And now for something completely not-fun

[deathpixie]

My co-worker Sarah was just telling me how the back office staff used to grade families' reactions when they saw their loved ones in the identification room. With cards numbered 1-10. I just got a 9 - there was an industrial accident this afternoon where a welder was hit and killed by a falling metal plate. HIs defacto aife is English, out here without family, pregnant and with a two year old. She's devestated. And I have to say, there's few things harder in this world than to sit at your desk and pretend to type whilst a grief striken woman is keening just around the corner. Luckily his family was with her, holding her together since there was bugger all I could do.

I really hate this part.

Comments

[ion-duck.livejournal.com]

It could be worse... you could not hate it.

[qodarkness.livejournal.com]

It must be bad - your spelling is shit. It's a horribleness beyond all imagining - I loathe industrial accidents because they're so frigging unfair. You're just going to work and trying to make an honest living and some prick drops a metal plate on you.

Good luck with it. Get someone to hold YOUR hand afterwards - you'll need comfort too.

A

[deathpixie]

*blinks and re-reads* Gah, you're right. Bad typoing fingers.

Not so much with the someone to hold my hand afterwards - the staff here are pretty inured to it all. :( It's times like wish I had someone waiting at home to curl up with, cause yeah, hug would be nice.

[deathpixie]

Very true. We tend to use a lot of black humour here, but sometimes it's a tad much.

[anastasiab.livejournal.com]

That sounds incredibly callous and terrible, and I'm appalled until I remember how just yesterday my colleagues and I were laughing at a road wreck personal injury death case.

I feel pretty damn guilty for that when I think about it, but I know that the human mind can't process such sorrow, and black humor is how we HAVE to get through things like that.

I know you're a damn emphathetic person- if we allowed ourselves to resonate with the empathy we feel at other humans pain, then we couldn't do anything. I couldn't prepare my case. You couldn't prepare your files. We would get nothing done but weep.

I think the important thing is that we still feel that second-hand pain, still know it's there. If we can do that, the other is OK. I dread the day I don't feel that pain. I'm getting increasingly desensitized, but I hope I can always at least know that the pain is there and be discreet when I have to.

*hugs you from afar*

[deathpixie]

*ods* Yeah, that's pretty much it - and the scoring system isn't something that's done any more, thank goodness. That one was a bit much for me.

I found myself choking up as I was putting the details of the accident on the computer. All I could hear was his wife's screaming, and his mother telling him she'll always love him.

Gah. And here's me on my own for another six hours.

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

I can understand the need to distance yourself from the pain. It's totally normal but macabre to do weird stuff to make it less personal. I'm sorry about this part of the job. :( Hot bath and tea when you get home, maybe?

[deathpixie]

Considering I get home at around 7am after working all night, I'll probably be collapsing in bed. But a trip to the gym to work off things will be in order when I rise again.

And ta. :) Sometimes I feel like such a monster, being amused by some of this stuff, but yeah, it's either laugh or go crazy here.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Holy moley.

I'd hate to think what a 10 would be.

[deathpixie]

Fainting, apparently.

[ion-duck.livejournal.com]

Very true. We tend to use a lot of black humour here, but sometimes it's a tad much.

It's the only way you could stay sane at a job like that.

[seraangel.livejournal.com]

*hugs tight* Nothing really to add, just thought you might need the hug. :)