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Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Compass

I often get stopped in the hallways and in the lobby of the hospital by various people asking for directions. The majority of the time I can point them to the correct place, but quite frequently, they ask for directions to some obscure part of the hospital that I've never been to. Or, they ask me for a department that I don't ever work with, so I have no idea where it is, so I can't really help them.

On top of that, this hospital has been remodeling and building new wings, with various departments moving around like a bizarre game of musical chairs, so I'm not 100% sure everything is anymore. It doesn't help that the hospital takes up nearly an entire city block of space.

So when I don't know, I answer truthfully that I have no idea how to get to where they're going. To which I get one of 3 responses, all with varying degrees of disappointment.

1. They just accept the fact that I don't know
2. They look at me like I'm retarded for not knowing
3. They look at me like I'm witholding information

I don't really care if they choose Reponse #1 or Response #2. But occasionally, the elderly population often choose Response #3 and start to get upset. I really can't understand why they would think I'm choosing not to tell them. If it starts to get ugly, as it did this morning, I just give random directions.

Why not direct them to the main information desk? I do, but for some reason people don't seem to like that very much. I often receive response #2.