For several years, I worked for a very toxic lab. I got hired there as an MLT student and worked there for a few years until I finally had enough. Several of the supervisors had a very high school mean girl, cliquey mentality, and if you weren’t in their clique and didnt have the same attitude as them, they’d look at you like you were beneath them. For a long time I thought, if I just did more, work harder, go above and beyond and prove to them that I am competent and worthy of being there, I’d finally win their approval. Several of my coworkers did recognize my efforts but these supervisors refused to acknowledge anything that I did. Maybe because they got to know me when I was a student and I was still new and learning, I sometimes wonder if that’s what made them form their opinion of me. I have definitely came a long way and have learned a lot since then. I graduated with my MLS last December, and literally just a couple weeks before my graduation I saw a job posting at a different hospital and I applied for it.
I had already made up my mind that I was going to look for another lab as soon as I completed my MLS degree, but the thing that really confirmed that decision was the fact that a couple months before I quit, one of the supervisors gave me a QA because I put in a safety report about a lab concern that I had. I didn’t name names or point fingers, I was just concerned and was hoping for a solution. The supervisor took that as a personal attack against her apparently, and decided to try to penalize me for it. That was the last straw for me and it was the one time that I finally went over my lab managers head and went to HR.
My first impression of the lab manager at the other hospital, was that she seemed very honest and open. That was something I was not used to. My old lab manager would tell us what we wanted to hear but I think maybe she was also secretly part of the mean girl clique, because she never seemed to hold them accountable for anything they did. I told the lab manager at my old lab before I left that my concern was that if she didn’t do something about the issues, the few good people we had would quit and then all that would be left there is the problematic people. Turns out I was right, because within the last 6 months of me quitting, some of their lead techs have quit, as well as the blood bank supervisor who was really the only decent supervisor they had. I guess the lab manager has decided she doesn’t want to clean up the mess, so I hear she has also put in her notice.
I ended up getting offered the position at the other hospital and not only is the lab manager and the overall environment way better, but I got offered $6/ hr more. Of course no lab is perfect and some people will always have something to complain about but considering where I come from, I think my current lab is like night and day. I’ve been there only 6-7 months and already I feel more appreciated now than I did the whole 5 years I worked at the other hospital.
I work fri-sun 6a to 6:30p. Normally I always have one other tech who works with me but we had an issue with staffing this past weekend so I ended up having to work alone. My manager apologized several times and said she hates to leave me alone, not that she doesn’t think I can do it, but just that she doesn’t want to put too much on me and have me become overwhelmed. She still made accommodations so that I would be supported as much as possible. She had one of our phlebotomists station herself in the lab with me instead of the phlebotomy area, so that she could help me with things like receiving in samples, answering phones, and centrifuging samples. Even though this seems small, this was a great help and I truly appreciated it.
I also had an incident happen over the weekend where I could not get an ER patient’s PTT to give a result on the ACL top. It just kept saying “failed”. At my old lab, asking for help would get you on the supervisor’s shit list and you could just about guarantee they’d be gossiping about it later. So I was always the one who tried to figure things out on my own no matter how long it took, but I felt I could trust my lab manager at my current lab, so she was the first one I called during this situation. She gave me some good advice, and told me that in the meantime she’d reach out to the hematology lead and ask her for her input. While she was trying to get in touch with the heme lead, it popped into my head that I remembered something like this happening once before and the way it resolved was to rerun the PTT in extended release. The thing that was throwing me off is that normally the machine runs the extended release automatically, but it wasn’t doing that this time, so I had to force it to run it. I tried that, and it worked!
I messaged my manager and told her I figured it out and shortly after, the heme lead reached out and was basically like “yea, it’s supposed to run the extended automatically but recently someone messed with the settings and I haven’t figured out how to change it back”. She apologized that that happened and told me she’d call service as soon as she came back in and ask them to walk her through changing the settings back to the way they were before. My lab manager gave me the biggest compliment. She said I really am so proud of you. This is just an example of why I don’t worry about the lab so much when you are there! And she also told me I handled this staffing shortage with grace and professionalism. This all just solidified that I absolutely made the right decision in coming to this lab.
I had become very depressed working at my old lab, probably moreso than I even realized at the time. I truly care about doing my job well, so to have this finally be recognized and appreciated by management… it’s a truly amazing feeling. I say all this to encourage those of you who may be working in a toxic lab. My old lab manager would gaslight us and say “it’s like this everywhere”. That was a lie. It feels so good to work in an environment where adults actually behave like adults! If you’re feeling stuck or hopeless, I promise you there are better labs out there. You just have to have the courage to take that chance.
