Unfair Wage Increase

Specialties Management

Published

:madface: A little background:

In our facility we have a unit manager for CICU, MED, SURG, OR, ED, OB.

The OB dept has been without a manager for almost 1 year. One came and left within 2 weeks. The ED manager has been doing almost all the OB coverage aside from about 3 months when the rest of us took turns.She appeared to want to so none of us fought her for it. Besides we all thought administration was still attempting to hire for a manager. Boy were we stupid!! Keep in mind none of us have including the ED manager have any OB experience except one who years ago worked a short stint in OB as staff. All of the Unit managers in Nursing have been paid the same wage up till now. Two of the managers, myself included, were informed this week by our CNE in a informal conversation that the ED manager was going to take the OB dept as manager along with the ED. The reason for my post is to help get my anger worked off and to seek out other thoughts on this outrageous action The clincher for my anger is that she will be getting a 15 % increase in her hourly wage which amts to 5.00 hour increase to oversee a dept of 12 employees with aprox. 15 to 20 births a month if they are lucky. On top of this none of the other managers were privy to this until after it happen and none of us were given an opportunity to be considered for the position.

This manager has only been a manager for 2 years, does not have a BSN she does smooze good and knows how to play people esp administration. Supper big brown noser.

Two of us ask this manager how this was decided and she said she gave administration an ultimatium and said she would'nt cover the dept anymore unless she was compensated. She had the gull to tell us she orginally ask for a wage of 1 1/2 time her wage which would have given her $24.50 more an hour. now mind you 3 of the other managers have a BSN, all have over 5 years management experience with one of these with 12 years management. All but one has covered the OB dept when there was no one to do it. Anyone of these other managers could do the job.

Two of us confronted our Cne and were told if we want the job then "toss your hat in the ring" yeah the job has already been given. So I did. I informed the CNE I was now interested in t managing the Dept along with my own which will give me over 50 people to manage to her 30 to 35.I am so upset about this I want to spill my guts to the other managers/dept heads in the facility as I know the roof would be raised of .We had a FOIA exposure of all the management/administration salaries/wages in the local paper about 3 months ago and it caused a quite a stir as it was obvious wage/salaries were not fair. Now this unit manager will be the 4th highest paid manager out of 26 managers. Our lab director, radiology dept will be paid less then this manager and both have three times more responsability and there are others. I would appreciate your thoughts and input and what would you do?I was told by Cne that it would be July before she would consider my application for position as they are waiting for salary surveys to be finalized. Hmmm the manager for OB/ED had her wage survey as we were told this is how they determined what she should be paid based on her job description . I compared the job description and there was no difference except the manager of OB needs to obtain NRP and STABLE within one year. In fact the sentence that states all the nsg. managers have 24 accountability is removed from hers. She doesn't believe she should be accountable after she leaves work for the week-end or after she leaves during the week. Once we get our survey back and hopefully get a raise Hmm does she get another pay increase when all the other managers/ dept heads get one. What do you think about this situation?:madface:

Specializes in L&D, QI, Public Health.
I guess I am missing something hear, but personally I don't see the OP as being jealous, and don't see why she is being given the "ohh, well tough" attitude.

If you look at her original post, you see that she mentions nurse managers OTHER than herself that would be more qualified for the position on a full-time basis. Also, although many variables may come is to play, with the pay scales of nurse managers, I'm sure that the number of employees that a nurse manager is responsible for should also, come into play, and the OP stated that this nurse will have like 30, while others are responsible for more in their ONE area. And, lastly by all accounts, specialty expertise, is also a deciding factor, in pay with nurse managers, but this particular nurse manager is not only, NOT an OB specialist, but doesn't have as much management experience than others.

I would be po'ed also. And I would have the same feeling that I think the OP has; and that is that I would be fine, if this position had been formally opened up for grabs with an increase in pay as a known benefit, and a MORE qualified nurse managers actually had an out in the open (not behind closed doors, the position is open, so if you ask for it behind closed doors, it's yours) chance to formally compete for the position, as well as the raise.

I think this is a lesson in negoitiation(sp) and business. No one stopped any of the nurses 'with more experience and a BSN' to step up to the plate and state that they were willing to take the job with the appropriate compensation.

Things like this is done all the time in the corporate world. When you become a manager, you are now working in a different environment and must adjust your thinking.

Let's face it. Women are not good as men when it comes to salary negoitation. I plead guilty to this myself. Instead of playing the martyr role of taking up extra responsiblity with no additional compensation-over an extended period of time, the other managers could have done what the ED/OB manager did.

Is it fair to the other managers? Probably not. Was it smart of the ED/OB nurse. Absolutely.

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It appears that you were all willing to let her go for the extra work and responsibilities and now that she is going to be compensated appropriately you are all upset. She probably had this idea in mind from the very beginning, or got it somewhere along the line. More power to her. Glad to see someone being paid for doing above and beyond for once. Next time you and your colleagues get a chance to stand out from the crowd, you can reconsider standing aside and letting someone else do the work.

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

I do not understand what is unfair here. The ED manager had the guts to give an altamatem....and it worked, she got the raise (we she deserves IMO). It sounds like people suddenly want the job when they find out that it pays more...sounds to me like people are jealous that they didn't think of it themselves....

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Looking over the reponses to my orginal post I feel the need to add a few more things. Salary discussion among the 5 unit managers never occured. It was never an option as all our salaries along with all the other dept heads and administration were published in the local newspaper as part of the FOIA. Our staff even know what we make. The 5 unit managers all make the same except for now, One makes $ 10,000 more a year then the rest. She is the 4th least experienced manager. Currently we have a Unit manager who took her management position 4 months ago in the unit she has worked for 10 years but had no previous management experience,is not a BSN and started at the same pay as the manager with 10 years experience as a manager has a BSN and has worked her unit over 20 years.Out of the 5 managers 3 have a BSN and over 5 years experience as managers. Let me remind you again the manager that is now the hughest paid has 3 years as a manager of the ED does not have BSN. As far as negotiating for wage increase this has never been an option in our facility. Employees and Staff have always been at the mercy of the revenue vs loss at the end of the fiscal year. It was then that a wage increase was determined. But now we are unionized and the staff are quaranteed a % wage increase each year of the contract. Management was never quaranteed increases.

I quess what bothers me most re this situation is the fact none of the other managers were given the option of taking on the second unit with the compensation. We had all taken a turn at covering the unit (except the newest manager) and were still under the impression administration was still seeking a manager for the unit. All the negotiating for more compensation was done secretive. I am very surprised that we found out. The CNE told two of us " oh by the way" manager x is going to be managing dept x from now on and she will be compensated for doing this as manager x threatened to stop covering the unit after this date.

I am not jealous other than I could use the xtra $10,000 a year.The up side is I don't have to take on more evaluations, policies, etc. I do not feel the extra work of the unit she will take on is worth a 15 % raise. Oh yes I should mention no one else has gotten a yearly raise as of yet and if and when we do I am sure she will also get that raise do. I should also mention two of us offered to share the dept. responsibities by rotating coverage on a quartley basis but were told no as the decsion was made not to hire a manager now as manager x offered to take the dept permanetly providing she was given more money.

Thanks for all the input. The reponses have been interesting. Not quite what I expected.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

None of this additional information changes the basic set of facts that one person took the initiative to negotiate a job change with added responsibilities and added compensation.

Even though this may not be the norm for your facility, there was obviously nothing that prohibited such a negotiation. One manager just happened to think of doing so before anyone else, and apparently presented a convincing case.

Good for her. I wish her well, and hope that someone else will benefit in the future from her trailblazing.

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Specializes in L&D, QI, Public Health.
Looking over the reponses to my orginal post I feel the need to add a few more things. Salary discussion among the 5 unit managers never occured. It was never an option as all our salaries along with all the other dept heads and administration were published in the local newspaper as part of the FOIA. Our staff even know what we make. The 5 unit managers all make the same except for now, One makes $ 10,000 more a year then the rest. She is the 4th least experienced manager. Currently we have a Unit manager who took her management position 4 months ago in the unit she has worked for 10 years but had no previous management experience,is not a BSN and started at the same pay as the manager with 10 years experience as a manager has a BSN and has worked her unit over 20 years.Out of the 5 managers 3 have a BSN and over 5 years experience as managers. Let me remind you again the manager that is now the hughest paid has 3 years as a manager of the ED does not have BSN. As far as negotiating for wage increase this has never been an option in our facility. Employees and Staff have always been at the mercy of the revenue vs loss at the end of the fiscal year. It was then that a wage increase was determined. But now we are unionized and the staff are quaranteed a % wage increase each year of the contract. Management was never quaranteed increases.

I quess what bothers me most re this situation is the fact none of the other managers were given the option of taking on the second unit with the compensation. We had all taken a turn at covering the unit (except the newest manager) and were still under the impression administration was still seeking a manager for the unit. All the negotiating for more compensation was done secretive. I am very surprised that we found out. The CNE told two of us " oh by the way" manager x is going to be managing dept x from now on and she will be compensated for doing this as manager x threatened to stop covering the unit after this date.

I am not jealous other than I could use the xtra $10,000 a year.The up side is I don't have to take on more evaluations, policies, etc. I do not feel the extra work of the unit she will take on is worth a 15 % raise. Oh yes I should mention no one else has gotten a yearly raise as of yet and if and when we do I am sure she will also get that raise do. I should also mention two of us offered to share the dept. responsibities by rotating coverage on a quartley basis but were told no as the decsion was made not to hire a manager now as manager x offered to take the dept permanetly providing she was given more money.

Thanks for all the input. The reponses have been interesting. Not quite what I expected.

I understand your frustration. I just hope it lies with upper management and not the young lady who took the opportunity.

Something similiar happened to me. A girl with less experience and education got promoted over me. I was pi$$ed with her. But looking back, she was not the problem, I was. Instead of actively pursuing the position, I layed low because I had the experience and qualifications above her and it would be handed to me. NOT! Lesson learned.

People treat you the way you allow them to and unfortunately, you and your colleagues allowed upper management to add on extra responsibilities for an extended period of time with no compensation. Not to mention you might not even get an annual raise!

The woman who got the position probably pointed out the money they would be saving by paying her an additional 15% rather than hiring for a new position and demonstrated to them that she actually WANTED the position. Unfortunately your proposal about sharing the position came a day late and a dollar short.

I wish you and your colleagues luck and I hope something good comes out of it for all of you.

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

Just because one has more experience than another, that does not make them more qualified...some one can have 5yrs experience and get a job over some one with 20yrs experience because they are more qualified (i.e. work better, perform better, ect). Jobs should be given according to those more qualified, not simply those with more seniority...

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None of this additional information changes the basic set of facts that one person took the initiative to negotiate a job change with added responsibilities and added compensation.

Even though this may not be the norm for your facility, there was obviously nothing that prohibited such a negotiation. One manager just happened to think of doing so before anyone else, and apparently presented a convincing case.

Good for her. I wish her well, and hope that someone else will benefit in the future from her trailblazing.

I agree - I thought the same thing as I read the "additional" facts.

steph

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Looking over the reponses to my orginal post I feel the need to add a few more things. Salary discussion among the 5 unit managers never occured. It was never an option as all our salaries along with all the other dept heads and administration were published in the local newspaper as part of the FOIA. Our staff even know what we make. The 5 unit managers all make the same except for now, One makes $ 10,000 more a year then the rest. She is the 4th least experienced manager. Currently we have a Unit manager who took her management position 4 months ago in the unit she has worked for 10 years but had no previous management experience,is not a BSN and started at the same pay as the manager with 10 years experience as a manager has a BSN and has worked her unit over 20 years.Out of the 5 managers 3 have a BSN and over 5 years experience as managers. Let me remind you again the manager that is now the hughest paid has 3 years as a manager of the ED does not have BSN. As far as negotiating for wage increase this has never been an option in our facility. Employees and Staff have always been at the mercy of the revenue vs loss at the end of the fiscal year. It was then that a wage increase was determined. But now we are unionized and the staff are quaranteed a % wage increase each year of the contract. Management was never quaranteed increases.

I quess what bothers me most re this situation is the fact none of the other managers were given the option of taking on the second unit with the compensation. We had all taken a turn at covering the unit (except the newest manager) and were still under the impression administration was still seeking a manager for the unit. All the negotiating for more compensation was done secretive. I am very surprised that we found out. The CNE told two of us " oh by the way" manager x is going to be managing dept x from now on and she will be compensated for doing this as manager x threatened to stop covering the unit after this date.

I am not jealous other than I could use the xtra $10,000 a year.The up side is I don't have to take on more evaluations, policies, etc. I do not feel the extra work of the unit she will take on is worth a 15 % raise. Oh yes I should mention no one else has gotten a yearly raise as of yet and if and when we do I am sure she will also get that raise do. I should also mention two of us offered to share the dept. responsibities by rotating coverage on a quartley basis but were told no as the decsion was made not to hire a manager now as manager x offered to take the dept permanetly providing she was given more money.

Thanks for all the input. The reponses have been interesting. Not quite what I expected.

I still think the job only became interesting once the increase in salary came into play. I personally also take offense to the "doesn't have her BSN" like that defines how she can do the job or be compensated for it. There have been many many of my colleagues with a lessor degree than a BSN that I have worked along side and their abilities, knowledge, and work ethic surpass that of many BSNs I work with. What bother's you the most from your own words is that you were not given the opportunity for the job with the additional compensation.....This is exactly my point......Obviously, she had the ability and the knowledge to get the job, negotiate a higher salary.....and wow....NO BSN.............I say good for her, and boo boo kitty face to the ones who are whining about it after the fact. I would like to add......negotiating was not done in secret.....it was done between the nurse applying and management. Why on earth would you or anyone else feel you should have been privy to any of that process. I'm just not understanding this:bugeyes:

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.......i say good for her, and boo boo kitty face to the ones who are whining about it after the fact.

i'm just not understanding this:bugeyes:

boo boo kitty face just made me laugh out loud. :chuckle

steph

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Hmmm. Interesting responses. "boo boo kitty face" ??? I must say this thread has been good therapy for me. I have almost gotten over my intial anger at what I still believe to be an inappropriate increase in wage. But I believe in Karma so....

I do need to say a few more things:

1. I do not feel I or anyone else should be "privy" to a wage negotiation and we were not until the administrative officer told us in a casual conversation "oh by the way I want to let you know...."

Please !!!! Should we have said "oh how nice she will be making so much more than us"

2. She is no more qualified than anyone of us. It is a specailty area and none of us have any experience with this type of sevice. So the argument that "she had the ability and knowledge to get the job" is not really true.

3. In response that imply the job only became intersting after the increase in wage came into play, Would'nt any job become more interesting to pursue if the salary was increased ????

4. I am sorry to have offend anyone that doesn't have an advanced degree such as a BSN as I also believe many nurses who do not have a advance degree in nursing can and do function as well or better than nurses with an advance degree. But .... a nurse usually goes on to get a BSN for the purpose of advancing herself into a management position or teaching. Oh, I also failed to mention all the unit manager postions at my facility state in the job description BSN prefered.

5. Yes,she did point out the money that could be saved by not hiring for the position (smart move) but to say she "actually wanted " and the money was an added benefit is incorrect. She wanted for the same reason anyone else would. Money !!!

Gotta hand it do her she worked it quite well. Pays to suck up.

Thanks again for all the advice. It has been good therapy.

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Isn't it time to move on.:smokin:

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