I was off for Thanksgiving this year. A co-worker was begging me to take her shift and would not leave me alone about it. I told her that I'd do it but I'd need $600 cash prior. She said, "I'M NOT GOING TO PAY YOU" and hung up.
Ah. I mean, I wasn't going to do it anyway, but what kind of response do you expect when I'm at home drinking wine at 11pm?! After I had already politely told you no?!
Out of interest - what are the most popular dates to request off?? The only holiday I really care about is Christmas. I'll happily work Thanksgiving, Black Friday (not an actual holiday, I know, but still.....), July 4th, New Years....
New Years Eve is popular here it seems like... also TG and Christmas. Any other holidays, meh... I honestly don't care. I'll work 4th of July, Easter, the superbowl etc.
If I were in retail I would NOT want to work Black Friday. No way!
Lol! In my defense, I was on my third glass of wine and was completely done with this person. My friend was next to me and she was laughing and kept saying, "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU SAID THAT" and I was like, "Well... I didn't think she'd take me seriously about the money".
Reminds me of a story when I worked in Chemical Dependency Treatment 30 years ago. A Patient said he'd pay any staff member $100 to give him a ride home. Of course no staff member took the Patient up on the offer except the Program Director who said, "I'm holding out for $150". I was shocked and asked him why. He replied, "Anybody who'll pay $100 for a ride home will surely pay $150!"
The good news is the Patient never got a ride home, completed treatment and had a long sobriety.
LMAO DAVEY. Apparently I need to get get a job offering rides to patients trying to escape rehab! I'd make out like a bandit. Of course now they just have uber! Ugh.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Years ago, our nurse manager was asked to step down from her role. It may or may not have been due to her incompetence in the role, but then her failure to get along with her staff or her bosses, prescription drug abuse or entitled attitude may have been factors as well. To everyone's great surprise, she took a job as staff nurse on our unit. (I think I was MORE surprised that she GOT the job than that she took it.) As the holidays approached, we all watched anxiously to see which holidays PPP (Poor Pitiful Penny) would work. Her first act as nurse manager had been to announce that she was taking vacation for Christmas because it was absolutely ESSENTIAL to her well-being that she go home to Maine for Christmas. No one else would be allowed to request vacation from November 1 through January 15, and if anyone didn't like it they could become a nurse manager.
The schedule came out, and PPP was scheduled to work Christmas. (She had requested ALL the holidays off, so no great surprise there.) The day she first clapped eyes on the schedule, she came looking for me and found me on lunch break in the break room. She sat down next to me, leaned over and said in a low voice designed not to carry to our lunching and chatting colleagues "You need to work Christmas for me because I have a life and you don't." (I think she meant she had a toddler and I was childless, but maybe I'm wrong."
"Let me get this straight," I said loud enough to be heard over the break room chatter. "You just TOLD me I need to work Christmas for you because you have a life and I don't? No reeking WAY! You want a favor, you ask nicely for a favor. But you don't get to DEMAND anything from anyone. I cannot BELIEVE your gall!" PPP slunk away. The story got around and no one else would work Christmas for her, either, including the gal who wanted New Year's off so her boyfriend could propose. PPP ended up calling out sick on Christmas.
She did get Mother's Day off because she paid someone to trade with her . . . probably the LAST trade she got because when a colleague's wife was going through chemotherapy, she was unwilling to switch with him because "I've already got my schedule written down and my whole life planned."
There are five night nurses on my little progressive care unit, and every year I pick up every winter holiday except Christmas eve and Christmas day. I expect that here soon, one of them will get pregnant, and by the time its all said and done, my kid will be in his teenage years and not so excited for Christmas. I love the unit I work on, the way we schedule ourselves around the needs of co-workers, and how I know I will be willing to give up those two coveted days when one of them has a child. I also trade days for the one guy on the unit who lives, breathes, and can't handle life without football. He gets every Sunday off during football season with trades from others (including myself), and if I need help he is always willing to pick up a shift.
I should've been thankful for that a few days ago, I suppose, but I was too busy setting up the food table in the break room
My wife and I are both on the same holiday package at our employers. My 13 and 11 year old will be parentless for Christmas Eve, but they get their Funcle. I try to not switch, it causes too many issues.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Years ago, our nurse manager was asked to step down from her role. It may or may not have been due to her incompetence in the role, but then her failure to get along with her staff or her bosses, prescription drug abuse or entitled attitude may have been factors as well. To everyone's great surprise, she took a job as staff nurse on our unit. (I think I was MORE surprised that she GOT the job than that she took it.) As the holidays approached, we all watched anxiously to see which holidays PPP (Poor Pitiful Penny) would work. Her first act as nurse manager had been to announce that she was taking vacation for Christmas because it was absolutely ESSENTIAL to her well-being that she go home to Maine for Christmas. No one else would be allowed to request vacation from November 1 through January 15, and if anyone didn't like it they could become a nurse manager.
The schedule came out, and PPP was scheduled to work Christmas. (She had requested ALL the holidays off, so no great surprise there.) The day she first clapped eyes on the schedule, she came looking for me and found me on lunch break in the break room. She sat down next to me, leaned over and said in a low voice designed not to carry to our lunching and chatting colleagues "You need to work Christmas for me because I have a life and you don't." (I think she meant she had a toddler and I was childless, but maybe I'm wrong."
"Let me get this straight," I said loud enough to be heard over the break room chatter. "You just TOLD me I need to work Christmas for you because you have a life and I don't? No reeking WAY! You want a favor, you ask nicely for a favor. But you don't get to DEMAND anything from anyone. I cannot BELIEVE your gall!" PPP slunk away. The story got around and no one else would work Christmas for her, either, including the gal who wanted New Year's off so her boyfriend could propose. PPP ended up calling out sick on Christmas.
She did get Mother's Day off because she paid someone to trade with her . . . probably the LAST trade she got because when a colleague's wife was going through chemotherapy, she was unwilling to switch with him because "I've already got my schedule written down and my whole life planned."
I can't fathom that kind of selfishness. It shocks me that she ever got to a management position with that kind of attitude.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
My wife and I are both on the same holiday package at our employers. My 13 and 11 year old will be parentless for Christmas Eve, but they get their Funcle. I try to not switch, it causes too many issues.
Through most of our 22 years together, my husband and I have been on the same holiday schedule as well. The child had her other biological parent on Christmas, and sometimes we all spent the holiday together -- the various exes put the child first and everyone got along. I look back with fondness on some of those holidays.
I won't switch holidays very often, because DH and I either are both working or both have it off. Now if someone's son was home from the war I would -- but not because someone has a two year old. Two year olds cannot read the calendar and will be just as thrilled if Santa comes on December 27 as if he comes on December 25.
I never trade shifts i work because I want the money. if you trade you will get screwed. by the way you gave away the fact you wanted that day off by trying to change shifts. you should have called in sick. I know this sounds harsh but you asked for a special day off ahead of time, so you are not being respected. if you did this all the time then that would be a "no". I have been a RN for 28 years and have seen all the tricks. we learn from each other so learn this: preserve yourself. No one else is going to do it for you.
I've worked as a nurse for 40 years and I have never worked in a hospital that allowed you to request holidays off. Really. Every hospital I have ever worked in had a set policy/program in place so that staff took turns. You were assigned to a "package" on hire and stayed on that schedule permanently. Each package worked every-other holiday. (e.g. work Christmas, off Christmas, work Christmas , off Christmas, etc.) If you wanted something different, you had to arrange a trade for yourself. If you were going to trade, there were forms to fill out and both parties had to sign it to make the trade official. If you didn't show up for your scheduled holiday shift, there would be some penalty to pay (like extra weekends, or assigned to the next 2 holidays, etc.)
So, I have never worked in a place that ever had trouble with staffing on the holidays themselves. The worst days were the days before and after holidays as people who worked the actual holiday often wanted those days off. Also, the "un-official holidays" such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, Halloween, Super-Bowl Sundays, etc. were sometimes problematic.
NurseDisneyPrincess
66 Posts
New Years Eve is popular here it seems like... also TG and Christmas. Any other holidays, meh... I honestly don't care. I'll work 4th of July, Easter, the superbowl etc.
If I were in retail I would NOT want to work Black Friday. No way!