Just started with agency now banned from regular hire

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Specializes in med surg ltc psych.

What a rude awakening this has turned out to be. I just hired into a locally owned LLC nursing agency that staffs for all the bigger and better well known facilities. Some of which I had previously worked for. I did so because nursing jobs completely dried up in the last 3 months in my city. After hours of in office testing and orientation and finally signing hire paperwork, I get called for a shift at a facility I am quite familiar with. Found out within 10 mins that they lost 3 nurses and needed to get those full times filled quick. I did not know, and it was not stipulated to me that I can not apply for any direct hire staff nurse positions with ANY facility I have worked for with this agency even if it was for 5 minutes on the floor and left. I can not work for any facility/previous staff nurse jobs I have worked for in the past either. And conversely, I can't do an agency shift at a place I previously worked for either. I am now banned from seeking or getting gainful employment when the chance that an opening does occur. Now I'd have to know who they have contracts with, and turn down agency shifts so that in the event that I'm offered a job I can proceed because I didn't do an agency shift there. :uhoh3: And I'm not allowed to stay passed the 8 hrs for a shift either. So I was supposed to walk out the door and not do a narc count with the oncoming who was a little late getting in? I was supposed to leave holes in the MAR and not chart on my skilled patients or document some wound care I absolutely had to do. Yes I got in trouble for staying over an hour for making sure my legal obligations were completed before I left and now I'm a problem. I can accept not being paid for the extra time I had to stay, but brow beating me over it? Yeah, I read the employee handbook and "outside employment" policy didn't state I could not apply for regular work elsewhere. It talked about political or volunteer/goverment involvement or if you were out on FMLA or workers comp you also could not work anywhere either. I feel owned. And the only way I could have taken the full time position where I worked last night would be to outright quit the agency immediately and walk back in and finish talking to the DON. I regret hiring into agency!

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Wow!!!!:eek: I didn't realize that the agencies had such strict and ridiculous rules. I wonder if all agencies are like this or just a few of them? It sure seems unfair to me.

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Wow!!!!:eek: I didn't realize that the agencies had such strict and ridiculous rules. I wonder if all agencies are like this or just a few of them? It sure seems unfair to me.

Most agencies have some kind of restrictions on taking jobs at facilities at which they've placed you -- otherwise, the agency would just be paying you to look for a permanent job. :)

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Specializes in med surg ltc psych.

That seems logical to me. I think since this is my first go at agency work and have worked with several agency nurses who have "regular" jobs elsewhere I assumed something because they weren't up front with the restrictions. If they had given me a few scenarios like the ones I just experienced I would have known better. It also is common for full time staff openings to suddenly occur and the only ones who know of them are employees who are all ready working there and tell the cousin of another cousin who tells their friend, and the friend gets hired in so the facility doesn't post positions to the general public. I think human resource departments jobs have gotten a whole lot easier these days. they don't seem to want to go through the whole rigamarole of the lengthy interview and hiring process with applicants anymore. Look at how we have to do the app process for nursing these days. All online, no phone calls, no paper resumes, no in person interviews. "Just go to our website" is a sure fire way to not have anything to do with you, like they are being bothered that you even enquired with them. That cuts down a majority of applicants because of the process registering with user ID and passwords, screen after screen all to end up being never looked at or just simply... deleted.

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Well, unless someone clued me in, I would have been ignorant of all of this myself. Sounds like you ought to say goodbye to the agency, it does not seem to be very friendly.

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Specializes in med surg ltc psych.

Thanks caliotter3 for admitting you'd have been just as blindsided as I was. Have y'all noticed how many staffing agencies have cropped up in the last couple of years? Like there's multiple corporations all getting in on advertising themselves to nurses for home health, corrections, peds, you name it there's companies out there trying to vie for nurses attention or recuiting up with them because they also know the market and availability for straight hire full time staff positions are evaporating. I now feel like they are more like business hacks preying on our education and licenses, and it's their job to get you involved with them (entirely for their own financial gain) and not much return for the employee taking unsafe low paying jobs. This whole nursing business is having a serious negative impact on my life. I fantasize about stocking shelves at Home Depot, or just something that's non nursing related so I can feel like my old self again. Most of my former classmates feel the same way. Some I haven't talked to in 2 yrs and when I do they are angry, cursing and wore out knowing the next job if there is one, is going to eventually be a repeate of the horrible job they just escaped from. They've transformed into a person that they weren't before. I told myself after I turned 50, no more college. Now I'm reconsidering going back to get a bachelors degree.. in something other than nursing.

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Hey Newtress--

I didn't even know that about hiring agencies either!! I appreciate it that you told us about that!! I'll definitely steer clear of that!! I also agree about the *BS* ways that you have to apply for jobs now!! And too, the fact that you can't get ahold of a "live" person in human resources either! I hate that crap when you get the automated message and you have to push a bunch of buttons (and listen to that automated message too!) and after going through all that (yes, I'm going to use profanity again!!) s*** they either tell you you have to make an appointment (which is probably useless anyways) or it reroutes you back to the beginning and you have to start all over again!! Yes, this did have to me!! I had all I could do to keep from pulling my hair out and running around the house foaming at the mouth and laughing wildly like a deranged person!! Sigh...........Whatever happened to talking to a real person?

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I made the same observation about agencies. And I also noticed when I worked for Kelly Temps years ago, that the very same seasonal job that I had worked at directly for a company the previous year, now was worth $1.80 an hour less because the agency held the strings. And the agency people were snotty. So, I was being paid consideraly less to be forced to deal with snotty people. The entire time I was dissatisfied and that was the last time I worked at that particular job.

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Specializes in med surg ltc psych.

Interesting Caliotter3, I also worked for the afore mentioned temp agency many years ago before college, but it was for industrial manufacturing and was for almost 2 yrs! Back then, the pay was reasonable for that kind of work and it was a steady 40 hrs a week and had not one single problem or issue with them. As I mentioned, my mind has been going back to that place where I clocked in, put my parts on a line and did inspection of those parts for 8 hrs and left promply when my shift was up and had a lunch break and scheduled breaks throughout the shift. I miss that so very much and think that's why I have been sick and run down and clinically depressed. That's the me I haven't seen or been since I got into nursing school and post grad and working. I'd really like to take a walk on the normal side.

I had to go into the agency office this afternoon to pick up my first two checks. I should have looked at them while I was in there. Got to the car and opened them. The first one was correct for 8 hrs. The second one for 8 should have been an exact duplicate of the other for straight 8. It wasn't. It was a whole 47 dollars less. What in the shaft shift hell is that I wonder? Stub indicates 8 hrs, but not the same pay. :uhoh3:

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Usually agencies will stipulate that you cannot be hired at a facility that you have booked through them no sooner than 6 months after your last shift. If its not stated in the handbook or in writing then I dont think that they have a legal right to force you to only have to work for them. They may tell you that to scare you, but once you leave an agency they cant dictate who can hire you.

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Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.

Did you sign anything in reference to this and if so did the agency state any penalty? Anyway, it sounds like this is the kind of agency that someone in another thread referred to as pimp. Get out of there if you can. Save all your documentation such as handbook and go for the full time job.

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Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Tele, ICU.

unless you signed some legal agreement i'm not sure they can legally hold you from applying for a job. I'd review any paperwork you signed with this company.

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