Monday, September 3, 2012

Don't Sigh On Me, Bro



I've been a workhorse lately, and really working my "stay positive" muscle.
Get up early, find delight in the sunrise.
Work 36 hours in 3 days, get excited about the moolah I'm going to be rolling in come payday.
Sure I'm zombie tired, but it makes coffee taste that much better.
No clean clothes, but hey, it's a weekend!  Everybody had Friday off- except me. Outfit repeat.

Boom. Got this one.

Then- it happened.  I go to lunch, and one of my coworkers... is NOT finding the delight in her day. Her gratitude bird has flown the coop.

Same amount of patients.  Same amount of work. Same job.

Well, no, not same job.  I'm as-needed, without benefits.  So there's that.

And she's just not happy.  No matter how you cut it, she's feeling decidedly very unpleasant about our work today.  Despite the fact that we killed it in the morning, and by lunch we literally have a joy ride of a day left. Then something even weirder happened- everybody else started matching her mood.  Like we were all supposed to be upset about our day- about our job that we woke up and chose to come to.

It just doesn't sit well for me.  Why are we upset?  Why is it seeming to make you more upset that I'm not upset?  What are we complaining about?

It's cool, everybody is their own reality.  I move on with my positive attitude. It's a great day.

Then...it happened.  When talking didn't work to break my happy bubble, she opened her mouth, breathed in, and emptied her lungs of all that muck.  In my general direction.

I got sighed on.  BIG TIME. This exasperated noise escaped her throat, and she collected her things to re-tackle the second part of the day.

The sound is too intentional to ignore.  Where is the huge elephant in the room that I'm missing?  What the HECK is wrong?

So I ask, "...is everything okay?"  (with a smile and laugh, because let's be real: you don't sigh on somebody unless you need them to ask what's wrong)

She laughs, as if the thing that just escaped her throat was unintentional and responds "Sorry, that was a a really loud sigh."

Me (confused) "No problem."

Except, PROBLEM! Because there goes my silver lining, and my finding the good. Because you know what happens?!  Now I can't help but continue to think: "What was I missing?  Am I doing something wrong, that is causing her more work?  Am I not realizing something that I should have in fact been stressed about?"  Somebody can't REALLY sigh all over me like that...for no reason...

...could they?

I got sighed on, and it really brought my day down.  Mission accomplished, coworker. Mission accomplished.

Moral of the story:  find your own silver linings, or don't, but please, please, don't sigh on me, bro.

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