Have you ever heard of an attendance policy like this???

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

Okay, so last night at 2am, it was only myself, an LPN, and one MHT/aide on a floor with 22 male patients. At 3am, we were supposed to get another aide; a guy who normally works 7am-3pm but picked up an extra day and agreed to work 3am-3pm today. So when I came in to work at 11pm last night, this extra MHT was ON MY LIST to work. It wasn't a "oh, you just might have an extra person come in to help you at 3am." No this guy was SUPPOSED to work. My UNDERSTANDING, was that he was SCHEDULED to come in at 3am and work!

3am rolls around... 3:15... he hasn't shown up. So I call the house supervisor and have trouble getting a hold of her. Finally I get her at 3:30 and tell her that this aide has never shown up. "Oh *long pause*... okay, I'll call him".

She calls back a few minutes later. "Scratch him off your list, he's not coming in". That's it. I was mad, so were the other two staff but whatever... mornings are crazy busy with having to get everyone's vital signs, serve coffee and juice (yep, psych), get finger sticks, chart vital signs, chart how long everyone slept, keep 15 min. checks on everybody... horrible staffing has become a way of life.

4 hours later, I'm giving report, I'm flustered... and the aide that was supposed to be there at 3am walks into the report room. He says to some of the other ppl in the room, "I set my alarm wrong.. supervisor called me at 3:30... I said, at this point I'm not biking all the way there... I'll be in at 7".

When he leaves I say "well gee, I'm glad that he can just come in whenever he wants to and that's OK with everybody". A couple of other people in the room are like "Well, he picked up extra, that's his right to come in or not come in."

So what I'm getting here is... this place has a policy that if someone picks up an overtime shift, they can apparently call in anytime and say no, I don't think I'll work afterall. Or they can come in later than they said they would, if they want to. And they are not penalized for it.

I don't quite know what to say. I mean, why even bother asking staff to work extra if you have this policy??? I've never heard of such a thing. Everywhere else I've worked, once you agree to work, you're on the schedule and you get penalized just the same if you call in without a valid excuse.

I understand that the guy picked up by the goodness of his heart. I also understand that he was going to have to ride a bike over. But the point is, if you agree to work... you agree to work!

I'm just used to places where you actually get in trouble if you call in without a valid excuse. What do I know??

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Specializes in Peri-op/Sub-Acute ANP.

I don't get this. So he signed up for an extra shift and then acts like he's doing you all a favor by showing up at a time that suits him? Completely unprofessional on his part, but it sounds like the management at your facility leaves a lot to be desired. By pandering to staff who act like this nurse did the management is making itself appear to be very weak and desperate. You will soon probably soon notice a trend. Good people will start leaving, and bad staff will begin to run the place.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

The place is a mess. I'm not actually an employee there; I work there for a staffing agency. Funny thing

is that I rather LIKE working there, though it has its problems. I love psych nursing.

I've even thought about trying to go full time there. After last night though, I'm rethinking that!

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

Where I work, that would be a no-show-no-call and you accumulate big time sick points for that. We can cancel our OT/ET up to 4 hours before our show time, but not after that, after that is considered a sick call.

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That's weird. If we pick up extra at my place we're expected to be there, we're part of the numbers. I made a mistake once and thought I'd picked up a later shift rather than an earlier shift and called as soon as I realized my mistake and got there as soon as I could. They didn't give me a hard time about it because I'm usually very reliable but I felt awful about it. I'm sure if it was a pattern on my part I would have gotten in trouble.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

At the places I have worked, if you sign up for OT, it gets marked on the sheet (like highlighted pink, initialed by the supervisor, etc) and that means the shift is now yours just like it were originally 'yours' on the schedule. I don't really understand the point of "only come in if you feel like it" when someone signs up for an OT shift. The change has to come from above and management has to address this policy if it's going to change.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

I'm trying to decide if maybe I'm totally mistaken; that he never WAS scheduled to come in at 3am; he had only told someone

that he might CONSIDER coming in at 3. All indications are that he was actually scheduled; otherwise, why did the other two

people working with me, really believe that he was coming in? Why would the supervisor have called him at 3:30 and woke him

up, if he wasn't scheduled? It just makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me.

I know one thing; if I'm ever an employee there and I have to call in for any reason and they try to give me any crap about it...

ooohhh boy do I have something to throw right in their face.

I mean... wow, if this doesn't scream "we only care about saving money!!!" to an employee who is tired of working short

staffed... an organization that would have this type of policy obviously is trying hard to save money and isn't worried about

the health and safety of their patients or employees.

And we're talking about a state-owned hospital, with a non profit agency running it!!!!

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Specializes in geriatrics.

If someone accepts a shift where I work, they are expected to come in. If you take the shift, you work it.

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Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.

As a manager, I often discipline staff member without everyone else even knowing I did it. It is really nobody elses business. Just because your supervisor didn't make a big deal of it in front of you does not mean nothing was done.

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You are absolutely right! It doesnt matter if you are picking up extra time, once you agree to work you are bound by the same attendence policy as if it were your regular scheduled time. I have never heard of any other. In the hospital I work at, if you agree to pick up an extra shift or agree to work for someone and call in sick or show up late, you are penalized for it. Sounds to me like different rules for different people depending on who the offender is right?

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Specializes in 10.

My job has the same policy, if you volunteer to work extra shifts, you can back out at any time without any discipline. You can also take the full shift, or half the shift depending on what the supervisor is offering. I don't work for the private sector, but we must follow union rules, and that is one if them.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.
Nascar nurse said:
As a manager, I often discipline staff member without everyone else even knowing I did it. It is really nobody elses business. Just because your supervisor didn't make a big deal of it in front of you does not mean nothing was done.

There's more to it than that. It's what the people in the report room said. The way they talked, anyone who picks up an overtime shift can decide not to work it if they want to.

Plus, just the fact that he TOLD the supervisor "I'll be in at 7". Um, every other supervisor that I've ever come in contact has said "You get here as soon as you are able", not 3.5 hours later.

I could actually be completely and totally mistaken about the whole situation; I'm over it now, whatever the case.

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