How To Deal with Difficult Co-Workers- My Own Experience

Of course you wouldn't expect me to tell my most kept secrets. Suffice to say that I escaped the claws of colleagues who undermine my capability as a doctor and as a person and all of them who did wrong to me are now out of the picture. I believe that when you lift everything to the Lord He will pave the way for your success plus you need a little bit of pixie dust.

I am already 1 year 5 months and 4 days old in Saudi Arabia and I will tell you all my struggles when I first arrived here. 

When you land in a foreign country the first thing you should do is learn their language. I know that I will be put in a difficult situation because most of my colleagues are native speakers of Arabic. So i told myself learning the language by heart would be my most strongest weapon.  I dont do shortcuts in learning a particular language, when I was employed before by a Japanese company I studied basic Nihonggo by enrolling in a certified Japanese language school. I believe that learning another language is both an investment and an asset. I was able to pass that course with a winning Japanese essay written in Kanji.

Basic Japanese Course 1 Certificate

When I trained in Italy for lasers, I learned Italian language through self study and some books and CD's I rummaged, until now I haven't forgotten the language. So when I came here I am determined to learn Arabic not only because it is the second most widely spoken language in the world but because it would be the most precious armamentum that I will use in my practice.

My efforts paid off, I month after I arrived I can confidently speak Arabic( thanks to the help of some friends). I am proud of myself for not having a translator or interpreter and for not relying on my nurse to speak to patients on my behalf. It was hard at first to know how to ask a patient about her concerns and when they started talking fast the more you were sent to oblivion. My most difficult challenge is memorizing the Hijri Calendar

Hijri Calendar

because I need it in knowing the menstrual cycle , age of pregnancy and delivery dates. Everyday until now I learn a word or two...and I also started learning to read and write the Arabic alphabet. Thanks to my Egyptian friends who help me once in a while. 

My gut feeling was right because the previous OBGyne doctor used the language against me. She tried wooing patients by telling the reception to tell patients that I dont speak arabic well. So obviously I get all english speaking patients ( Hindi, Filipinos and Pakistanis) I discovered this when one Saudi patient fortunately chose me because of the long queue in her clinic. She told me " Dra stikbal kalam anti mafi malum Arabi, keyf anti kalam kwais arabi mia mia ( dra the reception told me you dont know how to speak arabic, why you speak arabic good ) "kam sana mawgood hina?"( how  long have you been here?) I repied 3 months and she said mumtaz( excellent) 

Another thing I learned is how to deal with difficult co-workers, no workplace is without these kind of people and they come in variety. 

When you arrive everyone will be friendly with you, trying to befriend you and win your trust, and because you are so naive you will think that they are "the" nice people. Then your treatment with other people will depend on the information that these people feed you. Lots of them have something to say about other people and most of them are false informations. My advice: gather the information but get to know everyone else before judging them, by time you will be able to sift those who are worthy of your friendship. 

If people try to pull you down just hold your ground and do your best to excel, those people who have done you wrong will face their own karma and you will be surprised that karma acts too soon.

Let me share to you one short story in my workplace...

There was one doctor here who was so boastful but such a disgrace. He felt so very proud of himself and he feels like he is above everyone else. He tells everyone that he is the only real consultant in the clinic and another internist and that he is a fellow of his society. It turned out that both of them are not yet diplomates. I personally verified this information with their corresponding societies in the Philippines. It is good listening to lies when you know the truth.

He was sent home because he created an act against Islam (aside from his low income). He told people that he will have an emergency leave and will come back after two weeks. Why the need to lie when almost all of the clinic know the reason why he is being sent home urgently after his 5 months stay? After he left, issues surfaced. Those rumors that has been simmering came out and people talked, and the truth came out ,some were shocked but those people who knew the truth like me were never taken aback. My advice: always speak of the truth because the truth will always come out in the end. 

My mom told me that if you are successful you will have lots of enemies. Because people are always envious of other people's success. She told me to pursue and never be discouraged because their reaction does not define me but them. She said stars don't shine without darkness. These negative people are your darkness they allow you to shine. 

I know sometimes I also belong to the category of difficult people to deal with simply because I choose my friends carefully, I may add someone in facebook but if his/her posts are offending I wouldn't want to hear from that person again so I remove them in my newsfeed. I would not unfriend them because I am not that rude and I believe that meeting those kind of persons somehow teach my life a lesson. I would rather have few true friends than tons of fake ones. 

So that's how I survived my first year in KSA and some lessons I learned.