Published Dec 16, 2015
8-ball, BSN
286 Posts
So I had all my agencies compare contracts for the city I wanted to go to, I compared and finally accepted one. I have a start date of Jan 11, Now one of the other agencies calls and supposedly a new offer is available that he didn't have available before. Its for $4/hour more and $400 more a month in housing. I don't want to burn any bridges yet, I am too new and this will be my first assignment. He says that my other company will understand and that he is sure they will not blacklist me. I don't totally believe him and I want to be ethical and not get into any legal issues. He said if I am at least 2 weeks out all will be Ok which I am still 2 weeks away. I need your thoughts please.
NedRN
1 Article; 5,782 Posts
A contract is a contract. Binding agreement. A promise. Don't break it.
You can be sued for doing so, some agencies may assess damages and send it to collections if you don't pay. You may also be blacklisted at this hospital and possible others. You can also forget about working for this agency ever again.
Finding, interviewing, and doing QA, and starting another traveler inside of two weeks may be impossible, especially this time of year. So you will leave the hospital short handed. You will also put a stain on the agency's relationship with the hospital. They trusted you even with the added risk a first time traveler represents.
You also have no idea if the other assignment will work out or if the compensation details are accurate. Some recruiters will tell you anything. I certainly would not want to work with an recruiter with such poor ethics. He will screw you in a heartbeat.
Put the shoe on the other foot. You are two weeks away from starting a new assignment. The agency tells you they have cancelled the contract because they found a better traveler. Now you have lost probably two weeks work or more while you scramble for another assignment, one that might pay less in a place you were not interested in just so you can have some money coming in.
Look into that better paying assignment for your next assignment. But not with the agency that first proposed it. Take them off your list.
That is exactly what I thought. This brings about another question for me. My contract is with Cross-country currently, So this recruiter is with AMN, I already had a recruiter with them but this new guy said he was my NEW recruiter so I contacted my recruiter that I was working with at AMN and told them about it and they assured me that she was still my recruiter and this NEW guy is part of their sister company with NursesRX. I only want to work with one contact for each company not one for each branch of a company. How do you guys deal with this multi company contacts situation. P.S my current recruiter told me that she would never ask me to break a contract. I emailed the guy and told him I would not be working with him.
Good decision.
It is not uncommon at all to find a better assignment after you have signed a contract. Sometimes it is even a first choice assignment you applied for but they chose someone else initially, or just never interviewed in a timely manner. That's life!
So how do you guys deal with having multiple recruiters from one agency? just curious.
I'd ask your primary recruiter (and the other one too) that question. They all have access to the same job orders.
That is what I figured which is why it doesn't make sense to me for the company to send 3-4 recruiters my name. I asked the (unethical one) guy why he was suddenly assigned to me and he said that he was going to be my NEW recruiter and the old was had given him my name. Which was a total lie sense when I contacted her she said she was still my recruiter. They must get paid based on how many people they sign to a contract.
Argo
1,221 Posts
They fall under the same umbrella but they are different agencies. In the end, you should be able to get a better rate from your AMN recruiter over your NurseRX recruiter. I work with AMN and get calls from NurseRX for contracts about once a month. I would not even bother signing with them unless you like the recruiter more.
AMN started giving multiple recruiters initially so that you can pick one that you are more comfortable with. That is new in the past 18 months.
Ok gotcha
The reasons for different agency brands remaining separate used to be marketing to different types of travelers and differentiating brands by service, pay, and who knows what else. I don't have a ready example for AM, but for Cross Country, you used to be able to get paid better through their NovaPro brand. It is certainly possible that this still happens and certain brands have an opportunity to pay more to their travelers. If you are looking for good money via the rapid response route, you would talk to Nurse Choice for AM and CRU48 for CC. Do the other brands have access to those rapid response orders? I don't know, it is certainly murky.
I love, love the idea of getting multiple recruiter calls for new travelers for AM to allow them to pick the best fit.
Yes, recruiters are in sales and do get paid on commission. The more assignments they fill, the more they get paid. You can make good money as a recruiter, but it takes a lot of hours to even come up to what their travelers make. There are many ways to pay sales people, but generally if you are on the bottom, you are required to make so many calls a day to make your base pay. You are fed internal and external phone lists to crank through.