New director is a nazi

Specialties Emergency

Published

My new director is driving me crazy! She had a meltdown at the last staff mtg; came in yelling at us and said we had lowered the bar for professionalism so far we'd never get it back, told us we were all getting a written corrective action in our personnel folders for an anonymous letter that one of our new nurses found in their locker (supposedly) that told them to get out of the dept. She slammed the stack of papers she was holding in her hands down on the table twice and told us there was a core group of staff who were undermining her and bringing the dept down. Lots more derogatory comments were made suggesting that every nurse was horrible. At this point I walked out of the meeting and went to personnel to request a transfer. My co-workers told me later that I missed the best part of the mtg. Evidently she became so overwhelmed with emotion, she had to leave the room twice because she was sobbing! Any advice on how to handle her? I love ed nursing but can't work for someone like this. She doesn't want any input from staff on what works or doesn't. Said we were going to "no wait triage" to improve throughput times but did nothing about any of the things that bottleneck the dept. and thinks that no pt will have to wait if we just put them all into beds immediately. Of course she had no answer when I asked what to do when there aren't beds as is always the case at 7pm when I come to work. Lots of other annoying habits from her and she seems to have gone out of her way to alienate the staff. Help

I agree, it does sound like there might be some bullying going on. I have to wonder if some staff members are pulling a passive-aggressive number on the new boss. Perhaps the OP will share some more details.

Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

It sounds to me like the new director is overwhelmed by the out of control culture and behavior of the ER which she just started managing. If it's anything like the ER where I work, there are some extremely strong personalities. Sometimes, units have been poorly managed in the past, are in a state of anarchy with mob rule, staff have gotten their way forever and a day, and a new manager is confronted with a united front of mutaneers who who have a lynchmob mentality.

Exactly. A crowd who considers the "best part" of the meeting is when she has an emotional breakdown in front of her staff. Yikes.

Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.
Exactly. A crowd who considers the "best part" of the meeting is when she has an emotional breakdown in front of her staff. Yikes.

Good point. I'm glad I don't work in that unit.:uhoh3:

Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

I also want to point out that the OP walked out of the meeting, which I think is unprofessional. It sounds like she actually 'stormed' out of the meeting and emotionally ran downstairs to put in her transfer. That strikes me as impulsive and reactionary.

Specializes in ER!.

Despite the obvious disadvantages of being the lone dissenter, I have to go with the OP on this one.

Certainly no one literally equates an out-of-control micro manager with an anti-Semite guilty of mass genocide. But I am here to tell you that I left my last job as a direct result of similar tactics of a new director, who has been, incidentally, frequently referred to as "The Nazi".

I am talking about having a job you love in a place that you love, working alongside compassionate professionals that you have come to regard as friends. I am talking about a badly needed income being totally at the mercy of a new director who seems to have deliberately set out to alienate the entire staff over trivial BS that does not do one single thing to improve patient care. I am talking about a woman who, in the few short months since assuming directorship, has fired a number of longtime ( 15+ years) employees over such trivial matters that the whole situation stinks from the beginning.

Our ER used to be the most awesome place to work. I still love the doctors there, and roughly 98% of the nurses. It was a stressful, chaotic, fat-burning exercise to be there for 12 hours, and still I thought it was worth it till this woman came in and demeaned, degraded, and dismissed the effort we all put into taking care of our patients. Nothing was good enough, or fast enough, and when we begged for a 10-minute break after 9 hours of running without so much as a chance to pee, we were told, "No." This happened to me twice. Eventually any sane person starts to ask herself if this is still worth it. Twelve hours of literally non-stop running, sweating, taking extra patients, no time to eat or pee, and all this new dictator has to say is that we're not doing enough.

For nearly a year under this woman's rule, I badly neglected my own body, risked my license, provided quantitative care instead of quality care, and was away from my new husband 4 nights a week, and for what? And this was when I could actually get the hours I needed to pay my bills.

So go easy on the OP, y'all. She is obviously in an extremely difficult situation, and more jumping down her throat over her phrase of choice is probably not going to help her find where she needs to be.

(((((((((Hugs to you, Olddog))))))))))))

Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.

i think the manager is nutsy.... she ( the manager ) can' stand the heat needs to get out of the kitchen. i understand she has things to get upset over but she lost control in front of her staff.. and thats poor leadership

Specializes in ICU of all kinds, CVICU, Cath Lab, ER..

Well, now that we've established that the term nazi is offensive, unwarranted, unneccessary, etc. etc., and etc., let's take a look at the problem presented.

That problem is an emotionally spent, unprofessional supervisor who screams, threatens, bullies, and in general abuses her staff.

I for one think that a united group of nurses (oh boy, is that wishful thinking!!) should document their feelings about this conduct from a supervisor and ask for a meeting with the next administrator in the "chain of command". Let's face it: if one of the staff nurses acted out like that in a meeting, she would be long gone.

My first supervisor threw a chart at one of our staff nurses and hit her in the head! It took two other incidents for the hospital to act but they finally did (that was more than 20 years ago) - the second incident, by the way was taking a post MI patient off telemetry so he could accompany her to the smoking area where they were seen smoking together! The final incident was taking an order for meds from a physician - oh, he was in Europe on vacation at the time! Talk about giving someone a rope!!

I hope you take my suggestion seriously. We just had a problem in our hospital and it took three meetings up the ladder to get it resolved.

Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

Frankly, it sounds to me as if both sides are lacking. The manager sounds way too emotional and the unit sounds pretty vicious if someone is leaving anonymous letter telling new nurses that they need to leave the unit. I wouldn't want to work there!

I don't think Olddog was trying to make light of genecide, but point taken about calling any small time tyrant a Nazi. This supervisor has to go. And the nurses should never be threatening oneanother. Did this happen in Texas? I've seen this sort of thing also, but only in Texas.

Supervisors yelling and shaking their fingers at nurses! And if they want my help in problem-solving this is not the way to get it. There are too many jobs out there to put up with that kind of BS.

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
In defense of the OP, I don't think s/he realized that throwing around a word like "Nazi" is offensive to many. It's unfortunately become culturally acceptable.

A lot of people don't understand the impact made by the word, by either calling their boss a Nazi -- grossly unfair in any situation -- or by trivializing genocide by comparing it to a work situation. It's great that folks on this board are speaking up. Let's hope the OP and others who use the word will consider what they're really saying.

Clearly, reading this thread I see that the word "Nazi" is not culturally acceptable. I agree that the OP did not mean anything bad in using the word. When I first read it I thought, bad use of the word...I was surprised to see that I was not the only one bothered by it.

tennnurse, you are not the lone dissenter. to me, "nazi" means a megalomaniacal dictator who targets a certain population, creates a war that kills and maims millions upon millions of civilians and combatants, and all so a particular race will have enough living space. "nazi" means complete lack of regard for god or for anyone other than me and my own race or group, it means torture, degradation, and the worst possible terror. i'm not sure why this should be such an offensive word and i am personally sick of political correctness and having to walk on eggshells with everyone. i wish we could just say what we mean and mean what we say without having to worry that we are offending someone when absolutely no offense is meant. i'm weeping because i know that isn't going to happen any time soon in most places i frequent.

can anyone actually explain to me why the word "nazi" is offensive to them? the op was expressing strong, strong upset and compared her boss to someone who was totally evil and horribly misguded and who was somehow allowed to inflict unspeakable misery upon a very large part of the world's people. even we today are affected by him, all these years later, on this bb.

the op describes a manager who is apparently severely stressed or totally incompetent in her manager role. it would be smart to befriend her, i think, as someone else suggested, and let her know that you want to help with problem-solving. i imagine she is under the gun from her superiors to improve wait times and make sure all patients thoroughly enjoy their er visit. you know how it is - everyone is focused on numbers, surveys, and the like, not on did the nurses get to empty their bladders and eat their meal and did patients get proper care. we are all forced to play that cruel game. and managers are just that - managers. they are not aligned with line staff, rather with the bosses. if they can't perform to their bosses' expectations, they will be out. unfortunately, that means that they must come down on the line staff. that's just how it works. cold, cruel reality of life.

smart handling of this person would be, i think, to befriend her and help her achieve her goals, as already suggested. i apologize if i have offended anyone. i just think that we are all adults here and can handle disturbing things and words. i hope i'm not wrong about that, i do not want to offend anyone.

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