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

witchypoo · Jul 30, 2008

i found the fastest way to stop the Memo's is to act like they do not bother you. My Don asked me last week if i was sick of being constantly written up for my excessive over time, i answered not really, i have a foot of bath room wall open and i'm using them to wall paper it. it was a master charge moment it was priceless. Then she came up to me at 4:25 to have me research some missing paperwork for pneumovac inoculations that are missing from some patients, {i work in ltc} from 2005 and 2004, they are not in the computer{ funny they were on computer generated sheets in the charts if you looked}. i told her i would gladly do it, and i did i punched out at 5:15 when she called me on the ot i reminded her that i was looking up the missing inoculations and inputting them in the computer just like she asked me to do as she was leaving for the day. Now i work from 8am until 4;30 i have a handicapped son who i have to get to school and i was hired this way, on weekends i now have to come in at 7 am and leave at 330 i do not have a problem with this but when i did this earlier i was told not to because it was too hard for payroll.{schizophrenic moment} i often do not go for lunch because the lunch room is near the boiler room and smells like fuel oil and makes me ill it also has mold issues. and my asthma hates it so it's lunch in the car or on the benches outside in nice weather but you may end up sharing it with a dementia patient. so i sometimes stay on the unit to eat. or will read in my med room, it is my lunch, and some days there is no time to eat unless you catch food as you run from event to event When will management understand we are not gymnasts we can only bend so far and do so much at one time .

witchypoo · Jul 30, 2008

Oh and ps my excessive over time is anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes it is on occasion an hour but usually includes verbal orders from doctor's who are passing through and gave them to you because They doesn't like the evening "girl" so you just write them up for me ok susie. or a fall or other emergency that does need 2 nurses to get the paperwork done to to get the pt out 911.

honkifulovequiet · Aug 14, 2008

Yes they the DON at the nursing home I work at as a CNA has started saying we have to go on break and they no longer will pay for a missed lunch breaks even if we are EXTREMELY SHORT STAFFED!!! :banghead:

louisianalvn · Jun 13, 2009

Federal Law, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), trumps state law.

Some of the ways that health care facilities (especially skilled nursing ones) cheat workers

out of their overtime is:

1) Tell you to arrive early for report and THEN clock in.

2) Interrupt your lunch hour - even for a minute - then you are entitled to be paid for the hour

3) Make you attend meetings off the clock

4) Tell you to clock out and finish your charting or other work

5) Tell you to clock out and do the narcotics count

6) Tell you to clock out and wait for your relief.

They always threaten you with the loss of your license if you don't stay.

A group of Texas nurses has filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act to collect their overtime.

Although it talks about LVN's, documentation suggests that Med Aides, CNA's, housekeeping,

and food service will join in to collect their back money

It looks like the suit is expanding nation wide to many skilled nursing facilities.

Read about it here:

www.lvnclaim.com

anononurse · Jun 23, 2010

Where I work, we have people coming in 1+ hours b/f shift starts, clocking in, then sitting in the break room- eating, talking, reading magazines. Administration says NOTHING, but we have had a freeze on raises-- COL & merit. I counted one day, we had 8 RN's on the clock socializing for 1.5 hrs!! Let's see....at $30/hr x 8 RN's x 8hrs total.....you get my point- more than I make in a shift!! Yet I go written up for having 3 hrs overtime when my relief didn't show up!!! Administration is too chummy w/some of the staff, THAT is why this continues. Thank God I'm on maternity leave for the next month, I will be using some of this time to find another job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yosemite, RN, ASN, EMT-I · Jun 28, 2010

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?
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Heck YES! Understaffed, overworked, everyone stressed out to the MAX! If you don't take your lunch/breaks you're counseled about "time management." If you do take them, it is impossible to keep up with the flow and, again, you're counseled. Most of us become adept at NOT taking luches/breaks, clocking out and NOT getting caught. Say ANYTHING about it and its time to find a new job...