staffing tried to trick/bully me in today!

Nurses General Nursing

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I just finished dealing with staffing. I received a very angry call. "Where are you. You are scheduled to work today. You have to come in". I explained that my copy of my work hours says I'm off, that my hubby is in all night budget meetings and that I had two hours of sleep...could I come in from 11p-730a. "NO! Come in now. It's your responsibility to cover your shift." Decided to call my nurses station and found out that there were no changes on the schedule and I was not on for today. Also staffing tried the same thing with two day shift nurses today! Ya'll know what was really going on? This is my short week. The hospital doesn't have to pay me overtime. My theory is they decided to scare and bully me in to save a buck!:angryfire

up until a month ago, our schedule at the nurses station was accurate...now it is not. unless we work 0800-1630 we have no way of knowing the correct staffing schedule.

but even with an accurate schedule i too, have similar experiences with someone calling me on an off day and demand i come to work as i was scheduled. depends on what is going on personally as to whether i go or not. and i give no explanation other than "too busy" or "no sleep".

i would make a copy of the schedule and write a note to whomever is over staffing and complain of the bullying...it made me an enemy but one who respected me.

Ok........I am mildly ashamed to admit this but............. when someone from the hospital calls and tries to co-erce me into working I simply tell them that I can't because I have been drinking or just took some cold medicine, etc. Is this terrible of me???? I mean, I do my fair share of OT but don't appreciate it when I am forced to or guilted into working. Ok...I will go hang my head in shame.

That's awsome, I gotta try that one. heh heh.

As a student nurse looking to decide where I want to work, I beg you to come up with a coding sytem to help us all avoid the bad places. This could even work to force them to shape up.

unfortunately, a "good place" can go bad overnight. and employees at all levels seem to play round-robin job hopping. the area i currently live in is doing just that now. it's like we get fed up with the current situation and move to the new one...only our 'bad' co-workers follow! (isn't that why i left the last position?) every place has it's ups and downs and it's a matter of deciding what you are willing to tolerate and not willing wieghing the difference.

Specializes in Tele, Acute.
I had to read this twice to make sure I was comprehending what I was reading. You're saying that you weren't scheduled to work today, but they tried to make like you were by calling and harrassing you to get your butt in even though you were off? So you called your unit to make sure there weren't any changes made that you weren't aware of and you were really and truly off today. Am I correct? If I am, that is truly unbelievable and they have a lot of ballz to do something like that and I would have told them rightfully so. :angryfire Cheeses, you can't even have a day off in peace. Get that caller ID.

Ditto to all replies. I work 7p-7a 3 nights a week. One afternoon recently I finally laid down after working and running errands. It was about 1:15pm. My phone rang and I did not even look at the call ID. It was our staffing person. She asked me if I could go to work (now) and help with admits. I asked her if she knew that I worked the night before, she said "yes". I told her I was just getting to bed because I had errands to run when I got off. She said "well, you're not sleeping yet". I could not believe she said that! I told her that I was awake for over 26 hours and did she have any idea what she was asking me to do. She said well, you're off tonight you can sleep then. I could not believe what I was hearing. I told her NO. She then asked me if I could go in from 5p-7p. My blood was boiling, I told her no again and ended the call. When I woke up at 6:30p I checked my messages and she had called again about 3:45p asking me if I changed my mind and could I go in at 5p. My cell phone had the same message.. I counted to 10, If I had picked up the phone and called this person back I would probably lost my job.

From previous experience I know that when you go in to help out it never fails that the 7p shift comes up short and you get stuck there.

Anyway, the next time I went to work I wrote her up and had my co-workers backing. Never did here if they talked to her or not. It is still going on! :angryfire

Specializes in home health, LTC, assisted living.
:lol2: Love the post about being out partying all night, that is a really good excuse! but how about if you tell them you have had zero sleep and you do not feel alert enough to work or function safely?

That's great that you wrote up that "staffing person." I think the next time I am harrassed and stalked by these persons all day I will do it too.

Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.

That is such a shame. Aside from all that, they treated you badly. They made it seem that you were irresponsible. That really leaves a good impression about them to you :stone

Specializes in Nursing Home ,Dementia Care,Neurology..

If we are short our manager usually tries to grab some random day worker to do the night shift with the consiquence that you have someone who has worked half a day before they come in at nine.By the time we get to 0600 to start the early round they are shattered! Then you find that the permenent night staff were not even asked if they could do an extra night.Its anything for an easy life for him !

I have caller ID and,especially in winter,always check if its work calling before I answer or get one of the kids to answer.I really hate it when he tries to pressurise me into working on my days off but I just say NO as long as I've done my contracted hours theres nothing he can do about it.By the by what are long pay periods and short pay periods that some of you refer to?

Ya know all this scrambling for staff could be remedied simply by having a solid pool of float nurses available. If facilities made sure these nurses get a good orientation, are rewarded monetarily for their flexibility and these nurses are treated well, hospitals would have no further problem with staffing IMHO.

Ya know all this scrambling for staff could be remedied simply by having a solid pool of float nurses available. If facilities made sure these nurses get a good orientation, are rewarded monetarily for their flexibility and these nurses are treated well, hospitals would have no further problem with staffing IMHO.

I always enjoy your posts.

I mean this in the nicest possible way, but there is no way I would want to be in the float pool at the hospital I go to. They require a certain number of hours, certain number of weekends, certain number of off shifts, floating to all the horrible floors, and being overloaded each shift as they staff according to room numbers and one always has enough work for at least two people to do. After the last impossible time that I worked, a nightmare, I am seriously thinking, and I mean seriously, of applying to Walmart.

I work in a small town just north of a metropolitan area. The hospitals are all so competative that nurses would go PRN and have two or three different hospitals they would work at :uhoh3: . Float pools used to work until everyone started coming up with so much more money that nurses had two or three hospitals they were working at and couldn't fill all the needs. We're back to nurses working overtime. Now hospitals are going back to hiring only full-time and part time nurses. In the 20 yrs or so that I've been a nurse, it goes in cycles.

Ya know all this scrambling for staff could be remedied simply by having a solid pool of float nurses available. If facilities made sure these nurses get a good orientation, are rewarded monetarily for their flexibility and these nurses are treated well, hospitals would have no further problem with staffing IMHO.

I don't think my facility has any better luck finding float pool nurses than they do staff nurses. As you say, better compensation, training and respect would go a long way.

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