Fake call outs irritate me

[Emergent]

So, Labor Day weekend is over. We had a couple of obvious fake sick calls, leaving the day shift short. Both of them were by people annoyed with management, nurses who constantly, self righteously proclaim their dedication to patient care and safety, and deride the hospital for understaffing.

I believe that we have a moral obligation to come to work if we are able. We signed up for nursing, knowing that we will have to work on weekends and holidays. How can anyone hold their head up and say they are dedicated to patient safety, when they leave their co-workers short because they want to play?

[studentnursemon86]

Last time I called out was a few months ago. I woke up with a 103 temperature and ended up seeing the doctor and finding out I had strep and bronchitis.

At some points, if I haven't been sick in a while, but I'm feeling really burnt out and exhausted; I may take a mental health day. I will call out sick: no, I'm not contagious, but in a sense, I am sick. I am mentally drained and need a day to relax. Those days I stay home in my PJ's like I was sick. I don't go out and party.

I don't take those days often, but sometimes you just need that.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Exactly the reason i cannot stand Unions!

They enable lazy workers!

Most of us (who I'm assuming are the ones you'd call lazy) aren't union. Perhaps if we were union, we wouldn't need to resort to calling in to get the days we need off.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

I rarely call in sick (the times I have, I was hospitalized or just worked over 60+ in a week and was sick with exhaustion). People really need to be careful about misusing sick time. What happens if you (general you) become sick for real and have used up too many occurrences to cover the illness? And end up getting written up? I actually work with an aide who has been written up and is now at risk for losing her job because she kept calling off because she was "mad" at the scheduler or just didn't feel like coming into work. Having too many call-offs can also hurt one's annual performance review and may end up being passed up for raises...no bueno!

Well, that is the risk taken.

[AWanderingMinstral]

If an individual has paid time off, then it is their prerogative to call off. While it is not professional on a holiday (or the day before or after), your facility should have a policy in place to penalize this individual. As for being short-staffed, that, too, is the responsibility of the facility. If this is a chronic issue in your workplace, I would try to enlist the support of several other nurses and address your collective concern(s) with management. If all else fails, well, maybe consider working for a better-managed facility.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Compare and contrast teaching and nursing. That's one H*LL of an essay.

It is possible to fill a last minute hole. Actually it's easy. I was an agency nurse for years. One call.. I was there to cover the shift. The FACILITY has to be willing to pay for that coverage. Yours does not.

Actually it isn't. We BEG for the agency to send us a last minute person and they never have people available. Most often than not, they need a week notice or so they tell us. We are contracted with certain ones to.

OP, I hear you. It is frustrating. I called in sick today because I woke up in the middle of the night sick to my stomach. I feel fine now and would actually go in, but the census was down, so they were ok. However, I call in sick maybe 2-3 times a year and usually only for a day.

I have co-workers that never work a holiday because they suddenly develop the plague but are well enough the next day to go shopping.

I think if people need a mental health day, take a PTO day..ahead of time. I plan on a random day off every few months, just for the heck of it. I don't call in sick and give my manager 4 hours to cover my shift.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

Having too many call-offs can also hurt one's annual performance review and may end up being passed up for raises...no bueno!

I doubt that is much of a consideration for the many thousands of nurses who haven't had an annual raise in years regardless of performance reviews.

Hospitals, very many of them, encourage such behavior in their nurses. Many of them have long ago done away with raises or rewards based on performance reviews. When there are raises they are very small and across the board "cost of living" type raises. In the situation many employers have created there is zero incentive to preform any better than it takes to not get fired.

A reasonable person would conclude that either that is the situation employers wanted, or they are incompetent administrators.

[SeattleJess]

I don't call off on holidays 'cause I like my time and a half.

And, speaking of self righteous.... calling your coworkers that in a post like that is like the pot calling the kettle black.

So, if I call off when I'm not sick I'm putting patients at risk? Don't be so melodramatic. Employees have a right to use the sick time they've earned. Those who abuse it wind up getting canned. I'm a healthy person, it's been years since I've actually been ill. Sorry, I need an extra day off a few times a year, too.

So, yes, there have been occaisons where I call off simply because I want a night off. I always just say "I'm using a sick day" and leave it at that. Nothing "fake" about it. I do not make up sob stories about being sick because I am not a child. I am a grown man and if I am going to use the sick time that I have earned and is part of my compensation I do not need to play out some silly soap opera charade.

Fortunately, I work at a facility that has "personal paid leave" (or something like that) instead of "sick" or "vacation" pay. You could use every day of ppl to take vacation if you weren't worried about facing the consequences of an unexcused absence from work. Every day off is a benefit which an employee has earned and is entitled to take as s/he feels best.

Traditional sick leave, on the other hand, is not a vacation day to which an employee is entitled - although both employees and employers use it as such in practice. This can create resentments on the part of employees who cover the extra work when colleagues are out on the gold course "sick" (of work). But since the resentments hurt only the resenters, best to focus on living your own moral life.

Trying to wear the "God suit" is a sure road to unhappiness. I agree with BeenThereDoneThat coverage issues are up to the facility. As worker bees, our responsibilities for patient safety does not lie in the ultimate responsibility of staffing, ordering supplies and oh-so-much else and we'll just make ourselves crazy trying to manage our coworkers when we aren't managers.

[SeattleJess]

I doubt that is much of a consideration for the many thousands of nurses who haven't had an annual raise in years regardless of performance reviews.

Hospitals, very many of them, encourage such behavior in their nurses. Many of them have long ago done away with raises or rewards based on performance reviews. When there are raises they are very small and across the board "cost of living" type raises. In the situation many employers have created there is zero incentive to preform any better than it takes to not get fired.

A reasonable person would conclude that either that is the situation employers wanted, or they are incompetent administrators. (Emphasis added.)

Incompetent administrators? Now that never happens!

[Spangle Brown]

As I've pointed out repeatedly - I'm referring only to sick calls to get out of working a holiday when it's your turn. Not ok with me. Luckily, I'm nobody's boss and don't get close with co-workers, so it doesn't destroy my life ... just my respect for the co-worker who pulls this krep. I'm also well aware that no one cares whether I respect them or not. Just my opinion.

Doesn't matter. Everyone gets it. It's nothing new. What is the real problem is in finding a workable solution. Nothing is going to change, until a solution is found. Whining about it is not a solution.

I think one possible solution is mandatory amount of holidays or weekends, etc. What ever this issue shifts are. Sure a person can call out on one. But next holiday the need to requesting to work it, because they are mandatory to work so many each year. Maybe in a 12 month period instead of a year. The only way out, is totally documentation. Such as being in the ER with a broken foot. LOL! But just "sick', better make up for it.

Then what would happen if they don't do their mandatory? Loose job? Loose raise? It needs to be something real.

As it stands, it's 100% the jobs responsibility to cover that shift. If the job was notified the person need the day off, yet still scheduled the person, the job was warned.

[ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP]

I doubt that is much of a consideration for the many thousands of nurses who haven't had an annual raise in years regardless of performance reviews.

Hospitals, very many of them, encourage such behavior in their nurses. Many of them have long ago done away with raises or rewards based on performance reviews. When there are raises they are very small and across the board "cost of living" type raises. In the situation many employers have created there is zero incentive to preform any better than it takes to not get fired.

A reasonable person would conclude that either that is the situation employers wanted, or they are incompetent administrators.

That is also a good point. I guess I should consider myself lucky that at my place of employment (a unionized hospital, if that means anything), anyone who is not at the top of the pay scale can and do get raises, assuming that their annual review is "decent."

I would not want to work at a place that hasn't given me a raise in years, and I find it very unfortunate that there are so many craptastic hospitals/healthcare facilities that don't reward their staff adequately.

[SeattleJess]

Exactly the reason i cannot stand Unions!

They enable lazy workers!

They can also protect ethical workers who stand up to corrupt, exploitive systems and help working people get the power they need to negotiate compensation above the poverty line.

As to enabling lazy workers, in my experience the blame is with supervisors who are too lazy to follow the process needed to get rid of an employee. (On the other hand, these same supervisors can manipulate and misuse the exact same system to grind down and drive out good employees who rock the boat.)

Misuse of both sick leave and employee contractual protections are ultimately management supervisory failures. Meanwhile, I'm proud to be a member of SEIU, the union that got pay raises and health benefits for home health care workers and CNAs. I would feel like an unethical freeloader if I accepted the benefits the union has negotiated for workers without contributing my tiny share. I understand that, just like using sick leave to shop Black Friday, others feel differently about employee benefits.

(I mean no disrespect. Don't have a hardened bunker but I'm not running out. I'll stick around and trust the AllNurses community to support a broad range of opinions.)

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Exactly the reason i cannot stand Unions!

They enable lazy workers!

I have worked at both and was an administrator for the Union facility. It in NO WAY protected the "lazy worker". Some workers learn how to work the system and yes it makes it more difficult to discipline. I found the union rules were fair and made progressive discipline extremely easy. My huge issue with unions facilities is that even poor performing workers were paid the same as good performing workers. But the pother protections of the nurses....no cancel, floating to like units only and staffing ratios were worth the the few negatives.