How many chances do you give a job before you quit?

Nurses General Nursing

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In a post I mentioned my three strikes countdown. I give a job three chances and after the third I am usually gone. It not for petty things, but  huge things. For example, a first strike at a nursing home years back was when I worked night shift on a unit with and with one nurse, the unit had more that 15 patients for sure.  The second was when the one person who made the food did not show up. So the DON had to make sandwiches. I think the third was when my wallet was stolen from my purse (maybe that was the second)? Anyway, what is your limit?

Specializes in Rehab/Nurse Manager.

Too many.  I've been at my workplace for 5 years now, been exhausted for 3 or 4 of them.  I'm still there, though.  ?

2 hours ago, vintagegal said:

I think it depends on the job. LTC: you can only do it for about 2 years before you burn out. Because of the staffing ratios, lack of equipment, crazy families, and the unreliability and sketchiness of the non nursing staff. For me, I normally give chance after chance. Unless someone steals my wallet! If the management doesn’t seem concerned about grievances or issues, that’s your signal to run. Sad to say, but LTC have a reputation for a reason. 

Agreed. LTC burns people out fast. 

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On 3/11/2021 at 7:35 AM, klone said:

When I start thinking about calling in sick and I'm not really sick. When my drive to work is filled with dread. When I have fantasies about crouching under my desk and pretending I'm not in my office. That's when I know that it's time to start looking for different employment.

At my last director-level job, it was when I threw my cellphone across the bedroom and had a ugly crying temper tantrum after I was called to come to the hospital by the house supervisor for the 4th Sunday in a row. I gave 2 months' notice the following week.

That first paragraph sounds more like burn out than time to quit. Yikes, that’s a lot to put up with before throwing in the towel-playing sick, panic disorders triggered by driving toward the stimulus and wishing to do one of those drills we used to do in school where we all duck under our desk when the alarm sounds....okay that one may be showing my age.....but seriously, those are warning signs that you should of quit and took a vacation a long time beforehand.

2 months notice? I did six weeks with my first employer after working there 8 years. I was just a floor nurse but the schedule was out and I decided I’d do the curtesy of working through it so that no one would get screwed. I will admit, I had the three issues you had above, but never allowed myself to say I was sick when I wasn’t, the one hour drive to work was torture, and I didn’t have a desk-just a linen closet and a pillow to scream into so no one would hear me when I was at my wits end. Now I’d be afraid the pillow had COVID19 vaccine resistant strain...I can’t say how long my longest notice was-it’s a long, ongoing story but it wasn’t the job. This one is due to life situations being put of full burn and exacerbated by a pandemic. 


 

 

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
13 minutes ago, NurseSpeedy said:

 

2 months notice? I did six weeks with my first employer after working there 8 years.

It was a director-level position that was very hard to fill. I was trying to leave gracefully and not totally *** over my team, whom I loved. 

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7 minutes ago, klone said:

It was a director-level position that was very hard to fill. I was trying to leave gracefully and not totally *** over my team, whom I loved. 

That makes more sense. Sucks when you have a great team but a crappy situation that you have to make a choice to leave to keep your own sanity.

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On 3/14/2021 at 4:38 AM, DesiDani said:

One of my three strikes. The RN I had was elderly and had health issue. Poor thing, obviously I didn't ask her to help with patient care.

Oh dear, the woman was trying to work instead of being a resident there! I had that horrible thought once. I only worked in an ALF for a little less than a year when I ran away from the place-so sad that people have to live in situations and some of them are paying a lot for services that the facility just is not staffing to provide. I thought to myself-I hate it here. I hate it because of the lack of care these poor people are receiving every day. I will be damned if I am going to be miserable working here and then have to check myself in before I get to die here because of a long term employment discount!...I was the only nurse with 2 aides for two units-on of which was memory care- I had to pass meds on over 100 people for the entire day due to no shows. Also had falls and admits. This was the norm for a few months before I quit-but I only worked weekends-was supposed to be 12 hrs shifts-the always turned into 16. Got a new manager who was total *** and basically came in the next day after a weekend from hell, told her and the executive manager to stick a fork in me, I’m flippin’ done. Slammed the resignation on her desk with my 3 year old with me since I didn’t have a sitter. I never saw two stunned people try to stop someone from leaving so hard-and not heed the warning my three year old was trying to give them, “You are making my mommy upset....she’s getting mad....you should shut up now”....got several calls during and after my two week notice asking me to consider coming back-um, nope-already have a new job and enrolled myself in a transition program to get my RN-thank you for making see the light! No more elderly care. God bless those that do it.

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Based upon what I have found to be the job market around my area, I usually wait for the employer to get tired of me and invite me to find the door.  In those instances, being agency work for home care, they conveniently forget my phone number and I don't remind them after a time.

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Specializes in Peds ED.

I don’t go by strikes so much as how it makes me feel overall. I have quit two jobs after being there a short time, one because I hated the unit (went from a teaching center childrens hospital peds ED to an all ages community ED) and literally was crying on the way in to work everyday. Left after 5 months. The other was a travel assignment where we had 10-15 patients at a time in the peds ED. I’ve had jobs with staffing that felt inappropriate and unsafe before but I legit was scared I was going to lose my license if I stayed, so I quit (and then was fired ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) after 11 shifts.

But I also stayed at a job that made me miserable because I needed the insurance for an upcoming surgery, we had a move planned out in a year, and it didn’t seem worth it to find another job and have to delay my surgery to get FMLA and then move soon. 

 

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Specializes in CWOCN, critical care, home care, interventional ra.

I tend to have a lot of tolerance for bad behavior. I’ve been an RN for 28 years.  My last job I stayed in the same role for 7 years, the last 3 of which involved throwing up every work day from stress.  I enjoyed the independence and the work, but not the conditions. I finally left that position because I realized that there was nothing I could do to make things work out with management (and because my husband finally got it through my thick head that there were better options available).  I am in a job now where I make a difference and where I’m well thought of.   My previous job lasted 8 years. When management told me float to another hospital without orientation (I believe the phrase was “get your *** over there”) I went to senior management and my manager was disciplined, when they said we were to be inserviced in how to mix the chemicals to wash the floors, we said “we are willing to pitch in, but if this is an essential part of our job description, we will seek employment elsewhere” and they rethought their position.  The last straw was when they closed the hospital and basically said “you can drive to work and sit in the parking lot, but we won’t pay you and you can’t come in...” well, it was time to go.  Sometimes I feel that I stay until the pleasure exceeds the pain.  
Recently I have come to realize that I am worth more than being miserable, and that it is up to me to make it happen... suffering doesn’t make me a better person, it just makes me miserable.  

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.
On 3/14/2021 at 12:37 PM, SilverBells said:

Too many.  I've been at my workplace for 5 years now, been exhausted for 3 or 4 of them.  I'm still there, though.  ?

Agreed. LTC burns people out fast. 

I don't know, I worked LTC for 25 years, all of it in one place. Despite the  usual high turnover the core staff that worked there had all been there for years. I was one of the last few long timers that held out. 

The proverbial straw that broke the camels back for most of us was a write up happy management. That would have been tolerable if it had been consistent but it wasn't.  It's like management either didn't know or just didn't care that staff talk, all the time! One person would be written up for something that another person had also done without consequence. The rules seemed to change weekly if not daily with little to no communication about what the new rules were. 

We all got tired of walking on eggshells just waiting until the inevitable time it was our turn for a stupid write up. Good staff left, staff that didn't give two hoots if they were written up as long as they weren't fired stayed.  I saw the writing on the wall and got out about the time I got thoroughly yelled at, though not actually written up for doing my job. Sadly in that particular situation doing my job created more work for them and well, that's apparently unacceptable! 

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On 3/11/2021 at 4:35 AM, klone said:

When I start thinking about calling in sick and I'm not really sick. When my drive to work is filled with dread. When I have fantasies about crouching under my desk and pretending I'm not in my office. That's when I know that it's time to start looking for different employment.

I had a few jobs where I would pray the ceiling tiles would somehow drop on my head when I walked into the building and knock me out so it would be a legit excuse to not work.  Never happened, unfortunately (fortunately?) 

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Specializes in LTC.

I finally put my notice in.  As management, I was the outsider.  All the other managers would get together, have lunch, do the manager stuff without my awareness.  When I finally figured this out, strike one.  Then, another manager didn't like me because ... one story, when it was unfounded, there was an addition to this reason.  Still unfounded.  But, the DON and Administrator were friends with her and she was believed.  I am on the outside looking in, I got a call from another facility for a management position.  Good bye.  

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Specializes in Wiping tears.

When my house supervisor lied about others and me, I quit. The rest of the others disappeared, too. Top people resigned. I didn't do anything except quitting. 

I have zero expectations from the patients.
 

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