Karla Noyes' Captain's Log Series

A little background: Months ago, when we were still allowing members to wander into our office, I had two experiences of feeling compelled to ask members to back away from an employee’s cubicle and have a seat in the waiting area until she was off the phone. She was speaking to the family member of a recently deceased resident and those conversations can last 20 to 45 minutes. In both instances, when I politely asked them to take a seat, and explained that we have a duty to respect privacy laws, they were so incensed, no one had ever spoken to them so rudely before in their entire lives!  In both cases they reported their upset to my supervisor. My boss was alarmed, and I got a long, stern lecture about the importance of customer service, with a strong rebuke that this absolutely must not happen again. Well, until yesterday.  The office is open to residents by appointment only, until recently none of us in the room were wearing masks. I should say no one but me w...

Do you have a favorite Captain’s Log? Let me know. I will be submitting one, or more, to HuffPost.com. They are looking for “original, authentic, compelling, first-person stories” and will pay. (I know some of you are writers so please consider submitting.) My favorites are the two catering pieces, the Mickey Mouse and the Arranged Marriage, and the Bicycle Boyfriend. What is yours? I’m going to be brief today because I want to spend my three-day weekend learning SharePoint, the new flavor-of-the-month software at work because I’m committed to making myself indispensable. What with the governor promising to cut state employee’s salaries by 10%, it would be just as easy for my supervisor to ‘let me go.’ I’d like to avoid that. Still no virus at the Vet’s Home (because it would go through that place like a scythe though a hot summer grain field.) It is unclear if I am going to get paid for the days I was required to be away from work due to my cold and their anti-virus rules. They a...

May 7, I'd been getting a slight sore throat for a couple of days; this is the height of hay fever season. Then I woke up twice in a fever and thought, uh oh. I know it's just a cold on top of hay fever, it wants to be a sinus infection. Because the mood in the office is paranoid about someone bringing the virus into our space I knew I couldn't show up with a runny nose, they would have tarred-and-feathered me, to heck with social distance. I would be a pariah, and me, the one haranguing them all the time about their lack of "respiratory etiquette." So, I got dressed, packed my lunch, drove into work and told the woman at the gate my symptoms. She sent me home after I spoke with her supervisor, "You should have called in sick." Yeah, if I do that I use my own sick leave, which I've used up already, if you send me home I get paid sick leave and have to stay home for 7 days. Because of the virus, the administration has developed a new protocol for how ...

April 25 Nothing profound this week. I can say it's nice to work in an office with people during this coronavirus thing (it's not a pandemic here, yet.)  We joke about taking our shots of Lysol, teasing an employee about her 'dry' cough and asking her if she can smell the coffee, chocolate and roses (there is no coffee, etc. to smell.) We share our favorite memes: In 20 years the country's going to be run by people who were home-schooled by day drinkers. Meanwhile, I'm learning the Outside Medical Billing (OMB) process which is a welcome relief from mind-numbing data entry. I sort of pushed my way into the process. Data entry had dried up and I ran out of things to do, but also, the guy who does the OMB has asthma and diabetes. Should he get the virus... we really should have someone as backup. We've had plenty of time to practice hand washing and mask wearing since the beginning of the Shut Down. In fact, masks have really taken off! The sister-in-law o...

First, you must tell me how much weight you've gained and what are your favorite foods to cook (and eat.) Are you supporting your local restaurants by ordering take-out? I'm afraid to step on the scale but all my waistbands are shrinking!  We've ordered take-out a couple of times, it's been delicious, and the business owners so appreciative. If you have a regular income, I encourage you to support your local businesses, if you can. Still no virus here, yet. Our county supervisor says it will peak in Sonoma County in two months. Ugh, so distant? I'd just as soon get it, get over it and move on, except for the real possibility of dying. Speaking of which, sort of, here's a link to Chris Cuomo's How to Beat the Coronavirus:  https://www.cnn.com/videos/media/2020/04/07/closing-argument-secret-kicking-coronavirus-chris-cuomo-cpt-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/coronavirus/   Basically, he says to stay inside, get up, move around, stretch, drink plenty of fluids and...

First, let me say I don’t have it, yet. I’m told by management that there is one confirmed case in Independent Living but that is being seriously downplayed. Yesterday The Administrator (“No… sir!”) announced a meeting in the parking lot so we could be 6’ apart. We wondered what she would say. One resourceful employee accessed The Sacramento Bee online and searched recent stories about State workers. She found one that said there will be layoffs, which seriously dampened the mood in the room. It stands to reason as the State’s going to drastically lose revenue. I announced that I’m still on probation and could be let go at any time for no reason. That got me worrying about applying for Social Security asap and wondering if I could get a job stocking shelves or driving delivery vans, anything. It was a pretty nervous 30 minutes waiting for the meeting. What she actually said is that ALL of us are essential (whew!) and outlined how, if we felt sick, we could call in and get Administrat...

The Embrace With the arrival of the coronavirus I have a new ritual I perform with every interview - I bring the center piece. Out of my bag I pull a box of tissues and a bottle of hand sanitizer and announce that this is my Japanese Tea Ceremony, then ritually sanitize my hands and the pen we will both use to sign the documents. Last week one of my interviewees responded with a greeting in Japanese. "Oh, you speak Japanese?" "Just a few words." "Me, too. How is it that you know some Japanese?" "I spent a month in Japan studying Aikido." "Is that so? I studied Aikido for 5 years in the 70s, I got pretty good." "I went with a teacher of mine. We went to different dojos and practiced. Some of the dojos didn't have mats, only linoleum floors. I worked with these 10-year olds who had no trouble falling on the floor and rolling, but for me it was ouch, ouch, ouch." "I know what you mean, rolling on a hard su...