There Ain't No Devil, It's Just God When He's Drunk

There is definately a strong female pressance in our section of the NHS. In fact, now that Tom's been sacked, there are only 3 blokes in the whole opperation. Now, there is this stereotype of the female secretary, and little female office underling, but after a week back at the NHS, it's very clear to me why. We can do what men can't- multi-task at a high velocity.

I have several case studies on this.

1) While in the endoscopy secretary's office, I realised that I was witnessing her speak on the phone to an IT man to fix her computer while printing out 5 individual clinical lists for me. Doesn't sound impressive, but there is NO WAY my lovely Honey could have done the same thing. Heck, when he's on the phone, he has to leave the room in order to avoid any distractions. And if I try to tell him while he's on the phone to his mom that I want to speak to her after he's done, he waves his hand at me all annoyed-like, asks her to repeat whatever it was she said to him on the phone, and then afterwards, when he's hung up, says he doesn't remember me talking to him. Or, when he's researching something on the computer, he can't be interupted with anything- small talk, instructions, or advice. So in a good way, he's very focused on what he wants to get done and doesn't let himself get distracted- but there is no way he can balance more than one item on his plate.

2) Arron. Arron's work place title is the same as mine. In fact, I took over after him when he moved hospitals, but now he's being made to jump between hospitals to help give aid to the fact that they are so understaffed. At the Western, he does reception. And true to Male form, while he's very good at what he does, he can only to it one thing at a time. If he's on the phone, he is unable to log in patients. If he's phoning up a GP to get a referral, he is unable to make notes at the same time. I have the ability to negoiate with angry patients on the phone while cheerfully logging in arriving patients, and then turning around and printing up hospital labels for the next day's clinic with smooth, easy, translation.

3)Phil and Ross. These two have basically the same job, but at different hospitals. They enter patients onto the waiting list, organise who patient letters informing them of their upcoming appointments, and phone them up for verbal confirmation. But they are unable to even talk about their weekend or what they're doing on Holiday while working. They are either focused on work, silently giving their all to completing the task, or they are chatting away and not doing any work at all because they don't know how to do both at the same time.

Meanwhile, the females of the office are pulling out all the strings, talking on the phone while typing, mailing letters while giving appointments, and keeping abreast of all the work that's happening around them and of what needs to be done.

Multi-task skillz? Oh yeah, the XX genes has it.