How do you feel about paying for parking?

zenman · May 1, 2005

I pay $50 a month for a parking garage at one place and nothing for the 7pm shift at another. The 2nd place has a 5 year waiting list for the garage for the day shift people.

Jamesdotter · May 1, 2005

I had to pay parking at one hospital and you could never get a space in the car park you would spend half you life driving round and round, getting stressed before you even started your shift

Yeppers. We used to call our parking stickers our "hunting license".

TracyB,RN, RN · May 2, 2005

I think it's absolutely horrible & is totally disrespectful to all hospital employees.

I had a job once that I had to pay for parking. I seriously had to get to work at least 40 minutes prior to my shift to get a decent, safe place to park, despite paying for parking.

ICUUCME · May 2, 2005

I know ......this is seriously holding me back from this job - you would think instead of a sign on or in addition to a sign on it would benefit them to use a parking pass as an incentive to attract RNs- Where I currently work I do not pay for parking. and parking is plentiful. My husband seriously thinks I will hate having to hunt around for parking and this will make me unhappy -

NurseKitty NC · Nov 26, 2005

I'd look really closely to see if parking is the only "con" on your list. I'd questions what else they expect you to pay for.

There is only one hospital that makes employees pay for parking. In addition, they also offer lower salaries than other hospitals, more expensive yet less inclusive benefits, an extremely high-priced cafeteria and no means for storing employee meals brought from home .. they don't even provide coffee in the breakroom (but they do conveniently offer an on-site Starbucks to purchase coffee at a mere $4 a cup).

From my experience working at this and other facilities, I have found that hospitals that truly care about and appreciate their employees will demonstrate such by at the very least providing parking and other necessities free of charge.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Nov 27, 2005

I pay for parking. We are charged by the hour worked, and it averages out to about $40 a month. The hospital has two underground lots that are a lot more expensive and space is usually only for "important" people. There are two surface lots a bit of a hike from the building that are a little cheaper. One parkade is rented from the University of Alberta, and is a hike and a half... plus poorly lit, smelly, the electrical outlets don't work (VERY important when it's -40 outside and you've just worked a 13 hour night!) and the elevator doesn't always work. Oh, and it fills in as a homeless shelter when the weather is bad. Then there are the two parkades across the street from the hospital, the staff lot and the visitor's lot. When construction of the Alberta Heart Institute commenced, they changed the names of the two lots because the construction involved removal of the pedway between the visitor's lot and the building. So now the visitor's lot is where staff parks and we have the pleasure of dodging the cement trucks, bobcats, backhoes and pick-up trucks going onto the job site as well as the regular traffic, and the visitors have the heated pedway. They also moved the crosswalk from in front of what is now the staff lot down the street about 165 feet to right in front of the "new" visitor's lot. Lovely.

Our cafeteria is open from 0630 until 1330 on weekdays only. There's a food court that is open until 2300, but the food after about 1600 is the pits and costs a lot. And don't think that you can buy your lunch there on days, because the patients, visitors, university students and office staff are all there and getting through the lineups takes up all of your break, so there's no time to eat. I have given up on the notion of taking a break from sack lunches.

Corvette Guy · Nov 27, 2005

I am thinking about moving from one job to another and am weighing pros and cons. One thing that is on the " con " list for the new job is that fact that they charge for parking, in a garage that is across from the hospital. the cost is 30 .00 a month. you can park on the street sometimes for free but its risky and very often there are no spots. This place is building a new ICU and is crying for RNs . I would be a great candidate for them but this paying for parking really gets to me. Does your hospital make you pay to park and if so how do you feel about it? Even if they pay me the $$ in my rate that would make up for it ... something just bothers me about having to pay for a safe place to keep my vehicle while I work . I think Hospital employees should park for free.

I pay [debited out of my paycheck] $5.00/week for access to employee parking garage, which is a considerable walk from the hospital. The cost use to be $2.50/week. Actually, I like the idea of a guaranteed spot ... as long as I'm not late to work, LOL.

IMHO, $30.00 is not too bad for monthly parking garage access. BTW, I wonder if uniforms, cleaning, etc. are tax deductable, then why not at work parking garage fees, too?

Corvette Guy · Nov 27, 2005

i can't even imagine working at a facility big enough to require parking garages, paid or otherwise.......and i complain about having to park 'out in the south 40' at my hospital! :chuckle
i do wish we had covered parking......i hate having to walk through the rain, since the instant water touches my hair it looks like i stuck my finger in a light socket.

lol, where i work the medical center has 3 parking garages.

semper fi! lance cpl. tyler troyer, usmc / rip nov 05 / ... the ultimate sacrifice

rach_nc_03 · Nov 27, 2005

I'd look really closely to see if parking is the only "con" on your list. I'd questions what else they expect you to pay for.
There is only one hospital that makes employees pay for parking. In addition, they also offer lower salaries than other hospitals, more expensive yet less inclusive benefits, an extremely high-priced cafeteria and no means for storing employee meals brought from home .. they don't even provide coffee in the breakroom (but they do conveniently offer an on-site Starbucks to purchase coffee at a mere $4 a cup).
From my experience working at this and other facilities, I have found that hospitals that truly care about and appreciate their employees will demonstrate such by at the very least providing parking and other necessities free of charge.

i wonder if i work at the hospital to which you're referring. Three other things about parking at this hospital get to me:

1- permits sold to employees are either ludicrously expensive (over $100 a month) or cheap, bottom of the barrel permits that get you a spot in a lot a 10-15 minute walk to the hospital. This year, they didn't have enough of those permits to go around, so they opened a lot even *further* from the hospital- this was about a 20-25 minute walk through a horrible part of town. when my friend saw this was the lot to which she was assigned, she cried.

2- they have shuttle buses that run to these lots, where the vast majority of nurses park. the shuttles stop running at 7:45 PM, and almost nobody i know can get out of report and out to the bus by that time. they say you can call a van to come get you, but they sometimes take half an hour or more. but guess what? the buses that go to the lots for the physicians run past eight. go figure.

3- the garage immediately across from the hospital can be used by employees on weekends and for night shift. the top 3 floors aren't accessible unless you have a permit for them, and apparently the spaces were sold to physicians. i've rarely seen more than a few cars up there, but you'll sometimes get stuck on the lower levels, in a literal traffic jam, because nobody can find a space to park. i've been in that garage for 45 minutes waiting for traffic to move enough to just let me get OUT and find somewhere else to park.

i absolutely think parking should be free, period.

bethin · Nov 27, 2005

i wonder if i work at the hospital to which you're referring. Three other things about parking at this hospital get to me:
1- permits sold to employees are either ludicrously expensive (over $100 a month) or cheap, bottom of the barrel permits that get you a spot in a lot a 10-15 minute walk to the hospital. This year, they didn't have enough of those permits to go around, so they opened a lot even *further* from the hospital- this was about a 20-25 minute walk through a horrible part of town. when my friend saw this was the lot to which she was assigned, she cried.
2- they have shuttle buses that run to these lots, where the vast majority of nurses park. the shuttles stop running at 7:45 PM, and almost nobody i know can get out of report and out to the bus by that time. they say you can call a van to come get you, but they sometimes take half an hour or more. but guess what? the buses that go to the lots for the physicians run past eight. go figure.
3- the garage immediately across from the hospital can be used by employees on weekends and for night shift. the top 3 floors aren't accessible unless you have a permit for them, and apparently the spaces were sold to physicians. i've rarely seen more than a few cars up there, but you'll sometimes get stuck on the lower levels, in a literal traffic jam, because nobody can find a space to park. i've been in that garage for 45 minutes waiting for traffic to move enough to just let me get OUT and find somewhere else to park.
i absolutely think parking should be free, period.

I would complain. I'm not a big complainer when it comes to work, but your post really burned me up. No way would I walk through an unsafe neighborhood while the docs got a van to haul them back and forth plus get premium spots. I would never suggest you do this but I just have an idea. When you're walking to your spot out in the boonies, fall and pretend to break something. Say you were running away from a thug. I never said that though.

My brother (not in nursing) works in a large city. He works for an even larger bank at the main branch. He pays $150/month and walks 12 blocks to work. 12 blocks in the snow, sleet and rain. Bank must be really stingy.

NO WAY would I work for a facility that made me walk through unsafe neighborhoods or made me pay for parking. It's unsafe and rude. You can tell they really value the nurses, can't you?