They Think I'm Working Christmas??

Nurses General Nursing

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Ok so where I work they apparently don't tell the staff what they're working Christmas because they don't want to hear the moaning...(?). Well that has annoyed me already, but I had calmed down because I'm already working Sunday from 7pm-7am....so thats Christmas YES??

Well I go into work last night and there is the schedule. I'm working Sat and Sun 12 hrs ending Monday am and they have me down for going back for 3-11pm???? WTH??

Now I'm really worked up. Annoyed. Pissed off..you name it.

I ask the staffing coordinator and she says some nonsence about Sunday night not counting and she had to put me on Monday also..maybe I could switch with someone "LMAO".

Now mind you, I've asked all my kids and their families to dinner on Monday. I figured I'd go home, put the turkey in and nap. I'd be fine yea? Well NOT IF I have to go back to work.

I am not cancelling Christmas.

I left a note under the staffing coordinators door stating that because I cannot come back on Monday without any real sleep AND they failed to let us know so we could schedule our LIVES I was not working monday. Thank you very much...

As expected my phone just rang. DON.."Joanne give me a call so we can talk about the schedule." I didn't answer it!!!! I know I'll have to call back..eventually, but shes going to say "Work or be fired."

Thats the way its done there.

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
You know, every time someone lets a hospital get away with this, they empower the hospital to do it again and again. I am all for the OP not letting them get away with it. This attitude that we owe our employers something more than an honest day's work for an honest day's pay is nonsense. The honest day that jodyangel will be working ends at 7 am Christmas Day. She doesn't owe this hospital her health or sanity just because they are so kind as to allow her to 32 hours within a 52 hour period, over a holiday weekend no less.

again, AMEN.

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Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, Home Health, Oncology.

I'd leave that place in the blink of an eye.

They are being totally disrespectful by putting up a schedule 3 days ahead of time.

Where I work, we know all of our Holidays. The Holiday's off are the opposite of this year. Also, the night shift Holiday is the nite before the Holiday----so I am nite shift, so since my Holiday off this year is Christmas, I am off 12/24. I have known that for the last year.

Our Holiday schedule for the year is like carved in stone. Unless you get someone to switch with you, you work it. And if you get someone to switch with you, you MUST get it in writing & both parties must sign.

Our normal schedule comes out 3-4 weeks ahead of time. Plus, we actually do our own schedule & then she approves or moves things around.

We have some rules---no PTO time from 12/01 thru 01/15.

Even during the year, we can only take 3 weeks unless we get approval.

But, like I say--we all know our Holiday schedule & that' what matters.

Mary Ann

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Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
You are already working Christmas. At least in my facility, the night before is a paid holiday as the majority of the hours worked fall on the holiday. Is that not the same elsewhere? Seven hours of your shift are on Christmas Day. Don't work. Don't answer the phone. Call in sick today. AND MOST OF ALL...

Have a Merry Christmas!:balloons:

Except that places often won't pay holiday pay if you call out the day before or the day after (which doesn't even apply here since all 3 shifts are ON holidays...)

She could at LEAST have scheduled her 11-7 rather than 3-11 so she could nap. I'm grateful for a paycheck but not for a rotten deal like that :(

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You know, every time someone lets a [nursing employer] get away with this, they empower the [employer] to do it again and again. I am all for the OP not letting them get away with it. This attitude that we owe our employers something more than an honest day's work for an honest day's pay is nonsense. [snip]

Damn right! And with the way the tables are turned these employers need to learn that the nurses command the advantage with there being huge shortages, and more and more shortages to come. So listen up employers, you need to keep us happy, not the other way around.

If you stand up to them they soon back down..

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Specializes in ICU, psych, corrections.
It stinks that no facility I know of counts Eve as a holiday, either Christmas or NY. I guess the good part for you is that you can have an early gathering and/or church attendance on Eve and you will have either C Day or C Night free, depending on when you sleep.

My facility pays holiday pay for the 7pm to 7am shift beginning 12/24 and the 7am to 7pm shift starting on 12/25. The staff that works the night of 12/25 does not get any holiday pay. It is like this for New Year's Eve as well. For Thankgiving and 4th of July, the pay is from 7am to 7pm the day of the holiday and from 7pm to 7am the day of/morning after the holiday.

This year is going to suck for us because I have to work 12/23 (7pm to 7am) and 12/24 (7pm to 7am), then my hubbie has to work 12/24 and 12/25 (6am to 7pm). This means we will not even see each other or be together with the kids the day before or the day of Christmas. So we are celebrating it this morning (12/23) and today will be our Christmas. Then the kids will head over to their grandparents Christmas Eve and on Christmas morning, they will exchange gifts with Grandma and Grandpa.

I'm bummed because Christmas has always been a very special holiday for me and one I looked forward to all year because of the sense of togetherness. But what can you do? The holidays I'll have worked this year will be 4th of July, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Eve day. I managed to get Thanksgiving and Christmas Day off (I did not want to work the night of 12/25 because it's for regular pay....if I have to work at all on Christmas, it will be during the shift that gets paid holiday pay!).

Melanie = )

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Specializes in CCU,ICU,ER retired.

at our facilty we did this: wrote down five of the holiday season starting at Thanksgiving which of the holidays you wanted off the most. the holidays are Thanksgiving,Christmas Eve, Christmas Day,New Years Eve, and New Years Day. The schedule was started in late Oct, Then rated them 1-5, 1 being the most important. you were assured you would get C-eve or C-day and either New year eve or NY day, or Thanksgiving. There was always some nurses that would work one of the shifts. I would always work any of the New Years holiday if not both. and there wer some nurses that would work the thanksgiving and so on and so on. Our schedule always came out 2 months before the holidays. I hope you can understand my statement. it sounds confusing but works very well.

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Specializes in Peds/adolescence; ortho; med-surg; LTC.

nurses are the most abused professionals on the planet! fortunately, i have landed a position where staffing issues do not affect me; however, i have been talking with a colleague in new york who ended up sitting in her car crying for 30 mins after covering the night shift and "the suits" started doing the same thing with her schedule. first, they expect you to lie down for them, then they expect they can walk on you, and then stomp on you. the expectation is you will say oh, sure in the name of committment to the profession, your colleagues, your patients. if you resist, you are told, you must for there is no one else. then the implied threat, "if i do not do it, i'll be fired...." since you have not been given any time to resolve the issue, you cannot resign with appropriate notice, so now you have abandoned your obligations. talk about a no win situation. well, i have found in my years, that most future employers do not care if you have been fired, especially when you are truthful at the time of interview. employers are fully aware of the insanity we go through as a nurse. having been in administration a good part of my career, if i had no staff, as don or adon, guess what! i covered! that is their responsibility. that is why they make the big bucks! so if they want to fire you or you want to say, no way, fine! go down the road! has anyone heard there is a nursing shortage?

here is a word of advice, "feel the guilt and do it anyway!" do not roll over for them! just say no! and enjoy your christmas with your loved ones, remember jesus didn't expect us to be a doormat!

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Specializes in Emergency room, med/surg, UR/CSR.

I'd definitely feel a baaaaad cold coming on and hour after I got home on Christmas morning and call in. Then I'd start the day after Christmas looking for another job. Good luck with Christmas dinner and have fun with all your family!!!

pam

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Your employer is unreasonable. This wouldn't happen where I work. You are not a whiner.

I was originally sheduled Christmas eve 7P-7A, Christmas day 7p-7a, and day after Christmas 7p-7a. I'm not sure if it was an accident because the new schedule started on Christmas Day. Before I had a chance to call my manager to complain, she called me to say she found a traveler to work Christmas Eve, and would I possible trade. She's a peach. I'm a single parent and it would have really made Christmas bleak.

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Specializes in Case Management, Home Health, UM.
Yep I will be. I find the whole thing a blantant slap in my face. My employer obviously doesnt care about me. Otherwise the schedule would of been given to us long ago.

I'm not whining. I just have a life besides work. And I plan on enjoying it.

That's it. They purposely manipulated your schedule, thinking you would have no other choice but work it, being given three days notice. The entire setup smells of blackmail, and while I were at it, I'd let them know that their absence of management does not constitute your emergency. :trout:

Enjoy your Christmas with your family. ;)

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Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.

To the OP: You are not a whiner! You are a reasonable human being and expect to be treated as such.

As can be seen by reading over the posts on the list, there are ways of scheduling the holidays that are reasonably fair and work well. Hospital/LTC nurses understand that the job is 24/7, most don't expect every holiday off every time; being given reasonable notice to plan one's life and being treated fairly is not too much to ask.

Doing your job for your agreed-upon pay is all that is required. That being said, most people will exert themselves much more for employers and managers who treat them well. If I call my boss with a family emergency, and I'm told "take care of your family, don't worry about this place, we'll manage until you get back," then I'm much more likely to fill in when another employee has an emergency; if I'm told "well you're supposed to work, what am I going to do now, you're leaving us short, yakkety yakkety yak" then I probably won't change my plans to help out if I don't have to. I've been in both situations and I worked for the first person much longer than the second!

(Took my then 18-month-old son to ER at 4AM grunting and retracting, thinking we'd get a breathing treatment and be home in time to go to work; we ended up in the hospital for a week. ADON who was a single mom and should've understood chewed me for calling in late. I worked the rest of the week, going to the other hospital at night, never saw my house, and transferred out of that unit ASAP.)

I happen to be one of those people who views nursing, for myself, as a calling. That does not mean that I'm going to lie down and be walked on, nor that I'm going to allow myself to be beaten with the "dedication" stick. If I don't take care of myself I can't do much for anyone else!!

I think I doubled back once in my nursing career. By the end of the second shift I could barely remember my name. Thereafter I refused to double back, saying "I can't do that, I've done it and can't function adequately, I'm not safe to give patient care." I never caught flak about it either.

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Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

What the OP is being asked to do is not only ridiculous but dangerous as well. I simply cannot believe the response from one poster (tmdmb?); thanks, but we don't need people like you in the profession. You see advocating for one's self as a bad thing? Hope you have a strong back, because people are going to be walking all over you.

I hope the OP can find some time to brush up her resume and start looking for another job. That facility is abusive, and it won't get any better.

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