anyone ever have a position, and feel like your doing great, and things are moving along smoothly, and then you hit a glitch, and all of a sudden your managers start bringing up things that you were lead to believe were not problems, but now all of a sudden its like they've been part of your record and they use it to give that one thing more clout.
I had some minor stupid things - not mistakes, not anything to do with anything I did -but my name was mentioned, and it was mainly gossip, and a manager creating more out of weird thing a patient with behavior issues said - nothing I did wrong.
However, this manager/s are making these things issues now to lend more clout to something that happened more recently that I am accused of - that would have been very wrong if I had done what this patient said I did - but I absolutely did not. However, they are siding with the patient and embellishing upon these oddball things to say they were actually "hints" that I may not be a good fit all along. They are doing this to allow this one thing more clout, and so it can be fast tracked past initial warnings to a final warning.
It feels really dishonest to me. I really love this job, and really loved the people I worked for. I can't afford to leave this job, and I really don't want to, BUT 1- sounds like they are going to let me go soon anyway which I don't want on my resume and 2 - I really don't trust the management there now after hearing this manager flat out lie about the facts in the other two things. That or the mgr has fallen prey to gossip that they all laugh about in their offices - either way - that's not a comfortable place to be working with that going on.
So, I'm off to update my resume. grrrrr. Not happy about this at all. There needs to be more in place to protect nurses from this kind of immature crap. :)
There was a time when I would not agree with you about "social issues", but I've changed my mind. Several years ago, my unit hired a nurse who had graduated from a well-known Bible college. On her very first day, she plopped herself down next to me where I was minding my own business (charting while watching the monitors for the unit) and announced "The men in this unit are all immoral." WHAT? On her very first DAY? What did she expect from me -- the men to whom she was referring were my friends, colleagues and even my own husband.
For the five and a half months she was employed, "Born Again Barbie" continued to judge -- she judged her coworkers, her managers, the physicians and the patients. My husband was "immoral" because he had a child out of wedlock for whom he was paying private school tuition. I was "immoral" because I had divorced my abusive ex-husband and remarried. Jesse and Mitch were immoral because they were divorced, Robert was immoral because he was homosexual, Lynn was immoral because she was supporting her partner who was unable to work due to her breast cancer, our manager was immoral because she allowed her daughter to wear those skimpy cheerleading uniforms . . . it goes on and on. The only people who weren't, in Barbie's opinion, immoral were those who went to her same Fundamentalist church, and she had questions about some of those. Barbie's employment ended after one of her patients insisted that her partner was to be her medical power of attorney and decision maker. Barbie wasn't able to deal with that . . . she told the patient she was immoral. Yes, that's a good reason to fire someone (especially when they don't see it as a problem, aren't sorry and plan to do it again at the first opportunity), but it didn't need to go so far before cutting her loose. Her attacks on the staff should have been a sufficient reason to let her go.
And then there was Time-Insenstitive Tilly who showed up for work every day -- usually 5 minutes to an hour late. And she was the very first person to complain if her relief showed up late. At first, we were forgiving about it -- new job, new city -- not knowing where to park was an understandable offense. But after several weeks of it, it got old. Preceptors initially waited for Tilly before they started getting report, but the off-going shift ended up staying late. Her preceptors all discussed it with her -- I was one of them -- but Tilly really didn't see the problem. Even after several conferences about the attendance policy and several signed improvement plans, Tilly claimed to be completely blindsided when she was let go.
A nurse who doesn't fit in to the unit culture can be a real problem. A nurse who doesn't see the need to fit in (or who thinks the unit culture ought to change to accommodate them) is a bigger problem. Otherwise good nurses who "just don't fit in" can find good jobs in areas where they DO fit in, and everyone will be the happier for it.
How the heck that nurse got to know all that in so little time and presumably being so busy? I am in my current place for more than two years, and I have no idea who of my coworkers is remarried or divorced, or about anyone's children out of wedlock. In fact, I know pretty little anything about their personal lives, and they hardly know anything about me beyond obvious facts (immigrant, married, has kids, travels all the time, darn busy life, bakes for mood management).
Sorry, but all that goes under name "gossip" in my book. Am I wrong or what?
I think when you post here you should give us the entire scoop so we can give you proper advice. You could be in the wrong or you could be a victims, without more information, we can't really know. I've had a bad experience recently with a hospital I worked for, and it had really changed my perception of nursing. But then I thought about my first nursing job and the current position I'm in, and I can say that many hospitals are great places to work and elevate the nursing profession, while others, regardless of the great reputation they have among the community, agent really the best work environment for nurses.
What i I can say is this: don't ever feel like you are trapped. If you are feeling trapped or burnt out, it's best to just resign and find a better position at a hospital where you may already know some nurses so they can give you the scoop about the hospital culture.
In in my opinion, hospital culture trumps any award or accolade out there.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
How the heck that nurse got to know all that in so little time and presumably being so busy? I am in my current place for more than two years, and I have no idea who of my coworkers is remarried or divorced, or about anyone's children out of wedlock. In fact, I know pretty little anything about their personal lives, and they hardly know anything about me beyond obvious facts (immigrant, married, has kids, travels all the time, darn busy life, bakes for mood management).
Sorry, but all that goes under name "gossip" in my book. Am I wrong or what?
Depends upon what you call "gossip". My husband is chatty, as are most of the guys she was working with that day. Just ask a few questions, they'll tell you their entire life stories.
YES - exactly - "ongoing" problems - consisting a vast array all different issues which precludes it being one "ongoing" problem, that are inaccurately reported to make you look bad. Ugh!
Gossip - perpetuating false stories about new nurses. Like recently two managers rolling their eyes after they got a report from a nurse known to make others look bad in effort to make themselves look better - reported that a new nurse needed a manager to come talk to her about x because she didn't know how to x. The two managers roll their eyes - after one says "who" and the other says "x" - and they give each other that LOOK. I know from experience of them doing the same thing to me that the nurse most likely KNEW how to x, but probably had some other question about it, and the question was passed around inaccurately - or assumptions were made so the first nurse would have a joke to tell. But, because of that little transaction - her nurse manager now believes she x, and that was passed on to another nurse, and it was said in front of two other nurses - etc etc....the ball was rolling - she's next.
Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.
I was once in a situation in which a nurse who I worked side by side with was made the nurse manager for my unit. She apparently saw me as a threat to her authority, because she immediately began bringing up "problems" that were very minor things that had happened long ago, but she seemed to be compiling a list of everything that I had ever done that she didn't like. Then, she transferred two chronic complainers to my shift, and she told me that if there were any complaints on my shift, I would be relieved of my charge responsibilities. It was a classic setup. I saw the handwriting on the wall, and I took it as a prompt to relocate, something that I had been talking about for a long time but hadn't moved forward on. I wound up in a far better place.
wow - yeah - they know how to work it. They tried to set me up every week after that. Fortunately/unfortunately I got sick right after - and was out for a couple days, and I tried to return too soon, and ended up leaving again - but I noticed that shift where I came in - they gave me a chronic complainer - one who loves to order nurses around - and because he is manipulating the system - he's been in the hospital longer time than necessary - but I left - within the first 5 minutes though he started on me and asked to talk to the charge nurse - I think they knew that would happen. He'd done it all day, and to many others.
Then, I was out for two more weeks for the same illness - when I came back they set me up with nothing but total care patients and patients who were either actively dying and full code, or full code and refusing care to prevent severe complications etc - situations in which they knew SOMETHING would eventually go wrong kind of thing, and they could make it sound like I had something to worry about - I ended up resigning -I didn't do anything wrong, and I knew that, and they knew that -but at that point I couldn't trust any of them farther than I could throw them - so, I'd had enough.
They even giggled at each other behind my back in the same room - basically bullying right there. So immature.
It might have been immature, OP, but they succeeded in getting rid of you. Have seen that happen more than once. Behaviors occur in hopes that a "crony" is hired to replace the "goat".
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
A nurse who doesn't fit in to the unit culture can be a real problem. A nurse who doesn't see the need to fit in (or who thinks the unit culture ought to change to accommodate them) is a bigger problem. Otherwise good nurses who "just don't fit in" can find good jobs in areas where they DO fit in, and everyone will be the happier for it.
THIS!!!!! I have seen this over and over and boy, it's frustrating and it is indeed best to cut losses and get them out when this is the problem, before you CAN'T do so. (or it's super hard to anyhow). Such people can wreak havoc on unit cooperation and integrity and it's best to let them go before it comes to this.
Conversely, I have worked a couple places I did not fit in. And I left.
KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN
1 Article; 2,675 Posts
How the heck that nurse got to know all that in so little time and presumably being so busy? I am in my current place for more than two years, and I have no idea who of my coworkers is remarried or divorced, or about anyone's children out of wedlock. In fact, I know pretty little anything about their personal lives, and they hardly know anything about me beyond obvious facts (immigrant, married, has kids, travels all the time, darn busy life, bakes for mood management).
Sorry, but all that goes under name "gossip" in my book. Am I wrong or what?