Today I almost threw in the towel with my fellowship. You have read that I
am not the biggest fan of the PHI director, Dr. P. Today confirmed that! I will
tell the story and you can decide if I am over reacting.
Earlier this week I was feeling pretty good about the job. Dr. Prasanta, the director started using some of the material I had previously worked on. That makes me feel productive. On Wednesday I went to the meeting with him to the Lilly office to discuss PHI portion of the NCD, non-communicable disease, project. It was a good meeting. At the meeting the Lilly folks told us there was a diabetes conference on Friday that was invitation only and he would forward the email with the contact info of the organizer. I was very interested and mentioned that to Dr. P on the way home from the meeting. On Thursday I asked Prasanta if he had received it. His response was he hadn't checked his emails. When I got to the office I searched the internet. The only thing I found was through a link to LinkedIn. I sent it to Prasanta to see if I should try and if he was interested in going. He said that he had too much work to do but I should try. I also contacted Prabhat from Lilly for the email, he responded with a message to say he had forwarded it to Dr. P in the am; Dr. P was ccd on my email. I felt bad that it appeared that we didn't communicate in the office. I contacted the organizer but never got a response.
The morning routine is that Prem, the driver, picks up Dr. P and then picks up JC and myself. Dr. P wasn't in the car this morning and Prem said he had a meeting to go to. OK. I just hoped that he didn't go to the diabetes conference and not invite me as he well knew that I wanted to go.
At the office, Cheena my co-worker came in around 11 after talking with Dr. P. Guess where Dr. P was??? Yes, at the diabetes conference. JC was there and he had listened to me requesting that I go to the meeting and how he should join us if he was available. Cheena had the passes for the conference and had told Dr. P earlier in the week that we should all go. This was the first time I was hearing about this. Cheena has not been in all week as she was involved with her brother’s wedding (the one I went to last week). Before I saw her today she had spoken with Dr. P while he was at the conference and told her that she could not go as she had too much work to do in the office. When Cheena told me all of this I could hardly control myself. I am here to help PHI. If the director cannot have the decency to include me in these activities, which he well knew I was interested in, what the hell am I doing here????? I wanted to contact Dr. P's boss, the director of PH in USA and the Pfizer global health fellow coordinator to let them know about this event. Cheena and JC calmed me down. She made a phone call to get me on the invitation list. I went, two hours after the start, but that's OK. The conference is totally free, no charge so why wouldn't he want me to attend? He saw me there and all he said was that he had to return to the office. That's it, nothing else.
I enjoyed the meeting, made a few contacts and really wish that PHI had a
larger support present as their work was mentioned by one of the panel
speakers. It is embarrassing that no one from the PHI employees were there.
What does it show to the diabetes management community? It isn't important? At
least I was able to make a presence and speak of the good work PHI has done
with the diabetes educator project. At the end of the conference - Oh BTW the
food was fabulous! If all else fails I can find comfort in good Indian food.
It's amazing I am still thin! Maybe not after 6 months, but I'll worry about
that some other time.
Got back to the office. Dr. P was talking with JC and never even asked me how did it go? What is he thinking???? Thankfully my fellow co-workers were able to calm me down enough not to blow up at Dr. P. With a bit of luck by Monday I will have cooled off enough to talk with him calmly and try to understand his point of view. I really hope for my sake that he has a good explanation!
Unbelievable!
The first session of the conference focused on new technologies for diabetes diagnosing, managing and medications. Second session discussed the prevalence of diabetes in India, which is so very high with many of the cases undiagnosed and if diagnosed poorly managed. Third session discussed behaviour modifications and healthy eating habits. Overall, very informative and I am glad that I attended.
Earlier this week I was feeling pretty good about the job. Dr. Prasanta, the director started using some of the material I had previously worked on. That makes me feel productive. On Wednesday I went to the meeting with him to the Lilly office to discuss PHI portion of the NCD, non-communicable disease, project. It was a good meeting. At the meeting the Lilly folks told us there was a diabetes conference on Friday that was invitation only and he would forward the email with the contact info of the organizer. I was very interested and mentioned that to Dr. P on the way home from the meeting. On Thursday I asked Prasanta if he had received it. His response was he hadn't checked his emails. When I got to the office I searched the internet. The only thing I found was through a link to LinkedIn. I sent it to Prasanta to see if I should try and if he was interested in going. He said that he had too much work to do but I should try. I also contacted Prabhat from Lilly for the email, he responded with a message to say he had forwarded it to Dr. P in the am; Dr. P was ccd on my email. I felt bad that it appeared that we didn't communicate in the office. I contacted the organizer but never got a response.
The morning routine is that Prem, the driver, picks up Dr. P and then picks up JC and myself. Dr. P wasn't in the car this morning and Prem said he had a meeting to go to. OK. I just hoped that he didn't go to the diabetes conference and not invite me as he well knew that I wanted to go.
At the office, Cheena my co-worker came in around 11 after talking with Dr. P. Guess where Dr. P was??? Yes, at the diabetes conference. JC was there and he had listened to me requesting that I go to the meeting and how he should join us if he was available. Cheena had the passes for the conference and had told Dr. P earlier in the week that we should all go. This was the first time I was hearing about this. Cheena has not been in all week as she was involved with her brother’s wedding (the one I went to last week). Before I saw her today she had spoken with Dr. P while he was at the conference and told her that she could not go as she had too much work to do in the office. When Cheena told me all of this I could hardly control myself. I am here to help PHI. If the director cannot have the decency to include me in these activities, which he well knew I was interested in, what the hell am I doing here????? I wanted to contact Dr. P's boss, the director of PH in USA and the Pfizer global health fellow coordinator to let them know about this event. Cheena and JC calmed me down. She made a phone call to get me on the invitation list. I went, two hours after the start, but that's OK. The conference is totally free, no charge so why wouldn't he want me to attend? He saw me there and all he said was that he had to return to the office. That's it, nothing else.
Got back to the office. Dr. P was talking with JC and never even asked me how did it go? What is he thinking???? Thankfully my fellow co-workers were able to calm me down enough not to blow up at Dr. P. With a bit of luck by Monday I will have cooled off enough to talk with him calmly and try to understand his point of view. I really hope for my sake that he has a good explanation!
Unbelievable!
The first session of the conference focused on new technologies for diabetes diagnosing, managing and medications. Second session discussed the prevalence of diabetes in India, which is so very high with many of the cases undiagnosed and if diagnosed poorly managed. Third session discussed behaviour modifications and healthy eating habits. Overall, very informative and I am glad that I attended.
Sorry Sue - that's too bad that "he" is not using you more in a positive way.
ReplyDeleteMaybe my expectations were too great. Actually I didn't have any expectations but have never experienced work situations like this. I'll get through it!
ReplyDelete