I had a hard day at work today.  It upset me.  I’m used to being on the floor, answering call-bells whenever they rang, being able to give personal care to anyone who needed it, but today my senior decided I should take the tea trolley which meant I couldn’t do any personal care until I had finished dealing with the food.  (I later found out that she gave me this job because she didn’t like the other person on the shift and she knew that person would rather do the tea trolley.)  So I was completely lost, doing my best under the situation.  Every time I forgot something or didn’t realise I had to do something, she would tell me really loudly in front of everyone to try and humiliate me.  (Though the residents could see through what she was trying to do, one kind lady told me not to take it to heart and that I was doing a wonderful job.) 

The day progressed like this, with the other person on shift feeling confused because she was used to doing the tea trolley, we should have swapped roles, the shift would have run so much more smoothly.

Then it came to taking a couple of trays up to the top floor to some residents who preferred to eat in their rooms.  When I went in one person’s room, she had a lot of complaints with what I had brought up so I righted them for her (taking about 5 minutes.)  I then came back downstairs to find that my senior was angry because I’d taken “too long”.  She walked past me saying to one of the kitchen staff:

“It doesn’t take that fucking long to take a tray upstairs.” which obviously offended some of the residents who overheard, as well as me.  I carried on, doing what I knew I had to do and trying not to get too worked up… but while I was asked to guard the controlled drugs trolley I got shouted at again,

“Start collecting dishes, you know the bloody routine it hasn’t changed that much.” and I could barely take much more.  I couldn’t leave the controlled drugs unattended or I could get in serious trouble.  I managed to hold in my emotions until my break, where I spent the first 5 minutes shut in the bathroom and taking deep breaths to stop myself from crying.  I knew I’d done the best I could do, that she was just stressed and taking it out on me… but I’m so sensitive that things like that get to me. 

After tea, my senior didn’t help whatsoever, leaving me and the other member of staff to  answer all the call-bells, plus write all the paperwork, plus to all the cleaning and collecting cups etc.  I didn’t get to leave until almost 9:30 when I was supposed to go at 9.  I ache all over from doing my job on top of hers and just from having to put up with everything she put me through.  I thought care staff had a duty of care to the residents, visitors AND the other staff.