Committees creeping into time off

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in MICU - CCRN, IR, Vascular Surgery.

How important are committees where you work? For my unit at least, membership in at least one committee positively affects your yearly review and raise. I've been a very active part of one of our unit committees for 4 years now, and the creep into my days off is getting worse and worse. My husband who has never worked in nursing, thinks that this is getting too excessive, so I wanted to see what other people experience at their jobs.

This committee is 4 hours a month, and since I have a decent commute to work and back, I feel like a long meeting length makes up for the drive. However, our committee has morphed into the unofficial interview committee, sometimes taking up 2-3 hours of our meeting every month. We are getting behind in the work that we need to do because of all of these interviews, and honestly it's making us all a bit salty.

The icing on the cake for me is that I just found out that some of the interviews scheduled for our next meeting and been pushed until after the meeting, so now our 4 hour meeting will be at least 6 hours long.

Now a 6 hour meeting, with 2 hours of travel time for me means that on my "day off" I'm doing 8 hours of work related stuff and it literally takes up my whole day. Most of us make plans for after these meetings, and several people have kids, and now we're just expected to scrap everything because we're being told we have to stay an extra 2 hours.

Our committee is also half night shift, and most night shifters work the night before the meeting and stay up all day for it (that's what I used to do as a night shifter on this committee), and I find this to be very disrespectful to them and their sleep. Being clocked in from 1900 to 1400 the next day is not okay!

I know I'm kind of rambling, but am I out of line for not being okay with the extra demands on our time like this? How would you feel? What would you do?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care, Capacity/Bed Management.

Oh my, I would definitely object to a committee that meets for that length of time.

Like yourself, the facility for which I work for encourages nurses to participate in unit-based and hospital-wide committees. However, the main difference is that our committees meet once a month for approximately 1 to 1.5 hours. They usually meet at around 7:45am or 8am so that both night shift and day shift people can attend.

I do not see the benefit of a committee meeting for an excess of 2 hours, at that point it starts affecting a work-life balance, I would definitely bring this up to your manager.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in MICU - CCRN, IR, Vascular Surgery.

We brought up that the interviews were taking up far too much time back in March. That meeting was 3 hours of interviews, and then the meeting went to 5.5 hours but I had to leave at the normal 4 hour mark because I had an appointment scheduled already.

The manager's reaction was basically "don't you want to be involved in the hiring process so you have a say in it?" and to ask HR to only schedule interviews for half of the meeting. Well, next weeks meeting started out as only half interviews, but then they re-arranged them to force us to stay late. They moved one interview to the following day and nope sorry, I'm not coming. I'll be out of town on a mini vacation, sorry!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care, Capacity/Bed Management.

There is power in numbers, if all of you put your foot down then it speaks volumes. Are you being paid while on committee time.

We are not compensated for committee time if we are pursuing increasing our clinical track that year as we are rewarded via a bonus.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in MICU - CCRN, IR, Vascular Surgery.

Yes, we are paid our normal hourly wage while clocked in for the committee. Otherwise I definitely wouldn't be there!

I'm going to try and organize our group to rally against this because I'm sure everyone will be furious when they come in Monday for the meeting and find out about it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
There is power in numbers, if all of you put your foot down then it speaks volumes.

This. You all need to agree that you will be at work for four hours -- nothing more. Your manager can then decide what she thinks is the wisest use of those four hours: accomplish more of the committee's work, or have the committee involved in the hiring process but have less time for the meeting.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Just say no. Life is too short and they are taking advantage of you.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

I am on two committees; I am one of the chairs of one, and the other has me as a regular committee member.

Meetings for both committees are 2 hours each at my base rate. We are strict about meeting times, and it's very rare that a meeting runs over the allotted 2 hours. Sometimes they end early, but we're still entitled to the full 2 hours' pay.

For the committee I help chair, I bill an additional 4-6 hours each month, also at my base rate, d/t related committee work.

I don't mind it right now because my schedule can easily accommodate it, the commute is not inconvenient, I can do a lot of the related committee work at home, and the extra money is nice (depending on when the monthly committee dates fall, I can even get OT). I won't do this forever though...I'll likely step down from one within a couple of years, or leave both and find a new committee to join.

I agree that you (OP) need to put some limits down regarding meeting length times because it's not fair to hold you hostage for essentially a full day's work on a day. If they're not willing to keep a tighter control on the committee, then maybe consider resigning from this one and finding one with better hours.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

Many of our meetings are now being held as Web-Ex meetings so if I don't want to drive 45 min each way for a one hour meeting, I can stay home and participate via computer. I still get paid for attending the meeting.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Next to care plans committees are the most useless thing in nursing. 30 years in the field and not one committee....

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.
We are not compensated for committee time if we are pursuing increasing our clinical track that year as we are rewarded via a bonus.

Oh heck no, I want my money now.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

I am part of two and I fill in for a colleague when she can't go. I find them useful, I like knowing what is coming down the pike. Mine is a huge organization and it is nice to know who is in leadership. They really do listen. I like being able to help make positive changes and represent the floor nurse when it comes to changes that are introduced by non-floor nurses.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment