“Did you hear that?”

“Good.  That click means the knee is locked.  Make sure it is before you try to take a step.  If you aren’t sure, check it by putting pressure on the knee.  If it doesn’t lock, you can fall on your nose.  It isn’t a good way to get people to notice you.”

After some other helpful hints Brittany made some notes on the chart.  “That’s all for today.  We need to go out front and see what happened there.”

Myra Bowman’s face tightened.  “We better fix that problem out front or we want to see the manager.  I like the way you work with Heidi but I don’t intend to put up with that kind of crap out front.”

“Let’s see about that now.  Come on out front and we will get you scheduled.  Let me apologize for this today and I will personally follow-up.”

After the Bowman’s left Brittany went over to see the receptionist Sylvia Wasser.  “Do you know why the Bowman’s spent over two hours in the waiting room?”

“Get off it.  I’m having a bad day.  The mother, she made a federal case out of it too.  She bugged me.”

Brittany was furious.  She stomped off and headed for Cliff Masters’ office.  He was eating his lunch when she walked in.  “The receptionist left a patient sit in the waiting room for over two hours today.  And she thinks it is no big deal.”
“That’s the third complaint this week.  I’m going to have to let her go.  Her ninety days is up in three weeks.  Till then I can just say ‘good-by’ and she is gone.”

Brittany flopped in the chair.  “I’d tell you to put her on the street right now I’m mad enough.  But I remember when we hired her she was one of six applications we got and she was the hands down best.  The rest were really bad.  If we fire her we may get worse.”

“Can it be worse?”

“Oh, yes it can.  Remember the one guy we interviewed?  He came in wearing cutoffs and wondered if he could wear them to work.  He said they were comfortable.”

“Yes, and he swore every third word.  Made very liberal use of the F word.”

“And you nearly lost it when you asked if he was reliable and asked how many work days he missed in his last job.  I think his remark was ‘F-ing A, I’m reliable.  I usually don’t miss more than one day a week.’  You thought he misunderstood the question and asked if that was days scheduled and he said, ‘F- yes, it’s really hard to work more than three days a week.  The strain gets to me.’”

“So what do we do?”

“You’re too easy on people and you don’t have time to supervise them.  Can she work for me for six weeks?”

“Sure.”

“And can we extend her probation till then?”

“Yes.”

“Let me handle this.”  She smiled and left.

The Night Sniper Chapter One: On the Beat

The Night Sniper: Ch. 020 Samantha Keys Rolls Snake Eyes

The Night Sniper: Ch. 022 Sylvia Gets a Reprieve