Boosting employee morale

[MomRN0913]

Some of you have read about the insanity I have been dealing with at my first manager job at a start-up LTACH facility. My boss did not like me, complained ot everyone, showed no support, no guidance, didn't know what she was doing herself.... and her friends (she is friends with a few of the RN's and brought them from her last job) were the ones who had something bad to say about me. I was getting sick and tired, and spoke to the CEO (he speaks ot everyone with his open door policy) he was finally realizing what she was doing. Did I mention my boss was kind of racist, thinking the only good nurses are Phillipino's and she favored them?? Yup, I'm white. The black and the whites always felt it over there from her. I never experienced that in my old job, and i was one of the few white people. My kids played with the phillipinos kids, the indians kids,t he blacks kids.....they were my family.

To the point. She resigned. My boss walked out because her phillipino friend unit clerk was fired. There was no warning about the unit clerk being fired, but she was and there was reason. I had nothing to do with it though. The sad thing, is the innocent people are fearing their jobs now. They just see people getting fired for no reason. I have been giving them support and some have said "if your not scared, I'm not scared" Some are weary of me because I am white....others were good friends of the one who walked out, and may do so themselves....but I think not because they need the job. I am very happy that my main support at this job, the one who kept me from walking out so many times, one who I became close with ahs become my new boss. ANd I am happy about this not because we are friends, but because we work well together, we communicate, and she actually knows what she is doing and i don't fear my license with her support.

Somehow we need to get the employees not to be scared that they are next. We have to get them to seperate this phillipino, black, white whatever thing and come together. Trust eachother and treat eachother with respect. But how........ I want them to want to come to work. I want work to be fun again. No matter what kind of horrible day I had in the ICU at my last job, I was surrounded by the greatest coworkers who always made me laugh and because i was with them, it wasn't so bad. I need to bring this here.

Oh, on a funny note, there is the director of QA who is nuts and literally, and friends with the my old boss. She has had it out for me, talkingot me disrespectfully, as if I am there to work for her and do what she says....She was mad I didn't get something back to her (while I was dealign with a whole other mess) and made me meet with her. And chose a patients room on an empty floor and closed the door..... basically belittling me behind this door. I said no way are we continuing this conversation in here.... she said lets take it to the CE's office. So we did. And he saw what a nut she is and she may be next to go. I don't have to deal with ehr anymore. She has a history of being threatening. She ******* scared me! Crazy place I work, huh? But I don't want it to be like that anymore. i need help!

[catlover314]

You definately need support and some guidance to get through all of this, and a public forum like this one might not be the best place to get that support. If your organization offers counseling/support services you should check it out, if they don't have this benefit, find someone on your own that you can really work through these issues with.

[Kyasi]

Some of these issues seem like things that need to be addressed by the CEO or someone higher up then you. Perhaps a meeting to discuss the problems, get suggestions from the current staff for improvement, and a few morale boosters/incentives for them to hang in there while restructuring and changes are being made. They need assurance that if they are team players, follow their job descriptions, and follow the proper chain of command if they have a problem will will help to assure them their job security.

Good luck to you! You have some real challenges ahead of you. You seem to have gotten more of a 'fighting' spirit as you have been there longer which I hope you can use to make some needed changes. I hope all the patients you serve aren't suffering from the fall out of all these issues.

Kyasi