Might have to quit my job! Need advice

[Lefty Lou]

Hello everyone, thanks in advance for listening its gonna be a long one. I have a BS in biology and planned on taking a few classes this summer, two online, and anatomy and physiology at HACC. Then in the fall I would be taking anatomy and physiology II as my only class, with the hopes of applying to accelerated BSN programs that would start in May '10. I currently work at Lancaster General Hospital as a patient access representative full time M-F from 930-6. I spoke to my boss last friday and told her that I will be taking a class and i wouldnt be able to come in until 2 on tues and thursdays ( class is 8-130), but i could still work my full days on mwf leaving me with 32 hours total. She blatantly said, i cannot accommodate that! So i said, well we have a bunch of part timers who stay when people are on vacation or what not, what if i got the coverage for those hours? She said, no, youre hired as a 1 FTE (40 hours) a week and if you consistently dont work those hours HR will catch on and ill get in trouble. I told her that she wouldnt because I came from a previous job in the hospital where I was hired as a .5 (20 hours) and worked almost 40 for an entire year! She still would not budge. So i said, what if I still worked my 40 hours by doing 10 hours shift on mwf and 5 hours on tues/thurs? She said no cause im still not working the hours I was hired for! My next suggestion was, what if i work 40 hours AND find people to cover for me, that should solve every issue. Again, she said no because I dont need to pay two people when i shouldnt have to. I said, well you pay people extra when others are on vacation or call in sick, so whats the difference? She said well theyre using PTB (paid time bank) and HR understands that I need to get coverage when people are off. Ughhhh... i didnt even know what else to say.

Her option to me was to switch my lab from tue/thus 11-130 to mon/wed from 8-1030 then work the 1130-8 shift ! I said, umm, that means i would be going to class and working mon-thurs from 8-8! I told her there was no way I was going to do that. Her next offer was switching to part time 330-8, which again I told her I did not want to because I need the money, I dont want to work til 8, and have NO reason to only work 20 hours a week. We left it at that.

Yesterday, she calls me into the office again and says that the 1230-430 part time position will probably be opening up, and asked if that would work better. I said yes thats a better fit doing 8-430 as opposed to 8-8 but i still would want more hours. She said I could probably get more hours because of people taking off and what not I would be able to work a little extra. Just when i thought things seemed to be finally resolved, I asked her if come august when my class is over if I could switch back to my regular hours. She said NO, these hours would be permanent! I was shocked.. didnt even know what to say.

What has me so frustrated is the fact that my class is SEVEN weeks, SEVEN! We have people who CALL OFF more hours in one week than I would need for the whole summer class! Just last week alone we had one woman out all week and another who called off three days. Right there are the hours I would need to do something constructive, and shes not gonna give it to me? Also im telling her two months in advance so she can find coverage, not just doing it the last minute and leaving the office short staffed. Shes giving me a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

I understand how me missing 8 hours a week for 7 weeks can be a big deal but in august I would only need to miss 3 hours a week. I told her this, that my class is from 8-1030 wed and fri so i could work 3 full days then come in 11-6, which is 37 hours. She said NO again that its still not 40 hours!! Basically if I take the part time 1230-430 those would be my hours period. I could deal with the part time for the 7 week summer course which would give me more time to study, but i CANT just work part-time indefinitely. I told her that im not guaranteed to get into a program and if i dont, well then ill be available to work full time from dec until i apply for the next cycle. She still didnt care. And whats funny to me is, she cant afford for me to not work 8 hours or even 3 hours a week, BUT she can afford to cut me to 20 and be part time! How does that make any sense? And you need to understand our job, she cant just hire someone a day later and have them come in and start working. It would take at least a MONTH just to get a person hired if they were already employed at LGH and way longer than that if they were from the outside. More importantly, the training for our job is around 8 weeks. So even if she did get someone internal to work there after 4 weeks, they STILL wouldnt be doing the job and helping us until 2 months later! Again, i think me missing a total of 56 hours and having someone fill in makes a WHOLE lot more sense than trying to hire someone else because they wont be effective until 3 months later, and by then I could be working 37 hours a week!

Let me add that Im the best worker in the office, by far. I even told her that while i was sitting there coming up with a million ideas for her to let me do this. I said, honestly I could only work 10 hours week and i would still do more than everybody else here. For the first time, she said YES youre right! She agreed with me and said, you are the best worker I have and when it comes time for raises you'll get a good one and they wont get squat!!! Thats nice and all, but i would rather have my regular hours back and have her work with me on this than get a 20 cent raise.

Im stuck , I dont know what to do. I could take the part time hours and HOPE that in those 7 weeks she hasnt hired someone else so I could ask for full time back, but then she still wont let me just work 37. I really dont want to work just part time when I dont have to, and if thats her only option to me, what do i do? I could look for other jobs in the hospital but are they gonna want to hire me from the start when they KNOW im taking classes and plan to be in school by May '10. I could always work outside of the hospital, but as we all know, the economy isnt so good and i cant afford to waste months NOT having a job at all. I dont know what to do. Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.

LeeAnn

[NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN]

Well I had to quit my good paying job to pursue nursing. My last day at my full time is in May and I graduate in July of this year.

I too can't not afford to work, however nursing school will cause many of us to make sacrifices.

Thus, I'll be working part-time while finishing up school.

I'll be saving up money from the remainder of my paychecks and also school loans.

You just have to do what you have to. My clinical schedule too, conflicted with my work schedule, but I did not think twice about quitting nursing school just to work full time.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[gillytook]

I see a couple of options. First, have you thought of night classes. That is what I had to do to get my pre-reqs. Second, take this up with HR or your boss' supervisor to mediate.

I hope it works out for you.

[Lefty Lou]

I checked into night classes.. they do offer them for the summer session, but it would be 6-830 mon-thurs. I could probably switch my hours 9-530, but i doubt id want to go to work til 530 then class til 830. Thats the exact reason I didnt want to switch til mon-thurs 8-1030 then work 1130-8. Im sure I could do it, but it wouldnt give me ANY time to study or have a life. It was a good suggestion though, thanks!

[tonyal]

You dont want to work and go to school m-thurs 8-8 because that would leave "no time to study or have a life" which would mean your doing what friday, sat, sun? as you stated before its only for 7 weeks,you dont want to give anything up, but you want your boss to work around your schedule. She offered to make an accomodation and also offered you part time. seems you might need to suck it up for 7 weeks or take the class another time.

There were times while doing my prereqs that I would leave my house at 7am go to work, leave work only to go right to school and be in lecture until 9 if not later and this was for 15 weeks, sometimes you just need to adjust what your priorities are.

[pinkiepie_RN]

Just a thought, when you're a nurse, you'll most likely be pulling 12 hour shifts. I think nothing of being in class/work for 12 hours. Yeah it's stressful but you make time for yourself and you get things done when you can.

[UnicornRN]

You sound like you are being very difficult, especially since you are asking them to do you a favor by letting you go to school during work hours. Do you have vacation time that you could take on the days you need off? Then maybe she could cover you while you are gone due to the use of vacation time. Otherwise, I would be a little more flexible with what you WANT to do. You stated you didn't WANT to work until 8pm. Will it really kill you for 7-weeks? Is it worth losing your job over, especially if you need the money.

[Adams_Mommy_07]

Well, I am not sure why doing the 8-8 is such a problem, especially for such a limited time as 7 weeks. This term alone, I work 40 hours, physically go to two classes, take one class online, live 40 minutes from town (where both school/work are), have a toddler, clean the house, do the gardening, and do well in all my classes. Mondays through Thursdays I am out of my house 13 hours working and going to class. Plus mine began in January and is still trucking through early May. I'll do it again in the Fall...

But I love it because I am so busy and occupied. My life is so crazy and hectic I have to make tanning bed appointments a week in advance, doctor's appointments 1-2 months in advance, etc. just to make sure I get things when I am not otherwise booked up with work or class!!! It's crazy but it's fun!

[Lefty Lou]

I understand what you guys are saying about not wanting to work 8-8 or what not, but the fact is she is not being reasonable. I think it is way more drastic of a change to make me switch my class and my ENTIRE schedule, PERMANENTLY than to find part time people to cover or just do without me for a couple hours a week. We deal with it all the time here, THREE people just called off on Monday and the world did not end. At least im asking off for a good reason, not just calling off because i dont feel like coming in. Trust me I could suck it up for seven weeks, but that fact is its not just seven weeks, im also going to be taking a class in the fall, which would go from aug-dec.

As an update, she talked to me monday after lunch and said that the night shift is no longer available, because another part timer is taking it. This opened up her hours which are 1230-430. So her ONLY option to me as of monday is switch my class and work 1230-430 part time. Which is fine, I wouldnt mind doing that just for seven weeks, but i then asked her come august when my class hours are reduced if i could work 40 hours, and she said NO, those part time hours are permanently yours. To add to this, I came from another department in this same hospital who bent over backwards to change schedules for employees going to school. In fact, almost our whole dept was in school and every semester their schedule would change, and we would all deal with it. I thought it would be the same way at this new job but its not. And I could do the night class thing and suck it up and be gone from 9-9 everday, thats fine, but it wouldnt leave me time to study. Yes there are fri, sats and sundays, but the fact of the matter is my AnP class is mon-thurs. Im going to have lab every other day, which is going to require lab reports, pre labs, quizzes, getting prepared for lab, plus preparing for the classes. That is the reason I wouldnt have alot of time to study, because a majority of my work is probably going to need completed during the week.

About the vacation time, I DO have vacation time. I have over 100 hours accumulated, so I could use that, its just a matter of her approving those hours off. I highly doubt she will since shes saying she cant lose me for those 8 hours, and also because a lot of people already have off in the summer for vacation. In theory that should solve the problem because it still keeps me listed as a 1 FTE (40 hours) but allows for part time coverage since im scheduled to be off. Its a worth a try.

I would just want everyone to put themselves in my position. If you were capable of working 32 hours and finding coverage Im sure youd want to do that over changing your schedule for 7 weeks. But its not just 7 weeks, if i change my hours its permanent, i cant go back. After dec, Im able to work full time with NO classes because everything I need to take will be done in the Fall 09. I like to work and I would just hate to cut my paychecks in half permanently for 56 hours of class over seven weeks.

[gibson0726]

You probably need to go to a department that works with student schedules. It is ridiculous to have to jump through these kinds of hoops just to go to summer school. Think about it having to go through this every single time you need to take a class. Talk about a pain. Your manager sounds like a real stickler about making you work 40 hours, under her terms. That is a shame because some places consider 32 hours full time. If you have over 100 hours banked, you should try to get those hours approved.

Secondly, you could avoid all of this by just doing the long days. It is doable. Is it fun? NO. I have done it consistently over 3 semesters of nursing school. You will soon find out that is what nursing school is all about. If you are doing an accelerated program, I'm sure it will be even more intense. Might as well get used to it now. It just sounds like it would be easier to adjust the school schedule to your work schedule, rather than vice versa. When I was completing my pre-reqs and working full time, that is exactly what I did. AND it would only be for 7 weeks. You can do it.:)

Good luck

[NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN]

"Of course clinical assignments and what we’ll have available will depend on what sites we’re approved for as well and that is still pending."

this is the answer I got from the class coordinator when I asked about the summer schedule.

It all depends ! Unfortunately I still had to quit my job because clinicals times are still not definite. I want to give my job a good notice and I don't want them to find out the day after my summer class starts that I'll have clinicals during work hours.

[86toronado, BSN, RN]

When I was doing my pre-reqs, I was in class monday-thursday 8am-1:30, then I worked 3-11:30. That's a 15 hour day, 4 days a week, plus driving an hour each way. I had Fridays, and every other weekend off, for 14 weeks. If you want to do it, you'll suck it up and find a way to make it happen.