Is Being Loyal Worth It?

Not_A_Hat_Person, RN · Jan 15, 2009

Hello Everyone,
Our hospital has recently started this new thing of nurses being ranked as top, middle or low performers, with the understanding/expectation that the middle and low move up or out.

Enron called that "Rank and Yank." Sounds like your hospital is looking for people to fire.

whodunit · Jan 15, 2009

Thanks for allyour replies and support ! Thanks to pencil pushing dumb@#$%^ who don't know a thing about what we do ,things are getting so bad, I can understand why new nurses quit and older nurses just drop out.

meandragonbrett · Jan 15, 2009

I am not loyal to the hospital unless they have given me a reason to do so.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Jan 15, 2009

wearing the managers hat...

how many times do i see grips about staff with bad attitudes, don't help, back stab and sabatoge other employees, provide poor care "but nothing will be done about them".

each business has the right to set expectations for it's employees. manager needs to coach for performance improvement to meet expectations and if employee not meeting them terminate the c's for the sake of a and b morale and respect for the harder-working employees.

from the studer group:

the first step in preparing for high-middle-low conversations is to categorize your staff into high, middle, and low performance groups. a useful tool is a staff differentiation worksheet that defines each type of employee with specific characteristics across five traits: professionalism, teamwork, knowledge and competence, communication, and safety awareness. these traits include behaviors such as how well an employee adheres to policies, demonstrates commitment to the work unit and organization, strives for continued professional development, and comes to work with a positive attitude.
http://www.studergroup.com/dotcms/knowledgeassetdetail?inode=331476

i had a clerk that was fantastic in data entry and distributing our home care referrals to correct departments----out performed all the others--------when she was in the office. shift scheduled 11a -7:30 pm started out 5-10 min late, then 20-30 with occasional 45 min late due to traffic commute.

business expectation: you come to work on time be at your desk ready to work at start time.

after a month of late arrivals---"cause she was staying later after scheduled hours" as business volume rose, changed start time forward one hour with her agreement. still arriving late 2-3 x week. as referrals started coming in later, again moved shift time to 2pm-10:30 pm. 3 months later still did not have one week when she came to work within 5 -10 minutes of shift start time. progressive counseling started with final expectation counseling given. next day late by 20 min: excuse --"had to stop for dog food". terminated.

staff in other offices needed the referrals to be faxed to them timely. despite being a good clerk her lateness was impacting overall office functioning. staff were shocked that i termed employee but realized i was serious about following office standards and business expectations.

another take:

eanblog.org

| lean blog: forced rankings and respect for humanity ...

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Jan 15, 2009

I've just never been so nickel and dimed to death as I am in health care. And the CAH I'm in is extremely nepotistic so how good you are has a lot to do with to whom you're related.

firstyearstudent · Jan 15, 2009

The short answer is no.

Don't want to start tangential deabte here, but I take it you are NOT at a union hospital.

Chaya, ASN, RN · Jan 15, 2009

In my experience, this type of evaluation system (top 1/3, middle 1/3, bottom 1/3) is a precursor to staffing cuts.
They are obviously invalid, as it is possible to have an entire staff of high-performing nurses, or an entire staff of poorly-performing nurses. Yet this system forces employees into one of 3 categories. I'll be the next step is cutting personnel.
I've seen this happen in companies where excellent departments were forced to terminate excellent employees, and lousy departments were forced to keep lousy employees because of where they fell in the ranking.
It's simplistic, short-sighted and it sucks for good employees.

Make no mistake, it sucks for patients as well!

netglow, ASN, RN · Jan 16, 2009

Yup, 20 years of corporate experience here... they are building up to layoff. So, good idea to start looking around, even if you got a good appraisal, cutting staff just means busier you, then the "your lucky you weren't let go" attitude. Feels good to put feelers out tho.. who knows what might come your way, be sure to get a copy of that appraisal in hand... So you can make a point of it when you interview. I always say that the very first thing you do when you get a new job is to update your resume. :typing

eriksoln, BSN, RN · Jan 16, 2009

No. Loyalty, IMO, is VERY BAD.

Let me explain. I'm not simply somone who drops jobs at the first sign of trouble. I dont change jobs like I change underwear. But, I never get into the mindset that if I needed too, I wouldnt.

I believe when employers start pushing buttons to save money, get into that..........."How can we take from our workers" instead of "how can we keep our people" trend......its time to split. I guess if my profession were in a field where I would have to search for months to find the next job, I wouldnt feel that way. But...............LETS ALL REMEMBER, THERE IS A NURSING SHORTAGE, NOT A NURSING JOB OR PATIENT SHORTAGE. You are a valuable resource, and if your hospital doesnt treat you as such, someone else will.

I believe the most powerfull way to influence trends with employers is to "vote with your feet". If their attitudes and policies dont suit you, move on and find somone's who does. If a lot of people agree with you and do the same, they will have no choice except to change their ways. If you are in the minority and others dont do the same.....ah well, you werent happy with them anyway.

Had a friend work in the ICU at the same hospital I worked at. He was working under one of those child eating DONs. She wrote people up at least 3 times a year for.......nothing.......so she could give out lower raises at evaluation time. It was well known you'd get written up 3 times a year no matter how perfect you were. This and other things she did caused people to complain. The hospital did nothing (Surprise surprise). People pretty much all agreed things werent going to change and they moved on. Got to the point that agency and travelers (this hospital did not use travelers, it was an emergency situation that caused them to be hired) covered evening and night shift almost exclusively. There were three daylight staff nurses and that was it. That manager is now gone and from what I understand, pretty much told not to bother applying for work at that hospital chain ever again. See, enough people voted with their feet and, the administration was forced to take action.

whodunit · Jan 17, 2009

Thanks to all who answered my vent !I know that I can find different work, heck a lot of nurses and managers that I've worked with in the past encourage me to come back at least part time {which is a thought and will probably happen}. The thing is...I really love my job and most of the nurses that work there.:heartbeat Sure there are low performers but that is true everywhere and really does mgmt ever really do anything about them?Sounds good but with shifts hard to fill, it seems managements therory is ; better a warm body than the manager helping out. Luckily our hospital gives paper copies of evaluations and I've kept all of mine as well as others from the past, so at least I have that if needed.As to wearing the manager hat, been there done that, helped our nurses everyway possible, caught flack from other managers for making them look bad.I don't mean to come off as perfect or a goody 2 shoes, I've worked hard all my life and expect people to do the same while being realistic enough to know it ain't gonna happen some of the time.To me the thing that bugs the most is healthcare's upper management who most of the time ,have no clue to what the real world of nursing is making bull#$%^ decisions like they do! :banghead:

eriksoln, BSN, RN · Jan 17, 2009

I've talked about that exact issue, Upper Management (I call DONs management and the upper management "administration) who are not suited for making the decisions they are responsible for.

The short of it:

Took a class during nursing 101 so I could be full time. Needed to be full time to get a certain grant (I paid less out of pocket by being full time because of that grant). The class was an online course, Sociology of Health and Illness.

In the reading and one paper, the focus was this issue. The book for this class focused heavily on how unqualified management mixed with JACHO/Politicians and insurances are the ones making the decisions for the health field. Obviously, the direction of the medical field under such leadership does not go towards pt. care. This book went on to point out that more than any other professional field, the medical field is infected with poor leadership, and that it is not likely to change in our lifetime.

That class was a long time ago for me. I'm yet to see anything to make me think differently.

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Jan 17, 2009

Eric, what's the book?