Nurse Manager gossiping about employees?

[Cola89]

My nurse manager tells us tidbits about other workers. Uses general and vague 'they said...' statements when communicating areas she seems to think an individual needs to improve upon.

For instance; she asked me to come into her office when I got a chance to. When I did, she proceeded to say 'they' said (some of my coworkers, she won't specify who) said you seem to lack confidence. Then she didn't offer much in the way of suggestions. It was very vague and very insulting to me.

Others who are new to our department have stated she has done the same to them too. Only, they have either quit or gotten fired by now.

Should I go above her head to HR and let them know about her ineffective ***** management style? Or just ignore her? I don't see myself being able to reason with someone who acts like this.

Also please note: I work in an ER where the ft medical director called the nurses monkeys before I started there. He still has his job, but is known to **** and complain about nurses on a whim. He gets emotionally worked up easily...

[NextGen]

This is an example of a poorly trained nurse manager. She does not know how to (1) investigate a complaint made by a nurse about another nurse, (2) differentiate between staff gossip or targeting another staff member, (3) find out if the complaint impacts patient care and (4) how to address the situation, if needed, with the person being complained about.

Management is a skill that can be taught. It is not a skill that people are born with. Unfortunately, nurses are promoted to a manager's position without any training or prior proven successful management skills.

If you have a union, take it to your union rep. If you do not have a union, do NOT take this to HR if you want to work at this hospital. HR will go back to your manager who will then target you. Once a person makes it to a manager's job, rarely are they removed from the position.

I wish I had better news for you. Poor to mediocre managers exist in every profession. The rare excellent manager is a blessing to work for.

Good luck and happy holidays.

[Raicho, BSN, MSN, RN]

I hear a lot of people saying this isn't gossip, but constructive feedback. I have to say, that may be the case, but it may not. If this is happening on a regular basis AND she is asking YOU about other people, it could be a manager playing the "divide and conquer" role.

Whole I was in Nursing school I worked as a unit secretary on the Medical ICU of a Level I Trauma center in the middle of the city, 24 beds, lots of non English speaking. After a few months, I would get called into my managers office for "constructive critucism". It was always, "they think you are too________. " But she could never give me [email protected] and as I was still really new I made a point of telling EVERYONE how much I didn't know and would they correct me when I did anything wrong. But no one ever would tell me that I was doing anything wrong. Then my manager started calling me into her office asking me " what people were saying about her?"

We were all sniping at each other so.much that it took us a solid year to figure out what was going on. Noone was complaining about the other, at least not to her, but she was attributing it to us. The last time I got called in I was told that I was being "too friendly". I asked did they really mean that I was talking with people too much and therefore not getting my work done and I was told that no, I always got my work done. So then I asked some more questions and all I got was that I spent too much time on the non-English speaking visitors.

That was the day I put in my notice. Thank goodness. Later I heard that she hadn't done any of thus with the nurses, but did with ALL the techs and secretary's. So sad.

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

Management is a skill that can be taught. It is not a skill that people are born with. Unfortunately, nurses are promoted to a manager's position without any training or prior proven successful management skills.

This is unfortunately so true and such an issue within the nursing profession. Many nurse managers were promoted to their position based on X amount of years as a nurse or as charge nurse. They may be amazing bedside nurses, but that does not automatically make them qualified for a management position.

The catch 22 is that if you put a non-nurse with tons of management experience into the position, then there is often staff issues with the fact that the manager doesn't have the nursing experience to manage nurses. Seems like there's no winning.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Management is a skill that can be taught. It is not a skill that people are born with. Unfortunately, nurses are promoted to a manager's position without any training or prior proven successful management skills.

The Peter Principle