Lottery for holiday shift?

[twoangels]

So, it's 1 week before a holiday and our manager announces today that if she doesn't have the volunteers she needs for the holiday shift we will just have to draw names to decide who works it.

What do you say to a manager that a) doesn't bother posting a schedule until we're almost out of any posted schedule, b) thinks it's fine to wait until the last minute to either get volunteers or force nurses to work a holiday, and c) thinks it's fine to possibly randomly pick nurses who have done holidays versus choosing only from those nurses who have say, not worked a holiday at all in the past 12 months. I'm so angry about this sloppy way of doing things, I want to say something without saying the wrong thing. Help please!!!!!!!

[Zookeeper3]

is there a hospital wide policy in place that states when the schedule must be posted? or how about you asking to take over the schedule? i did scheduling for many years due to crazyness like you mentioned. it was as fair as i could make it, but you can't make everyone happy, it is a headache at times. it's an idea anyhow.....

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

might write a longer post later but this type of employer bs seems par for the course! be glad you have a job or get out is the mentality of most. Why can't the employees rotate holidays? EVERYONE works every other holiday or if there are a ton of you every 3rd?

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

Where I work we rotate the holidays it saves a lot of arguments

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

On my floor the manager is having to kick people off the holiday schedule because so many signed up for it.

I think she has to cover the schedule. Should she have thought ahead more? Probably. But heck, I forget to take a flush in the room half the time so..... *shrug*

[snuggles49]

We have 6 paid holidays 3 summer 3 winter. We have a staffing policy that states no employee will be scheduled more than 3 of the six and one of the three will be a winter holiday. A staff member can offer to work more than three as we pay time and half for working holidays and some staff like to get OT and don't care about holiday.Our policy also states if more than one person request to have a holiday off and all request can not be accomadated then whoever didn't work the previous year will be given the holiday off first. On my Unit we have a set schedule .... it works out you only have to work 2 hoildays a year and they are one winter and one summer...then you rotate into the next set for the following year. so you have Chirstmas off 2 years in a row before your scheduled again. This works a bit different with our noc aides and secretaries as there are only 2 of them to split 6 holidays so they do 3 a year and rotate. We have been doing this for 3 years and it is 100 % better than it was before when the staff would squabble about who would have to work and who we get what holidays off. Now everyone knows and can plan ahead. Our schedules are posted for 4 weeks at a time based on our pay period for starting and ending dates and are always posted 2 weeks prior to the next one starting. Staff are allowed to request off 8 days a schedule with 4 of those days being weekends if they desire. Staff are never scheduled more than 2 weekends per a 4 week scheduled unless they request to work extra week-ends as some do (no weekend diff) as they like having 4 days off in a row or the slower pace (sometimes not) or to avoid working with some managers (its the truth). If someone is in nursing school or taking pre-reqs for nursing they get preference for days off and they are not counted toward thier 8 days allowed for request off. . Also, if staff are taking vacation we don't count those days against them for the 8 r/o days per schedule. Hope some of this helps.

[nurse2033, MSN, RN]

She has not handled this well. This should have been settled two months ago. There should be some accountability for who has worked which holidays in the past year. Most places I've worked require a few holidays per year and let the employees pick which ones. Only if one falls short is anyone assigned. People usually agree to work where needed. A clear, fair policy is needed. In the short term, if I was assigned and couldn't work, I would just tell her I can't change my schedule on such short notice.

[caliotter3]

Lottery is not fair. All one has to do is to create a list of employees and the date of their last worked holiday, go down the list and get your workers. Share and share alike.

[twoangels]

Thank you everyone- I'm still trying to figure out what I could say to encourage a policy about this. She tends to be very defensive and takes offense to suggestions. However- this is very sloppy to let these kinds of things go to the last minute and causes discord among the group of co-workers.... so I would like to find a way to approach this with her. Any suggestions for that?

[snuggles49]

Produce a holiday schedule and present it to the manager in a manner that indicates the staff understand how difficult it is to produce a staffing schedule and you all got togerther and came up with a schedule you all felt was workable and just want to present it to her to help . My staff have done this before and I have looked at it and sometimes I do take the suggestions. My night staff have 2 nurses who share the schedule alternating every other month and then I approve it. I have made changes occasionally and no-one gets upset. Several other nursing Units have one person on staff do the schedule instead of the manager and we are a unionized hospital.

But you need to present your ideas to your manager so she doesn't feel she is losing control over the schedule or being undermined. Good Luck

[Asystole RN]

On my floor the manager is having to kick people off the holiday schedule because so many signed up for it.

I think she has to cover the schedule. Should she have thought ahead more? Probably. But heck, I forget to take a flush in the room half the time so..... *shrug*

Same here. Nurses would fight over working holidays and taking on-call. Now we have a system where everyone rotates and the holidays are evenly distributed with no option to give away days (too many people would fight over those days).

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

What's wrong with Group A (half the staff) being assigned to work Memorial Day, Labor Day, Christmas Day, while Group B works Independence Day, Thanksgiving, New Year's Day.....and the next year, Group A works what Group B did this year and vice-versa? (oh, and if you worked NY Day/Christmas Day, you can expect to be off NY Eve/Christmas Eve, and vice-versa).

Every one of the Big Holidays covered. If someone wants to switch with someone else this year, that's fine, but you are still obligated the following year to "your" scheduled holiday.

Print this out and hand it to her :)