My employer called a couple of hours ago asking me to work tonight. Honestly, I have been shoveling snow for hours and am tired and sore and absolutely do not feel like driving in to work and staying up all night. We are chronically short staffed and I feel guilty for not answering my phone or calling back, but I'm afraid that if I call back I'll cave in and work, and I REALLY don't want to.
Also, yesterday when my street was drifted shut and I was unable to get out to drive to work, I asked if they would send someone in a 4WD to come and pick me up, since they had said that they would offer this to everyone who couldn't make it in due to the weather but they told me no, because I live in an outlying area, but that I would still be charged with a call off. Does this seem right? I was willing to work, I just couldn't get there and they backed down on having someone come and get me as promised.
I'm feeling pretty conflicted right now; angry, guilty, frustrated, anxious...
How can they call you to come in when you're on vacation? I assume you're using your vacation days. Or did you just schedule yourself so you'd have a block of time off?
Instead of blocking the number, just call the charge nurse for the shift before yours and say, "I'm on vacation until such date, please leave a note on the phone list not to call me to come in before that date."
It's scheduled vacation time. They have a mass calling system they use (it's lovely when the phone rings all day when we're trying to sleep for night shift), although I did get one message from the unit manager. That message was what set me over the edge. It began with, "I know you're on vacation, but...." I chose not to respond. I found it terribly rude. He knows we get no less than 3 staffing calls per day. If I didn't come in on any of my other vacation days, why expect it would be any different that day?
Here's an idea - adequately staff the rest of the hospital and stop letting ANS take nurses off OUR floor so you're stuck covering it. Someone needs to stand up for our floor, and it should be him.
This thread is very timely for me! I am a relatively new nurse who really, really values off days and down time. (It's hard enough to work my scheduled shifts.)
I recently received a voicemail from the staffing coordinator requesting me to pick up a night shift. This facility is chronically understaffed and every other day, if not daily, the facility is looking for a CENA or nurse to come in due to call-ins. Like the OP, I tend to be a people pleaser and fear caving in if I were to answer such calls. I was conflicted about not answering or returning the call ... but not anymore!
Thanks to all who posted advice! I really needed this. I agree that by picking up extra shifts we encourage our employers to avoid hiring additional staff.
777RN, don't worry about being a people-pleaser in relation to being a new nurse. Some people go through an entire career with this self-defeating behavior and then there are nurses! Learning to say 'no' is a valuable skill that is helped when one is able to vocalize sound reasoning for the "no".
I have also been on the other end, placing the calls. I would ask if the staff member wanted the shift. If they said no, "have a good night." The end.
However, some managers feel the need to guilt people into coming in, or mandating them when they answer. That's why employees are hesitant to answer or return calls. You can't blame them.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
I have to laugh....a number of years ago I was visiting family up in Maine (I live and work south of the Mason-Dixon line). Got a call from CSR wanting me to cover a shift that evening! I said, "Well, it'd be a hell of a commute and by the time I get there the shift would be over." She was calling off a list and not using a computer, otherwise she would've known I was on vacation.
Before I looked at your 'experience: 24 years' line, I would have thought you a new nurse! These are the ones most typically guilted into pulling yet another extra shift when it's convenient for the facility. In my own experience, I found that the vast majority of the time that *I* needed an extra consideration I couldn't get one (much like you just found) but lo and behold if THEY NEEDED me, well, wasn't I just awful to let my colleagues suffer without my much-needed extra help?
Bah. I got suckered into countless extra shifts to "help my coworkers" only to find that on my regularly-scheduled shifts *I* was drowning because someone else had called out....OR staffing had waited until the Witching Hour to try to find us another nurse.
I learned to ignore my VM, and neither my nurse managers nor staffing EVER had my cell phone number. I said I only have a home phone, they either reach me there or I'm just unreachable
So, no.....stop feeling guilty. The facility will ALWAYS run short (as you must certainly know!) and you cannot personally be held accountable to fill every gap. PLUS, after the shaft you got when finding out you lived "too far out" to be picked up for work....but NOT "too far out" to drive in when it was convenient for THEM......fuhgettaboutit!
I couldn't agree more. When they need something from you, they know where to find you. But when you needed something and they said no not to mention they will mark you for a call off that's not fair.
My work uses a mass calling program too. Two years ago, we were 12 hours away from home on vacation and I received SIX voicemails before noon calling for help. SIX IN ONE MORNING.
They used to offer us "incentive" to work extra- in addition to OT pay there would be an extra $250. Sometimes I took it, sometimes I didn't. I had no problem saying no.
Ha ha, no, I'm not a young nurse, but I'm one of those "people pleaser" types who takes on a lot of guilt, so situations like this get me all worked up. I keep thinking it over and over in my mind and wonder if they've found anyone, even though I really don't feel like I can do it tonight due to, as I said, having shoveled literally tons of snow in the past 24 hours. I feel like I at last owe them an answer, but if I call and tell them no and they get snippy about it, it will make me feel even worse than I do now.
I wish it was easy to just "grow a backbone" in these types of situations.
Thanks for all of the helpful comments. I will try to turn off the guilt for now, lol.
Hey Westieluv:
You do grow a backbone-don't answer the phone or the VM. You just put in alot of work shoveling snow. You already worked very hard. You need to rest. They won't come to your house to shovel snow. Why should you feel guilty for not answering VM. Do you know that if you went in, and somebody else called in. They didn't feel guilty for calling in and you would have fallen into their trap. I used to worry about that too but not anymore. I had a similar situation. Whenever it was nice or a holiday and a nurse called in because she didn't feel like it, work always called me to come in. I used to do i tbut that stopped because why should I lose a day off or a holiday because is too lazy to work their scheduled day to work. The worse thing is it becomes a habit of theirs and they will keep doing it to you if you let them. Yes do cover every now and then but let them know there is a limit.
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ixchel
4,547 Posts
It's scheduled vacation time. They have a mass calling system they use (it's lovely when the phone rings all day when we're trying to sleep for night shift), although I did get one message from the unit manager. That message was what set me over the edge. It began with, "I know you're on vacation, but...." I chose not to respond. I found it terribly rude. He knows we get no less than 3 staffing calls per day. If I didn't come in on any of my other vacation days, why expect it would be any different that day?
Here's an idea - adequately staff the rest of the hospital and stop letting ANS take nurses off OUR floor so you're stuck covering it. Someone needs to stand up for our floor, and it should be him.
(Can't tell I needed time off, can you? 😂)