Can someone explain to me what mandatory overtime means?

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2008

Mandatory overtime is when your employer mandates (read: forces) you to work overtime.

I receive overtime for any hours that exceed 40 in a work week.

I also stay over to chart after my shift has ended, if I was too busy to get the charting done during the shift. I always stay on the clock because I never want to give the management at my workplace the impression that it can all be done in 8 hours. I am not a martyr, and I fully expect payment for all the time I put in.

Nurses who return to the floor after clocking out are being foolish because (1) they are laboring for free and (2) they are giving management the idea that the workload can be completed in either 8 or 12 hours.

Be a smart nurse, not a fool. Even if the bean-counters gripe at me for staying on the clock, so be it. I'll punch out if they want me to, but the work will go undone, and they'll be certain of that.

beachbum3 · Feb 18, 2008

Mandatory overtime is when your employer mandates (read: forces) you to work overtime.
I receive overtime for any hours that exceed 40 in a work week.
I also stay over to chart after my shift has ended, if I was too busy to get the charting done during the shift. I always stay on the clock because I never want to give the management at my workplace the impression that it can all be done in 8 hours. I am not a martyr, and I fully expect payment for all the time I put in.
Nurses who return to the floor after clocking out are being foolish because (1) they are laboring for free and (2) they are giving management the idea that the workload can be completed in either 8 or 12 hours.
Be a smart nurse, not a fool. Even if the bean-counters gripe at me for staying on the clock, so be it. I'll punch out if they want me to, but the work will go undone, and they'll be certain of that.

So that means if a shift needs to be covered, they tell you to do it and you can't say no? Can they force you to work back to back shifts or parts of the next shift?

I'm all about helping out when I can, but I don't see where its fair for anyone to be forced to work over time, ever. Can they call you in on your day off and you have to go, also?

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2008

So that means if a shift needs to be covered, they tell you to do it and you can't say no? Can they force you to work back to back shifts or parts of the next shift?
I'm all about helping out when I can, but I don't see where its fair for anyone to be forced to work over time, ever. Can they call you in on your day off and you have to go, also?

I've never worked at a facility that resorted to mandatory overtime, so I do not have any firsthand information on how it actually plays out.

However, an RN that I briefly met about 3 years ago was telling me about his woes with mandatory overtime when he was working at a prison in California. He worked the night shift (11pm to 7am), but would be forced to stay over to do a double shift and work the 7am to 3pm shift if somebody called off sick.

oramar · Feb 18, 2008

I used to work at a place that did a thing called 8 or 80. If you worked more than 8 hrs in a day you got overtime reguardless of how many hrs you worked in a week. Also, if you did more than 80 in a two week period you got overtime. They never had to mandate because all their part timers got time and half for staying 8 more hours. Places that pay overtime only when you go over 40 hrs have to mandate more often. There is something about doing 16 hrs in a row for straight time that is very off putting and a lot of part-time and casual staff won't do it.

allnurses Guide · Feb 18, 2008

Mandatory overtime is when your employer mandates (read: forces) you to work overtime.
I receive overtime for any hours that exceed 40 in a work week.
I also stay over to chart after my shift has ended, if I was too busy to get the charting done during the shift. I always stay on the clock because I never want to give the management at my workplace the impression that it can all be done in 8 hours. I am not a martyr, and I fully expect payment for all the time I put in.
Nurses who return to the floor after clocking out are being foolish because (1) they are laboring for free and (2) they are giving management the idea that the workload can be completed in either 8 or 12 hours.
Be a smart nurse, not a fool. Even if the bean-counters gripe at me for staying on the clock, so be it. I'll punch out if they want me to, but the work will go undone, and they'll be certain of that.

:yeahthat:

And with that, allow me to VENT for just one second..

Where I work, some nights the work load is so heavy that I cannot get my charting done. I mean, can't even get HALF of it done.

But then I try to stay and finish charting... and CAN'T, because the doctors have descended upon OUR nurse's station and monopolize OUR computers. They can't even give the doctors their own area on the floor to check computer charts and such.

I try to use one of the portable computers... ugh, doesn't hardly work. They are slow as molasses. They lock up.

But anyway... to get back to the topic a bit... I don't have mandatory overtime where I work now, but did at the psych facility where I used to work. If our name was on the list for that particulary day, and staff was short on the shift following ours.. we had to stay. No questions.

ICRN2008, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2008

There is a hospital in my area that mandates overtime. I heard that a nurse was brought to the state board for abandonment because she refused to stay over her shift (she had family responsibilities)

It is very important to ask these types of questions before you accept a position. Good luck!

oramar · Feb 18, 2008

There is a hospital in my area that mandates overtime. I heard that a nurse was brought to the state board for abandonment because she refused to stay over her shift (she had family responsibilities)
It is very important to ask these types of questions before you accept a position. Good luck!

Bringing someone before BON because of refusal to accept mandation is very out of date practice. I understood that most BONs have repudiated this practice and will not prosecute. There have been a lot of post here about the situation.

MelBel · Feb 18, 2008

I don't have mandatory overtime...which is nice because I can pass my report to whoever shows up, and I can leave. The bad part being the same thing also happens to me on occasion. We do end up working short quite a bit.

I don't think I would work anywhere with mandatory overtime...my shifts are enough for me, and if I want to stay longer or come in extra, I will let them know. :)

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Feb 18, 2008

Mandatory overtime should only exist in crisis situations. If it is used more frequently then someone is not planning appropriately. Consider this: Your shift is 12 hours. Towards the end of the shift you learn that some nurses called in sick. The choices for the charge nurse are to assign everyone on the NEXT shift more patients or have you stay over for part of the next shift to help with the patient load. Which is safer? Depends on so many things. Again, I feel that if mandatory OT is used often then there are administrative problems. Yes, you get paid OT, but that is useless when you work 16 hours.

kcochrane · Feb 18, 2008

In my facility mandation is still used. You are put on a list for two weeks about every few months. During that two weeks, you could be "mandated" to work an extra 8 hour shift. They cannot mandate you from home, they cannot mandate you if you have already worked 2 shifts and they cannot mandate you if you have the next day off. In the last 3 years I have been mandated 3 times. Even with that, I still think it is a bad practice.

It is one thing to sign up for overtime and be prepared to work it (both mentally and physically). It is another to be forced to work it. It puts my residents at risk and puts my license at risk. I am the only one that knows if I am capable of doing another 8 hours.

As far as overtime, in my facilty, anything over 8 hours is 1 1/2...even if you aren't working a 40 hour week.

I'm with classicdame on this issue..mandation should be for emergency situations only. Some states have implemented this and somehow the hospitals have managed to staff at safe levels.