Layoffs
My third clinical day went fairly smoothly. There was a bit of tension in the radiography lab today though. The company that owns the site where I’m working right now just laid off about 60 local employees between the hospital and subsidiary facilities. One of the techs that I was working with was hit by the layoff. I understand business and layoffs, but this particular one surprised me a little. First of all, I don’t know any of these techs very well yet. I haven’t spent that much time in clinical. What surprised me was the fact that this facility chose to drop the hatchet on the most senior of the three techs that work in the facility. The one just below the supervisor in the ranks was cut. Technically, I don’t know about this because it was not mentioned today. I found out about it from another student who works clinicals at the same site.
I suppose that X number of dollars had to be cut from payroll, and cutting higher ranking people would get that job done with minimal loss of staffing. It just surprises me that the most experienced person on this staff got the axe rather than one of the newer people. I wouldn’t wish a layoff on anyone, but the choice of people did surprise me. As I mentioned earlier, clinical work is a double-edged sword. You (the student) are evaluated by the clinical site as a perspective employee, and the clinical site is evaluated by you (the student) as a potential source of employment after you complete the program. The layoff this week has me thinking a lot about this site in the realm of potential employment. The questions I ask myself are probably obvious. Would I want to work for a company who may choose the most experienced senior employee as a target for layoff? Would my job security be adequate in this environment? Would my hard work and efforts over time be rewarded in this manner? I would hope not, but the seed of ill-thought has been planted. I feel very sad for the tech who was laid off. I don’t know any more detail than this, and there could be elements behind the choice that I’m unaware of. My observations are based only on what I do know at this point. This is just some food for thought…
In my clinical work today, I performed another CXR under direct supervision of a tech. I felt a lot more comfortable with this today since it was my second experience. I observed several more esophograms and UGI studies, as well as another arthrogram and a foot/ankle series. After the arthrogram was finished, the radiologist stopped and spent about 5 minutes talking to me about what I was viewing on the fluoro screen. This surprised me actually. None of the radiologists in the past have really given me the time of day. I’m appreciative that this one did. He described the complete process to me through images that were captured, and even went as far as telling me that he didn’t hit his desired mark with the syringe while he was injecting the contrast. The mark he hit happened to work, but he explained to me why it wasn’t the optimal position.
Today (Thursday) is the last day of my school week. This one has been busy, even though we were out of class on Monday for Labor Day. I’m looking forward to sleeping a little later tomorrow, but I have to get started preparing for my first test in Rad Intro/Patient Care. This test is on Monday and it’s covering a lot of material. The material doesn’t seem too complex, but the volume just seems a little overwhelming to me. I’m sure that I’m just having first-test jitters again. I’ll know more what to expect from this instructor after I have had the first test…