Layoffs tomorrow!

mattsmom81 · Aug 19, 2004

when a cna with 25 yrs was making as much as a new rn grad they did everything they could to ease her out....they asked the nurses to write that she was "slowing down" with her work...

I see a whole lot of this in my parts too...sneaky ageism. As a house supervisor, I was asked by numerous managers to 'look for dirt' on specific individuals on my shift... the older nurses/staff, high paid, those on somebody's shyt list or those with a WC injury were prime targets. They wanted documentation they could use against their idea of a 'problem employee' ...and I was also unpleasantly surprised how many supes would go along with this stuff to get along with the managers.

Now if there's a REAL problem employee I had no problem documenting...but much of this was very a targeted and premeditated plan.

Brita01 · Aug 19, 2004

I also suspect what they're really up to is 'cleaning house' ...including weeding out the older higher salaried, savvier nurses and replace them with LVN's and/or the more naive new grads and more PCT's. I've seen this happen frequently in my area as well. I wonder if the older nurses stood up for themselves and claimed age discrimination if this would help, but who knows...most just go away quietly after 40 years as a nurse. Sad. I guess they don't have any energy left to fight. Of course, the facilities have likely covered themselves and created some dirt on these nurses to dispute any claim of ageism, so it may be hard to prove.

This is why I think the loudest voices talking about the so-called "nursing shortage" are the hospitals. Tell the people that there aren't enough nurses available and watch them come out of the woodwork and flock to nursing schools. And once the market is flooded with nurses, hospitals can layoff, understaff, and do any damn thing they want because there will always be a brand new batch of nurses to pick from.

jimwilson8 · Aug 19, 2004

No, the best revenge on hospitals and other nursing facilities is to have Jesus Christ come back and heal everybody. But then we all be out of a job.

dedjim · Aug 19, 2004

Doesn't this just tan your hide? If nurses can get enough heat worked up to get a branded sneaker manufacturer to drop their demeaning ads and issue an apology to nurses, why can't we get the heat turned up on issues like this? It OUGHT to be on the front page of newspapers, the lead stories on nightly news and the crawls under CNN stories.

Gromit · Aug 20, 2004

When hospitals lay-off and start calling help off for more than an occasional shift, the help starts looking for other jobs. Then when things pick up, most of the best and brightest workers have made a change and are not willing to return to the place that did not "attempt" to keep them working. I agree that most administrators are just a waste. Once was working at a facility that had a Don, and 2 ADON's. had a lay-off, in the winter time, and then a big storm, well, these administrators were pressed to get on the floor, they refused and even tried to get some of the laid-off help to come in "due to the emergency." Can you guess who did? NO ONE. It would have messed up their unemployment and the facility was making it clear this was an emergency basis only. The patients suffered and this facility has never gotten over it's "nasty" reputation concerning employee issues. Turn-over is high, morale is low, and staffing is now a lot of travelers. Some of these travelers are former employees, making more money and not taking the company crap. I wish these employees well, I have been there more than once.

This is exactly why I left my last facility 9 months ago, and work at the one I do now. That place started calling off the help (I was one of 'em). I was only a semester shy of graduating the RN program, and I went to the floor manager and explained that I couldn't continue to work for them, if, as a full-time employee, I didn't get to work full time (almost a month of 24hr weeks will flat kill you, especially when you're in school, and paid a techs' wage). They were doing the same to the nurses (rns and lpns). Well, sure enough, a couple of weeks before graduating, they came to me, hat in hand, asking me to sign a 2 year contract as an RN, pending passing the NCLEX. I told them that I would do it (I really liked working with the staff I worked with. They were some really great people) but ONLY if there were clauses in there that said I could void the contract if I started getting consecutive call-outs, (and that I'd have to have a minimum number of hours a month, etc). They told me that they couldn't guarantee any of that. I said that I understood, but that I had to eat, and had to watch out for myself. 2 weeks later I was working at my current facility. I haven't, (and will not) looked back.

My current facility does the majority of indigent care for my region of the state. We are also a level-1 trauma center, teaching hospital, and fairly large. They have cut some bennies lately -and I can understand from a financial point of view (I'm told it happens every now and then, but once the nurses start refusing to pull overtime, they put the incentives back in place). I just have a hard time swallowing the 'we're hurting!' line when in the same breath, they cough up bonuses and raises for upper management. It may not be the same -and it isnt. They don't give patient care, WE do. And when they do crap like this, it kills morale -bad morale leads to unhappy staff leaving the scene, which feeds the bad morale, etc. I'm a big boy, hardly a youngster, and have been through a lot. I'm not depressed about it. It will get better, or I'll travel. Either way, I'm an RN, and I'm here to stay! (hey, nice ring to it!)

Sorry for the lengthy post. But thanks for letting me say my piece :)

CHATSDALE · Aug 20, 2004

GROMIT, the reason you made the decisions you made and made the sacrifices that you had to have made was to provide for yourself and your family...ENJOY IT

Gromit · Aug 20, 2004

GROMIT, the reason you made the decisions you made and made the sacrifices that you had to have made was to provide for yourself and your family...ENJOY IT

I do, absolutely. But its more than that. There are times when you should back down, and times when you should stand up for yourself. I don't like getting walked over anymore than anyone else. And nurses have to realize that we still DO hold some pretty good cards. I'd never threaten an employer (fast-track to unemployment) but they have to be aware that WE have options, too. My previous employer was only willing to have me bound to a contract to THEM for 2 years, but they weren't willing to bend on any kind of assurances. That may be standard practice, but I'm not about to get fined for breaking a contract that won't allow me to make enough to live -because they kept calling me off.

As my late grandfather used to say -a saw cuts both ways. :) Like everyone here, I've backed down, and been stepped on before, and there are times when you have no other option (or its better to allow it for the possibility of future options). To be honest, I liked the staff to the point that if I'd had a spouse that worked, and we could have afforded it, I'd have probably stuck it out. I do miss working with some of them.