Don't you wanna work.

itsme · Jan 16, 2003

Get caller ID, or let your answering machine pick up, screen your calls if you have to. You have to have time for rest or you will get burned out

eltrip · Jan 16, 2003

Amen!

And if they REALLY NEED you, then they REALLY need for you to get more than 4 hours of sleep between shifts!

plumrn, BSN, RN · Jan 16, 2003

I always got a lot of calls on my days off at 5:00 am asking if I wanted to work extra that day. I rarely said yes. It was always hard to fall back to sleep after that early phone call. Finally, I told them NOT to call me. I couldn't face the prospect of never, ever getting to sleep in. So now, if I want extra hours, I tell them to call me on such and such day if they need extra help.

Wonder what the management would do if we called them every Sat and Sun at 0500 for the rest of their life?!!

nursedawn67, LPN · Jan 16, 2003

Like Nancy Reagan used to say...Just say NO!

JedsMom, ASN, RN · Jan 16, 2003

Just say NO. I've been in that same position while working in the ER. They would give me the same song and dance. I always gave in. They will use you up and spit you out. Take care of number one 'cause nobody else will. Like was said before, screen your calls if you can. Get some rest and good luck.

hitechlvn · Jan 16, 2003

This is what we have learned to do...

There is a switch on the phone that controls the ringer. When you go to bed, turn it to- "off".

Just leave a post it note on the phone that says "turn on ringer"

then you can turn it on when you get up :)

Jimmie

renerian, BSN, RN · Jan 16, 2003

its me................good thought.........heeheh

renerian

OBNURSEHEATHER · Jan 16, 2003

But did you say yes?

See, there's this unit clerk that works everyday at my hospital, because management is farting around hiring the new one that we desperately need. So on every one of her days off, they ask her to work, and she says yes. And then she bytches about it the entire shift, bringing us all into foul moods.

So, they will only stretch you as far as you let them. Turn off the phone, get caller ID, and if you don't want to work, then say no.

Heather

Dr. Kate, BSN, RN · Jan 16, 2003

There another side to this related to all the nurses who when they learn their unit was short say "well, I would have come in, but they didn't call me." That's what started the call everyone and ask started around here. It's amazing when everyone is called, with documentation, that whine stops (it's one a supervisor hates to hear.) The place where I work per diem frequently calls people several times a day to see if they'll come in to work. That is excessive. But we don't hear about not trying to get people to work anymore, not calling everyone, etc.

What I have seen is that there is an identifiable group of people who will work extra, whenever you ask them, and frequently ask you first. There's another group that will virtually never work extra under any circumstances--they will usually work extra only when they chose to do so, not when asked. In my experience this is also the group that whines "I would have come in if they had called me." Not! The group that is hard to predict is the one where sometimes they'll work extra but there's no telling when that might be, and even they can't predict when it might happen. So you call them every day, hoping this might be the day.

Now me, I'm one of the virtually never work extra people and I screen all my calls. I'm also really, really good at saying "no."

P_RN, ADN, RN · Jan 16, 2003

One of my children told me of a guy who called the CIA and taped their answering message. That's what they put on their answering machine........

"Hello you have reached the Central Intelligence Agency....."

Said they never got a second call that morning. They put the other regular machine message for when they were in a receiving mode.

NO sounds the best to me.....or NO but I'll call you back IF I change my mind......

The no ring kind of bothers me.....it MIGHT be an important call.

I have a second tel number (originally for a dial up modem), THAT number only goes out to freindlies......if I get a telemarketer.....just lay the phone down and they give up.....It costs me $12 a month.

P

BadBird, BSN, RN · Jan 16, 2003

After reading this it reminds me of when I was full time staff, management expected you to come in early, stay late and work everyday that you have off. Thank God I went Agency, best move I ever made.