Anyone Else with Pay/Benefits Cuts?

[mammac5]

I work for a hospital system but don't want to be more specific than that.

Tough financial times at my workplace - some paid time off was frozen for a few months of the year, meaning employees did not earn time off for weeks. Jobs have been cut, departments downsized. It's become a very stressful environment due to morale, rather than due to the actual work.

Recently the the providers were informed we will no longer accrue time off to use for vacation, sick days, etc., and we will no longer have time off set aside for CME purposes.

This equates to a pay cut of several thousand dollars for me since our time off used to accrue and could be cashed out annually (with restrictions, of course).

It seems like a no-brainer to say - Go get a new job! I get that.

But what I want to know is whether you are seeing things like this in your workplaces or geographic areas. Are you being told that cuts are being made so others' jobs can be saved? And how would you feel about all this when your hospital continues to build and expand?

I feel like I need some perspective on this from others.

[sissiesmama, ASN, RN]

It's happening at the facility in town where hubby works as nsg sup. Last month they sent out packets to 300 of the senior staff members that they would be out of a job December 11th.

They have screwed with vacation/sick pay and all our employee PCP visits will go from a flat $5 fee to $15 office visit and we will be responsible for lab/X-ray/pathology fees also.

At the same time they are discussing moving our current facility to a different building they already own - and they're ordering brand new beds/equipment to go in it- not sure why they can't use at least some of the equipment in use now.

I know there's other points I'm leaving out but that's the highlights.

Anne

[mammac5]

I appreciate everyone's input here. Normally what I hear is how everyone's salary is much higher than mine, how they have better benefits, etc. Even though I'm sorry others are suffering from financial cuts, I guess I'm satisfied to know it's not just me. I've been feeling very disrespected by my current situation but do not want to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Ride it out? I'd like to open my own practice but it definitely does not seem like the timing is right.

[zmansc, ASN, RN]

Is the timing right? The first business I started was during a recession. My partner and I were talking about it, what would differentiate our product, etc., and I brought up was the timing right to open a business? After all, the economy was in the tank, people were being laid off, etc. He said, "If we can make it now, we will be in far better position to grow when the economy grows. And, when will it ever be the right timing?" I thought about that for a while and realized, that he was right, because we had a good idea, that would offer something no one else did, and we would be first to market. We went to work creating our product, and marketing it, and he is still in that business today. Ok, that's not technically true. That exact business was sold four years later for a very nice profit, he continued with the new company, I choose not to, and six years after that he left that company and started a competitor to it.

My point is the timing is right, when you offer something people are willing to pay for because your product offers benefits that the competition does not. Yes, it might be easier to get people to part with their money when everyone is flush, but that is a very rare phenomenon and it is not sustainable (i.e. your business will be open during a recession at some point in time anyway). So, if you want to start a business, by all means, come up with an offering that is going to be better than your competition, and go do it! Don't worry about the current state of the economy, that will change and you will have to deal with that in good and bad times. Worry about having a better product than your competition does and how you are going to let people know about your better product.

Good Luck!