Sonoguru

If any of you have fell prey on a dreaded office romance then you would agree with me that it’s a huge no no. A failed workplace romance can not only hurt your reputation but your career as well.  You can’t control where you find love, but when romantic sparks fly on the job, you have to pause and think carefully on how you want to proceed.

The break-up of a relationship is bad enough, without the added complication of having to see the person, if not everyday at least in work situations that require the remaining of professionalism. At the risk of your well being, job performance and professional identity, potentially damaging the dynamics of your team, and breaching company policies.

In many break-up scenarios that play out in the workplace, the challenge for the two employees is how to control their emotions at work. Psychologists’ who have done studies on this particular topic have uncovered that in most of the cases the relationships were hidden from colleagues, so the two employees felt the need to control their emotions at work, partly to protect their professional reputations and partly to protect their personal reputations, particularly when the relationships were extra marital.

A relationship break-up can also have a detrimental effect on work performance, whether or not the former partners work together. A break-up can lead to a decrease in motivation and an inability to concentrate, due to the grieving process.

It’s usually the man who can compartmentalize and continue to perform well, retaining a strong sense of work self esteem and professional identity seemed to protect them against some of the negative impact of the relationship fall out, partly because their professional pride was intact. And because, well let’s face it,  if it was a short lived relationship chances are everything they said to you to pull you in close was a flat out lie.

It’s wise to understand your rights and obligations before you choose to pursue a personal relationship at work. Being educated can go a long way towards helping you to stay on the right side of your organization’s policies and the law. You just never know when push comes to shove the only person looking out for you in this situation is you. If things end on difficult terms the scorned one can sure make your work life a living hell, especially if that person is in an authoritative position.

I’m not saying that work romances can’t work out for the best, I have come across a few stories that evolved into happy endings however at one point or another it was known that one of  the partners either gave up their job to continue the romance or moved to a different department in the facility after it got more serious in order to save the romance and the couple from potential destruction.

My advice is make sure that you’re both in the relationship for the right reasons, not just because you’re finding refuge and comfort from the day-to-day work grind.

This is a sore topic for many of us. We all have our own stories on this sore subject so I’ll be vulnerable and share ONE of mine.

Years ago,  I went in to go take one of my exams, I believe it may have been my second time, I was feeling so good, prepared. I sit in my car in the parking lot and do my ritual before I go in, I take a few moments to breathe and pray. I work up the courage to go in and walk up to the desk only to get turned away. My license spelled out my entire middle name and my bank card only had the first initial of my middle name. This was back when you had to show two forms of ID, Needless to say I left in tears and called my husband crying. Being the protector he is, he called ARDMS, Of course not being a Sonographer I have no idea what he said or if he even knew what he was talking about, he just knew how hard I had worked to get to that point. It didn’t change anything of course and I knew it wouldn’t, but it was great he wanted to fix my pain.  I think about this time and other various stories I have heard when I see people posting their test results online.  I worry about the people who have had experiences where they have not passed after third or fourth time in which this can be for many different reasons as we know it. For instance,  I know that I’m a terrible test taker, and my girlfriend gets severe test anxiety, another friend of mine complained that there were so many questions on one area of testing that he failed to spend equal amount of time on that area as he did all the others.

Another reason I opinionize about this theory is because recently I came across a Sonographer who has been doing Cardiac sonography for four years, she took and passed her RVT exam on her first try.  However to much of my surprise she never once performed a vascular exam. I’m not sure how that works when asked to perform an exam that you are registered in but I would not want to have to explain that.

I recently went on the ARDMS Global Exam Summary Report and saw that as of 2017 the pass rate for first time takers is in the high 70’s but the overall pass rate is mid 60’s to low 70’s. Although there is no way to determine the status of these test takers, one of our complaints as sonographers’ is how student sonographer’s need to get registered before even getting hired and  working as a paid sonographer.  This goes back to us veteran sonographer’s who say anyone can pass the exam but that doesn’t necessarily make them a proficient scanner.

We work so hard to prepare and pass these exams it’s understandable we want to shout to the world that we passed however maybe it’s best to keep fellow Sonographer’s feelings in mind and shout to our inner circle instead. We know in our field this is a rewarding accomplishment one that shouldn’t be undermined or taken lightly. Regardless to all my fellow Sonographer’s…Congratulations!

My last blog was for students, but today I want to talk about Sonographer’s who teach these students or who train the new Sonographer’s to work with them in their facility.  I’ve seen this go both ways, I’ve seen students who fail or don’t learn as much because they are stuck in a facility or with Sonographers who lack  confidence and/or  the patience to teach students, or maybe the Sonographers who are not happy in their jobs find it difficult to teach/train with passion.  I’ve seen new sonographer’s  get set up for failure because of the lack of training they have received.

There are Sonographer’s out there who are unfortunately skeptical to train because they have a preconceived notion that they are training their replacement.  This too is a form of self confidence, but what if you looked at it in a more positive way.  What if you looked at it as showing this student everything you know because A, you learn as you teach,  B, you look good in the end, and C, you now have someone who considers you a mentor for life.  For instance take my friend Madge, whom I mentioned in my “Calling All Sonography Students” blog.  I had about five other Sonographers’ to follow and learn from at the hospital I did my clinical rotation at.  Madge was the one I prefer to write about, as she is the one I chose to follow the most.  She taught me everything I needed to know to be able to graduate( with honors) and to be able to land a job at her facility  working and paid as a student Sonographer, which ultimately led to a full time position there.  Thanks to Madge I was able to start my career on solid ground.

You know the saying “See one, do one, teach one”?  This is the best rule of thumb for helping others to learn.  First, show them how it’s done, Then, assign them a task so they can do it themselves, Lastly, put them in a position to teach another person.

My point is if you look at teaching or training in a different perspective for yourself you never know where it can lead or how it truly affects the person you are training, not to mention the  morals you take away from it.  We often do things that require us to go above and beyond and then we get disappointed when we are not compensated or get anything in return for our efforts.  However, if we can learn to do things without expecting anything in return then we would never be disappointed.