Paid minimum wage for quitting

[Saraliz]

Hi everyone! I am a new nurse and started a new job at a nursing home. I lasted 2 months and 3 weeks. It was the most awful place ever. I cried when I got home, I am not normally a crying person and was very anxious all the time. I was blamed for missing narcotics (which I felt I was setup for being the new person). Most people that worked there openly said they hate it, people called off all the time, always short staffed because of that. I was put by myself and given 40 patients most nights. I felt unsafe, felt like I could not safely care for my patients and felt like I could lose my license because of this. Management acts like it is the best place ever and does not care about anything but money. They lie about everything. I ended up quitting over the phone after an awful midnight shift. I did not give 2 weeks notice, I felt my safety (and sanity) was more important. Fast forward to my last paycheck....I was paid minimum wage for my last 2 weeks. I called HR and she cheerfully told me that since I did not give 2 weeks notice, I forfit all of my 16 hours of vacation I earned, and I only get minimum wage. I was told I signed a paper and agreed to that (which I do not remember, but asked for it to be mailed to me). I was also told to sign a paper saying that I read and understood the handbook, which we were to read on our own time. I did not even complete my orientation 90 days, I feel like I deserve to have my nursing pay even though I did not give 2 weeks notice. I am still waiting on copies of papers I signed during the "missing narcotics" incident that I want to have so if a future job asks about this horrible job, I can show them what was going on. I feel like if I ever get another interview with a hospital, they will call this horrible place, and I will be portrayed as a bad nurse, or a narcotics thief. I am considering small claims court, or possibly a free lawyer consult to see what my options are. The more I look into this company, the more horrible things I am hearing about it. I would love to report this to someone, but who is going to listen to me, I will probably be seen as a disgruntled employee. Please help me! I worked my butt off for this place and tried so hard to take care of my patients the way I believe they should be taken care of. I am being treated horribly now and my requests for copies of paperwork are ignored. They owe me almost 1000$. I am so upset and feel like nobody cares or will listen. First nursing job = failure.....

[TheDudeWithTheBigDog, ADN, RN]

19 minutes ago, CommunityRNBSN said:

Drop the money discussion. It really sucks and it isn’t fair, but sometimes that is how life is.
Do NOT drop the “missing narcotics” thing. Go there in person, tomorrow, and ask to sit down with the manager or whomever it is that has info on that. Go over every paper until you are satisfied. Because otherwise you’re right— a future employer is going to call them for a reference and they’ll say “Well she quit rather suddenly and we noticed narcotics were missing at the same time.”

And then with nothing reported and no paper trail she sues them and wins.

But anyway, about the pay, if you already worked the hours, it's illegal to only pay you minimum wage in most states. And state law takes priority over any agreement that you made. So if it was illegal to lower your pay after you worked the hours, they'll be mailing you a check after you report them. Just make sure to call your department of labor tomorrow and ask about if they were allowed to do that. Make sure you specifically say that your pay was cut for hours you already worked. You cannot agree to something illegal. Even if you sign a contract. State law takes priority.

Don't listen to the people saying not to stand up for yourself. If you need a lawyer, get one. They're not going to tell a job that calls them that you took them to court.

If you can't stand up for yourself being accused of letting drugs go missing, or you can't stand up for yourself not being paid what you agreed to, you're going to get walked all over for your entire career.

And for applying for jobs, leave all of that out. You quit voluntarily and leave it at that. Don't say anything else. If they ask you about it, listen to the advice TriciaJ gave you. Don't bring up the narcotics. The ONLY time you should talk about what happened is if they somehow already know about it and ask you. If there's nothing filed with your state board, or police, it never happened. If it's true that you had nothing to do with it, they know that reporting it to the state is going to end up leading to them getting counter-sued by you and getting in a ton of trouble and easily getting some negative press. Most jobs, even if they fire you, they don't confirm how your employment ended. If you just quit, odds are all they're going to do is say that yes, you worked there during those dates. HR departments are VERY careful when they confirm employment, because if what you were fired for wasn't true, they just opened themselves up to be paying you a good amount of money in court. Until it's reported, you never stole those narcotics. And knowingly reporting you when you didn't steal them is libel and it's illegal. Relax. They need to be able to build a case that you were the one who did it.

[southern rn]

obtain nursing malpractice insurance immediately. see if you can do a free initial consult with a lawyer who is familiar with nursing board regulations,even if its a phone or email interview.Go have a hair follicle drug tested completed. I know you might not thing you need it but believe me,if you get reported to the board you will need it.