Thinking Angrily Outside The Box

Coworker: “Thank you. Now, you, sir, can have a seat. Since you’re the patient. Your wife, could she please sit outside? Thank you.”

The patient, an older man, goes over to a lady sitting. They speak for a minute, her expression changing to annoyed. My desk is right in front of them, so I watch her stand up and start walking to the door. On her way, she grabs one of the chairs and starts dragging it out with her. I rush for it.

Me: “Excuse me! Please leave the chairs in the department.”

Woman: “She said sit outside. Where do I sit?”

The woman is right. There are no chairs in the hallway. There’s maybe a stool fifty feet away. My coworker’s choice of words wasn’t ideal. However, the gall this woman had to take a chair from ill and in pain patients — to decide she was more important… Not to mention the five signs we have plastered in the waiting room saying not to move chairs.; they are spaced out for social distancing.

Me: “You can wait out here, or wait in the car. He won’t be long.”

I dragged the chair back inside, sat at my desk, and stared at my screen, dumbstruck by this.