Dear Nurse Marge,
My NM has been reading your magazine, and now she’s trying to incorporate humor into everything she does.
Thanks a lot!
This woman is absolutely, positively not funny. She’s trying, so hard that it makes it even worse. She tells jokes badly, she keeps forwarding ‘funny’ emails, and if I see one more cartoon posted in the nurses station I’m going to scream.
How do I get her to stop – without hurting her feelings or jeopardizing my job? Is there a way to make her funny?
Signed,
Not Laughing
Dear Not Laughing,
Who dumped the bedpan in your corn flakes? You’ve got a NM who’s trying to lighten the mood and make your life better and you’re complaining?
Tell you what. You come work here, in my spot, with a NM who thinks just because she’s got a fancy-pants degree and all kinds of education she knows something about nursing, and an administrator who thinks it’s funny to ‘award’ us with doubles right before the holidays…
Hold on. I was getting a little steamed up there.
Your NM isn’t funny enough? Show her how it’s done. She tells a stinky joke? Tell a better one. She’ll be thrilled; she’s trying to get you all a little happier, you know. The cartoons are terrible? Find better ones. Tap into your slapstick side. Do some interpretive dance down the hallway. Wear a clown nose. Channel your inner Patch Adams and clown around, for goodness sake’s!
Then your NM won’t try so hard to make you laugh. You’ll be doing it for her.
Good Luck!
Nurse Marge
P.S. It is true that some people just aren’t naturally very funny. But looks aren’t everything.
