I don’t quite believe this, but since I quit my last position and started my new one within the same hospital system, I’ve been offered 2 positions: OR and Radiology.
OR is interesting because they work with so many active ingredients, they monitor patients constantly, they get to interpret ECG and electrolyte imbalances. You can learn and work with cool stuff.
Most of the coworkers there are mature: they do their job, they explain the rationale, they teach me stuff. I like it.
There are 2 childish gossips incapable of shutting their mouths to talk about the most inane stuff thinkable. I like using downtime to learn, not to talk about boring stuff. These kind of people have always wasted my time and energy.
This is what I wanted to tell the charge: I see a future with you, only if these 2 people do not take part in my orientation (3 to 6 months) and if during downtime they do not pester me with inane stuff, but let me learn. I do not talk about my private life at work, I’m on the introverted side and when people force me to talk to them it drains me. I’ve worked at units where managers promised a genuine and serious orientation, but the staff were more focused on gossip than on teaching me. I don’t need that. I want to be around people who take orientation as seriously as I do.
Radiology would be similar I guess.
reasons to say yes: you do you, you tell them what they need to provide so you can excel at your job.
reasons to say no: I become the asshole, as I’d be breaking the peace.
You’re the nurse who couldn’t deal with extroverted coworkers and had to leave your job, right?
Respectfully, you should learn from that experience that your hardline introversion doesn’t serve you well in the workplace. Any manager will be more interested in preserving team dynamics than coddling a brittle individual. I don’t mean to be harsh but you need to learn a little flexibility or you’re going to run into the same problems again and again. You picked a people-facing career and chances are high that most of your colleagues will be on the extroverted side.
It’s fine to be introverted but you need to communicate your needs in a way that doesn’t alienate or offend your colleagues. It sounds like you want them to meet you where you are, rather than compromising somewhere in the middle. It won’t kill you to make a couple minutes of small talk, followed by a polite excuse as you remove yourself to be alone. You can even say something direct, like “I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m not huge on chitchat, and I have some studying I need to catch up on.” People prefer honesty to just being iced out.
You can’t expect them to respect your feelings and preferences if you’re not willing to do the same for theirs.
A few words in and I could already tell who it was. I have no idea how this person is still in a field that involves people.