I got the most unusual gift today

One of the doctors I work with in clinic gave me my Christmas present today.

A gift card to Starbucks. Not so unusual.

What's unusual is that it's for a single cup of coffee, well, beverage. I guess that includes the blended drinks.

While other doctors are taking their clinic nurses out to lunch or getting them boxes of chocolates and/or other things like bath products, my doctor gives me a single cup of coffee!

And get this! He claims to really like my being in his clinic, and had a virtual fit in my bosses office when he heard I was going to be off work for 6 weeks over the summer. He told my boss that he's come to depend on me, and he loves how I'm running the clinic and what's going to happen to his clinic when I'm away etc. etc. etc. She stopped him in his tracks and said "What about her? She's got cancer!"

Anyway, he's very "me! me! me!", so I guess I shouldn't have expected much! He gave our communication's clerk the same thing.

What a cheap self-absorbed jerk..... well... hope you enjoy your cup of coffee then...

Originally Posted by AddieBee

What a cheap self-absorbed jerk..... well... hope you enjoy your cup of coffee then...

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What makes it even more funny is that between his salary as an oncologist and his wife's salary as an endocrinologist, their combined yearly income is about $900,000.00 per year!!!

It's nice that he gave you anything at all, I think.

Originally Posted by Going Nova

It's nice that he gave you anything at all, I think.

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AddieBee has it right. He is cheap. And he is self-absorbed. He really does only think about himself.

We do clinic together 3 days per week for nearly a year now. I've been in several different clinic areas during that time, and I see doctors going and get themselves coffee or lunch and asking their nurse if they would like anything. Most of the doctors will bring back a coffee or a juice for their nurse when they go to get something for themselves, and the nurse will do the same thing.

I've brought in fresh baking for our morning clinics on numerous occasions and even baked extra so he could take it home to his family. And we sometimes have to meet outside of clinic in order to discuss some clinic issues. If I initiate the meeting, I always bring him a coffee and muffin or something. Always.

Not one single time has this doctor ever asked me or my clerk if we would like him to bring anything back for us, when he goes to get himself a coffee. I wouldn't even expect him to pay for it for me. I'd give him the money for my own beverage, but he never, ever asks. I suppose I could ask him when he's going, but he tends to go on his way to clinic, or while I'm doing the nursing history on the new patient.

Is he a good doctor??? Most of them had ginormous egos, especially surgeons.... I cannot imagine someone like that is very compassionate with his patients... either that or he is a good faker.

I would stop bringing in stuff.. .bring for yourself and your clerk... If he asks say... Oh I'm sorry... but don't cave in and get him anything. It won't teach him anything b/c he has no emotional receptors for it... but it will break the cycle of him just expecting you to DO for HIM... I would hope.

Maybe he didn't realise the gift card was only for one beverage

Originally Posted by Going Nova

It's nice that he gave you anything at all, I think.

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Originally Posted by missymotus

Maybe he didn't realise the gift card was only for one beverage

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The above are my thoughts... could he have a secretary or someone else doing the gift giving?

Personally I would be grateful for one cup of $$$ coffee ...Many forget gift giving is not the AMOUNT of the gift but the fact that you got a gift!

Originally Posted by AddieBee

Is he a good doctor??? Most of them had ginormous egos, especially surgeons.... I cannot imagine someone like that is very compassionate with his patients... either that or he is a good faker.

I would stop bringing in stuff.. .bring for yourself and your clerk... If he asks say... Oh I'm sorry... but don't cave in and get him anything. It won't teach him anything b/c he has no emotional receptors for it... but it will break the cycle of him just expecting you to DO for HIM... I would hope.

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It depends on what aspect you consider good. For knowledge he's a good doctor. He seriously knows his stuff. But his selfish nature can get in the way. I won't say more on that because it gets into the area of discussing patients.

He has no interpersonal skills when it comes to relating to co-workers. That's common knowledge throughout the entire building. Let's just say that he's not a fan favourite among the staff, and many of the staff can't stand him because of it. He has less than a stellar reputation when it comes to his attitude towards other staff. His doctor colleagues don't respect him all that much because of it.

He is extremely condescending, blameful, and never accepts responsibility or ownership of his mistakes. If something goes wrong, he will always have some excuse for it, or attempt to blame someone else for it. Always. I learned to document everything so he can't pull that on me because I have the documentation and sometimes even the notes where he himself has written instructions (though he has even tried to deny that what was written was written by him).

He is seriously short tempered and if things don't go his way, he yells. One day he was so upset with the lab for something they "didn't" do , and he just kept on ranting at me, getting louder and louder. My regular clerk was away, and the girl replacing her was completely incompetent. It was like having someone new picked off the street every single day, to come and work in my clinic. She just didn't listen and didn't retain anything, and was more of a hindrance than a help. I was completely stressed out because I was doing my own job and about 95% of her job, and the 5% that she was doing, she was doing wrong and I had to triple check on everything which meant that our clinic wasn't flowing as smoothly as it usually does.

He is easily very easily frustrated and he will take his frustration out on the person nearest him. In clinic, it's me. He tends to use me as a verbal punching bag for all things that go wrong in his work world. And while I know it's not directed to me personally, it's hard to not take it personally when it's thrown at you day after day.

One day in clinic, I can't exactly remember what happened. It was likely that we had requested some tests done on the patient. There are some specific tests that we do on some patients to help diagnose their blood condition, but for some reason these tests are not being processed and haven't been since the summer, so it's making it difficult to really diagnose a problem. Anyway, he just kept going at me about it, and wouldn't stop.

One of the girls across the hall paged the manager to have her come up. He was so loud he was disrupting all of the other clinics, and patients could hear him in the waiting area, and I was nearly in tears. After clinic I broke down in tears at my desk. Once I pulled myself together I went to talk to my boss and asked for an assignment change. Unfortunately there is no open clinics right now, so I'm stuck where I am. She told him that I asked for an assignment change. He told her that he didn't want me to leave his clinic. He came to talk to me and told me that he didn't want me to leave and that he feels I'm doing an excellent job. I told him that I was stressed to the max, and that I felt like a verbal punching bag. Do you think he said he was sorry? No. I was crying and he could see how upset I was, but all he said was that he does get frustrated at the politics of the company, but that he never directed his frustrations at me.

It's gotten somewhat better since we had that talk, but he still has his days where he uses me as a verbal punching bag to vent his frustrations. And it causes a great deal of tension in the other clinics, because people can hear him yelling at me about things other people have done or not done. And it upsets me because he just won't stop and the more you try and tell him to stop, the more he rants and the louder he gets.

I remember one day the lab came to assist us with a procedure. The lab was busy and the girl just grabbed the basket of supplies and when she got upstairs and were were starting the procedure, she realized that something was missing from the basket. She quickly went back downstairs to get it and came back. It took her about 5 minutes. She apologized and said "I'm sorry. I should have checked the basket before I came up." His reply? "Yes! You should have!" And he said similar things throughout that entire procedure in front of the patient and their spouse, making the poor girl feel so bad and look so incompetent, that she looked like she was going to cry. I apologized to her after the procedure for his terrible behaviour.

Anyway, sorry to go on and on. This thread was about an unusual gift of one cup of coffee; not even a gift card, just a single cup of coffee. All year long, other doctors are buying their nurses coffee, muffins, lunch or even dinner ordered in if clinic runs late. All year long I get nothing, and at Christmas, I get a single cup of coffee?

I'm all for "it's the thought that counts", but please? A cup of coffee as a Christmas gift? Sheesh!

Oh, and he's pretty sharp. So I seriously doubt that he doesn't know that it was for a single beverage, and not an actual gift card.

So far as not bringing him anything when I do baking for our clinic. I'm not like that. I'll still bake and I'll still bring stuff for us to have at breakfast during our morning clinics.

If it was be (I can be pretty blunt) I would go to Starbucks and get whatever beverage you can and if you are meeting with him; hold the cup and and say something like "I used the Starbucks gift card you gave me for this beverage today, its delicious but too bad the card was only for one beverage-did you know that?" Looking straight at him the entire time of course. Being me I would probably sarcastically say "Thanks for thinking of me" or something to that effect. (then walk away)......

I admit it's a pretty small gift, but still it's a gift. The food you bring into work are gifts, too right, you aren't expecting anything in return?

I was raised to believe that gifts had to be reciprocated, it was tough for me to change my way of thinking. Now I think of any gift as something special, something the person didn't have to give me at all. I don't feel indebted to the person (anymore), I've been given a gift and that's a nice thing. (Also it's never a good idea to compare what we have with what others have, imo.)

I'd get upset, though, if the company I worked for had a policy about holiday bonuses, and I got less than my share. But a gift? Heck, take it, say thanks, and don't think about it any more. You possess something you didn't before, and you aren't obligated to anyone for it.

At least your boss gave you something.

All the places I've worked, I've never seen a boss give anyone anything. Some bosses don't even wish their employees a Merry Christmas.

Oh my gosh..... sometimes you wonder why they even bother My boss gave me a Birthday card in August for my Birthday in June. She even wrote I know it was in June! It would have been better had she not sent it!

Seems cheap, but at least it's something!

Sorry, I disagree with the others. A single cup of coffee? Why bother? I remember you talking about one of the docs being selfish and self-absorbed. I think it's funny. I would write him a thank you note, but I'm sure the irony will bounce right off of him.

Perhaps he likes the thought of you being single? Is he a bit like that x

Im Sorry!!
I worked for a place where the boss had the secretary plan parties for so many events....each month a birthday celebration, every holiday got a party, random catered lunches for everyone, every person who quit (with notice/on good terms) got some sort of a small going away party with a cake.
I worked there for about 2 years as a foodservice manager. I was pretty close with my one boss, and my other boss was my uncle. I quit to change career paths and gave 1 mos notice....the last week of my employment, the secretary who was also my good friend told me she was kinda upset because they never approached her to have her plan a going away party. On my last day, my one boss gave me a goodbye card, and my uncle/boss gave me a candle. My two employees that I managed went in together to get me a gift certif for a pedicure which was so nice of them!
I think it sucks when you work for someone and do well and people supposedly appreciate you but when something like a holiday or such comes along, they don't really show it. I can appreciate a gift, and the candle I got was nice when I quit but it would have been nice to have been shown the same appreciation that all the others who left got. A woman who was a cook at the same company and worked there for 4 months got a going away party....i didn't question my uncle about why I didn't but on my last day he sat down and told me he appreciated me (which was very nice of him) and that time just slipped by and he didn't have a chance to set up a party.

Originally Posted by LDG

A single cup of coffee?

Why bother?........I think it's funny.

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That's exactly how I feel.

It's not like it's even a resuable thing like a whole gift card. It's just one single cup of coffee! He could buy me a cup of coffee any time of the year when he goes to get his own during a clinic, but he chooses Christmas to buy me a cup of coffee and considers that a Christmas gift.

Maybe he bought a group of them.. I applied for a sample of something at Starbucks and they ran out thus gave me a thing for a free cup... so I imagine he likely bought a package of them and gave them as gifts... Sorry, If I were your boss you would get nothing as I do not do XMas thus consider yourself luckily that the boss thought enough to get you something..

Originally Posted by sharky

Maybe he bought a group of them.. I applied for a sample of something at Starbucks and they ran out thus gave me a thing for a free cup... so I imagine he likely bought a package of them and gave them as gifts... Sorry, If I were your boss you would get nothing as I do not do XMas thus consider yourself luckily that the boss thought enough to get you something..

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I would put this gift in the same category as leaving a penny tip at a restaurant. Leaving nothing suggests an oversight or intentional non-participation. Leaving a penny suggests dissatisfaction. A one-cup gift card may mean he is trying to send a message of dissatisfaction perhaps?