The Adventures Of Nurse Tantrum

I’m a chef in a hospital cafeteria. It’s the Friday before Easter weekend, and to make things worse, we’re due for an inspection the following Monday. The lunch rush just ended and my boss takes me into the freezer to show me everything he ordered for Easter dinner. The freezer is sound-proof.

We spend maybe less than a minute in the freezer and then exit. We have a bell that employees can ring for service if no one is on the line; it’s fairly normal for someone to ring the bell once or twice in a row just to make sure we hear them. In the fifteen seconds that it takes us to get from the freezer to the front, the bell rings no less than twelve times.

The other employees later tell me that this nurse spent the last thirty seconds both ringing the bell non-stop and slamming her hands on the metal counter. The perpetrator ends up being one of the rudest and self-important nurses in the hospital.

Me: “You know patience is a virtue, right?”

Rude Nurse: “I’ll have you know I’ve been waiting here for five minutes for service!”

That’s not true. As explained above, I was gone for less than two minutes. I try not to chuckle at that lie.

Me: “No, you haven’t.”

The nurse sputters for a second, trying to find words.

Rude Nurse: “Well… I… just give me food, already!”

Me: “Okay, what would you—”

She sees that I’m not getting flustered.

Rude Nurse: “You know what? Forget it.” *Storms out*

Boss: “What is she, five?”

We, along with the other dozen or so employees who bore witness to this tantrum, spent the rest of the afternoon having a good laugh.