How do you deal with being called a "snitch" by your co-workers?

[1Jessie86]

I was honest with my RN supervisor letting her know that a couple of the techs had been abusing breaks. It was supposed to be an anonymous complaint, but it didn't turn out that way. If there's one thing I can't stand it's co-workers who abuse breaks because being left to pick up the slack when they're not around is not fair. So how do l deal with this?

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

I, myself have not had a discussion with management about the abuses that others commit, like all 3 aides taking an hour lunch when I barely have time to pee. There have been nurses that HAVE complained, and it has not been kept confidential and I have seen repercussions. We have several younger nurses who say they just quit asking the aides for help b/c the older aides pick and choose what they will do and what they won't do. Tail wagging the dog.

It's nurses like you who enable the aides to get away with stuff.

You are afraid to speak up but your peers had the backbone to do so.

What repercussions have there been?

You all need to get together as a group and make an appointment to sit down with your immediate boss and his or her boss and maybe the CNO. Make sure each of you in your posse says something - no one gets to be silent and let the others do the work and take the heat.

Take time to pee, do not do the aides' work. I don't care how old the aides are, YOU are their supervisor and you tell them, nicely but firmly, what to do. If they don't do it, you have to write it up. If all of you nurses do write-ups, the problems should eventually get noticed and acted upon by your boss. If not, then you all need to take it up the chain of command.

Or you could try being very sweet to the old bags and maybe they'll do as you ask because they have come to love you.

[allegra78]

Mind your own business. That's the way you can deal with it.

[cayenne06, MSN, CNM]

I don't work with aides/techs, so I really don't know, but I have a question for some of the posters...

You all really think it's acceptable for the bedside RN to be the one talking to the techs about their long breaks? The way I see it, I don't hire them, I don't schedule them, I don't officially start the disciplinary action process with them, and I don't do their annual performance reviews, so why exactly should I be the one talking to them about their job performance?

If it's something like leaving someone on the bedside commode that shouldn't be left alone, I'd say something because that's my patient, too, but I don't think their breaks are my business beyond the fact that it would inconvenience me. Besides, if I talked to techs about their long breaks, nothing changed, and then I went to management, it would be pretty obvious who reported them even if management was professional about it and never mentioned my name.

To me, it's just about workplace ethics and building cohesion within the staff. It's just the right thing to do, to try and resolve problems directly whenever possible. It feels awkward and embarrassing to address these issues directly (at least the first few times you do it). But if you bite the bullet and have that hard conversation- respectfully, and with good intentions- most issues like the one the OP mentioned can be resolved without resorting to any sort of disciplinary process.

I wonder how the techs would have responded if you brought it up to them directly- "hey, I know you guys are worked to the bone but things go to hell on the unit when you are gone for so long, we just can't keep up. We need to keep our breaks to 30 minutes, okay?"

And I agree with the poster who mentioned that these people are paid next to nothing and are worked like dogs. Not that the RNs aren't just as overworked, of course, but the good thing about a peer to peer approach is you can empathize with the insane workload and the need for adequate breaks. Maybe there are some workplace issues that can be addressed to make everyone feel more appreciated and less overworked, or at least more invested in the staff as a whole and less likely to shirk their duties. Certainly a work environment where minor staff issues are routinely brought to management is not all that conducive to creating positive work relationships.

[baleen]

This snitching thing is a nursing epidemic. Handle your own ***. People don’t have a good work ethic, take it up with them or shut up and do more work. It will bite them in the *** later, as it always does for people that don’t have a sense of responsibility. But snitching, if someone’s health and life isn’t being put directly at risk, is a sin and a personal flaw. Fix it and you are one less nurse among the thousands that have this problem. This, to me, is the main reason I don’t. want to be a nurse anymore. The nurses with no sense of self. No backbone. Wanting others to fix problems for you. Deal with it yourself. Be a man/woman.