Managers that don't like you.....ever been there?

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nurseprnRN, BSN, RN

1 Article; 5,115 Posts

I had a wonderful, wonderful boss who taught me a tremendous amount of a new specialty, and in return I provided her with expertise she didn't have. She was great that way-- had no problems hiring people who had expertise she didn't have if it would make the unit stronger, was never threatened by someone who knew more about something. Together we built a terrific unit in a company. She was transferred to bring along another unit to the excellence and profitability she did with ours, and told me that she would pull me over to work c her as soon as she could. I told her the one they brought in was, to put it charitably, a terrible manager and obviously threatened by the excellent staff we had assembled, and would probably fire me-- she said, "Don't be ridiculous, you built that program, they'd never fire you."

Despite just receiving one of the best performance reviews I ever had in my LIFE from my old boss six months before, I was let go by the new boss, to the total shock of my teammates and others in the company. My old boss was the first person I called, before I even got out of the parking lot. I told her it was the first time she was ever wrong. :)

Alas, this rhymes-with-female-doggie proceeded to fire a number of very talented and devoted people, almost all of whom had met quotas or implemented great program features or exceeded whatever metrics their jobs had, and gutted this great department. Oddly enough, clients fled, income dropped, and morale went into the toilet. She was fired two years later.

But the good news is that those of us who left have all found much, much better places in other parts of nursing. We stay in touch and have had the pleasure of making a difference where we are appreciated...and well-paid for it. I loathe that cliche that God closes one door and opens another, but leaving sometimes really is the best thing you can do.

It's almost like that line in Murphy's Romance, one of my favorite movies of all time. Murphy (James Garner) is a widower who falls in love with a younger woman (Sally Field) who has come to the small town with her young son to escape a failed bad marriage and build a life. She starts having feelings for him too, though she's too dumb to notice at first but then denies her feelings because he is some bit older than she is. She's talking to the small-town busybody who is telling her all about Murphy's first wife, what a wonderful woman she was and how devastated he was when she died. "I heard that if you had one good marriage it's more likely you'll have another," muses our heroine, to the dismay of town busybody who has noticed with disapproval how often Murphy has been having dinner at her house lately and taking the boy out shopping for a cowboy hat.

Anyway, the moral of that ramble is that if you have had a great job and it died, you know how to have another -- and how to appreciate it when you find it. Go forth. It's out there.

HeatherGurl84

326 Posts

I had a wonderful, wonderful boss who taught me a tremendous amount of a new specialty, and in return I provided her with expertise she didn't have. She was great that way-- had no problems hiring people who had expertise she didn't have if it would make the unit stronger, was never threatened by someone who knew more about something. Together we built a terrific unit in a company. She was transferred to bring along another unit to the excellence and profitability she did with ours, and told me that she would pull me over to work c her as soon as she could. I told her the one they brought in was, to put it charitably, a terrible manager and obviously threatened by the excellent staff we had assembled, and would probably fire me-- she said, "Don't be ridiculous, you built that program, they'd never fire you."

Despite just receiving one of the best performance reviews I ever had in my LIFE from my old boss six months before, I was let go by the new boss, to the total shock of my teammates and others in the company. My old boss was the first person I called, before I even got out of the parking lot. I told her it was the first time she was ever wrong. :)

Alas, this rhymes-with-female-doggie proceeded to fire a number of very talented and devoted people, almost all of whom had met quotas or implemented great program features or exceeded whatever metrics their jobs had, and gutted this great department. Oddly enough, clients fled, income dropped, and morale went into the toilet. She was fired two years later.

But the good news is that those of us who left have all found much, much better places in other parts of nursing. We stay in touch and have had the pleasure of making a difference where we are appreciated...and well-paid for it. I loathe that cliche that God closes one door and opens another, but leaving sometimes really is the best thing you can do.

It's almost like that line in Murphy's Romance, one of my favorite movies of all time. Murphy (James Garner) is a widower who falls in love with a younger woman (Sally Field) who has come to the small town with her young son to escape a failed bad marriage and build a life. She starts having feelings for him too, though she's too dumb to notice at first but then denies her feelings because he is some bit older than she is. She's talking to the small-town busybody who is telling her all about Murphy's first wife, what a wonderful woman she was and how devastated he was when she died. "I heard that if you had one good marriage it's more likely you'll have another," muses our heroine, to the dismay of town busybody who has noticed with disapproval how often Murphy has been having dinner at her house lately and taking the boy out shopping for a cowboy hat.

Anyway, the moral of that ramble is that if you have had a great job and it died, you know how to have another -- and how to appreciate it when you find it. Go forth. It's out there.

And I am going forth, in interviews right now. I will find that great job again ;)

Yeah, I'm there now. She frowns down on education and anytime someone corrects her. When I enrolled into my RN-BSN program she asked "What's the point? Do you think you'll be better than me because you will have a bachelors and if you get the big head I will make sure you will never be able to transfer again in this hospital!" (No lie, her exact words). I went to HR about it and switched to 3rd shift. I never have to see her and haven't had a conversation with her in months, unless it's a staff meeting. That's why I perform my best at work and ALWAYS follow my policy. Once she accepted a patient on a certain kind of drip that was not allowed on our floor I printed out the policy and informed our House Supervisor because she saw no problem with it. We have no way of monitoring patients on our floor and this guy needed to be on a telemetry heart monitor 24/7...and when House found out about this, they notified administration and they were not pleased because my manager and admission nurse knew about the drip before he was admitted. The previous floor charted they "Manager X and Admission Nurse Y accepted patient Z on XYZ drip" before he was sent to us.

Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Years ago, my hospital hired a manager who had been fired from my daughter's hospital (she's also an RN) for some pretty grave reasons. Methinks she was 'allowed to resign' rather than fired.

She was terrible, incompetent and clearly over her head. She drove away many fine staff members,, and when she couldn't drive me off, she fired me. But did she tell me I was fired? Nope- I came in to get my check one evening, and my card would not work to get in the employee entrance. Puzzled, I went around to the ED entrance. Tried to log on to check my email. Invalid account.

Didn't even have the common courtesy to tell me I was fired. Filed a grievance. The termination was upheld, but they agreed to not disclose the termination- I am a voluntary separation officially.

Six weeks later, SHE was terminated. Refused to leave and had to be removed from the building by administration.

I'm in a 100% better place now, but it still hurts, as I drive past this hospital every day.

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