Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: If you ever left work and immediately had to text somebody like, yo, you're not going to believe this. This podcast is for you. Welcome to Work Drama, the podcast where we unpack workplace stories people whisper about trauma, bond over and still think about years later. I'm Lizbeth. I come from the medical world, so I'm here to add context, logic, and the questions that should have been asked before someone hit reply all.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: And I'm Sharon, today's resident instigator, group chat voice and depending on the situation, HR's worst nightmare.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: I left my in person job for remote work and I realized you don't miss the commutes, but you definitely miss the drama.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Meanwhile, I'm still in the trenches.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: So we fixed that.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: We'll be breaking down anonymized stories from offices, hospitals, and everywhere in between. Reacting in real time, calling out the nonsense, and figuring out if something is actually toxic or just wildly mishandled. You got a story for us?
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Send that shit in. Names, change, jobs, protected, opinions very much included.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: And for legality purposes. This is not legal advice.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Girl, let's get into it.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: You know what the work from home dream looks like? No commute, no one watching you. Log on, do your thing, log off.
Some people took that dream and built something great. And some people logged on, put their phone on busy and went back to bed for 12 hours, five days a week while people were calling an emergency service.
Alright, girl. Well, we're back.
Episode six. Girl, we're almost at ten.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: I know. Exciting, somebody.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: So I'm in this little like podcast community just to kind of feel supported and whatever. And somebody was like, six is a great number to get to. Like once you get to 10, like the moment this really starts building. I don't know, they could have just been like trying to hype me up.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: But it worked. I mean, but it worked because it felt good.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Yeah, because, you know, and it's every two weeks, so it doesn't feel like it's crazy. Right? Like we're like doing too, too much. It's just like a side thing for now. But it feels good.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: And I like being able to see you every two weeks, you know? You know you love it.
She loves it. Okay, guys, she loves it. That's why I'm going through menopause, because I'm like, I. Maybe I'm sweating. I've been telling people you're on the age I am. My mom got it early.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: So. Yeah, I was reading online that it starts like in your 30s. So.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Yeah, the Perimenopause. That's what I was hearing, too. And I'm like, 38, 39 this year. My mom got men. Or your menopause at 38?
[00:02:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: So I'm like, I'm right there, girl.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: And.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: All right, so still working any days off coming up? Any pto?
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Well, days off, yes. My normal Tuesdays and Thursdays. But I got approved.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Sharon. On Tuesdays and Thursdays.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: No, I will.
I will be blocking everyone.
I got approved for my time off for when I go to Puerto Rico.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Okay. When's the official date? I know you've been moving.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: July 31st.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Okay. And you're going for two weeks.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: No, three.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Three.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: I won't be back till August 24th.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: Damn.
Damn, girl. In the hottest days.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: I know. And then somebody mentioned that those are, like, hurricane season, so she has me a little bit stressed.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I could see that, actually. Yeah, I think August Ish or something like Maria Jesus. You're gonna be good, girl. You're gonna be good. Just check. Is this an El Nino year?
[00:03:17] Speaker B: I don't know. I don't know. But I'll be over there eating pintos
[00:03:23] Speaker A: while the winds blow your hair.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: Literally.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: Well, I'm gonna pray for you that it's all good. It's gonna be good, girl.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: It's gonna be fine.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: Damn, that's. And they approved three weeks at your job.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I'm part time right now, so it's not like.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah, like, you're there.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: And even if I wasn't, that's not gonna stop me.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, if I could take it or leave it. Unless you're giving them a lot of notice.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: So that's good. Damn, that's good. I actually. I'm supposed to go to Puerto Rico. I'm gonna do two weeks in December for my aunt's birthday. And then I wanted to stay for, like, three kings, but I still haven't even booked that yet because I'm just like.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: They still got a little bit of time.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: A little bit of time. I just wanted to book it early because it's the holidays and I just want the prices to go up. And I think when I already looked, they were already a little high.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: But I saw something with JetBlue having.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: I love JetBlue.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: I, like.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: I don't know what we booked it through.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: I don't like American Airlines. There isn't one that I'm like. I just don't like them. Every time I go on, something ghetto is happening on the freaking plane. I remember not the Last time, this last time that I went, whatever they have no screens for. So if you have to use your phone, which is like, I guess it's fine so long as you have your phone.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah, but what if your phone died or.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Well, they have charging ports, but I did go on one where the charging port wasn't working so I couldn't watch anything cuz my phone was like halfway cuz my phone's always dying and so I couldn't watch anything. So that was annoying. So that was one of the ghetto things. And then another time, the freaking window, I. I'm on the window seat, I open the window thing, the window's cracked and it's like double layered. So I'm just like, I hope hole. Because I'm like, do I raise my hand and be like hey. And then freak the whole plane out or do I just deal with it? Maybe this is my fate, girl.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: I just.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: That way I was like, let's see what happens when we get up in the air.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: That's awful.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: And in my head, you know, as tiny as I am, I'm like, do I fit through this window? Like am I gonna get sucked out?
All the thoughts in my head, I'm like, never again. Freaking American Airlines. And then I tried, I think I went on like, this was years ago too, maybe Twitter like one of the somewhere. And I tagged them like with a picture, hoping that they were gonna be like, you know when people post something like oh, here's a free plane ticket or something, you know. No, no, they didn't care.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: They're like, you're fine.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: But yeah, I was, I was low key scared that I was gonna fly out the window. But yeah, I don't like American airlines. But yeah, JetBlue is my jam. I like them. So I hope it's JetBlue for you. But wait, what were you gonna say? You saw something on JetBlue like a deal?
[00:05:30] Speaker B: Yes, she shops directly from their website. Yeah, it was on Instagram. So I don't know if it's a real ad or a fake one, but it had said something about having low rate flights.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Well, I think now that you mentioned it out loud in front of our phones, I'm probably gonna get the ad, most likely. So I'll probably get the ad.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: Let me log on.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: See, it's probably gonna pop up.
Oh, another thing, something new for me. I started a new position. Well, not a new position, I shouldn't say position, a new job doing the same thing. Remote closing. But now I'm doing it for A passport concierge service.
So we're helping people, like, expedite their passports and stuff.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: So hopefully we start making more money there. It's lower ticket than what I am currently doing, and it's a lot more work, honestly, if I'm. So I just started really yesterday, started Friday, but didn't really start getting into until yesterday. And it's like, I have to message a lot of people. We get a lot of leads come in, but I have to message them and get them on a call. The other offer that I'm doing, they basically, they book a call automatically.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: From, like, the webinar or whatever, so I don't have to, like, get them on a call. But these, I'm like, I'm having a conversation and then I have to get them on a call. So I'm like, realizing I'm working more for free than I'm not. I mean, at least right now. Right? Because, like, yesterday I worked literally all day from when I woke up to freaking 11:30 almost at night, sending messages, getting on calls. And yeah, girl, it's a lot of work. So I'm. Yeah, we'll see how it all goes. I'm thinking right now is just the growing pains of just kind of like, learning the systems, learning everything, hopefully better. And I'll get used to kind of what I'm saying. Yeah, but. Yeah, but now I'm just, like, working, working, working good. Figuring out when I'm gonna have fun.
This one, though, at least I can do for my phone. Like, I have all the links, all the things on my phone. So I could be on the beach and, like, it's called. Like, I don't have to be on Zoom or anything. So I could be on the beach and be, like, taking calls or whatever.
[00:07:25] Speaker B: Doesn't sound like a bad idea.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: Yeah, because even now I'm like, just have it on the background there.
But yeah, so doing that, staying busy.
Anyway, we need to get into the story.
And so this story today comes from our work bestie of the day, Ryan. Ryan is a paramedic. He's working remotely on an emergency dispatch, clinical support line kind of thing. And Ryan was out here doing the work while some of their other colleagues were very busy doing absolutely nothing.
All right, Sharon, are you ready?
[00:08:00] Speaker B: Ready.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: All right, before I start this story, Sharon, I just gotta say, this is a work from home story.
And I'm currently work from home, and I'm loving it.
I mean, I'm noticing that I am working a lot more than I probably would have Been working at my job because I don't get to just like clock out and leave, but I get to do things in between and I get to enjoy it, but I'm working. So, I mean, this story is gonna get into it a little bit. It made me feel some type of way about people doing work from home because it's like some of us are really working.
So let's get into it. All right, let's set the scene. When you call an emergency service line, let's say, for example, like 911, you picture a dispatcher, someone calm, fast, focused, running through questions, getting help. But for certain calls, the ones that are complicated, a patient with a significant medical history, a situation where the dispatcher needs real clinical guidance. There are nurses and paramedics on standby, working remotely on call, ready to either take over the line or advise in real time.
Think of them as like the clinical backup layer of emergency service line. The people the dispatcher turns to and says, I need a paramedic on this one.
Sharon, before I go further, I think most people assume something like 911 or an emergency service is just a few dispatchers, a couple emergency services.
Did you know there was an extra layer that existed?
[00:09:18] Speaker B: I did not.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: Me neither. I just thought it's like you talk to that person and then they just kind of like press a button. I can just like when you never went to this address, Like, I don't know. But I didn't realize there was that extra layer because sometimes, like, you see videos where, like, cops show up to, like, a medical emergency. It's like, why did the cops show up when it should have been an ambulance?
[00:09:36] Speaker B: Right?
[00:09:36] Speaker A: I mean, I've seen that. So I don't know. I wonder if that's everywhere. Who knows?
Well, now Ryan is one of those paramedics, an agency contractor working from home, logged in, available, taking calls. And for a long time, Ryan was very busy. Like, non stop busy. The kind of busy where you don't get up for water, where your lunch gets cold, where you're handling call after call and thinking, is this crazy for everyone right now?
It was not crazy for everyone right now. Sharon, have you ever been the person at work who's carrying all the load and had no idea that it was happening to you? Like, they were like, you were taking over most of, like, the job needed to be done and just thought, like, this is normal?
[00:10:19] Speaker B: I don't know. I can't pinpoint that.
[00:10:22] Speaker A: Not when you're working at the store either.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: Maybe. But at that point I had the responsibility as management, I had to overtake more tasks. Yeah. Like, at my job right now, I feel like it's all equally distributed. Yeah. I mean, yeah, there's unfairness of me doing certain jobs and the other person working with that person doesn't do the same or deal with the person the same way, but.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: But not feeling that fear.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: I don't think so. Maybe. Unless I just think. I don't know.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Mind you, Ryan here was feeling like this is normal, so who knows too? Like, maybe something's going on that you might not know. But for me, like, at my last job when I worked at the urgent care, I was the only medical assistant in that. So it was like, in our department, it was just one provider, one ma, one receptionist. So I felt like a lot did fall on my plate compared to maybe some other departments or whatever, just because I had to deal with, like, certain things where on the other side, they had three or four. Three.
Three or four MAs, depending on the specialties that came around. So I felt like they got to share some of the workload. Right. Like in the ordering and keeping track and stocking and all these different things. But, I mean, I can't say that it wasn't fair because I was the only one in my department. And the funny thing is, when I look back, a lot of the jobs I had, I was the only one in my department. When I worked at OB gyn, they moved me to the hospital office, and that was my place. I was in charge of that.
Yeah. For most jobs. So it's like I've always just had to pick up a lot of the load.
[00:11:51] Speaker B: But that's unfortunate.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Yeah, it is unfortunate, but it also was nice because I didn't have to work with too many people my small. So it's like, drama.
But. Yeah. But Ryan. Okay, so Ryan's working from home, right? And he's noticing, like, he is crazy busy. He's like, damn, there's hella emergencies. Like, what is going on? So here's what was actually happening. A group of agency contractors on the same team, same job, same hours, same pay, were logging on at the start of their shift, taking a couple of calls to make it look good, and then putting their phones on busy.
Busy means no calls come through. Busy means the system thinks you're on a call. Busy means you should technically be clocked in and available, but you're back in bed doing that for 12 hours a day. Well, maybe not 12 hours, but doing that all day for the full work shift, five days a week.
Girl, what are you doing if you find out your co workers are sleeping on the job while you're busy? As I'd be fuming, girl, Same. I'd be pissed.
I'd be like, how long has this been going on? I want. I want your pay. Like that is crazy.
Now, Ryan didn't know any of this was happening at first.
They just knew. The calls never stopped. Turns out there were only two people on the entire team of five actually taking calls. Ryan and one of the other colleagues. That's it.
Two people running clinical backup for the emergency service line while the rest of the team had essentially gone ghost. And just so we're clear about what that actually looked like on Ryan's end, let me paint you a picture. It's 2:00am Ryan has been on since 7:00pm no real break. Phone rings again.
A dispatcher patches through an elderly woman. Chest pain, shortness of breath, history of congestive heart failure, a laundry list of medications that interact with basically everything.
This isn't a send the ambulance on a move call. This is the call where someone needs to be on the line, talking through it, asking the right questions, buying time until help arrives. And Ryan handles it. Calm, professional, thorough. Phone rings again before they've even finished the notes on the last one. This time, it's a guy fully convinced he's dying, who ate an entire large pizza and three energy drinks and then Googled his symptoms. His chest is fluttering, he's short of breath, he's getting nauseous, which, to be fair, Google was not helping him, telling him every diagnosis from cardiac to anxiety. But Ryan talks him through it and takes it seriously, does the job, because that's what you do. While Ryan is doing all of that, a colleague somewhere has their phone on, busy, their laptop open and their eyes closed. And the worst offender, Girl. Guess how many calls per hour the worst person on this team was averaging?
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Probably zero.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Yeah, 0.2.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: Oh, that's crazy.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: 0.2 calls per hour on a 12 hour shift. Oh, it was a 12 hour shift. Okay, that's maybe two calls in total for the whole day. Or actually for the whole week, probably. I don't know. That's crazy, though. All right, so here's what makes it worse. This had been going on since July.
Not a week, not a month, four months. The whole time, Ryan was drowning, wondering why the volume never dropped, wondering why staffing never felt like enough. It was because the staff wasn't there. They were physically logged in, they were getting paid, and they were asleep.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: So I need this job.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: Right. Well, see, that's the thing. That's why I feel kind of like, damn, I'm working. Like, I'm working from home, but I'm working. I feel like stories like these is why people are being told to go back to work, right? Because it's like, you can't really trust everybody.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: But.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: And some of these jobs, like my jobs, they. I'm not really being tracked, per se. Like, some people have, like, their laptops are tracked, like when they log in, and everything's, like, tracked. And so they have that. But my job did. There's no tracking, but I'm actually freaking working my ass off. But, yeah, it just sucks for people like this or like that to ruin a good thing for people, right? I mean, do I sleep in every now and then? Like, maybe I might make check a message and then go back to sleep if I'm like, okay, I caught up on that. I'll take a nap, but at least I do some work, right? So, anyway, so, Sharon, I want you to think about this from a management side for a second, since you have a little bit of management experience. Because someone approved those contracts, right? For those people. Someone was seeing payroll go out. Someone had access to the call logs. Because, you know, those emergency lines, they have access. You know, when we see these crime kind of things, they always have access to these transcripts and the calls. At what point does this stop being the employee's fault and start being a system failure?
[00:16:12] Speaker B: I feel like within, just within that first month of them not being successful with intaking, the calls should be already a red flag.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: I feel like somebody's obviously in the management department, right? Or wherever. Whoever's hiring these people isn't keeping track of the logs.
[00:16:28] Speaker B: Maybe they're sleeping, too.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: Maybe they're sleeping, too. So true.
Everybody's just sleeping. And Ryan's here just working his ass off.
So now here's the part that I want to sit on for a second, because this isn't just a story about lazy coworkers. This isn't Zach blocking someone's wifi. And this isn't cash going missing from a drawer. These are people calling an emergency service line. Real calls, real emergencies. People with complex medical histories who needed clinical guidance. And the clinical backup layer was asleep. We don't know what calls came through during those hours. We don't know what got routed wrong or what advice didn't get given or what dispatcher was left without support. We just know the phones were on busy. Sharon, as someone who is still in person every day, I want to ask you this, honestly. Does this change how you think about people who push for remote work and then pull this shit? Because I know I went remote, right, And I take it seriously. But I want to know how it looks like from your side, still in the building, still showing up, watching people collect paycheck from their couch. How does that make you feel?
[00:17:29] Speaker B: I mean, a little bit frustrated because I want to be on my sofa, you know, doing some work.
But it is what it is.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Yeah, but when you see people taking advantage of it, it's kind of like
[00:17:39] Speaker B: it's frustrating because there are people genuinely that are working and that are doing
[00:17:45] Speaker A: their job right, Just making everybody else look bad.
That's horrible. Well, eventually the numbers got pulled. Eventually, four months later, call logs, timestamps, activity reports. And the data didn't lie. The team got flagged and the situation got investigated. And now, well, the entire team is under constant monitoring. Every call, every time stamp, every minute of availability.
Ryan went from drowning alone to finally having their workload made sense.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: Good.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: So.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: So here's my question though, because I think about this kind of thing. Do you think people who are doing this even feel bad or do they just get annoyed that they got caught? Cuz you think being in that position too, with this type of job, you should be pretty empathetic. Like, you should be kind of like.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Not everyone's like that, I guess.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: I mean, that's.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: It doesn't matter. In the, in the work that they're doing, there's doctors that are causing harm,
[00:18:37] Speaker A: you know, that's true. That's true.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: Police officers. So it really just depends on the person.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Person, personality or their motives.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: Because, yeah, they could have been like, okay, this is easy. Maybe they were one of those people that I've worked with. But like that in the medical field, where you're like, what are you even doing here? Like, you don't care about people, you're not empathetic, you're not an advocate for the patient. Like, what are you doing here? Go find a job in like, I don't know, a factory. I don't even know what tell you, like, somewhere where you don't have to deal with people and they're either their problem. Problems or their health or. Yeah, it's crazy. So maybe they thought, oh, this will be easy. I don't have to deal with the actual people. It's a quick call, take a couple, go to sleep. Yeah, I can see that. Because you're right. There's in every type of job, there's
[00:19:19] Speaker B: a bad noodle everywhere.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: Everywhere. Well, all right, so let's break this down because they figured it out.
Although now Ryan has to get a lot more monitoring. But he was doing a job, so he's like, I'm good.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: Yeah, he's fine.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: He's totally fine. It's now everybody else, but it does also suck. Even though he was doing a job, maybe he was able to be like, okay, well, maybe I can just like watch a show for a minute while I'm not, you know, like, I don't know what the monitoring looks like, but sometimes that also affects you because you're like, I was doing my job. Now I'm being almost punished in a way. First, other people's stuff. So that kind of sucks. First off, I want to mention. So we talked about employees stealing from other employees in the last episode, but this is kind of like the flip side. Clocking hours when you're not working, collecting pay you didn't earn.
In any industry, that's a problem. But in emergency services, I feel like that's like a different category of wrong. Right?
[00:20:09] Speaker B: Yeah. In a way it's still kind of stealing people's times, you know, their valuable resource that they can give out.
Right.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: And like it's also. So you're stealing what from the company, their resources and stuff, but also from the people that are calling.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: Like this is their life. Life that are, they're putting in your hands. Like that's the scary part about it too. So that's like shitty. I just, I hope that's not going on. I hope there's more monitoring. I hope this isolated situation. Cuz I would hope that when I'm calling an emergency service line, somebody's going to pick up the call. And you've hear, you hear about this. I've heard about people calling and needed to call again because people don't pick up.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: So like, who knows?
[00:20:44] Speaker A: But, and I mean, people just assume, wow, it must be busy. But is this something else? And if 0.2 calls PER, PER hour goes undetected for months, what does that even mean?
[00:20:54] Speaker B: Is that like 10 seconds per call?
[00:20:57] Speaker A: I think that means like, let's say,
[00:20:58] Speaker B: okay, so zero the phone rung and that's that.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: I feel like, let's say in a week, if there were a hundred calls, I'm not great at math, but like if there were 100 calls in a week they took, I don't know what would be 0.22 calls, maybe, or maybe 20 calls. No, because that would be, I don't know. I'm not good at math, but It'd be like two calls for the whole week if it were 100 calls in a week. I think something like that. So, yeah, that It's. It's a little bit. It's miniscule. It's not enough calls for an emergency service. Like, that's what it is, whatever the math is.
But that's crazy because then. Yeah, that falls on the department, too. Like, how are you not watching? Like, there should be some type of things in play. I mean, now there is, right? But that should have been caught four months of that.
And with Ryan being as being busy
[00:21:43] Speaker B: as he was, good thing he was so busy.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: And if it was only five people and him and the other person, there was only two people that were really taking calls.
[00:21:51] Speaker B: That.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: That's scary to think that some people could have possibly been in an emergency situation and not got the help that they needed. Like, who knows what happened there?
But yeah.
All right, well, I guess we could end up with sharing. What would you say to someone like Ryan who did the right thing and got nothing except more work? Like, should he have gotten. Gotten rewarded or like, what do you think?
[00:22:10] Speaker B: Definitely right, for sure. He should have gotten an appreciation for all the extra work he had to put out.
Yeah.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: And, like some type of compensation. I feel like that's not fair to be like, oh, damn, you were working really hard. And it sounds like he was working like a third shift started 7pm and like 12 hours. So to 7 in the morning, and then you lose all your day. Because I would sleep all day if I had to stay up all night. So, like. And just exhausted. And then just to be like, okay, sorry, we didn't notice. No, you just have to get extra monitored now. And that's it. That sucks.
[00:22:45] Speaker B: That does suck.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: But I would personally tell Ryan, like, ryan, good job.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: Work messy.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: You did great. You saved lives.
[00:22:52] Speaker B: Definitely.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: You made people feel comfortable. You made that guy that ate that pizza realize that he just shouldn't be eating a whole entire pizza and three energy drinks because what the.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: I mean, he could have been super thirsty.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Yeah, he drink some water. The energy drink. Girl, that caffeine some people have got. I mean, and I get it. I get that guy calling because, like, I think it was supposed to be kind of like, that sounds a little silly in the grand scheme of things, but we hear what energy drinks could do to people, too. So, like, I probably would have freaked out. I remember I drove with Kaylee one time. It was like this impromptu little vacation That I wanted to go to North Carolina or no, South Carolina, Myrtle beach, wherever that is. And I was like, kaylee, pack your bags. I came home from work so we're going to Myrtle Beach. I just like booked a mystery hotel. It was ridiculous. I just like whatever. And I bought a bunch of Red Bulls. And I don't drink caffeine like that. Like I ended up drinking all these Red Bulls to drive through the night. Girl, my heart was racing and I was like, I should probably stop drinking these. And then I had to do it on the way back because on the way back we ended up driving back direction during like the middle of the day, like at 1pm when I was already up doing stuff. So I was tired. And Kaylee was like, wow, you're crazy, mom. Because I was like singing. I was like, I was just. I was on another level.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: That's so funny.
[00:24:02] Speaker A: I mean, those energy drinks.
[00:24:03] Speaker B: So for me it's like drinking a glass of water doesn't really do anything for me.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: Really?
That's crazy.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: I can easy drink two or three a day.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: Oh my God, that's crazy. I mean, yeah, I mean, I've seen people do it. I. I can't. I mean. And even now, I don't know when it started shifting for me. I never really drank caffeine. I mean, mind you, as a puerto rican, at 7 years old I was drinking coffee with milk because, you know. But then I kind of stopped around that age. I. I mean, I think, I don't even know when it started. But around. I remember around seven, feeling like I just didn't want coffee anymore. And since then I hadn't. And then I don't. So I don't drink coffee. I mean, I can't really drink soda right now. So I just like don't have caffeine in my life anymore. And now even when I take like an Excedrin, which has caffeine, I could only take one pill cuz it makes my heart race. Like it's crazy.
Like, I don't know, I just, I can't do caffeine. But you see me, I got mad energy.
I don't think I need caffeine. And I can't sleep ever. So yeah, I don't think I need it anyway. Whole tangent about caffeine. But anyway, Ryan, our work, best day of the day. Thank you for holding it down for real. Because somewhere between every call you took and every call that should have been answered, you kept showing up and. And that matters. So good work. All right, that was. That Was good. That was different.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: And I like that it was at work from home, because I was like, damn, there's no work from home stories coming in. But that was good.
Oh, and we got another story coming in. I can't wait to show you that one because that one's gonna be, like, a little interesting.
We're having people really sending in stories, and I'm really excited about it. So also, I just wanted to mention I just started a Reddit page. I've never in my life been on Reddit. I always thought Reddit was, like, a sketchy place to be on, from what I hear. But, I mean, it seems fine. I've been maybe going down the rabbit hole a little bit. It's a lot of reading, though. So I was like, looking at the screen for too long is a lot, but for some stories from there. But now I'm like, I made a page. So that can be another little workplace group chat that we can have. People can go on there, submit stories. Once I get to a certain point, I guess people, I can create a subreddit, which means it's a category where I can ask questions and people can. It kind of builds community, I guess. I'm still trying to figure it out, but work to Drama podcast on Reddit. I don't even know how you search that. Like, I don't. I don't know enough about it, but search us there. Submit your stories there, too. I'm sourcing from there, and also I'm going to be doing, like, little kind of like group chats in there. So that's a place where we can all kind of connect as well. So just wanted to throw that out there because we're on TikTok work underscore, drama Underscore and Reddit Work Drama Podcast. So those are the locations where you can submit stories. Follow us. Connect with other people that just love hearing the stories from other places that they don't have anything to do with, because that's the best part, when you don't have to do. You have nothing to do with the drama, but you get to hear it.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: And we get to tell it. So that's the fun part. So anyway, if you have a story, you can also submit it to workdramapodmail.com send those stories in. We're ready to hear them, ready to react to them, ready to anonymize them and all that good stuff. Right. Because nobody's losing their job over this.
And yeah, you know, names change, jobs protected, opinions very much included. And as always. None of this is legal or medical advice.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: Bye.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: That's it for today's episode of Work Drama. Today's Work Drama was read by Lizbeth Marquez, with opinions, reactions and group chat energy provided by our resident instigator, Sharon Rodriguez.
Music for the show is by Denzel Zambo. Fairy Tales and it's special. Thank you to Project Emo for letting us record this podcast in their studio Idea Forge Studios.
If you've got your own workplace story you can't believe actually happened, send it our way to workdramapodmail.com linked in the show Notes Names changed, jobs protected. This has been Work Drama, where the meetings end, but the stories don't.
