Nasty co-workers

Keep your head down and under the radar.

I did work with some pretty toxic nurses, but they left. Is management aware of this?

Management is aware of it on some level. I know certain situations have been brought to their attention (involving other employees) and not much has been done about it. Maybe written warnings and such. While I personally have not been involved in any blow ups; I can sense a ton of tension and attitude from certain individuals. It's obvious who is a part of the drama club and who isn't and I don't to be involved at all.

Does anyone work with people who have terrible attitudes? Work with staff who are confrontational? My place of employment is getting so toxic that I dread going into work and have started to forward my resume to other establishments. In the meantime, any words of advise on how to deal with these people without adding to the drama?

Froom nurse430+yrs:saint:

I have 30+ years in nursing working in various areas including: direct patient care; office nursing; community health nursing; teaching; consulting. The challenge I found is many times when primarily women work together it can become an emotional battlefield. I found that most health care places do have some toxic levels in them. Have you gone to your supervisor and ask for advice on dealing with co-workers? If the toxic level goes all the way up to the top leadership; it is wise for you to move on.

Are you taking good care of yourself? :heartbeat Also, some people believe that the people we attract in our workplace is sometimes a reflection of what is going on in our lives (take a good look and see if you are expecting people to have confrontational behavior).

Next step try this experiment-each day give at least two people compliments about their work. Most of the time in the workplace all people notice is what one does wrong. It could be all they need is a little positive compliments and you may begin to notice a change.

Next: read Dale Carnegie's book: How to Win Friends and Influence People--if not for them, but for you! John Maxwell also has some great books: 25 Ways to Win with People

And last of all: When you go home; relax...do not go over your day. Bless and release all of negative things from the day---in other words--do not allow negative people to rent space in your head (since they are not paying rent).

I would suggest you work on days when they are not there as much as possible. If you cant do that, then i would have to ask them, "do you have some kind of problem with me that we need to address?" If they respond in a hateful manner then i would tell them to cease in communications with you. I have been in nursing for almost 17 years and have found that if you stand up to the bullies, then they find someone else to bully. If all else fails, then id talk to my boss about the inappropriate situation of having to work in a hostile work environment. That should get their attention.

i blessfully work in a pretty good unit. of course, there are always a few and thankfully i don't work with them muc. when i do, i go to my happy place, i'll sing, whistle and look out at them and see them for what they are......pure entertainment! :loveya:

Man, the cattiness in the unit where I work is ridiculous. I try to keep a low profile. I want to remain cordial but that's it...I mean some nurses talk bad about their employees, then turn around and act as if they're the persons best friend. This BURNS me sooo much! A lot of other nurses on my unit criticize each other (not conductive) and slander others. It's a fiasco...Not to mention the people who are slick about it...smile up in your face but despise you....I am debating if I will stay or NOT...There are some really good team players and really good people that work there...but it seems as though the bad outweigh the good.

My job had a toxic environment for many years, much of it due to the DON we had. She encouraged tattletaling on people, she wasn't fair in discipline to all nurses, some could get away with anything and others couldn't kill a fly. {I was one that couldn't kill a fly without being jumped on about it.} She's gone now.

The other 2 who had caused such alot of nonsense are gone now, too, and the environment has much improved.

I tried to stay out of the radar as much as possible and have as little contact with the DON and the other 2 as I could.

That's the only way I was able to survive.

The thing that really irks me is that no matter how hard you try to stay out of the catty gossip, eventually you are going to get into a confrontation because some people cannot stand to NOT be the center of attention. They will keep going until you do pay attention...and then immediately go whine to a superior about how you 'were mean' and 'disregarding them'.

I also am sick and tired of nasty coworkers. I am a vascular access nurse at a community hospital. Some days I am responsible for starting all the 72 hour IV changes and restarts on 3 floors. Also some evenings from 3-7 pm I am the only IV nurse for the entire 210 bed hospital. You would not believe the attitude some nurses give me. "Where have you been? I have to give this patient pain medicine right now." Also if I can not get an IV in a patient with no veins they say "Now what am I supposed to do. I need that IV." The nurses do nothing to help me. They will call me for an infiltrated IV and have the pump still running at 150 ml/hr. I think the nurses in the ER treat me the meanest. They treat me like I am their slave. It gets pretty pathetic. I am counting down the years to retirement.

At my last place I spent 2-3 years working with one nurse who I absolutely hated. There were only two nurses on at a time, and I worked 5 of my six shifts each pay period with her. She was so toxic that I dreaded coming to work. I went to my manager many many times, not to complain but to tell her "This is what's happening, this is how I've tried to deal with it, and it's not working. Do you have any ideas?"

The proper managerial thing for her to do would have been to counsel said toxic nurse or move her around so I wasn't the only one who had to deal with her. Instead I was told that I had to find a way to deal with her because she wasn't going to change the schedule. Even the techs and the docs hated working with her.

I went on maternity leave for two months. As it got closer to time to return I literally started feeling stressed out because the schedule was changed to where I would have to work every single one of my shifts with her. The day I went back the doc pulled me aside and showed me the schedule; the nurse's name was crossed out for the entire schedule. She'd been terminated the day before, and it fielt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.

One of the nurses I started with in orientation is just highly rude -- if not just rough, mean and nasty. I had sort of hoped for some friendliness among those I started with -- but since she's got her big few years of nursing tech experience, she seems to strut around like she's the "thang" and is rude and nasty to me every chance she gets. A lot of her stuff is crap she mutters under her breath at me while no one's looking. I've tolerated it while on orienation, but now that i'm off, she's going to really get it right back frm me if she continues it.

She's very loud and obnoxious in the nursing station as well -- and come to find out, she's routinely behind in her assignments from so much yacking all day long at the top of her voice to every who will listen. Just total diarreah of the mouth is how I describe it.

I have been fighting this issue since I was off of orientation last year. The preceptor and a couple of her buddies created a very toxic environment in which they would gossip, isolate, give dirty looks, not help you, even be sarcastic and make problems worse when you were in need of help with a patient situation. We have finally reached a turning point! Several weeks ago, one of these people left. This little group threatened that they would leave if the manager did not...they blamed our unit's problems and high turnover on mgmt. When the manager was forced into a new position, they suddenly decided to leave! How funny! Since the first, 2 others have quit, and the last is going to be finished with a contract keeping them there in about another month and a half!! It will be so nice to have these attitude problems out of the unit, and have positive staff left. It is actually slowly changing for the better. It's crazy what a small group can do to a unit with their toxic attitudes.