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?

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

I find it very funny that the nurses that say that people calling in sick every once in a while (more than 3 times a year) when it's very obvious they are not sick (posting pic's of facebook, texting people at work they are partying, saying at work the night before they are calling in sick because they can, etc.) complain the most when people call in sick on THEIR shift. I have picked up about a month's worth of extra work the last year in OT, but yet the people who do not pick up any OT ever, complain when I don't answer my phone and come into work (Why don't you answer your's when we call?). Work ethic comes hand in hand with this not calling in sick because you can. Sick time is for sick time, physical or mental. People are just lazy.

I'm not sure I understand your point.

Yes, it bugs me when people who are obviously NOT sick call in at the last minute, or on a weekend or holiday and then post picture on Facebook of all the fun they're having. It bugs me when someone goes out on FMLA with a "back injury" and then posts pictures of themselves rock climbing. It bugs me even if it's not my shift -- if they'll do it on your shift, they'll do it on mine.

I don't do overtime, but I DO show up when I'm scheduled unless I'm actually hospitalized or recovering from surgery. Nor do I complain about other people who don't do overtime -- if you want the money, I'm happy for you to do it. But I'd rather not.

[AWanderingMinstral]

Three other thoughts:

1) I have always felt like more individuals would be willing to work PRN and/or float IF the facility provided a comprehensive orientation. Instead, they hire someone for one of these roles and their orientation is their first day on the unit...with 5-6 patients.

2) I once reported a legitimate sick call off purposely to a unit clerk. The manager called me back within minutes of calling off. She attempted to justify why another nurse's call off superseded mine. The lesson I learned is to never answer your telephone if you recognize it as a call from work. If it's truly important, well, they'll leave a message. I have worked for managers who are mysteriously never available on the weekend.

3) I have learned to always do what is in my best interest...while remaining professional.

[RNforLongTime]

At my last job, if you were scheduled to work the holiday and you called out sick, you didn't get your paid holiday. We didn't get time and a half for working the holiday. We got an extra day off or 8 hours of pay. 9 times out of 10, I ended up taking the extra pay because we were so short staffed there was no coverage to grant the extra day off. If I called out sick my scheduled day before, the day off or the day after the holiday, I forfeited my holiday pay. Same thing with vacations. If you called out sick the day before your vacation or the day after your vacation ended, you forfeited your vacation pay for that time off!

Like others said, I'm entitled to use my sick time as I saw fit. I was not allowed to call out sick if my child was sick, so there were a few times, I personally was not sick but my son was. Sorry, not leaving a sick son home with dad...when my kiddo's sick, he wants his momma. Or there were just days when I was sick...sick and tired of going to work. BUT I will say, on those days, I was smart enough to stay off Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and I don't tell anyone else my plans. My previous employer had a rule that you could only call off once in a 12 week period without getting written up. Doctors excuse or not, it didn't matter, unless you were on FMLA.

It's not my job to ensure adequate staffing. That's the hospital's responsibility. People get sick. Nurses are not super-human who never get sick. The hospital is supposed to be able to staff their facility PERIOD! I called off once and had the Nursing Supervisor calling my cell phone BEGGING me to come in! Um no!!! I don't think so!

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

I'm not sure I understand your point.

Yes, it bugs me when people who are obviously NOT sick call in at the last minute, or on a weekend or holiday and then post picture on Facebook of all the fun they're having. It bugs me when someone goes out on FMLA with a "back injury" and then posts pictures of themselves rock climbing. It bugs me even if it's not my shift -- if they'll do it on your shift, they'll do it on mine.

I don't do overtime, but I DO show up when I'm scheduled unless I'm actually hospitalized or recovering from surgery. Nor do I complain about other people who don't do overtime -- if you want the money, I'm happy for you to do it. But I'd rather not.

They are pretty stupid if they advertise they are not really sick, esp a back injury. Healthcare workers are at high risk for back injury and don't need people lying about something that is so painful and serious! Unbelievable!

Workers comp has been known to investigate and spy on workers to catch them up in a lie re back injuries. It is nothing to lie about! I've seen coworkers crippled and on disability for life due to a freak accident causing a back or neck injury and others suffering in chronic pain. To lie about that is insulting to all the people really suffering from such a potentially serious condition!

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

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.)

Can't agree more, which is why I also sit on my negotiating team alongside SEIU.

I happen to work at a pretty good facility, so not a lot of complaints. I do agree however, that managers are the ones that can change employee behavior and can hire and fire. A union doesn't protect crappy workers or those that call in excessively. If you don't play by the PnP, then a facility can fire at will.

I have sat with people in HR meetings over stuff that would make some shake their heads. People don't want to take responsibly for their actions. You call in excessively, you get fired. I can't protect you from your own stupidly, nor do I want too.

[smartnurse1982]

I hope you've got a hardened bunker over there, because you are about to take some serious artillery. I don't disagree, just warning you.

*ducks head and runs out*

I think most jobs do not give out sick or vacation days anymore.

I see most jobs bundle it into PTO instead.

This is how it is at my agency.

I get 1 week of PTO per year,and I am full time.

Any additional call outs you make you do not get paid.

One of my agencies was really bad about calling out though.

You had to call out 12 hours before the shift started,or else get written up.

I was written up for calling out 5 hours before the shift started.

That was a little bit extreme to me.

[caliotter3]

They are pretty stupid if they advertise they are not really sick, esp a back injury. Healthcare workers are at high risk for back injury and don't need people lying about something that is so painful and serious! Unbelievable!

Workers comp has been known to investigate and spy on workers to catch them up in a lie re back injuries. It is nothing to lie about! I've seen coworkers crippled and on disability for life due to a freak accident causing a back or neck injury and others suffering in chronic pain. To lie about that is insulting to all the people really suffering from such a potentially serious condition!

I personally know of three different people who were investigated for workers comp cases. There is absolutely nothing funny about any of that.

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

I'm of two minds on this. Yes, it absolutely blows to work short, and when you know your coworker who called in sick isn't really sick...well, it is irritating. I'm not a martyr and I don't expect others to be either, but if you're on the schedule and you're not sick or having some sort of family emergency, you should work it. If you didn't have the wherewithal to get the day off ahead of time, it's your own doing. Grownups sometimes have to miss out on things because they have to work.

At the same time, I do agree that it is the employer's responsibility to find replacements. A staffing plan should be in place to handle these occurrences. Sometimes I think it can be part of the "divide and conquer" strategy to allow us to work short and be upset with the coworker who called in sick. If we're just spinning our wheels being angry at one another, then this can really mitigate any collective bargaining power we might otherwise have.

[RNdynamic]

I couldn't disagree with the OP more. Nursing is a job. We don't have a moral obligation to show up for our jobs any more than stock brokers or waitresses or plumbers have a moral obligation to show up for their jobs.

No one should be asked to work when they don't want to. If people are calling out on holidays and weekends, it is because there isn't adequate incentive to put off play for work on those days. You don't blame the nurses for that. Instead, you should blame their employer for not being worthy enough that people want to avoid calling out. They need to provide a greater incentive for nurses to work on holidays or weekends, or they need to close down beds on those days so that less staff are required. People should be able to work when they want. Period.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I think most jobs do not give out sick or vacation days anymore.

I see most jobs bundle it into PTO instead.

This is how it is at my agency.

I get 1 week of PTO per year,and I am full time.

Any additional call outs you make you do not get paid.

One of my agencies was really bad about calling out though.

You had to call out 12 hours before the shift started,or else get written up.

I was written up for calling out 5 hours before the shift started.

That was a little bit extreme to me.

Sounds like you need to find a new agency.

[duskyjewel]

We don't have a moral obligation to show up for our jobs.......

No one should be asked to work when they don't want to.

Wow. Just wow.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

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.

Yes I am with you. I too work at a union hospital where raises and promotions depend on a good performance review.

I came to this hospital from a large Magnet certified private hospital without a union. 5 or six years before I left they did away with individual raises. Either everyone got an across the board cost of living raise, or nobody did. There was no incentive to preform any better than it took to not get fired.

I realized that I would never make as much as the senior nurses who had received performance bases raises for years before they were done away with.

How ironic that the private non union hospital creates disincentives to top performance and the union hospital created an environment that encourages self improvement and excellent performance.