on call for holidays?

allnurses Guide · Oct 17, 2005

I've never heard of that.

I'd be saying no way pretty darn fast.

Curious to hear from others if it is the norm though.

steph

fergus51 · Oct 17, 2005

I've never heard of that either. Call ins on holidays are not well received by anyone. I can't imagine the disputes that would start among the staff if one of us had to go in because someone else called off.

allnurses Guide · Oct 17, 2005

I've never heard of that either. Call ins on holidays are not well received by anyone. I can't imagine the disputes that would start among the staff if one of us had to go in because someone else called off.

Oh man, that is what I was thinking - just think of the fights! :smiley_ab

I think this would set up your staff in a very negative way.

steph

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Oct 17, 2005

we get double sick points and a whole lot of people mad if you call in on a holiday!

BabyRN2Be · Oct 17, 2005

I've never heard of that either. Call ins on holidays are not well received by anyone. I can't imagine the disputes that would start among the staff if one of us had to go in because someone else called off.

On the floor I work on, there's already been some "snarking" about holidays. It started at least 6 weeks ago! We have a new grad who said if she can't get several of the holidays off, she'll call in "sick." Goodness, that'll be the kiss of death for her career at this particular hospital if she does this. :nono: She's already upset the staff by getting hired for nights, and then telling the manager that she has a disorder that only can be cured by working days. She somehow gets days.

Needless to say, she's not very popular right now.

bonjovigirl · Oct 18, 2005

Okay, that reinforced it for me. I was very angry to learn that I would be EXPECTED to come in to work if someone else called out. It isn't a favor to come in, it is manndatory. Everyone is paired up with someone, and if that someone calls in, you are automatically scheduled, and expected to show up on time. I was thinking it is a terrible morale thing for staff. Can you imagine having 20 people invited to your house for dinner, and having to go to work? So help me if I get that call at 0500.What a nightmare. I saw the list for what everyone worked last year, there were more than 1 "sick day" in there. * sigh *

I still can't believe its policy that NO ONE has any holiday officailly off.

Katnip, RN · Oct 18, 2005

This sounds like a terrible policy. I can just imagine "Jane called out and I had to go in for her on Thanksgiving, so I'm calling out on Christmas."

I'd think this would get really ugly year after year, and not being allowed to make holiday plans for even one holiday would be awful. I just wouldn't work in a place like that.

RN4NICU, LPN, LVN · Oct 18, 2005

Good grief. What moron thought that up? I guarantee you it was someone who wouldn't have to be there (or on call) on ANY holiday.

I, for one, absolutely would not work somewhere that had this policy. It is SO disrespectful of the fact that we have lives outside of work. Think for a second about people like myself, whose entire families live out of state. Any chance they would be able to see their families for the holidays? Nope, not with a dumb-***ed policy like that.

It makes me angry that there is a facility out there that is getting away with treating their employees like that. Then again, they can get away with whatever people will put up with. If they could not keep staff due to their policy, things would most likely have to change, but if people only gripe about it, but do not leave - they know that even though their staff is unhappy, they have gotten away with their little bullying tactics and will only add more until they finally cross the line and run out of people willing to work for them. :angryfire

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Oct 18, 2005

We can expect to have every other holiday off. If we are scheduled to work and have asked for the day off in case of low census, they usually call us between 5AM and 530AM, we will either be given call or the day off. However, if someone calls off, the person left on call is called in first, followed by others. If you are given the day off, you dont have to be available to them after the first hour after your start time. So by 8AM if they havent called you back,, its your day to burn.

Usually the census drops low enough that they do call off a few and leave some of them on call in case there is a large census increase during the day.

It is nice knowing that we will be off every other holiday though. Without having to worry about call.

lee1 · Oct 18, 2005

So I am a new rn and this is my first rn job, at a mid-size hospital. we have the 1-5 order of preference for holidays off, which is cool , and I am new so I anticipate working the brunt of the holidays, which has already been made clear to me. That I understand. HOWEVER, if you aren't scheduled to work lets say Thanksgiving, you are officially "on-call" for another RN. If they have an emergency, or just call in for whatever reason, you have to go to work. You do not have any holidays officially off until 0645 that day. Sooo, if you're scheduled off on thanskgiving management has made it clear that you better not make plans that you can't cancel, that morning. No one "officially" has any holidays off. you two choices are work that day or be on call.
Is this the norm???

Absoulutely NOT, I would find another job pronto and tell them WHY you are leaving. If many nurses do this that benefit will be restored and whoever thought of it fired.

Do you have a retention coordinator???? Do you have a nurse professional committee????

You are NOT a SLAVE !!!!!

Nella · Oct 18, 2005

That's a terrible Holiday policy. It almost encourages someone to call in if they know there is someone oncall to cover for them. And one should be able to relax on the Holiday they are not scheduled to work, without fears of being called in. Effectively, they are not giving their staff ANY Holidays off.

I think rotating Holidays is the best solution. I've worked in places where if you called in sick the day before or after a Hoiday, you lost your Holiday pay (if you wrere scheduled off).