Top 4 Things of What NOT to Do When the Power Goes Out @ Work

The power went out at work on the last working day of the year. Ironic? Perhaps.  Some said the power outage was due to a blown transformer box, while others said it was caused by a telephone pole that fell over. I still have no idea what caused the outage. But I DO know what NOT to do when the power goes out at work.


I work at a growing doctors office. All of our charting is done on computers, which *surprise* requires electricity. We also need some sort of internet connection (it might be called something else, not really sure) to chart, which also requires electricity.


***For the record: I am very thankful for my job. I work at one of the best places in my small "city" (if not THE BEST).***


Now without further ado; here are the top 4 things of what NOT to do when the power goes out at work:


4. Eat. I pretty much eat all day long at work. I eat more when I am at work than I do when not at work. (Feel free to psychoanalyze this behavior pattern and get back to me with what you come up with.) When the provider that I work for and I weren't really sure what to do with ourselves, because there was at least 20 minutes until our next patient, she couldn't chart, I couldn't call patients or fill prescriptions etc... I proudly proclaimed, "I know what I can do!" She replied with a not-too-excited "What?" Me, about to jump up and down "Eat! I could eat!" Off to the break-room I went. I arrived at the break room and realized I needed some sort of light to see what the hay I was doing. So back to my desk to get my cell phone to use as a flashlight, and then back to the break-room. It went like this: Retrieve cereal I keep in cupboard; check! Open refrigerator, and be surprised that the refrigerator light didn't come on, and then retrieve rice milk; check! Make a small mess trying to pour cereal in cup and hold flashlight  cell phone at the same time; check! Go back to workstation and eat cereal, check! Disappointed that this only took maybe 5 or 6 minutes, check!


3. Get excited. What's wrong with excitement you ask? Usually nothing but it's probably not a good idea to be excited with anticipation of going home a bit early on you last working day of the year (which by the way was a Friday Dec, 30. Friday folks). If you don't get excited, you won't be disappointed when the electricity is restored.


2. Bible verses. Contemplate all the different Bible verses that apply to light and darkness. There's gotta be at least a hundred verses. Genesis 1:3 "Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light." Then derive several different spiritual lessons from the verses combined with the experience and think multiple times "I could write a blog post about this!"


And now.... drum roll please.... the long awaited number one thing to NOT do when the power goes out at work:


1. 80s music. Come up with random 80s songs (or even better, songs from the 70s) that fit the situation and share them with others (mostly your close friends that you work with) and then precede to sing them so that they are stuck in your head for days to come. And for your listening pleasure, I have generously included them below (you can thank me later, cards appreciated):




I can't take credit for "Sunglasses at Night" my amigo Jordan came up with that one all on her own.


The power outage was quite the learning experience (as you may have noticed by now). We did see patients in the dark and did a bit of charting the old fashion way. The power was out for somewhere between 30 & 60 minutes. In retrospect, next time I'm going to be more proactive in convincing my provider that "We got this! If providers can see patients in Zimbabwe, then we can totally see patients without electricity and computers!" 


May the light be with you!