Being called into work on your days off

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I have read previous posts on how to deal with constant calls on your days off from your employer asking you to work. I work the night shift, and finally decided to deal with this annoyance by turning off my phone. I have consistently received calls in the past two weeks on almost every single day I have been off asking me if I can come in. The last call I received today took the cake. My manager first started by saying she is really annoyed that I do not return her phone calls, then proceeded to ask me if I could work this evening! I could hardly believe it. Why on earth would you preface a call with a statement like that and then expect the employee to come is beyond me. I can only figure that she assumes threatening me is going to get me to aquiesce to her request. I have no intention of falling prey to this, however am a bit disconcerted. I am a fairly new employee, (5 mos) and have on one occasion since I started came in to work a day shift when asked, then was asked to work over the required twelve hours which I also did. I have gotten the distinct impression from this place that once you say yes, you are then pegged as the one to call. I am not afraid to say no, just dont' want to deal with annoying daily phone calls on my day off. I know they are short but part of the problem is their own lack of scheduling properly and requiring employees to live up to their commitments, i.e. working every other weekend or the minimum as per diem. I am a full time employee and refuse to have to pick up the slack for people who call off or fail to meet their commitment, or the ineptitude of mgt following through on policy. Also, this facility regularly utilizes travel nurses and registry. How do you feel?

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If they don't ease up on this badgering they are going to lose you and be shorter than ever. Many people here have commented in other threads about the negative effects of these constant phone calls. It interfers with your ability to disengage from work and recover emotionally and physically on your down time. Big mistake on part of managment but they honestly don't care. The only one that will take care of you is you.

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Specializes in critical care, med/surg.

I once worked at a facility that told me I was "mandated" to come in on my day off. Of course I told them no way.

I have 2 words-Caller ID!!!

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Specializes in ICU's,TELE,MED- SURG.

You need to call the anonymous line to complain about this practice. I know that on occasion when I've been a Charge Nurse I would be asked to call in an employee to help out but listen, you need your rest and personal time off. Some places call it the Employees Line. I think you should consider it. This is unsafe to work too much. Very risky on your license.

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Thankyou for the feedback, you confirmed my feelings. I have felt obligated in the past and made to feel guilty, however now I am more experienced and realize the risk is too great on my licence. I am not sure if I should confront the manager since she left this rather sarcastic message on my voice mail or if I should let it go and continue to not answer the phone. I feel there is an implied or vague threat that I will be punished when the new schedule comes out as I have heard this comment from other employees.

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma.

Pretty much every experienced nurse I know either has caller ID or does not answer the phone. I called 19 nurses today trying to get coverage, and only one answered the phone, a new grad! Just don't answer it; they'll leave a message, and then you can decide whether you want to go in or not without the guilt.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC.

I have caller ID and I will just listen to the message if my work asks me to work on my days off. But most of the time I cannot work any extra shifts because I am also a full-time NP student and have so much homework all of the time. I finally learned not to feel bad about saying no because you honestly have to take care of yourself, most importantly.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

Unless your facility mandates a certain number of OT hours a week you shouldnt feel you have to. If you are fulfilling your obligation to them as a full-time employee then dont feel guilty and dont let them put a guilt trip on you. I agree who would want to go in extra for someone who attempts intimidation to get you to. The problem is if she doesnt get someone to come in,, she just may be the one having to stay and pull up the slack. Dont let them do that to you. If you dont want to go in,, just say no i cant today and dont feel bad. Everyone else is saying the same thing.

New scheudule? You should have a normal rotation you work if you are fulltime.

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Specializes in cardiac med-surg.

no means no

most freeing wonderful word in the english language

the more you use it , the easier it gets

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Thanks for the all the insightful posts. What I am wondering is, am I obligated to return the phone calls to say no? If not answering doesn't get the message across, I am not sure it will matter. The message I received from my manager was, "I am really annoyed that you don't answer your messages, I take rejection well, I just want to hear no." Maybe I am reading too much into it the whole thing. This hospital is a not exactly top notch, and there is not a set rotation. We fill out a monthly request schedule and the manager approves or disapproves. There is no set every other weekend slot either, although I was told that was the requirement when I hired. After a couple of months of being scheduled every weekend, I started filling out my request with no weekends selected, I have one for this month, but have a feeling I will probably be back to working every one for February. How long should I put up with this sort of treatment. I hired in with no experience in ER and was grateful for the opportunity to learn. I had every intention of working there for at least a year or two. I have learned from the past that somewhere that seems bad usually ends up getting worse, but I don't want to jump the gun or job hop.

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Specializes in HCA, Physch, WC, Management.

I am not a nurse yet but I have this same problem at my regular job. I watch my Caller ID and listen to my messages. I call THEM back and if they want me to work, and I can't or don't want to, I just say "Sorry, I can't work today." No explanation needed. I don't even offer one and if they ask why not, I just say that I have class, plans, family obligation, need my day off, whatever. I get so sick of working with unreliable people who feel they can be free to call in to work whenever they want and that is why I rarely work when called and asked to do so. There are probably TWO people out of the 25 that I work with that I would cover for and that is only because I know I could count on them to do the same for me. Do not let anyone intimidate you! If your managing or charge nurse is begging or intimidating you to get you to work so she doesn't have to cover for the person calling in, then maybe after a lot of long double shifts she will realize that she needs to find some more reliable employees!

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

Or you can do what I do...my sister answers the phone and tells them I am not home and will not be back until.....(whatever day I return to work)....She even does this when they call me at 0530 and wake her up...they have yet to catch on to use my cell phone even though I keep telling them to, here I also have caller ID and do not answer it if I do not want to go in.

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