Onerous Onboarding With Nasty Nellie, The Job That Lasted a Week

[panurse9999]

Has anyone noticed that the "onboarding" process today has changed drastically from yester-year? I seem to remember the big "welcome aboard" parade of papers, events, appointments , all with a cheer, a smile, and sometimes even a mug full of lifesavers. Because that is what we are. A process by which a new nurse is welcomed to the employ of the hospital, in a "we're happy to have you" schedule of events, days of classroom orientation, videos, catered lunch, and then off to our units to be what we are, spectacular nurses.

Fast forward to 2018, when I accepted the job from (you know where) . The hurdles I had to jump through for this job were higher and larger in number than any other place I had ever worked. It was a Behavioral Health facility. One thing I learned (I should have read the employee reviews PRIOR to taking the job) is that when the Onboarding process is toxic, so is the job. The job lasted a week, and here's why:

The big warm "welcome" from this facility was done by an "Onboarding" department, separate and distinct from Human Resources. I later realized that the "onboarders" who worked in the "Onboarding" department have a vested interest in constant employee turnover, to cement their cushy M-F office jobs. So it is not hard to see why continual employee turnover was in fact, caused by the "onboarders."

After a week of having it drilled through my head of 20 ways to Sunday employees will get fired here, and just dying to hear 6 ways to Monday , how we will be successful, me and four other colleagues decided to dump the job, mid-show. There were 25 of us this month. Last month there was 28. All in, they were the most negative bunch of sour puss employees I have ever seen on a "welcome wagon". One was repeatedly cursing as she gave her segment on day 1 and day 3. Another was dressed in a tie-die T-shirt, and a nose ring. A couple of others could not be bothered troubleshooting the computers we had to use for 3 days to complete the online drills. Oh, yours doesn't work? That's not my job.

So my point in all of this is, when we see Negative Nellies at the front door, sometimes we become them. They tend to have a trickle down effect. I have no regrets that I left before I actually started. I don't think the other 3 did either.

[panurse9999]

56 minutes ago, Nurse Magnolia said:

How many threads can one person start that basically say "I hate nursing and all of you should too"? Asking for a friend....

One thing a brand new grad would not understand is that we cannot do "this" at our jobs. So we come here. Another thing a brand new grad won't know is that Rome was not built in one day. If we want change, we (nurses) are those responsible for executing change. Was it nice of me to walk off the job after a week? No.

Is it nice of the bulk of employers today to fire us seasoned ADNs the second a new grad LPN applies for the job? No. Is it nice of the bulk of employers to treat us like garbage, just because the tables turned and now we are all a dime a dozen? No.

That would be like a nurse being a jerk to a patient, because its the only hospital within a 100 mile radius. So, until more nurses are willing to rebel, and exploit THEM the ways they have exploited and abused US for years, we will continue to be subjected to barbaric cruelty and hostility in the workplace, and no one wants that.

This the beginning of a revolution that must happen. We need to stand up for ourselves once in awhile. We MUST learn how to say no. We MUST learn how to collectively send a message to the corporate tanks who have made all of us their slaves, and we must get the point across when our feet do the walking.

We are at the beginning of a nurse revolution, and there is more on they way. Stay tuned for my next topic, coming soon.

[klone, MSN, RN]

4 hours ago, panurse9999 said:

Since you are a brand new grad, and have not started your job as of yet, you are in a prime position to take good notes during your onboarding into the Allegheny hospital that just hired an ADN into the NICU. I'll be looking forward to you writing a topic on how well it went, or didn't go.

I'm not a brand new grad, and I agree with her. You sound incredibly bitter, jaded, and kind of toxic.

[klone, MSN, RN]

6 hours ago, panurse9999 said:

Quitting and firing nurses are the best parts of the day for the corporate fat cats at the top of the company. I picture them all sitting at a $25,000 table in a conference room, with gourmet coffee and the best pastry money can buy, in a penthouse style office building in a sky scraper, laughing like hell, that they never actually have to pay benefits because turnover is so fast.

Yes, that's EXACTLY how it goes down. ?

Having to train new staff is a freakin' DRAIN on resources, and any manager/director/CEO knows that. No, they do not get joy out of firing people.

[Davey Do]

In reading this thread, some quotes by people wiser than me come to mind:

"Rally around the flag!"

"Speak softly and carry a big stick."

"Nearly all (people) can stand adversity. If you want to test a (person's) character, give (them) power."

[Nurse Magnolia, BSN, RN]

5 hours ago, panurse9999 said:

Since you are a brand new grad, and have not started your job as of yet, you are in a prime position to take good notes during your onboarding into the Allegheny hospital that just hired an ADN into the NICU. I'll be looking forward to you writing a topic on how well it went, or didn't go.

I said I'm working in Pittsburgh, not for Allegheny, though I might be. I've never actually mentioned where I'm working publicly. Only that I was hired as a diploma grad with two other bachelors degrees. I did post that I was hired into the NICU. There are several NICU's in the area. It's a hard job to get....I am extremely humbled and honored to have been selected out of the pool of applicants. Me with my diploma at 47 years old. It pretty much flies in the face of everything you've posted about jobs in PA (BSN required, Ageism, etc...), but it doesn't make it any less true.

I'm only commenting that there seem to be many threads started by you where you are miserable and talk about how someone, somewhere, was out to get you and that's why job X, Y and Z didn't work out. My experience doesn't fit in with your worldview and you refuse to accept that I was hired as a new grad just across the state from you without a BSN. That SHOULD be good news to you based on your complaints in your posts. I'm a new grad and I don't know the ins and outs of the floor yet (thought I DID work as a PCT during nursing school), so I've yet to speak to that. I've only spoken about the trouble, or not, with finding a job in MY PART of Pennsylvania. But that alone put me in your crosshairs on other posts. As soon as comments die down on one of your posts, you start another with a slightly different angle of the same exact thing.

*I* get that you are coming here to vent. And I truly wish you the best in finding something that makes you happy. Nursing clearly is not it. I just don't understand why you keep railing against the way things are. Either conform to the requirements of the system to which you are applying or get out of nursing. You are not stuck. I truly wish you the best and I hope you find some happiness, somewhere.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

11 hours ago, nate411 said:

One place I worked had employee parking that required you to arrive a full 30 minutes prior to shift b/c the time it took to walk, elevator, then clock in on time. 30 min on way in, and 30 min on way out. Thats 1 hour non-compensated, not including commute time.

That kind of thing is common around here because there just isn't enough parking. Usually there is a shuttle bus. Still very annoying.

[panurse9999]

15 hours ago, Nurse Magnolia said:

I said I'm working in Pittsburgh, not for Allegheny, though I might be. I've never actually mentioned where I'm working publicly. Only that I was hired as a diploma grad with two other bachelors degrees. I did post that I was hired into the NICU. There are several NICU's in the area. It's a hard job to get....I am extremely humbled and honored to have been selected out of the pool of applicants. Me with my diploma at 47 years old. It pretty much flies in the face of everything you've posted about jobs in PA (BSN required, Ageism, etc...), but it doesn't make it any less true.

I'm only commenting that there seem to be many threads started by you where you are miserable and talk about how someone, somewhere, was out to get you and that's why job X, Y and Z didn't work out. My experience doesn't fit in with your worldview and you refuse to accept that I was hired as a new grad just across the state from you without a BSN. That SHOULD be good news to you based on your complaints in your posts. I'm a new grad and I don't know the ins and outs of the floor yet (thought I DID work as a PCT during nursing school), so I've yet to speak to that. I've only spoken about the trouble, or not, with finding a job in MY PART of Pennsylvania. But that alone put me in your crosshairs on other posts. As soon as comments die down on one of your posts, you start another with a slightly different angle of the same exact thing.

*I* get that you are coming here to vent. And I truly wish you the best in finding something that makes you happy. Nursing clearly is not it. I just don't understand why you keep railing against the way things are. Either conform to the requirements of the system to which you are applying or get out of nursing. You are not stuck. I truly wish you the best and I hope you find some happiness, somewhere.

I remember how confident I was as a new grad, with an ADN and degrees from other careers under my belt, as a second career RN. I had a whole lot of life experience before I was a nurse. This only hurt me in nursing. My confidence got under the skin of the hospital groupies who liked to gossip and discuss, and deep six all new nurses, and since I was confident , I became like fresh meat for a pack of flying vultures, circling the newest road kill.

It has been my experience that those in positions of authority actually prefer the nurses who have no confidence, zero self esteem, and who routinely break down and cry on the job due to being overwhelmed, battered, broken down, and abused. I cried too...usually in my car, or in my house. I'm out of nursing, it was 20 years of hell, but not out of AN. I'll be looking forward to seeing your topics, as you begin in Western PA.

[panurse9999]

1 hour ago, Davey Do said:

In reading this thread, some quotes by people wiser than me come to mind:

"Rally around the flag!"

"Speak softly and carry a big stick."

"Nearly all (people) can stand adversity. If you want to test a (person's) character, give (them) power."

Great advice. I may be vocal in here, but in nursing, I spoke with my feet in the direction of the door. Like I said, the only industry that has sustained itself with constant employee turnover is fast food. Stay tuned for my next topic.

[Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN]

I had a nurse recruiter look me up and down and said something like,: hmmm you are so active ,yet you still overweight huh.

Or a nurse manager ,saying I should inform the cleaning staff of xyz, since they are YOUR people. Nasty as could be ,this paranoid,sadistic manager.

I needed to retake my ID pic, and she told me go "another time when you are not busting out of your uniform."

She told a patient that c/o hunger ,"you need to lose weight anyway."

Every week she would make some nurse cry. I am glad I never did,held it in not to give her the satisfaction.

I was so happy when the CNO came up ,asked her why was I leaving...( so many had left this unit), she squirmed,could barely talk and mumble out some word. After that inquiry ,she pretended to be nice,... too late , my letter was in and I was gone.Best thing I ever did.

[klone, MSN, RN]

11 hours ago, Davey Do said:

In reading this thread, some quotes by people wiser than me come to mind:

"Rally around the flag!"

"Speak softly and carry a big stick."

"Nearly all (people) can stand adversity. If you want to test a (person's) character, give (them) power."

Two sayings come to my mind as I read through these threads:

”Wherever you go, there you are.”

”What is the common denominator?”

[Nurse Magnolia, BSN, RN]

2 hours ago, klone said:

Two sayings come to my mind as I read through these threads:

”Wherever you go, there you are.”

”What is the common denominator?”

^^^^^^^^^^^ THIS!!! Exactly.

[beekee]

My experience with nursing is vastly different than OP. I have definitely expressed frustrations on AN, but...

• I’ve never been bullied.
• I’ve never been fired. Quite the contrary, my bosses typically express sadness when I quit.
• I’ve never been written up.
• I like my coworkers.
• I like my job, most days at least.
• I’m paid well.
• I have good benefits.

If I spent 20 years in a toxic environment with poor management, low pay and benefits, ridiculous workloads, etc, I’d be pretty disgruntled too. Especially if I had job after job after job that seemed to be the same miserable environment. No matter how saturated the area is, it boggles my mind that one would not be able to find even one decent job in that time frame. 20 years is a long time to be miserable. I couldn’t do it.