Space Invaders!!

Today's blog is a bit of a lighter subject. A rant so to speak. Space invaders!!! No I do not mean the old Atari video game. I am talking about people. Rude and thoughtless people who care not about others personal space. I am a nurse, but I work in a office setting. We authorize services for patients depending on the type of care they need. Currently I am authorizing for Home Health services. Insurance companies contract my company to handle their clients needs. We recently were re-awarded the contract I have been working for the last 3 years. It just so happens am one of the people in my department that trains . When the heads of the company that we are contracted under wanted to see how well we were implementing a new system they sat them next to me. Generally I do not have a problem with this. I am competent in my job and communicate well. I do work in a rather small cubicle but have a large monitor. The other day my supervisor brings one of the people who want to observe to my cube. She deposits them at my side with the instruction " they are just going to watch you work". WRONG!!!!!! The lady they sat with me had a note pad and pen, and would jot every small detail down as I attempted to review cases. She grilled me on the review types and new implementation like I was on trial for murder and they just found the gun. Did I have a problem with this? NO. That is part of my job. No problem. I answered the question while working and taking care of our providers. I can multi-task. I didn't start to have a big problem until she proceeded to become a space invader. She butted right into my personal space. It was so bad I thought she was either going to sit on my lap or wanted to do the review herself. I asked if she could see ok, and was granted a yes response. Yet she didn't move away.


I understand tact is needed in situations such as this so I slowly scooted my chair in the opposite direction. She would follow. I then decided it was time to ignore her. Maybe that was just how she was. At the end of the day I was wiped out. I understand the need for personal space to be invaded if you are in an elevator, bar, crowded room, etc. For those of you who do it on a regular basis when there is plenty of space around you let me remind you of a few things. One, a person may not be as "fresh" smelling as they were when they woke up that morning. You may be offending by more than just crowding. Second, it is easy to misinterpret as hostile or harassing. People tend to get defensive.

Just thought I would let it out. I like my space. I don't like people I don't know well invading it. Ok, sometimes I don't like people I do know well invading it...LOL. Let's revert back to a ground rule of kindergarten. Keep your hands and the rest of your body to yourself. So how do you tell someone to back off diplomatically? HMMMMMM