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:)

[KyBeagle, ASN]

 I’m simply curious to know how this story ends! I feel like I’ve been watching a movie on TV & the cable went out right before the end! 

Did HR get back with you? Did you work Saturday? 

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

On 7/30/2021 at 6:09 PM, amoLucia said:

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.

She had/has Cubs tickets.  She says they are expensive and a trip to Chicago is also involved.  Sounds pretty costly.  I don't blame her for being upset. 

Her family reunion would also be bad to miss.

Her deceased mom's BD is another story.  I do understand why she might want that day off, but I think we all have to give a little to survive a job.  She can mourn the loss of her mom outside of work hours.  Not to be harsh, just that the longer we live, the more people we generally have to mourn.

Sad that the boss can't pick up at least 1 of these Saturdays and sad that OP didn't realize it would be better to volunteer than wait to see which Saturday she would be mandated.

I hope she didn't ruin her relationship with her boss by going to HR.  As someone else said earlier, HR is not the friend of the worker.

[SmilingBluEyes]

On 8/1/2021 at 10:49 PM, morte said:

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

We don't always get what we want.

Sometimes, we get what we need.

[amoLucia]

^^^^^  Like this!

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

No way is the nurse manager taking those shifts as long as there are other staff that can. Three nurses, three open shifts so everybody take one. Should be easy.

I can see why you wouldn't want to work the Saturday you have expensive ball game tickets, GO CUBS! Also one of my favorite teams, LOL! 

I can also see why you wouldn't want to miss a family reunion where people you rarely see will be there. Especially since I am guessing this is a gathering that was skipped last year with more COVID precautions in place than there are now. 

While I get that you would prefer to have your day of remembrance for the birthday off as well in my opinion in this situation that is the day that would be the least inconvenient for you to have to work. You can certainly carve out some private time to reflect and mourn later in the day. 

Even if you got stuck this coming week by luck of the draw maybe you could convince whichever nurse that will be working the only Saturday that you don't have unbreakable plans to swap with you.

[LPN_Computer_Guy, LPN, LVN]

Like others said, it seems like the best way to handle this is to let your boss know that you and your husband had plans and see if one of the other RN's can work the weekend for you in exchange for you working a weekend for them. 

Regarding the whole situation from the Manager's perspective, I hate the idea of drawing names from a hat.  The fair way of handling it would be to say if no one volunteers, then you all will just be assigned a certain weekend.  At least if there's a schedule, it can help you guys plan ahead for your weekends. 

[morte, LPN, LVN]

On 8/3/2021 at 5:20 PM, SmilingBluEyes said:

We don't always get what we want.

Sometimes, we get what we need.

Smiling, you are better than that Jr High snark

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

3 hours ago, morte said:

Smiling, you are better than that Jr High snark

True, but the Rolling Stones reference was a good one. Truthfully, though, I didn't see it as snark

[LPN_Computer_Guy, LPN, LVN]

On 8/2/2021 at 1:52 PM, KyBeagle said:

 I’m simply curious to know how this story ends! I feel like I’ve been watching a movie on TV & the cable went out right before the end! 

Did HR get back with you? Did you work Saturday? 

I'm curious too ? 

[Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN]

On 7/27/2021 at 8:29 PM, Bella1988 said:

 The issue I’m having is that this was originally presented to us as something we could volunteer for and instead I ended up being mandated to work. 

Welcome to the real world and by the way if you ever want to experience being on the turd list with mgmt just go to HR and complain. Listen to your husband suck it up  and do it cash your extra pay ,tell the others how great and easy money it was,and soon your co workers will be fighting over doing the saturdays.

[CharleeFoxtrot, BSN, RN]

On 8/3/2021 at 11:23 PM, kbrn2002 said:

Three nurses, three open shifts so everybody take one. Should be easy.

 

Agreed. I don't get why this was made into such an ordeal. Three open shifts that need coverage, three nurses. The fair thing would have been to assign one to each of the nurses, with the option to trade amongst each other.

But, I'm pretty sure this schedule change falls in the "and any other duties" part of the standard employment contract.

[nursel56]

On 7/28/2021 at 4:40 AM, CrunchRN said:

You will probably be seen as a non team player if you balk "officially" at this temporary situation.  I would just try to get one of the other nurses to trade.

A temporary situation like this is not worth garnering a bunch of ill will.

I agree with this.  I've worked for years in ambulatory clinics, and never seen how drawing a line in the sand worked out well for the employee if they otherwise like the job and plan to stay.

My opinion would be different if they were asking you to commit to Saturdays with an open-ended timeline, or something vague like "until things settle down". Again, this is an opinion, but staff dynamics in clinics tend to be more insular, and magnify both the good and the bad in everything.