Coworker talking smack about my political party & every thing I stand for/believe in

Nurses Relations

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I've worked at this facility for a couple weeks now & am still on orientation. I was paired up with a nurse I've never worked with before the past couple of days. Just like the title states, He spent probably 75% of the 2 shifts I worked with him talking down about my political party and everything I stand for/believe in. (I never mentioned to him which party I am with). I just kept quiet & nodded and tried to get the point across that I prefer not to talk about politics & religion at work because it does nothing other than get people angry, but he kept on. By the end of the 2nd day, it was really hard for me to keep my mouth shut & not go off on him.

I'm a big believer in "to each their own" and I totally respect people's decisions to believe in what they want. But spending 2 days listening to how "stupid people are to believe this ****" and how dumb certain presidents are or how wrong certain policies are when they're what I stand for is hard to just stand there & listen and not fire my opinions back.

(Also, half the days were spent with him talking about how much he can't stand our charge nurse and nurse manager and how he gets the union involved every time he gets in trouble so he's got the "upper hand"...)

I thought about just asking not to be assigned to him any more but the more I think about it, I feel I need to tell my charge nurse and/or nurse manager. I just don't want to make waves since I am new to the unit... Any advice?

If this were me, I'd first ask him to please stop discussing politics/religion/whatever with me, as I'm not interested in discussing it or hearing his opinion of things that make no difference to the job at hand. If that didn't work, I'd go to the manager. Continuing to harrangue you about your beliefs or anyone else's is incredibly inappropriate. And since he's clearly been in trouble before, this is probably not the first time he's created a hostile work environment for other nurses. If that doesn't work, go to HR. That's ridiculous unprofessional behavior.

Continue to not discuss politics at work because once you start you will never get him to stop. Stand firm and eventually, he'll find someone else who is willing to spar/sympathize with him.[/quote'] I immediately thought this too. I would keep redirecting him back to work related conversations. Whenever I run into people like this at work I tell them that I do not discuss politics at work and I will not have this discussion with you. I will have work related discussions only.

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Specializes in Hospice.
It is rarely "because of the Union" that people like this are allowed to continue behaving inappropriately. Most union contracts have progressive discipline. Should the manager start the process of progressive discipline, and the employee doesn't improve per the steps, then they can be let go.

Hear, hear! Blaming the union is a common excuse for failing to control personnel problems. In many, if not most cases, it has more to do with managers who just don't want to exert themselves or bother to learn the process.

Before you make up your mind about the union, you might want to get a copy of your contract and read the disciplinary process described there, including reasons why it may be initiated. I suspect that a lousy personality isn't one of them. If he's otherwise competent and a responsible employee, they may well be protecting him from being fired. That's their job. If the "problems" they've already had with him have to do with actual job performance, and not just a negative personality, then management is just letting themselves off the hook, for their own reasons.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

It doesn't sound as though talking about your problems with this guy to the manager is going to help anything, and it's going to make you look like a whiner. Either let his prattle go in one ear and out the other or take the advice of a previous poster and tell him that you have so much to learn you'd prefer to talk about WORK. And be prepared with some questions to ask. Of course, he'll probably prattle on and on about whatever topic you asked a question about, and much of that won't be worth listening to, either.

I think I work with this guy . . . does his first name start with an M?

.I think I work with this guy . . . does his first name start with an M?

No. Lol. I'm guessing there's probably someone like him at every workplace.

Yeah, I'm just going to use some of my old psych nurse skills & try to redirect the conversation. Or just keep to the task at hand & ignore his comments if that doesn't work. :)

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
No. Lol. I'm guessing there's probably someone like him at every workplace. Yeah I'm just going to use some of my old psych nurse skills & try to redirect the conversation. Or just keep to the task at hand & ignore his comments if that doesn't work. :)[/quote']

:yes: the mental health techniques work EVERYWHERE in nursing! ;)

Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

It's not enough for you to simply not engage him (though that is good advice too). He is acting very unprofessionally and it sounds like it is interfering with your orientation.

You need to go to the nurse manager, or whoever is responsible for assigning preceptors, and ask for a different preceptor. I would hesitate to tell on him at this point in the game as you are very new. Just say it isn't working out and could you please be assigned to a different preceptor.

This is exactly the reason so many hospitals have gone to more professional preceptors. In my hospital preceptors must volunteer, then take a class to precept. The get a small pay raise for the hours they are precepting and there are some real perks to precepting, like not having to float and having first pick of patients.

Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

People take their alignments ( religion, politics, whatever ) far too seriously.

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