Then I found a position at a larger practice, with several doctors. Actually, there were 4 doctors and I was hired as a 4th medical assistant. Still another doctor, not practicing much, was the owner. The other doctors were his employees. The owner’s wife, a young, pretty Mexican lady was very friendly to me. The position had certain advantages. It was 5 minutes sway from home. I could come home for lunch. Sometimes, I would take one or two of my co-workers home for lunch with me.
Soon, it became apparent that the other 3 medical assistants did not like me. The office was incredibly busy and each medical assistant would work for one doctor. We would be rotated every week. The problem was that the other 3 were all 19 or 20. At 29 I appeared ancient to them. Also, my accent irked them. Although one of the other girls was Mexican, she had arrived in the States very young and considered herself a true American. They constantly told me that I didn’t belong and that I should have stayed in Romania. When I confronted them and told them to stop, they said I was not a good sport, took things personally, etc., etc. When I approached the Office Manager about it, they ganged up against me and said nothing was true.
Still, it became apparent that we didn’t get along. I got transferred to another clinic owned by the same doctor. This location was much farther from home. However, the co-workers were friendly. I met the same Mexican lady I had worked with during my second free Internship.
After a few months there, the owner opened another location, much closer to home than the one I was working at that time. I said I wanted to move there. Again, the co-workers there were nice and friendly. Unfortunately, I had problems with the doctor there. He was an old man, brought out of retirement and he was oblivious to anything around him. He took long lunches to go play tennis and then when he came back, he saw patients in his tennis shorts (and left his jock strap hanging in plain sight). He was gruff and made mistakes. I had to work with him all the time. He could notice that I wasn’t too happy. Therefore, he proceeded to discredit me. But, the owner soon realized that something was wrong with him too. He was let go and I was transferred back to the first office. After a full circle, I was back where I had started. Back with the 3 young assistants who didn’t like me in the least.
I pretended that everything was fine, although it wasn’t. The girls were in their own clique from which I was excluded. They kept teasing me, bad-mouthing me to doctors and patients alike. Although they were supposed to stay available at all times to go to the patient’s room immediately after their doctor left the room, there were many times when they disappeared to have a chat. So, one day, when they were nowhere to be found and one patient had been waiting for quite a while, I offered to go in and do the procedures myself although it wasn’t a patient for whom I was responsible. I needed to take blood. The woman warned me that she didn’t have good veins and usually it took several tries. I tried once and failed. I tried the other arm and failed again. I was somewhat at a loss as to what to do. Then the medical assistant who should have been there in the first place appeared and with a contemptuous look on her face, she told the patient that I didn’t have any idea as to how to do things. Then, she confidently managed to draw blood in her first attempt. After that, between this patient and the medical assistants, I was made into a bumbling idiot who didn’t know a thing. I was called to management and told that I was dismissed. I argued my case and the manager conceded that I had some valid points. The conclusion however was that there was bad chemistry between the other girls and myself and it was much easier to get rid of one rather than to dismiss three. I had been with the company for over a year and had worked very hard and was appreciated by doctors and patients, with very few exceptions.
When I went to collect unemployment compensation, I was told that since I had been fired for willful disobedience and gross incompetence, I was not entitled to anything. This got me extremely upset. First I went to the doctors and asked them for written evaluations that I could use at the unemployment office. Two of the doctors refused to talk with me. A third one explained to me that he couldn’t oppose the management’s decision because he was only an employee and needed the job. I went back to the company and asked to talk to the Administrator. I was left waiting for a long time. This made me extremely mad. I got up and threatened to come every day and picket their offices with a board stating that I wanted justice. That got their attention. They said that they would change their stance and I would get a revised decision in the mail. I said that I wasn’t leaving without a written statement that would correctly describe the circumstances of my dismissal. I got that and got my unemployment compensation.
Shortly before my dismissal, I had had some unpleasant occurrences with my car. While being parked at home (outside parking), somebody had smashed one of my rear lights. I suspected our Romanian apartment building manager because the relationship with him had started to deteriorate. Actually, from the beginning we had heard that he was bragging that he had saved my mother and I from the “gutter” and gave us a place to live. It sounded as if we had been homeless and he had provided free shelter for us. The truth was that we paid our rent right on the first of the month and did not create any trouble. But probably because of our status as two women alone, he thought he could take liberties. He was an obnoxious man, who often cursed and yelled, even at his own family. When our car was damaged, we suspected that he did that to force us to move out. I called the police but without witnesses, nothing could be done. I didn’t have the money to fix the car and I was extremely despondent over my job. I arrived at work that day but couldn’t work for about a half-hour because I had a crying fit. I just couldn’t stop.
Right after that, the man we had met on the plane coming from Rome, wrote to us and when I wrote back with my sad tales, he sent me a plane ticket to come visit him in Napa, in Northern California. It was unbelievably kind. He took me to see the famous vineyards, the redwood forests nearby, and all of San Francisco, with the famous cable cars, Chinatown, Museum of Art, etc. Everything was so far removed from my dreary existence back home. It all culminated with the last night before my departure, when we went to a rotating restaurant from where you could see the whole of the city. I broke down and cried uncontrollably. Again, I couldn’t stop. I stayed in the bathroom for a long time. I felt that I would cry my heart out. Literally. (to be continued)
