{Safely Not Working}: The Early Meeting

The 8:00 A.M. meeting sucked the soul from its participants like a vortex. It was where caffeinated exuberance for the new day went to die. The green financial analyst fixated on one PowerPoint slide, spewing revenue cycle tedium. The compliance officer wore a self-important scowl on her face, tapping her laptop to compose a single email over the course of the hour. She was a hospital administrative veteran and had mastered the art of looking busy while getting no substantive work done. The two medical directors demonstrated the difference in their specialties through clothing choice—the clinical pathologist in a loud plaid jacket and royal blue dress shirt reminiscent of what passed for style in the ‘80s, the cardiologist sporting three days of beard—and thinking himself hip—while festooned in scrubs and gleaming white coat. In the end, 22 person hours were expended, no patients were helped, and not an iota of revenue-generating work was accomplished… but… that’s okay, we work at a not-for-profit.
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