Arghh with fuck sauce

Last night, at work, I was in charge of the new guy, who's in training. I decided that it was time for him to try to manage two patients by himself. While I was aiding and abetting, I essentially didn't have any patients of my own, just overseeing his work. So when the morning rolled around, and patients were getting out of bed and stuff, I tootled around doing scut work. I felt a little guilty for having not worked all night, although that isn't really true. Silly guilt. So, I made all the beds, helped with cleaning wires, and you know, simple scut work so that we could get the hell out of there.

The last patient to leave had gone out to his car, started it, and had come back to his room to watch television (Fox News, natch) while it warmed up. He was an elderly white man, in his seventies. I came in and said, "Do you mind if I make your bed?"

"I haven't checked out, yet," he said, in a somewhat joking tone of voice.

"This isn't a hotel," I responded in what I thought was a cheerful tone in keeping with his. I started stripping the bed.

"Are you doing this because you're a woman?"

"Oh, no. I'm just helping out. I was training someone last night."

"Training? You?"

"Yes."

"Who?"

"Tim."

"Poor guy."

At which point, I found my temper and held onto it with both hands and a couple of toes. "Why do you say that?" I asked, in a voice not nearly as pointed as I wanted it to be.

He didn't answer. Which, you know, wasn't necessary, because we both know what he'd just said. He didn't like women in power over men, and I'd challenged him, and he wasn't going to back down but he wasn't going to acknowledge that he was being a prick, either.

"So you gave me the newbie, huh?"

"Oh, no. You had Todd. I was training Tim."

"Why were you training him?"

"Because he's new. He's not even registered, yet."

"How long have you been doing this?"

"About four and a half years."

"That's not very long."

I'd finished stripping the bed. I left. When I got back with the clean sheets, he'd left.

Predictably, when I complained to Todd and Tim, they didn't see that it was that big a deal. After all, he was such an old guy. I said, "My grandfather, who would be considerably older than him if he were alive, never treated any woman that way." No one argued further with me. But you know, I kinda feel like all the boys are in a conspiracy against me, just at the moment.