Hi all! So I am relatively a new graduate (3 months prior experience) before landing a job at a SNF. I have only been there for a week and although I was told during the interview that I would be working nights, my manager wanted me on the 3-11 shift to learn admissions for a month. I've been working with this RN for about 2 days now and shes really nice. We talk about out personal lives and etc. (For example she had a daughter by someone who is the same ethnic background as me..etc). So I'm explain my experience from my last job at a large teaching hospital and simply mention that I am taking a pay cut but its worth it because I want the experience. She then asks "Oh what are they starting you at." I stupidly tell her my wage (37) and didn't think anything of it. I explain that I usually leave the part on the application where it says to put your desired wage blank but this time around I put a high wage (I was getting paid 5 dollars more at my last job than this one.) She then says oh wow your very lucky and that they didnt start her at that wage and she put 38 on her application but management told her that they couldn't afford to pay her that. Anyways she says I'm lucky and we leave it at that.
My next day, I notice that she is acting a bit different but didn't think anything of it...it is a stressful job however. I do notice however that we dont seem to see eachother at all and that she didn't teach the the computer system (the most important part) but is teaching the other new hire the computer system. When I sit down to observe so I can learn the phone rings. She quickly looks at me and says "Can you answer the phone in a dismissive tone." Again, didn't think anything of it.
When night shift comes on, one of the night nurses says its her last day. No body knows why it seems very VERY abrupt because nobody talked about it before. I see her and this other nurse(my preceptor I suppose) kind of talking privately. This nurse that resigned was a nice girl and I ask "Oh where are you going?" All she says is "Somewhere." which again I thought was a bit odd.
The next day my manager comes up to me and asks me to meet him in his office. By his tone I can tell something was wrong but have no idea. He asks me if I told anyone my wage and I said yes to my preceptor. He then informs me that 1 nurse (the night nurse) quit because of it and that 2 more are considering quitting. I explain that it was naive and I didn't know i confided in her. He tells me she is not your friend, she went and told everyone and that she is already treating you differently. He then says next shift you will be on nights, I need to get you away from them. EVERYTHING now makes sense to me.
Sorry for the long post but what should I do or is there anything that I can do to rectify this situation. Should I confront/talk to this nurse who went and talked about me to everyone? I do not know how much the other nurses are making and had NO IDEA I was even making more than them. IDK if its because I have my BSN or bc they knew I wouldn't have accepted a job or a wage any lower when I was making $5 more at my last job. I feel HORRIBLY about this especially because our SNF is already so short-staffed.
Specializes in Peds Critical Care, Dialysis, General.
Money, religion and politics are generally off limits for me, especially on a new job. I have never/will never disclose my actual salary or other compensation with a coworker. I have worked in places that is grounds for immediate dismissal. I will talk religion and politics only after I get to know my teammates.
I discuss salary with a lot of people. Sharing has empowered some of us to seek more from our current employer and others to move on to where we're more appreciated. I understand your co-worker being upset, but she's wrong to take it out on you. A smarter move would have been to negotiate a raise for herself based on your information, but without selling you out. She sounds like the type who lets her emotions control her ...not smart. That's like being controlled by the wind.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Why are you telling someone you've known all of 2 days things about your personal life? That is a mistake.
I've noticed an increase in the number of over-sharers in the workforce over the past few years. Over-sharing is also known by another name: boundaryless sharing.
Our personal information is too valuable to share with people who have only known us for a day or two. Save the chatter for those who are worth our time, such as family and real friends. Healthy boundaries can serve as a deterrent to spilling the beans.
There's nothing wrong with sharing how much you make with coworkers, it's actually pretty empowering to staff as a whole. Managers don't like employees sharing how much they make, but that's only because it interferes with their ability to screw-over some workers. If a worker finds out they're getting taken advantage of and as a result leave the job that's exactly how it's supposed to work.
There's nothing wrong with sharing how much you make with coworkers, it's actually pretty empowering to staff as a whole. Managers don't like employees sharing how much they make, but that's only because it interferes with their ability to screw-over some workers. If a worker finds out they're getting taken advantage of and as a result leave the job that's exactly how it's supposed to work.
But what about a situation like this one where the nurses turn on you and then management turns on you too? Who benefits? What you suggest only works if the nurse have enough sense to direct their anger appropriately.
Yeah it was. Here's the scoop, I'm half the age of all the RN's that work there and already felt awkward since my very first day when everyone assumed i was the cna. I just wanted to fit in so when someone was very friendly to me (and more of a preceptor aunt-like type of person) I ran with it, and defintely shouldn't have trusted someone I barely knew. Like I said before, people at my last job discussed salary so that was my fault.
But what about a situation like this one where the nurses turn on you and then management turns on you too? Who benefits? What you suggest only works if the nurse have enough sense to direct their anger appropriately.
There are a couple of ways of looking at this sort of problem; one is that when an employee gets upset that they are not being treated fairly the problem is that they aren't being treated fairly, another way of looking at it is there wouldn't be a problem if the employee just didn't know they were being treated unfairly, which I disagree with. I would direct a frustrated employee to the source of their frustration, in this case the manager.
Every job I have ever worked at and asked by a co-worker how much money I made, I would tell them I made $5-$10 below the starting wage even though I was making $5-$10 more then the starting wage. In stead of getting hate, I would be pitied and offered extra help because my co-workers felt guilt I was making far less then them. If you feel the need to talk about how much you make, always tell them you make far less than the starting wage.
And to address someone else's comment no, it was an "accident" ..I should have used the word mistakenly or naively. I was trying to convey that I made a big mistake by doing it.
Fortunately, I know they wouldn't fire me even if they wanted to, I am considering quitting but really dont want to hop around job to job or leave them is an even worse situation. Wondering if they'd consider on-call/per diem with the same pay.
Just curious, anybody have a guess or some idea of what others are making? I'm wondering exactly how much more I could possibly be making to get people so riled up.
I kind of want to make it clear to everyone that I was in no shape or way bragging about my salary. We weren't even necessarily discussing the topic of salary. Again I am very young, have never worked at a snf before and everyone there could tell. Many people were asking me, is this your first job? So I was talking about the fact that it was not my first job actually and that I had a bit of experience in the hospital. That's when things went left and when I was asked, I didn't want to be awkward about it...again I assumed I was making same/less than everyone (naive I know).
And NurseGirl525 the nurse who quit wasn't the one that I told it was a different nurse. I know the one who I told prob wants to quit too but shes probably smart enough to try to get another job lined up first. Again, not saying they don't have a right to be mad, it just sucks on my end and its not like ive built up rapport with anyone yet...additionally Im suppose to be learning from them which can pose an issue as well. I can already tell that this particular nurse has avoided teaching me certain things, well guess im thankful that my manager is moving me to nights
AlabamaBelle
476 Posts
Money, religion and politics are generally off limits for me, especially on a new job. I have never/will never disclose my actual salary or other compensation with a coworker. I have worked in places that is grounds for immediate dismissal. I will talk religion and politics only after I get to know my teammates.