I hate fake call outs.

Nurses General Nursing

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I am a nurse.

On my off days, I make sure that I am getting plenty of rest, because I am a nurse and my duties at the floor requires my full attention.

So when I have to come in during my "off days" so that one of you who mysteriously calls out sick for the entire weekend, placing a call on Friday afternoon saying that you will be sick on Saturday and Sunday..

have no doubt that you have caused ill feelings and I hope that your words will come true for you. ?

I'm just not mean enough to place a "sick call" on the day that you're scheduled to be "on call." Maybe I would, but no..I'm not that mean. Although, it would be sweet. To see a cluster of your "off days," and placing a sick call just to get even with you.

But I live with a honor system. So what do I do? I join Allnurses to rant my feelings here.

I'm just ranting as you guys can see.

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Specializes in LTC.

I think we've all been there or will be there at some point. And yes, it does feel good to think about the revenge call out, for a short period, but it reinforces to me the fact that those of us nurses with honor and commitment tend to get bitten repeatedly by this and there's little recourse. And that, of course, is another reason for burn out. I feel you, sister.

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My old hospital allowed 6 call outs (this included “sick time”) a year. If you were sick on Monday and was scheduled for Monday weds Friday, you could call out for all 3 days on Monday in advance and that would equal 1 call out. This was as opposed to say still being sick Wednesday and Friday and having to call out 3 different times.

This is all assuming the person was legitimately sick though. I can understand your frustration with the fakers ?

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Thank you for your kind words.

I just wanted to rant such a thing. I'm putting in threes and my rest days are important for me to re energize.

I hope that nurse's words will come true for her. She did claim she was "sick."

And I've graduated from toddler university awhile ago so it boggles my mind how someone can know that they will be sick on a Saturday and through Sunday while placing a call on Friday afternoon.

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2 hours ago, KonichiwaRN said:

I am a nurse.

On my off days, I make sure that I am getting plenty of rest, because I am a nurse and my duties at the floor requires my full attention.

So when I have to come in during my "off days" so that one of you who mysteriously calls out sick for the entire weekend, placing a call on Friday afternoon saying that you will be sick on Saturday and Sunday..

have no doubt that you have caused ill feelings and I hope that your words will come true for you. ?

I'm just not mean enough to place a "sick call" on the day that you're scheduled to be "on call." Maybe I would, but no..I'm not that mean. Although, it would be sweet. To see a cluster of your "off days," and placing a sick call just to get even with you.

But I live with a honor system. So what do I do? I join Allnurses to rant my feelings here.

I'm just ranting as you guys can see.

I'm so glad you brought this up because it is an especially irksome pet peeve of mine. I work at union represented facility and call offs are way, wayyyyy off the charts. I'm just going to go ahead and say it-I would be willing to bet anything that 90% or more of these call offs are completely bogus. Sorry, but if you're so medically fragile that you're consistently calling in 1-2 times/week, you should probably think about taking a medical leave of absence to focus on your healing. The even more frustrating aspect for me is management's reaction. Instead of dealing with the problem head on and clamping down, they hound and harangue the quality employees that do show up every day for their jobs. It's "can you come in extra on your day off? Work over....? Then they start in with the guilt and the character assassinations, "some nurses just want to do their forty hours a week and won't help out"-translation, "those lazy sacs of s&$t, disloyal, no good nurses that just want to work their forty hours...... Then, don't get me started on the complete disregard that these faker nurses have for their own coworkers when a substitute can't be found and their absences will likely result in the nurses on duty having double the patient load and responsibility-thanks!

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I hope all nurses who "fake call out" sick, will be greeted with a real sickness that befalls upon their own selves.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.
2 hours ago, KonichiwaRN said:

And I've graduated from toddler university awhile ago so it boggles my mind how someone can know that they will be sick on a Saturday and through Sunday while placing a call on Friday afternoon.

That is not allowed in several hospitals I worked. You have to call out each day you are sick. So, calling on Friday for the rest of the weekend is only a call out on Friday and would be considered a No Call/No Show on the corresponding dates if you do not call out on those actual dates. Also, weekend call outs (especially if frequent) or call outs on or near holidays were all looked at closely by management. I think this helped to reduce the number of fake calls ...

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Specializes in OB.

I totally understand your frustration but at the same time, you shouldn't feel pressured to come in on your off days. That's management's problem, not yours.

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I see that you are an assistant department manager.

I hope that you will crush using the Hammer of Thor on these lazy staff members because they REALLY cause stress and contribute to the burn-out stress for your other staff members.

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Just now, LibraSunCNM said:

I totally understand your frustration but at the same time, you shouldn't feel pressured to come in on your off days. That's management's problem, not yours.

I'm the type that will come for the duties, should I be the person "on call." I am "on call" that day, so since that "suspect nurse" called out sick..I will cover for that "suspected human scum of the earth that is faking a illness to get a entire weekend off."

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.
5 minutes ago, KonichiwaRN said:

I see that you are an assistant department manager.

I hope that you will crush using the Hammer of Thor on these lazy staff members because they REALLY cause stress and contribute to the burn-out stress for your other staff members.

I like to be supportive in my ways of influence. I only need Thor's Hammer when the rare nurse with no integrity and no work ethic enters my realm.

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Specializes in Mental health, substance abuse, geriatrics, PCU.

I totally see where you're coming from and it is indeed frustrating. I would just say though that sometimes people are very private with their chronic ailments and some chronic diseases at first glance from an outsider may be invisible. Whenever someone calls out for several days in advance I always suspect that there's a chronic illness exacerbation. When you live with a disease long enough you begin to learn how long it will take you to get back on your feet again.

I present really well at work, I'm good at faking being okay. When I call out though, it's usually because my feelings of depression, anxiety, and even auditory hallucinations are to a point that I can't function as a nurse. The people I work with don't know that I have a serious mental illness, I'm sure they think I'm faking it because when I'm good I don't look like someone with a serious illness.

My point is just be cautious with coming to the conclusion that someone is faking their call outs, ultimately we see our co-worker's lives from a myopic point of view and truly we have no idea what others go through. That being said I don't know this person or situation so I could be totally wrong and the person could just be faking it. Either way I hope you get some rest.

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