Interesting Hiring Conundrum

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As I mentioned a while ago, I am pregnant and just officially announced to all my family and boss this week! I am 13 weeks, so this is pretty much the normal "professional" timeline of letting your employer know around the start of the 2nd trimester (I am not really showing and haven't had any symptoms that would require me to spill the beans earlier).

Our school system has two campuses and a nurse on each campus. Although our campuses are separate, our leadership does everything together and I work closely with the other nurse. Both us nurses have had a hard time finding Sub coverage so the other nurse had her boss post for a sub nurse position. So when I told my principal (boss) I was pregnant, I mentioned that maybe when they're interviewing for the sub nurse, they could gauge interest in a maternity leave position. TO MY GREAT SURPRISE, she had no idea that a sub nurse position had been posted, leaving me to feel a bit gossipy and undermining... but I simply assumed the other principals would have told her (I am always the LAST to know anything, so the fact that I knew before her is very weird).

Anyways, she agreed that would be good, and I took the steps to loop everyone in via email. Both the elementary and my principal replied to the emails saying that they are too busy to be involved in hiring a sub/maternity nurse and would like the nurses to be in charge.

Here's the issue... we haven't gotten any responses yet from the posting (newly posted) and us nurses are done next Friday. So... I'm not sure what's going to happen with the hiring process. I want to be involved because we all know how bad a bad sub can be, but I also don't want to spend my whole break managing this process, scheduling interviews, basically working HR.

Any good solutions you can think of?

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This is my solution:

Enjoy your summer and take care of you and your baby. This is not your problem nor is it the other nurse's problem ?

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1 minute ago, jess11RN said:

This is my solution:

Enjoy your summer and take care of you and your baby. This is not your problem nor is it the other nurse's problem ?

Honestly, this was my first thought... but the principals both emailed us back and washed their hands of it. So who is going to do it? LOL. Maybe I could talk to HR and ask that he invite me to the interviews. I don't mind coming in for a couple hours over the summer, but dumping this on us with 6 school/work days left is pretty ridiculous

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56 minutes ago, jnemartin said:

Honestly, this was my first thought... but the principals both emailed us back and washed their hands of it. So who is going to do it? LOL. Maybe I could talk to HR and ask that he invite me to the interviews. I don't mind coming in for a couple hours over the summer, but dumping this on us with 6 school/work days left is pretty ridiculous

If you have an HR, then the responsibility falls onto them. The responsibility should not be on you at all. I think it would be an honor to be invited in on the interviews, but that's where it stops. I am fearful that if you accept the responsibility of the hiring and interviewing process, then you're opening yourself up to whatever else they may want to dump on you in the future. You have so much more to focus on at this point in your life.

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Think of it this way...when there is a position open for a sub teacher, does the principal or HR dump that on the teacher? Of course not. So, why do they think that it is acceptable to dump it on the nurse?

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15 minutes ago, jess11RN said:

Think of it this way...when there is a position open for a sub teacher, does the principal or HR dump that on the teacher? Of course not. So, why do they think that it is acceptable to dump it on the nurse?

I know - you are totally correct. I just talked to HR and said I will try to pre-screen the candidates before next Friday, which is my last day, but after that I will be on summer vacation and unavailable to help much more. He was totally fine with it. Next week I'll update him and tell him to feel free to invite me to the interviews, but I may be out of town.

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.
1 hour ago, jnemartin said:

Honestly, this was my first thought... but the principals both emailed us back and washed their hands of it. So who is going to do it? LOL. Maybe I could talk to HR and ask that he invite me to the interviews. I don't mind coming in for a couple hours over the summer, but dumping this on us with 6 school/work days left is pretty ridiculous

You must work in a great district that puts you on Principal pay grade. Sweet. Really, this is not your concern. Let them know that you will come in over the summer for a $10,000 bonus for the added responsibility and angst that they have put on you. That is still less than a Principal's salary, but they work 12 months, not you.

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1 hour ago, jnemartin said:

I know - you are totally correct. I just talked to HR and said I will try to pre-screen the candidates before next Friday, which is my last day, but after that I will be on summer vacation and unavailable to help much more. He was totally fine with it. Next week I'll update him and tell him to feel free to invite me to the interviews, but I may be out of town.

Good!! Enjoy your break! You deserve it! ❤️

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