Do you ever pick up your phone on your day off when work calls you?

[Convoy2022_TrumpSupporter]

I do get my days off but I feel the need to pick up my phone because I want to have peace of mind that they are not doing an investigation on me or something. Most of the time they call because they want to work, but one time a staff called me and asked me where I last put eye drops of a patient to which I said I do not know and then they found it under the med cart drawer.

The charge Nurse did tell me that she was once called because of an investigation for a pressure ulcer that was not reported earlier.

But I read my Union book and it says that work cannot call you on your day off or if you are not present at work. If they want to do an investigation or ask you questions, they have to wait until you show up to work and such.

[Hannahbanana, BSN, MSN]

On 7/20/2021 at 3:02 PM, TriciaJ said:

If it's not important enough to leave a message, they have no business calling you on your day off.

Back when Flo and I were in the Crimea, there was no voicemail or caller I.D.  You actually had to answer the phone to know who it was and what they wanted.  No reason nowadays to let work annoy you at home.

 

I was a probie with Flo before there were answering machines, and certainly no cell phones. We loved it when answering machines were invented— I think they sold bazillions of them to nurses, and I got one of the first ones. They made a number of staffing coordinators decide to seek other work. 

[SmilingBluEyes]

Answering machines, yea great. Caller-ID greater still. I don't have to listen to anything. I can delete the message if I want to, without ever hearing it.

[Rionoir, ADN, RN]

My manager picks up last minute NOC shifts all the time and helps us out on the floor regularly. If she calls me I will answer, sure. If they need help and I don't want to go in, I say no thanks and that's the end of it. If they are short and need help then I'll go in pretty frequently, it's not like I do it for free it's usually overtime and they offer really good incentive pay on top of that most of the time. We have plenty of people that never answer their phones or have any interest in anything except a paycheck.

I'm honestly not sure why people think being asked to work an extra shift here and there is so awful. A day here and there really pads your paycheck pretty nicely.

[DesiDani]

On 7/27/2021 at 3:58 PM, Rionoir said:

I'm honestly not sure why people think being asked to work an extra shift here and there is so awful. A day here and there really pads your paycheck pretty nicely.

Because they promise when you do come in you will work on a particular unit or run, only to float you to an entirely different unit or run. They give you the absolute worst run on the unit.  You happily come in for them many times and any shift when you ask for ONE day off, they can't find a way to accommodate you. 

My BIG QUESTION OF THE DAY!

So they ask you to come in to work. Most hospitals have 6 allowed call offs in a calendar year. At 3 you get a warning, 4 write-up, and 5 almost out the door, and 6 terminated. Why aren't those "PLEASE can you come in we REALLY NEED YOU ??  ?TO COME!!" days used to erase a call off day?

[DesiDani]

I forgot my favorite they beg you to come in and when you get there they send someone home early and it is NOT YOU.

[DesiDani]

A truly SNL moment is the stomach turning "Good God I don't want to do this" just shoot me look on the Charge Nurse face's when its time to call and ask people to come in to work. Especially when the calls have to be done at 5am in the morning.

[BeenThere2012, ASN, RN]

All of this is in part why nurses have so much job dissatisfaction.  The constant short staffing, and the pressure to fill in because admins won’t have more staff available.  The bait and switch, the preferential treatment, and attempts to make you feel guilty when you are already exhausted to name a few.  Also, forcing you to float to an unfamiliar unit, and being floated in the middle of a shift contribute to the possibility of errors and put undue pressure on the nurse.  

[LibraNurse27, BSN, RN]

On 7/28/2021 at 10:51 PM, DesiDani said:

Why aren't those "PLEASE can you come in we REALLY NEED YOU ??  ?TO COME!!" days used to erase a call off day?

That would have saved my hospital career! I frequently came in extra when they asked. For the first 3 years I had almost perfect attendance, only called in once for the flu. The last year and a half I called in frequently for mental health issues. The month that my cat died I called in WAY too much (hate if you want, she was a big part of keeping me stable!). I got a talk from my boss, all focused on my recent call ins, no mention of all my extra shifts.

That's when I learned hospitals will use you, but it's not a mutual relationship. Once they're not happy with you, there is no consideration of the years you were a model employee. When you're no longer useful they make a show of caring about your mental illness and handing you the phone # to employee assistance while simultaneously denying the PTO request you put in to avoid calling off and subtly suggesting you look for a new job if you can't quickly go back to perfect attendance and rarely approved PTO. 

[Fiddleback]

Our managers and charge nurses are actually smart enough to know people won’t answer the phone when work is calling. So they developed the sneaky habit of using their personal cell phones when they want to call someone in. I never answer a call from a number I don’t recognize. When I don’t return the call and they ask why, I come up with something like “I was in the middle of the lake fishing and my service didn’t pick it up” or “it was really loud in the casino and I didn’t hear the phone” or maybe even “I was having some really good sex. We’re you going to offer something better?”  I haven’t been called in quite some time. 

[LibraNurse27, BSN, RN]

1 hour ago, Fiddleback said:

“I was having some really good sex. We’re you going to offer something better?”

LOL! It would have to be a pretty disappointing sexual encounter for picking up an extra shift to be better!!