Coping with an unfair termination

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Nov 8, 2008

Well, you can't change an organization that fired you and you don't have a lawsuit because it is at will.

I was fired once because I didn't "fit in." Well, alrighty, then.

You have to get past it and find a new job.

sissiesmama, ASN, RN · Nov 8, 2008

I was just terminated from my job. We are an at will state, so I wasn't given a reason. She wanted me to resign, but when I didn't, she fired me. Has anyone had similar experiences? It's long and complicated, but the basis for the problems has been my knowing too much about how incompetent she is as a leader. The majority of staff feel the same, but no one is willing to stand up to her because they don't want to lose their job. I loved my job, but am not willing to be harassed and treated unfairly. Anyone willing to share similar experiences? I have gone from crying to anger to bewilderment to focusing on what I can do positively to change the way the organization is run. :paw:

Hey hawaii - I am so sorry you have been treated this way. I have been there, done that, unfortunately. I have been a nurse since 1991, and have always worked in the hospital setting, and a little in the LTC hospital setting. I also live in an "at will" state, and have been in your shoes before. It is a crappy situation to be put in.

I was working in the ER in a very buys hospital. Our nurse manager was married, but having an affair with another of our staff nurses. Long story short, when that was discovered by administration, it was a big fallout right in the middle of the ER nurses station. During all this, when the manager and staff nurse realized that I had been aware of what was going on, the manager made it awfully clear that I would not be around long. (I had actually walked in on the two of them when they were "indisposed" in one of the rooms in the ER.

My manager did ask for my resignation, and when I didn't go for it, I started getting written up for ridiculous things. Of course, it snowballed, and I got the call to go to HR.

This happened about 4 or 5 yrs ago, and I did see this nurse manager at a different facility working as a staff nurse in their ER. After I had been terminated at the other facility, everything kind of came to a head, and a lot of people found out about all the things that had been going on. The male staff nurse got transferred to one of that hospital's other facilities, his wife found out about the affair and left him, and the female nurse manager got threatened with termination if she didn't leave. She did leave, and her husband found out about everything and divorced her. When I saw her, she was trying to recover from undergoing breat cancer treatment and reconstructive surgery. I was in the ER that night as a patient and she was assigned as my nurse. I was a little uncomfortable at first, but we did talk and we both apologized, and befor it was over, we both shed some tears, and I felt a little less angry about the whole situation. That did seem to help me a little, because I had stayed so angry after I was terminated, and that did help a good bit.

Good luck to you. I am sorry you got treated the way you did. It just doesn't make sense, because we aren't there to win popularity contests. Some of the managers and that type need to be taken down a notch, like these two, they screwed up doing what they did, and I was angry because I was trying to just take care of my patients when I opened the door that day and walked in on the two of them. I wasn't the one doing something wrong, but it still came back to bite me in the rear.

Good luck, try not to let your experience get you down.

Anne, RNC

oramar · Nov 8, 2008

Wow what a difficult sitation that was for you Ilovemypuppies. Your old manager sure owed you an apology but I don't think you owed her one. For all the people out there that think that the fact that a person got fired indicates they must be guilty of henious crime think again. Most firings are about some complex interpersonal goings on and are not reflection on a employees skill with a patient. You could just as easily get fired for reporting a managers poor judgement as not. I know someone who did report bad judgement and were fired because their bosses decided to sweep the whole thing under the rug. They wanted to be rid of the eye witness.

litbitblack, ASN, RN · Nov 8, 2008

I to was fired in july after being there 10 yrs. The nm got mad cause it was the day for her to turn in her pt stay reports that the charge nurses were supposed to do (3 a week) we would ask the pt how there stay was or ask an employee the same questions. Basically we were doing the management rounds. Well I was the only charge doing them for my floor none of the other ones were doing them and I didn't do them so she had none to turn in.lol....so 3 hours later I was being called to the directors office and placed on admin leave for get this....complaints from 3 nurses that floated to our floor. Saying i didn't help them and one didn't go to lunch until 330...well well well,,,,i was the only charge for 28 pts and 2 of these nurses were rns(one was training) and the other nurse was recovering from cancer tx and really shouldn't have been there anyways. I was picking up her slack....but she was really good friends with the director...Nevermind the fact that I had 22 pts to assess because the rest of the nurses were lvns(only 5 total on the floor) and responsible for admissions, blood, pca pumps and whatever else happened. So they never took that in to account. I lost 170 hours pto...almost 5000.00. yeah i was ******. I felt betrayed and still am working on getting over it. WAnted to leave nursing all together, maybe work at walmart. But i took six weeks to find another position and i am only working part time. It does take a while to get over things like that but just remember you are an excellent nurse and that you will be an asset to another company that will appreciate you and your skills....good luck