Help! The old bait and switch

[ballaweena]

I need some advice stat! I just got offered my first travel nurse assignment and I am so disappointed because they are completely trying to change everything on me at the last minute. First, they told me that it would be fine to travel with my pets, now they are acting like they have to move heaven and earth to find me an apartment. The one they did find cost like 2k a month, not to mention non-refundable deposits and monthly fees. My breaking point was when my recruiter told me that my bring home pay would be 2,000 bi weekly and now 3 days before I leave, she is quoting me 1300, and that is not including the deductions for the pet deposit/insurance/hotel bill for the 2-3 nights that I'll be in AZ while waiting for my license to go through. By the time they get done with all of this, I wont have a pay check. I haven't signed a contract yet, and wont be signing unless the change it back to what we agreed upon initially. Something else that is more than frustrating is my recruiter, the QA person, and the housing rep are not all on the same page and keep telling me different things. I am constantly having to say " no, I just talked to so and so and that is not true etc." They always have an answer for everything, but never really answer your question. Is this what I should expect from travel nursing????

[NedRN]

Generally, no. Housing difficulties, especially for travelers with pets, can happen with the best of agencies though. You do have options. No license yet means you really don't have a valid contract yet, so you can bail. You can also crunch the actual compensation numbers (which you should always do of course), and look at a good source like Craigslist to research fair market local housing prices and see if the assignment is financially attractive or not. If so, consider getting your own housing. If not, forget about it unless you just want the benefit of a proven successful assignment on your work history (which is valuable for a new traveler). You can also consider leaving your pets at home, at least for one assignment.

Starting right now, you need to interview more agencies and pick the best five to work with. Then you will never again be in the position of picking just one option. When an agency does a bait and switch with compensation, they are easily dropped as you have choices!

[ballaweena]

Ned, thanks so much. I truly appreciate it. I'm learning, but its crazy how they have an answer for everything. I think I'm going to bail because, there are a million red flags popping up with every conversation that we have. I emailed her the copy of the amount we agreed upon to let her know that I just didn't make that number up. I'm sure that she will have yet another scripted response. Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

[ORnursetravel]

I feel your pain. I was to work in TX, but I'm still waiting for my license so I had to bail. I'm supposed to work in central NY starting Thursday. I'm leaving Monday……but…today, I was told that they still need a reference from a job that I left a year ago. They tell me this on a Friday just before I'm leaving? The contract is signed, I have a place to stay, my car is packed. The big problem is that they want a manager/supervisor's reference but the hospital is state owned and according to its policy, managers are not allowed to give out references. They can be terminated if they do. So, I'm still waiting to hear back from the agency. Luckily they're 3 hours behind me so that helps. However, I now have to delay leaving on Monday and hope that I can leave on Tuesday. Personally, I'm fed up and want to bail, but at the moment I can't. I hope to find out by Monday so I can contact another recruiter I was working with. They have accepted my references that were given to them.

[ballaweena]

Gosh, that sounds very familiar as well. No matter how many times I tried to tell them, or HR told them, or my manager told them, it just fell on deaf ears. We can't force them to give a reference. I had tons of other references, but they insist that its a supervisor. I hope it all works out for you in New York. Also, it went from very nice, to very nasty pretty quick. I am so absolutely done with this particular agency. All of the things that I've read, pretty much all proved true.

[BluntForceTrauma]

Most likely it won't get any better. Sorry for what you are going through! Any chance you are with American mobile

?? This sounds like one of their tactics. Your contract has not been signed, your license hasn't been processed. I would try to look for something else.

[BrookletRN]

Ugh that sounds awful. My company is great, the only one I've worked with as a new traveler, Professional Nurse Service. Sometimes the smaller companies are better than the big ones, or so I hear

[ballaweena]

Thanks guys. There is always a reason for everything, I'm just glad I found out sooner than later. They pretty much called me "stupid" in so many words. I am many things, but stupid I am not.