Bad attitude
I was currently employed by a local hospital for close to 6 months and I was fired last week from a complaint from a patient stating that I had a bad attitude. Does anybody have advice, if any, how I can improve my attitude in the workplace? Regards
The complaint is non specific and very vague. To work on improving your "bad attitude," you need more information. The individual who fired you should have provided specific information and examples to support her claim. Perhaps you can contact her and find out exactly what was wrong with your attitude and what the patient complained about. This is a very complex subject and since I do not know you or have any specific details, it is practically impossible to me to be of any help. I suggest you confide in a few close friends and family members who are intelligent and understanding and also very honest and ask them for constructive criticism about your attitude. Generally - people are not that different in their personal lives than they are at work. Your "bad attitude" can be the result of being in the wrong job for your abilities, temperament, and personality or it can be the result of psychological problems or serious issues that you are having trouble handling, including a bad personal relationship, problems with children if you are married, difficulties with your parents, etc. We are supposed to leave our problems at home and not take them to the workplace but many of us fail to do this at times. As a result, we can become impatient with others, temperamental, abrupt, and even rude. I have worked off and on since 1963 and I have seen numerous employees who dragged their personal baggage to work and took out their problems on others! Not everybody is cut out or right for every job. You may also need vocational counseling to find out what you do well and what type of job appeals to you! Health care and customer service are probably not for you! That is okay. There is something out there for everyone! It takes some guts, but I' d call your former boss and see if he/she is willing to have a constructive conversation with you about it. Your situation is vague...but I find it hard to believe (from their end) that that would be the only reason. Maybe there was something else that you' re not even aware of that had something to do with it? I just find it hard to believe that after 6 months of good work, it' d take one complaint for you to get the ax. I' d also echo what was said earlier- it' s possible you were just in the wrong job. It is important that you don' t bring any personal problems to work, but more than likely, that job just wasn' t geared for your skill set. Contact your former boss and try to ascertain what it was that you did or said that upset the complainant. If she will not tell you then request a copy of your personnel file. You are entitled to have it. You may have to pay for the copies and that is, quite frankly, the only "fair" thing to do. Anyway, if the person who complained did it in writing then the complaint will be in your file. Most employers, in their quest to keep the most accurate files possible in case of legal action for unfair or improper dismissal, will keep a copy of the termination paperwork. And you also may be able to find out if there were other complaints that you were not aware of or had forgotten about because maybe they were so long ago. I do not know why the font in my previous message became so small. I did not mean for that to occur. Get out your magnifying glasses, folks. Sorry! It' s a good thing that a few or many people provide responses. Yes - the OP should definitely contact her former supervisor for clarification. Something else is going on. People usually do not get fired over one incident unless it' s extremely serious. A sick person in a hospital is very likely to find fault and be cranky with just about everyone. Usually (but not always) employees receive a verbal warning first and then a written warning if things do not get better once they have been reprimanded the first time verbally. It will take guts on your part, but you have nothing to lose and a great deal to gain in the interest of self awareness and improvement. Contact your former supervisor. What did you do to prompt this complaint? What was your job at the hospital, were you a doctor? Did someone come in with sever pain and you told them they' d have to wait until you finished your smoke break? Did you throw the patient out of the ER for bleeding on the floor? I don' t know your position in the hospital setting, but I do know, having been "fired" recently, that often times supervisors act too hastily without having all the facts. I have written letters to my supervisor' s supervisor and on up the track. Did she/he have all the facts in the matter? This is a complaint that patients make frequently about staff treatment. Especially if that patient is quite ill or is even having psychiatric problems. There wasn' t enough information to make a good judgement of the situation, but I would definitely pursue this matter if you know in your heart that you were delivering good patient care with no "bad attitude". You gave the best advice on this Thread. The complaint is so vague that it' s useless and speaks poorly for the supervisor. There' s no way that anyone benefits from hearing a response like that one. "Bad attitude" means many different things, and it requires a thorough and intelligent explanation and examples. As far as I am concerned, I would never take a comment like that seriously unless the boss could provide concrete examples of my "bad attitude." Otherwise - the only thing I am learning is that I have or had an extremely stupid and incompetent supervisor or some kind of discrimination is in the works, and they had to say something so their discriminatory practices would not be obvious. It' s much better to tell someone that she has a "bad attitude" and is being let go than to tell her that she is being let go because she is black or getting too old for the job, for example! A savvy boss would document complains of someone' s "bad attitude" before dismissing this person. She would discuss ways that the employee could improve and give her a time frame for improvement and if there' s no improvement after the initial verbal warning and also after the written warning, then the axe has to fall! At least - contact your former supervisor and ask her to tell you exactly what she meant by "bad attitude" and provide examples of such! Please come back to this Thread, and provide additional information if you can. Sometimes I wonder if anyone actually reads the stuff I write or if my information is valid. I draw from experiential learning...like to pass on the wisdom (if one could call it that!). I do enjoy helping people. It is my profession as a nurse and is something I enjoy doing, or at least deluding myself thinking I am helping! Thanks again, it is always good to be validated! Especially after being fired from a job recently. You know, confidence, self-esteem and other issues that are related to rejection. You are welcome, my dear! With all the advice I read and offered, nobody mentioned the fact that this kind of complaint is common in hospitals because of the condition of the patients. In fact - if a nurse appears to be quiet, tired, and overworked, the patient could translate this into meaning that she has a bad attitude. Some are not as talkative and friendly as others but they are still just as competent if not more competent. I hope Rugrat found your message helpful. I am sure she or he did. If not - you helped plenty of other people, I am sure. | |
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