am as anxious as everyone and sometimes I want to empty the contents of my stomach when the images of what ifs crosses my mind – especially if this election does not go our way. It’s also the last weekend before we venture into the third wave of COVID-19 infections, and pediatricians are worried about children becoming secondary victims of FLU-VID (when flu and covid clash). No matter how much one debates COVID-19 impacting children, influenza’s disproportionate effect on children is as much accepted truth as anything in the world. Influenzae kills kids especially babies and asthmatics. So this fall is a frightening moment for us all, including your local litter-picking pediatrician. Vaccine rates are plummeting nation-wide.

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