Talk to Me

During the course of a work day, my only usual communication with colleagues is by text or email.  Since I work the off shift, I usually don't speak to anyone outside of the triage nurse, an occasional doctor and my patients.  This depersonalization can be very frustrating.  This week, I've found myself completely overwhelmed by my schedule and the lack of verbal communication.  It seems the 4 schedulers have absolutely no clue as to who is on first.  They don't talk to each other either and this causes huge issues.  For instance, if Scheduler A tells Scheduler B that I have nothing going on, Scheduler B looks for an opportunity to make me busy.  Scheduler B does not tell Scheduler A that she has filled my dance card, and the next thing you know, Scheduler A does the same and I need to be in two places at one time.  This leads to ticked off patients and exhaustion for me.

Last night, I sent a rather scathing email to my supervisor who is probably as overwhelmed as me.  It was laden with complaints about my work burden.  No surprise, she sent me a response that I felt was dripping with sarcasm.  Knowing my style, you can guess that mine probably was also and she was just giving it back in kind.  Over the years, I've been careful not to send these types of emails (they're a lot like drunk dialing), preferring instead to save them as drafts and delete them at a later date.

Do you work in a similar situation where verbal communication has gone away and all that is left is the printed word?  How do you handle communication during times of crisis?  There are things I'd never say in a face to face meeting (or phone call), that seem to spill from my fingertips to the keyboard with abandon.  I wish there was a message that popped up asking me, ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO SEND THIS MESSAGE?