Categories: uncategorized
Date: 13 May 2005 19:23:40
This morning my former colleague, a health visitor who retired last year, came back to visit us. Which was great, except that she arrived 5 minutes before I was due to see a client. So I had to throw her out almost as soon as she arrived, which was sad. After I'd done my checks (and she'd seen everyone else she had come to see) we had a bit of a chat at the top of the stairs in the surgery, and then she asked (VERY LOUDLY, as she was never one for subtlety) "So when are you leaving?" I (very quietly) pointed out that I'd not told anyone at the surgery yet, and her shouting at a point in the building designed to maximise the number of people who'd heard her probably wasn't the best idea, to which she whispered in reply "Sorry. So when are you leaving?"
Sigh. It's a bit late for whispering now, sweetheart, your question has already boomed round the surgery!
Nobody's said anything to me, so hopefully they were all too distracted by stroppy patients or screaming children or whatever. However, later this afternoon I had reason to phone one of the nurse managers (not my own manager) who immediately said (VERY LOUDLY) "Oh Jack! I hear you're leaving us!" I pointed out that I'd not handed in my notice yet, and would appreciate it not being talked about too much, at which she went quiet and made me worry that she'd already let the cat out of the bag to too many people.
This is starting to make me really twitched. I know that the time is coming when I have to tell people. I just wish I was in a position to know that my PhD funding is secure *before* I have to tell them (which it won't be, as I have to hand in my notice by the end of June and I don't hear about the funding till the end of July). It's also adding to the pressure of realising that the funding in fact isn't secure for quite a while yet, and that awful sinking, burning bridges feeling. I was thinking as I was driving home that I'm starting to get a bit bored and that even if I was going to stay in health visiting I should think about moving to a different caseload somewhere else (I will have been at my current job 2 years next week - the longest I've ever stayed in the same job!), which made me feel a bit better. But even so - I'm not sure my blood pressure can last till July with not knowing about the funding!