I've worked in a hospital laboratory for 12 years. It's a good job for aspies: you get to feel like you're helping people, and your interactions are mediated by the respect of a white coat and a needle. The friendly but less competent still get more kudos, but that's ok. The back of the lab, where the machines that run the tests live, is loud but doesn't involve much interaction so one can wear earplugs.
Up until recently, we kept the charging stations for our 'mobis,' or mobile lab station, in the back as well. They let us know when and where an in-patient or ER patient needs bloodwork, and what tests have been ordered. When charging, these mobis emit a repulsive, vibrato, high-pitched whine. Not an issue when they're in the back.
They've been moved. Now they're in the front of the lab. I can't stand to be within 6 feet of them without earplugs. On the weekends, I don't work up there, but during the week I have to spend at least a little time there. I don't know what I'm going to do. Half of my co-workers are deaf because they haven't protected their hearing - they turn the phone up full-blast, so that it makes me drop the phone sometimes when I pick it up - and the other half either can't hear at that pitch or can't hear well at that pitch. I think I'm the only one bothered by it.
23 Jan 2013, 3:22 am
