Punchy,
I really ought to have written yesterday but it did not happen. Yesterday, I went to the Gym, then spent the better part of the day cleaning and getting ready mentally for a phone interview I had with IHC.
I am not sure how it went, but I do know that I will know next week sometime if they decide to do a second interview, and from there if they decide to hire me. Time will tell for sure and I can only do as well as I can in the interviews but sometimes you have to trust yourself to give it your best and hope it all works out.
Yesterday there were some questions I was not ready to answer but they were asked anyway. I am not proud of the fact that I lost my job, it is has been hard, but when asked I will talk about the reasons I feel it happened. Ultimately, the causes aside, we have what remains the facts of it. So what do I know about this position?
I have been doing the same position for many years now. I had been at the University more than a quarter of my life, and have been doing this work the better part of that. What makes me the right guy for it? I cannot say that I am, but what I can say is that I have experience with it. There were the same kinds of things I used to ask employees I was interviewing. Once years ago I did not ask these sort of questions and hired someone I should not have. Questions about the ability and willingness to do the work that the job requires. Yes, it comes up after they are hired, but people do not read that. So you have to ask things like "Are you comfortable working around sick, and ill people, cleaning up blood, urine, and feces?" This is the difference between medical and non medical staff. Medical staff know what they are getting into and have training for it. Custodians are taught it but are not always are choosing it as a career the same way that a nurse does or a doctor.
Custodians are often the unsung at a hospital. They provide a clean and safe environment for the staff, and patients. It is something that people do not appreciate unless they do see something wrong. You do not walk down a hall and say, "Man, that floor looks great" as much as noticing when it is not. The irony is that it is a job that when it is done well, you do not notice, but when it is not done well you notice. At a hospital, despite doctors and nurses doing their best to keep things safe and clean, if you get sick at a hospital, it is as much about how well the custodians did THEIR job as it is all the doctors or nurses.
I am not sure I will get this job, but I am doing my best to make sure I have the best chance I can and sometimes, that is what you can give. It was exciting, and I hope it works out, but I also know that at the end of the day, everything will.
-Dad
