Bus Left

When I lived in rural NC, I worked for a newly formed medical corporation. I was responsible for running 5 medical facilities. I had a combined staff of 60 with 32 providers. Because of the way the corporation swooped in there were some growing pains. As an outsider, I did my best to keep everyone comfortable with all the ensuing changes. As we all know, nobody likes change.

For the most part, when taking on a new responsibility, I like to sit back and see how it runs and do some minor tweaking here and there as warranted. There are certain nuances you just don’t want to muck around with – “if it aint broke don't fix it.”

I run into one of the Docs one morning and he is fuming. It seems his nurse is not showing up on time and he is tired of it. Seems rather basic, I did notice that she strolled in at her leisure but he did not appear to mind. Obviously assuming gets me into trouble each time.

Here then is the exchange between the nurse and myself:

WH: "It seems we have a problem with you arriving to work on time. What seems to be the trouble?"

LPN: "Well you wouldn't understand, you don't have children."

WH: "Try me."

LPN: "Well, you see my child is bus left."

WH: "Excuse me?"

LPN: "Bus left. I am late because I need to drive him to school."

WH: "Bus Left? So let me understand, your child is at the bus stop each morning on time and the bus passes him by?"

LPN: "No he isn't, therefore he is bus left."

WH: "In that case your child would be missing the bus. Bus left implies that he is standing there and the bus leaves him behind."

LPN: "Here we call it bus left. I told you, you wouldn't understand."

WH: "Let me try to put this in terms that you and I will both understand, shall we? Starting tomorrow, you need to get here on time. Otherwise you will be JOB LEFT. Are we clear?"

LPN: "Yes Ma’am."

I love a happy ending!!