The Messenger

I hate being the messenger. That is the person who receives the message and relays the message. Even though it is not my message, I still feel responsible for it. Sometimes, I even have to argue about it. For some reason, people think that they can have a different attitude with the messenger, than the person whose message it is. In my case, the messages are from the doctors I work for. Patients feel no remorse yelling at me but would be nothing but respectful to the doctor. I think that is why there is an expression, "don't shoot the messenger". Lately, I have been turning the tables, on the people I give the messages to. When they start to become abrasive to me, I say, "give me a minute to write this down, so I can tell the doctor exactly how you feel, about the situation, and tell him what you are saying about him". They stop dead in their tracks, and beg me not to repeat what they have said. "Why not", I ask. If that is how you feel, I think he should know. Word for word. I can visualize the sweat pouring down the other persons face. No one wants their nastiness to be quoted. The funny thing is, I am not threatening to do it. I actually do it. In extreme cases I make the doctor call the nasty person back, in front of me, and tell them they that they need to apologize to me. As George Costanza, from Seinfeld, used to say..."I have hand".