There is Humor in a Huddle

I work in a not-for-profit hospital. There are advantages and disadvantages to this. The advantages are an effort for quality care for each patient, good hours, and a great working environment with people that you enjoy. This allows me to enjoy my job, but there are a few downfalls. You have to give up a bit of salary and bonuses that you otherwise would get at another place, but I really feel this is worth it because I am not pressured to see a patient every 15 minutes and then push them off on some poor aide. You also have an extraordinary amount of paperwork and not a lot of modern updates (e.g., I use a computer built before the year 2000) with which to work. Again a small sacrifice for something you enjoy and isn't it fun to relearn DOS and Word '97?

The sisters, an order of nuns who run the hospital, know this. They sympathize and really want everyone who works there to grasp the mission and be happy in order better serve the people. I get it, I am with them all the way, but they are really serious. So serious, that they decided every department needed to do a daily huddle to discuss the mission. Okay. Great, I'll participate and be a part of the team, not a problem. Except they want us to do it EVERY DAY FOR 23 DAYS and we have to take turns leading the huddle. Sigh. I knew there was a catch. My team spirit is slowly fading. This is the 12th day...

There are three kinds of huddle people. There are people like me that are basically indifferent and will participate to an extent, but their hearts aren't really in it. Then there are the people that despise it, scorn it, and roll their eyes and make muddled complaints throughout the day, but not in the huddle. THEN, there are the most annoying of all: these are the ones that love the huddle. They can't wait to lead, inspire, and ask questions throughout the huddle. Not only are they foaming at the mouth to lead, but they participate with a full heart, making comments, relishing in their patient care stories, and are all about taking as much time as the huddle parameters and others will allow. This makes the rest of us feel guilty enough not to complain too loudly, but I think I'll have to participate in the "after survey". It will say "Excessive huddling frustrated the spirit of unity. Maybe limit to one or two huddles per month".