Unpaid overtime - is this the norm?

[seconddegreebsn]

I know I've written before - I'm a new nurse, on my first job in med surg, hitting a lot of bumps in the road and really struggling. One thing that is bothering me is that I'm an hourly employee - I am paid an hourly rate (not salaried), but I estimated I've put in at least 5-10 hours of unpaid overtime a week for the last month, which comes out to about $200-400/week in lost wages

Why? The floor is consistently short staffed (I've only worked one day fully staffed) and the administration likes to stop people at the end of their shifts to play Jeopardy on policy and procedure.

Last night I worked 15 hours. I came in a half hour early to prep (I'm fine with not getting paid for this time, it was voluntary), I skipped my hour lunch break (ha! never actually gotten to take that much time) and half hour unpaid break to chart because we were two nurses short and I didn't want to stay overtime, plus we didn't have enough people to cover me to leave the floor. Actually managed to finish on time, then was asked to be pulled into what was supposed to be a 15 minute meeting that lasted an hour. Then I had to wait for coworkers to count. Finally, 15 hours in I left.

Everyone's attitude seems to be "that's just what it is" and one nurse chided me for finishing on time because she says that administration sees me walking out on time and figures that short staffing us must be working, so I'm ruining things for everyone. At hour 12 I'm running on fumes - I'm done and ready to go.

I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but I'm not interested in putting in two extra hours every shift for unpaid work, none of which is due to me not finishing on time. I'm coming from having a salaried, professional job (where I was never asked to put in this much overtime( but I'm not salaried in this position - I'm paid hourly and if I'm working two days in a row, I need to get home (one hour commute each way) so I can sleep and get ready for the next day.

Is this a normal thing that nurses are just expected to do or just a hospital specific situation?

[ArrowRN, BSN, RN]

Some units may have there own culture including working while off the clock. Its against federal law and illegal. I wont mind if as a new nurse i come in early just to spend time lookin at charts cuase it takes me longer to figure things out but if i clock out i'm out the door.

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

I want to make a bigger stink about this but I know it's something the union is fighting, and I feel like I'd really be putting my neck out on the block. I do not have union coverage until 8 months after my hire date, so I can't push back formally.

There's just a lot of signs pointing to this job not really being a good workplace - daily understaffing, punitive administration, unpaid overtime, poor preceptorship and training. I guess I should have waited and held out for something else.

However, you can quietly report this to the NLRB, union or not.

At my first job, in the 80's, I frequently left an hour or 2 late, and would see other stragglers leaving then too. I got grief about the OT, but manager didn't address why I was staying late, or what could be done to get me out on time. Luckily, that unit closed after a year and I got to go into psych (where I wanted to be)

Evidently someone reported them, and a year or two later there was a settlement for clinicians based on hours work, and I think I got a weeks retro pay.

If you work, you need to be paid. If there is incidental OT truly due to clinician behavior, then that is another issue to be addressed.

[seconddegreebsn]

However, you can quietly report this to the NLRB, union or not.

At my first job, in the 80's, I frequently left an hour or 2 late, and would see other stragglers leaving then too. I got grief about the OT, but manager didn't address why I was staying late, or what could be done to get me out on time. Luckily, that unit closed after a year and I got to go into psych (where I wanted to be)

Evidently someone reported them, and a year or two later there was a settlement for clinicians based on hours work, and I think I got a weeks retro pay.

If you work, you need to be paid. If there is incidental OT truly due to clinician behavior, then that is another issue to be addressed.

Hmm...this is not a bad idea. Is the report anonymous or would I be named?

[ezike, LPN]

How many hours are you scheduled to work.?and did you work more than 40 hours a week, until you work more than 40 hours will it count towards overtime