Stephanie Hamilton Comm 602 Assignment 1 September 9, 2011 Prior to transferring to the Precertification Department at Marietta Memorial Hospital,

in 2008, I worked in the laboratory for nearly 10 years. The transfer was a culture shock. I was used to working in an area with more than 50 employees. Phones were constantly ringing, people were in and out of the area, and it was nonstop activity. The Precertification Department had 6 employees and it was painfully quiet. I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life deciding to take the new job, but the supervisor was more than willing to work around my college class schedule, so I accepted the position. A good example of the differing amounts of duration of interpersonal relationships was evident just a few months after making this job transition. The duration of personal relationships I had with many of the people in the laboratory dwindled quickly. I am no longer in close proximity to my former coworkers. The laboratory is on the first floor of the hospital and my work area is on the fourth floor. I still run into some of the people in the hallways and cafeteria, we exchange friendly small talk, and then move on. The reality is we just do not have the time to keep the friendships going. I still have lunch once a month with a few of the girls. This is an example that the frequency of our interpersonal relationships has greatly decreased. When I started my new job I was trained by Dianna. She is short, round, loud, outspoken, and I believed she had nothing in common with me but the job. I was told by others, in and out of our department, she was a nut and I needed to be careful around her.

Stephanie Hamilton Page 2 I soon learned that she has severe anxiety issues, is heavily medicated, and regularly sees a psychiatrist. I could not wait for the training to be over so I could work by myself. Many days she and I were the only two left in the office at the end of a day and we started talking about our personal lives. I found out she had a son close in age to my two daughters so we shared stories with each other about our kids. When her father ended up in the hospital we reminisced about our childhoods and discovered how different our lives had been while growing up. She was raised on a farm in Ohio and I was a city girl from Kalamazoo, Michigan. As the interpersonal revelations continued between the two of us I realized, as kooky as she seems at first glance, that deep down she is a nice person. We are to the point in our friendship where we now finish each others sentences. Dianna also does not enjoy spelling and I have loved spelling words since I learned the alphabet. Now when she yells out a word I respond by spelling it for her. This interpersonal relationship is a perfect example of the complementary form of interdependence. I am thankful to have a great coworker and a wonderful friend. Lexi is a former coworker. She worked in our department for two years and transferred to one of the nursing units six months ago. Our interpersonal relationship was one that was an example of high variability. We would frequently have lunch together while at work, we talked to each other Monday through Friday and frequently on the weekends, we shared a lot of personal things, met each others families, and occasionally met outside of work to go shopping. Since she started another job our interpersonal

Stephanie Hamilton Page 3 relationship is now an example of one with low variability. She frequently stops by to say hello and talk about what is happening with her life, but that is the extent of it. The most interesting character in the Precertification Department has been Lil. She retired a week ago. She called herself an old nurse that was put out to pasture. She suffered a back injury three years ago so she was assigned to a light duty desk job in our department. She is statuesque and at first glance I thought she was a meek, mild, senior citizen. I was wrong. We liked having her in our department because of her clinical knowledge and she had some interesting stories that she shared with us. She regaled us with adventures from her pot-smoking, love-the-one-your-with era during her twenties. She also told us stories about her three failed marriages and now that she looks back on it husband number two was not all that bad. The down side was she is bipolar. We occasionally saw bits and pieces of this side of Lil and she would quickly apologize and act embarrassed after her bad behavior. It was not until we had a young, beautiful girl that had just graduated from Washington State Community College, as a Licensed Practical Nurse, come to work in our department that we saw Lils dark side. She would throw things, break things, slam the phone, and throw temper tantrums. Not to mention, she would berate and belittle our new girl. She always apologized for her erratic behavior, but her conduct never changed. I finally had to have a talk with her. I was a little nervous because this was the first time I had to sit someone down to discuss their poor form since I had become a supervisor. I decided to approach her as though she were a young child and spoke quietly and calmly. After our talk she stopped most of the

Stephanie Hamilton Page 4 bizarre behavior and her last two months of employment were relatively pleasant prior to her retirement. Lils departure is an excellent example of systemic interpersonal relationships. Her retirement has left a void in our department. We no longer have the clinical expertise from her many years of nursing experience at our disposal, however we now have an environment that is free of unpredictable mood swings.