Is your facility warning staff for overtime, for missing lunch breaks or other?

[Brian]

I've been hearing of nurses getting counseled or warnings about overtime, for missing lunch breaks, late admissions, and misc other reasons... and/or hospitals requiring you to clock out on time, then you have to submit your overtime separately with documentation why you had to have overtime.

Is your facility warning staff for overtime, for missing lunch breaks or other reasons?

We'd love to hear your experiences and feedback!

Please feel free to share your experience regarding and answering the poll questions.

[EmmaG, RN]

I've even been asked to clock out while running labs to another hospital. Didn't clock out and never got paid for it.

Non-exempt employees must be compensated for any time during which they perform activities that benefit the employer.

Read the above links. The hospital was wrong to ask you to work off the clock and you were entitled to be paid.

[bethin]

Non-exempt employees must be compensated for any time during which they perform activities that benefit the employer.

Read the above links. The hospital was wrong to ask you to work off the clock and you were entitled to be paid.

I knew they were wrong. They had paid me before for running errands but not this time. I threw laws at them but got no response. Even though I know a law was broken I'm just sooo tired of fighting with them. It only took me ~40 mins to make the roundtrip so I dropped it. I guess they caught me on one of my nice days.

I no longer make those trips for them.

[EmmaG, RN]

I knew they were wrong. They had paid me before for running errands but not this time. I threw laws at them but got no response. Even though I know a law was broken I'm just sooo tired of fighting with them. It only took me ~40 mins to make the roundtrip so I dropped it. I guess they caught me on one of my nice days.

I no longer make those trips for them.

The DOL guy I spoke with told me that employers can do anything they want and get away with it--- so long as no one reports them

[dcnballmom, ASN, RN]

thanks to everyone that posted here - i took the site info to work with me today, let a few more people there know what it is like - not just with us but with everyone - then i hear of another situation that i wondered about with overtime pay - and wondered it this it right too - our GNA candidates were paid during their courses, which were 60 to 80 hours total - during that time, when they were called in to work on a unit they were not paid for work, but given PDO time - is this legitimate also?

[fivewestortho]

at the facility i work at we are again asked not to go over our TO. But there isnot effort to accomodate for morning or afternoon breaks or even a lunch break without interuption. My mother in law worked in a factory and got two 15 min breaks and an hour for lunch. no wonder we have so many overweight nurses for all the snacking just to keep up some energy. I wish there was and answer but it is a time age problem. The patients come first and the nurse last. Some where in between the CEO gets paid big bucks.

[GreenNurse]

Why do the managers care if you don't take your lunch break?

I understand how frustrating it can be when you have been running your butt off all shift and need to stay overtime to complete all your tasks ... but it is even more frustrating when you see lazy nurses socializing and eating all throughout their shift and saving their charting for last and trying to play catch up in the end - of course they are going to have to clock in overtime.

[anononurse]

My facility rarely has the staff to give lunches or we get 15 minutes in sometimes a 12 hour day.Also we may work 12 hours a day for 3 days and when it comes to thursday and friday they make you leave before you get overtime.Nice huh?

This sounds like something that needs to be reported to the state labor board! I worked one facility where similar things were happening. If you had too many hours after running around w/no lunches or breaks M-Th you were told to leave early towards the end of the week-- fine w/me, as long as I get my 80/pp. However, they had an incident resulting in a patient death & a huge lawsuit b/c they floated inexperienced (as in NO previous experience) nurses to fill in for the seasoned nurses who were sent HOME to avoid as little as 3 hrs OT! The facility settled out of court, and guess what??-- they now realize that a few hours OT is nowhere near as expensive as a lawsuit!!

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

my management is more concerned about why staff doesn't have time to take a break and how they can help, rather than accusing people of "milking the clock." i think people talk so much in my department that word gets around about who does things like that, and it gets back to management.

[color=#ffa500]*jess*:monkeydance:

[Yosemite, RN, ASN, EMT-I]

Yes, in California, at least, there is quite a fine to the facility if breaks and lunches are missed... I believe $10,000.00. Not much for a large facility, but for a smaller one like I recently worked for, its a budget buster.

Oh, yes. Overtime was a big offense unless we were short staffed... of course, we ran on such a skeleton crew that ONE staff member calls in sick it is a total disaster. (This facility is one of the three types not covered by California's staffing ratio law). Leaving during such a situation, if the shortage was an RN was "pt. abandonment."

Of course, if all of the work wasn't finished, it could end up in a "write-up" for the RN.

How did we work around this? Simple... punch out for lunch and keep on working. Work through breaks. If a few things needed finishing, punch out to go home and stay and finish on your own nickel and PRAY nothing happened that would draw attention to the fact you had done so. Kept our mouths shut. Wring, rinse, repeat till you were injured, found another job (not so easy as THERE IS NO NURSING SHORTAGE in California) or just quit.

[EmmaG, RN]

How did we work around this? Simple... punch out for lunch and keep on working. Work through breaks. If a few things needed finishing, punch out to go home and stay and finish on your own nickel and PRAY nothing happened that would draw attention to the fact you had done so.

nonononononononononononono.............

[Yosemite, RN, ASN, EMT-I]

nonononononononononononono.............

Unfortunately, yes. The only other option that we could see was just keep taking the "write ups" until we were fired (a couple were). They would then fill the position with a new grad that would work a few shifts (at best) then quit or a newly arrived foreign nurse who, also, didn't understand what they were getting themselves into.

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

The only time they get onto people is when it's being abused. VERY rarely do we have people staying late to chart or people missing lunches/breaks.

Of course there are exceptions and sometimes you have to stay late and chart. But in the year and a half that I've been there, I can count on one hand the number of times I've stayed late, and when I say late I mean like 30 minutes over. Also, in the year and a half I've been there I've never missed a lunch break. Again, I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to cut my lunch short, but I've always been able to go get something to eat, go to the bathroom, and take a little break. Even on the busiest-run-your-butt-off-constantly-all-night types of nights.

We help each other out. We make sure everyone can get a lunch break. We make sure everyone can get out in time.

Maybe I'm just a naive new nurse, but I honestly can't imagine putting up with working at a place in which the norm is to not get a lunch and to get out late.

We as nurses work hard. We not only deserve our lunch breaks, but we should REQUIRE that we get them.

So in a roundabout way, the answer is no, we don't really have a problem with this. Sure there are some people that take advantage and try to milk the clock by saving some charting for later, that way they can get the overtime. And those people are the ones that get warned. Otherwise, it's not a big issue.