Go Fund Me for Co-workers?

Nurses Relations

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If you're on Facebook, you're probably familiar with a Go Fund Me appeal being posted for a co-worker. I have mixed feelings about this.

Often, multiple people will repost for a particularly popular person. One recent post was the adult daughter of a gal who worked in the hospital, who died suddenly, trying to raise money for funeral expenses and to help her. Her goal was $20,000. I thought, what kind of funeral are you planning? It felt like she was trying to cash in on this.

When I see one for someone who has expenses from an illness, I think about the many people who also had illnesses, had to have FMLA perhaps, also incurred the extra expenses, and no Go Fund Me.

There are people who get into a pickle because they blow their money on trips, the casino, enabling adult children, or blowing their PTO and sick time frivolously. Then comes the cry for help when Murphy strikes.

Any thoughts?

That's about average for a funeral. My brother's funeral in 2010 cost me $24,000 in a large metropolitan city and with discounts because we knew the funeral director, and many of the people had assisted us with my father's funeral in 2003 (that one was $17,000) and there were no bells and whistles. This was just the basic costs. I'm just sayin' it adds up.

Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

My dad, mother, and oldest brother were all cremated, for tiny fractions of what you guys are quoting for funerals & related expenses. I realize that's not how many families want to do it, but that's just been my experience.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I'm not a tightwad, nor am I not willing to help people, but the above often applies.

Quote from Emergent

There are people who get into a pickle because they blow their money on trips, the casino, enabling adult children, or blowing their PTO and sick time frivolously. Then comes the cry for help when Murphy strikes.

I worked with a nurse who was supporting her husband, a starving artist. It was all romantic and all until they had kids. He couldn't watch the kids because that would take time away from his art. So she hired a nanny. Soon, they were having trouble making ends meet, and they she developed some sort of auto immune illness and started burning through her sick time. Soon the call went out among her colleagues to donate sick time to Brenda because she was having such a tough time making ends meet. I was about to donate some of my sick time when another colleague of mine took me aside and said, "Listen. Sick time is money. Save your 240 hours of sick time in case YOU need it. Brenda has a husband and he's the first person who should be looking to bail her out. He can get a job to support his family, it's not your responsibility." I saved the sick time, and in the end really needed it because I needed surgery. Brenda's husband got a job, and they figured out ways to get along without the nanny.

I had another coworker who used to sleep through three to four hours of her shift. She was usually in charge, didn't have a patient, and would sit at the desk and drool. (Some may remember my story of taking a yard stick to measure the drool and wager on how long the string of drool would get before she woke up and noticed.) When she got fired for drug diversion and falsification of documentation, I was one of the few people who believed it. (Not that I noticed signs of drug diversion before she got fired, but once she did, it was "Oh, yeah. Why did I not see that?") My coworkers took up a collection to pay for Leslie's car -- she had just bought a brand new sports car with all the latest options. An appeal went out, saying it was so horrible that Leslie lost her job, we could not allow her car to be repossessed! Most contributed. I did not. I was driving a ten year old car that had NO options, living within my means while trying to recover from having left my abusive husband with nothing but the clothes on my back. I hadn't asked for help, although someones's used pots and pans or towels would have meant a lot to me at that time. Leslie's friends may not have believed she diverted drugs, but we ALL knew she slept several hours each night -- losing her job over that along would have been just. Leslie landed on her feet, was hired to be nursing supervisor "so she doesn't have to carry the narcotics keys" and did just fine.

I'm not saying that there aren't truly deserving folks out there going through hard times that are none of their own making. I'm just saying that perhaps they need to look a little harder to find ways to solve their own problems before expecting people to "fund" them.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
^^ This!

Most Go Fund Me campaigns that I see are kind of silly. However, recently, a woman i grew up with-who was my best friend from approx age 16-early 20s posted a super sad story. Her baby sister died giving birth to her 1st child. I sure did donate a decent amount of money to help them.

Im tearing up again thinking about it������

I guess I don't understand why your best friend needed money because her sister died.

I'm indifferent about GFMs. I roll my eyes the ridiculous ones and if it is a friend who is in need, I'll donate money personally, not through a service.

People set those things up for not-so-altruistic reasons too. During the Gatlinburg fires a mom and her two daughters passed away. The grandmother set up a GFM for funeral expenses, but it was later learned that they had been estranged for many years and grandmother was trying to profit from the tragedy. :madface: So I definitely don't donate to the viral GFMs. I just don't trust them, unfortunately.

Specializes in ICU.

I have a problem when I see nurses try to post gofundme pages. I'm sorry, but we make enough money to take care of ourselves. Period. If you're living in an area where you don't... that's a personal choice of yours, because there are plenty of places in this country where a nursing income can get you excellent quality of life.

I have a little bit more compassion when I see a secretary, CNA, etc. who has problems with medical bills or a death in the family. I survived on a $10/hr job for a while, making around $22k a year, and I can tell you from personal experience that the only reason I had health insurance is I was still young enough to stay on my family's. If I hadn't had my family including me in their insurance plan, I wouldn't have been able to afford insurance, and if something catastrophic had happened to me I would have had mountains of medical bills. It's hard to make it on $10/hr even when everything's going right - let alone when it's not.

Specializes in Cardicac Neuro Telemetry.
Could someone PLEASE make LuLaRoe GO AWAY??????

LLR does have some cute (and a some ugly) items. I admit I do have a handful of their leggings because they're very comfortable :whistling:. Unfortunately, there are some irritating, downright unprofessional consultants. Point of my original comment, if you can't afford the start up of a business, get a business loan or find an investor (or two). Making a GFM is just tacky and is in poor taste.

My overall philosophy of GFM: Failure to plan on your part is not my emergency, or something like that. If you're taking costly vacations, getting a new tattoo every week, and going on fancy shopping sprees, then you should be more than able to pay to get your car fixed, right? If you decided not to purchase flood insurance for your house when you live in a flood zone, that's not my problem. And so on, and so forth.

This aforementioned philosophy does not apply to people who are genuinely down on their luck and had something tragic happen by no fault of their own and just need a little help.

Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.
I guess I don't understand why your best friend needed money because her sister died.

It was an unexpected death. She was quite young, single and the precious child now has no mom.I was heart stricken. Much as in the same way I'm heart stricken when I have young, sick pts at work.

A while back there were a couple of posters on here making a case for GFM accounts to pay for their nursing school. You see, they didn't want to work AND go to school.

And who can blame them?

If a person asks for help, I help if I am so inclined. If not, I don't.

I have a problem when I see nurses try to post gofundme pages. I'm sorry, but we make enough money to take care of ourselves. Period. If you're living in an area where you don't... that's a personal choice of yours, because there are plenty of places in this country where a nursing income can get you excellent quality of life.

I have a little bit more compassion when I see a secretary, CNA, etc. who has problems with medical bills or a death in the family. I survived on a $10/hr job for a while, making around $22k a year, and I can tell you from personal experience that the only reason I had health insurance is I was still young enough to stay on my family's. If I hadn't had my family including me in their insurance plan, I wouldn't have been able to afford insurance, and if something catastrophic had happened to me I would have had mountains of medical bills. It's hard to make it on $10/hr even when everything's going right - let alone when it's not.

Not all nurses make a lot of money. And some have more expenses than others do - like more kids, no spouse or spouse not working/disabled/whatever, and there are lots of other reasons. Besides, nurses do not make huge salaries. Doctors, business leaders, some lawyers, Senators, Congressmen, top Hollywooders - these people make good money. Donald Trump comes to mind.

Did some research on funeral costs. Yeah, if you want to buy a plot it's probably going to be more expensive. but if you choose cremation it sounds like it's not exorbitant. If you want to look at the link do so. This is for Washington state which not totally cheap the area of the country to live in.

Tuell - McKee Funeral Home ':' Tacoma, Washington '('WA')'

We recently had a cremation. With the cremation, the pastors, the church usage, the musicians it was $4000/

no fancy urn, no burial plot, used a ceremonial casket

Certainly more costly to transport a body to a different city or state, fly, drive, do a burial, whatever. But 20K does sound expensive to me. To each his own, though.

Ok I had never heard of LulaRoe so I googled it...

Good Lord who dresses those poor women...

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