Mandated to work Saturday?

[Bella1988]

Hi, I am new to this site.  Just had a very frustrating day at work that I would like some fellow nurses’ advice on before moving forward.  I am an RN at a family medicine clinic.  We have set hours M-F.  A few weeks ago our nursing supervisor announced that the clinic would be offering 3 Saturday clinics and that they needed volunteers to staff these clinics.  We have 3 RNs and no one signed up.  Today the supervisor sent out an email stating that if no one signed up she would be forced to draw names out of a hat.  At the end of my shift today I received an email that I was going to be working this clinic.  I am not thrilled with this as my husband and I have plans for the weekend and expensive tickets for a Cubs game.  I asked a friend at work if we could really be mandated to work on a weekend when our clinic is not typically even open on weekends.  She said she didn’t think so and advised me to reach out to HR on this issue.  Personally I don’t think this is fair and that my nursing supervisor should work this shift if there were no willing staff members.  My husband however fears that going to HR would cause my nursing supervisor to cause more problems for me in the long run.  Does anyone have any advice on what to do about this?  Any comments are welcome:)

[amoLucia]

Let me get this straight --- manager's dilemma = Saturday clinic coverage

Plan A was for someone to volunteer to cover one of the 3 weekends. No one did so on to Plan B.

Plan B was to put names in hat and random draw resulted with OP covering.

There could have been a Plan C to select staff by seniority/date of hire. And Plan D could have selected staff alphabetically.

And yes, I really was in a situation where Thanksgiving, Christmas & NY had to be covered and for 1st & 2nd call. Well, it worked out that I was the last hired and end of the alphabet. Mgt realized I couldn't do 6 shifts by myself, so they did come up with alternative scheduling. But things like that DO happen!

FWIW - nobody is being mean! The honest answers aren't just what you want to hear! I agree that it was suckee that you got such short notice. And HR will not be of any help to your cause. But it is NOT the mgr's job to cover the shifts when all 3 of you dug in your heels deep and balked. But to raise such a ruckus for ONE Saturday in one year!?!?  I don't think you'll be satisfied any which way, so I wonder if you will be there NEXT year.

[ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP]

On 7/28/2021 at 10:00 PM, Bella1988 said:

The other 2 Saturdays have not been determined yet.  As of right now, there is nobody signed up.   I believe my nursing supervisor was just worried about getting the upcoming slot filled.  I contacted HR today but have not heard a response back as of yet.  I work for a very large hospital so I guess we will wait and see.  Unfortunately all three Saturdays were not optimal days for me.  First Saturday was a trip to Chicago and a Cubs game that my husband and I had planned for awhile, second Saturday was a big family reunion in Indiana for my family with many relatives I don’t get to see very often, and third Saturday was my mom’s birthday (she passed away 3 years ago this July and dates like that are hard for me to function quite honestly). I’m not saying my plans are any more important than the other nurses who may have all had plans for all three Saturdays as well.  I was just stunned that I could be mandated for a Saturday shift.  I was more interested in others opinions on what the likely outcome would be with HR, not others pointing out the fact that I should have just sucked it up a picked a Saturday.

Did you make these plans before or after you found out about the three Saturdays? 

If the Cubs game and family reunion were that big of a deal, I would have volunteered to work on Mom's birthday. Yeah, it would have sucked, but sometimes it is better to keep busy.

[klone, MSN, RN]

14 hours ago, amoLucia said:

FWIW - nobody is being mean! The honest answers aren't just what you want to hear! 

I may have been a little mean.

[chare]

9 minutes ago, klone said:

I may have been a little mean.

No, you weren't.

[SmilingBluEyes]

I think the mean one was me......

But I honestly was not trying to be mean.

[JKL33]

On 7/28/2021 at 7:15 AM, klone said:

I apologize in advance, my stop. key is. broken.

I'm so confused. I thought this was going to be like "my give-a-damn is broken" and a rant ensuing.

I read the whole thing when it was first posted....hmmm....klone doesn't usually make too many typos.

And it didn't click that maybe your actual "stop key" was broken.

So which was it? Stop key, give-a-damn, or both?

?

[Crystal-Wings, LVN]

Gosh it must be nice having a Mon-Fri job with regular business hours. I never get the weekends off. 

[CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN]

On 7/27/2021 at 10:22 PM, Rose_Queen said:

Not going to touch the legality/policy side of things, but this is where volunteering for another one of the Saturdays probably would have worked in your favor. That would have left two Saturdays and two nurses, and your name shouldn't have been in the hat.

This is funny but it’s a good point. A while back, my clinic ended up desperate for someone to vaccinate on the Sunday of a holiday weekend. I volunteered to do it because 1) I didn’t have any holiday plans 2) I knew no patients were going to come in for a vaccine on a holiday so it would be an easy shift and 3) my boss was effusively grateful because I “rescued” them when everybody else was going out of town. So now, I have more leeway to turn things down, because I’ve shown that I’m a team player and will pick up when I can. 

[klone, MSN, RN]

12 hours ago, Crystal-Wings said:

Gosh it must be nice having a Mon-Fri job with regular business hours. I never get the weekends off. 

Here's an idea. You could get one, too!

[klone, MSN, RN]

On 7/31/2021 at 9:47 AM, JKL33 said:

I'm so confused. I thought this was going to be like "my give-a-damn is broken" and a rant ensuing.

I read the whole thing when it was first posted....hmmm....klone doesn't usually make too many typos.

And it didn't click that maybe your actual "stop key" was broken.

So which was it? Stop key, give-a-damn, or both?

?

??

It's my actual key. I blew. out my keyboard with canned air, but apparently that didn't fix it. 

[morte, LPN, LVN]

On 7/29/2021 at 8:38 PM, SmilingBluEyes said:

We are not being mean. We are being factual. You put it out there for opinions; you don't like what you heard. I am sorry; that's on you. I have faced similar situations. I am forced to work Sundays around Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Years to make up for those days when the clinic is closed. We rotate;  I don't get a choice. I plan on it and yea, it adds on to our burden and takes away entire weekends for us every year. And if it's my turn to work at that time, no PTO. I just plan on alternating holidays with the other nurses.

 So yeah, I have been there. I live with it. Every job has its pluses and minuses.

Leave the job if this is unacceptable to you. I imagine this will happen again next year at school time.  

Wrong, some are being mean.  AND the OP has specified what she was looking for.   And that was oft ignored.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

6 hours ago, morte said:

Wrong, some are being mean.  AND the OP has specified what she was looking for.   And that was oft ignored.

I will respectfully agree to disagree. OP was looking for someone to tell them that "mean ol employer" couldn't do this. In most cases they (employer) can, as long as no labor laws broken. OP got offended when they didn't get the message that they wanted. No one was directly mean, but perhaps a bit more direct than what OP wanted