Cotton Balls

It is amazing that the world has changed so much that the prime example of that change is a cotton ball.

This week while drawing blood from patients for labs I noticed that the cotton balls are half the size they used to be. It is a small example of how I have to do my job with less. When I picked up the cotton ball I thought I must have cotton ball rejected (even the patient laughed) and so I looked through the pile...but alas they were all looking up at me small, weak and waiting. The first time I used one I realized it really wouldn't do the job adequately, that there was risk to a small cotton ball....so I used 2. Now 2 seems to be a little too big but was better than one. So we are faced in a variety of ways with the choices being taken out of our hands and having to work and live with the "cost cutting measures" of doing more with less...which some times really costs more, working the same or harder with fewer co-workers.

Yesterday I felt the demoralizing reality of my co-workers realizing they can't meet their own standards...the code they work by that makes them feel good about their jobs. I am in a quandary as to how to make it better but I do know that the cotton balls in the drawers at work all feel the same way.