People don't leave their jobs, they leave their manager...

Published

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

from healthleaders.com

happy and retained

reducing employee turnover can boost morale--and a hospital's bottom line....

if above statement is true, greater need to support and educate front line managers imho.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

This is so true. I am leaving a hospital that I have been at for 10 years because I can longer work for the current CEO- he is driving the doctors off and running the hospital in the ground. He is CEO of two sister hospitals ours is the smallest but the biggest money maker. Suddenly we are running 6 milliion in the red (which we hae never done) and the other hospital is looking better and getting more services while he is closing down services at our place. He has replaced the DON with a new MSN grad with two years of nursing experience and no people skills -she hires and fires by whether or not she likes you or not (and she dosen't like many people). I love my job and make a better wage than at other hospitals but I do not think I can hang with this situation much longer.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

My last NM was too busy playing Martha Stewart and picking out paint shades and fabric swatches for the hospital remodeling project to see what her assistant department manager was up to, which was running off the older nurses.:madface: That woman treated us like garbage..........I'd still be there if it weren't for her, but I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of telling her so.

Wait a minute: I should probably be THANKING her for making my life hell, because I wound up with the best job I've ever had in my life. Well, I wouldn't go THAT far.........but it turned out well, after all.;)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

It always amazes me in this day and age that there are such bad and hostile managers that seem to treat nurses like they were 10 a penny. In fact what happens is the floor gets destroyed, it's full of agency and then the existing staff are made to feel guilty for not picking up shifts.

I currently work in a facility where the turnover is very low and surprise surprise the reason is not the pay, it's the fact that most of us are happy, not harrassed by management and rarely have to work short.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care.

Every nursing job I've ever left had something to do w/ a funamental disagreement w/ managment.

"Being a good nurse is not always the same thing as being a good employee."

But, nursing is an abberration in that it believes that it can say, "Poof! You're a manager," and that makes it so. In truth, there are few 'natural born leaders' - management is a 'learned' skill.

I'm very surprised everytime I see one of my co-workers directly promoted to management without 'disappearing' for the 1-3 month schooling and follow-up orientation that such a job would require. And I've seen that quite often in nursing.

Poof. You're the boss. So, start acting like one - whether you know how to, or not!

~faith,

Timothy.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care.

I saw an interview with the two former Marine women that authored this book and it looks interesting enough to buy (even though I'm a guy) and applies to this thread:

Leading from the Front: No Excuse Leadership Tactics for Women by Capts Angie Morgan and Courtney Lynch.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071465014/sr=8-1/qid=1146826232/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-0392378-7535866?%5Fencoding=UTF8

I particularly liked the comments about 'save the drama for your Momma'.

Editorial Reviews:

Book Description

Marine Corps confidence without the boot camp As successful consultants teaching leadership to women in the workforce, Angie Morgan and Courtney Lynch have seen that women face particular challenges in feeling comfortable at work--and making their environment work for them. Leading from the Front draws from the authors' combined 18 years of training in the Marine Corps to teach women how to take control of their environments-;both professionally and personally. They reveal 10 key practices that turn women into leaders and improve their decision making, focus, and performance. Set an example: Everything you do reflects the type of person you are Think fast: Timeliness is often more important than accuracy No excuses: Accept responsibility before you place blame Be a caretaker first: Take care of and support those you lead Don't overreact: Learn to contemplate a situation before determining the best courseof action Avoid drama: Aviate, navigate, and communicate to deal with crisis Believe you can: Courage + Perseverance + Initiative + Integrity = Success No tears: Don't cry over anything that can't or won't cry over you No apologies: Say only you're sorry when you're at fault Be you: Lead as you are and use your unique strengths

From the Back Cover

Marine Corps Confidence Without the Boot Camp

"Learning to lead is important for all women. Leadership skills help you make a difference at work, at home, and in your community. Leading from the Front provides women with 10 relevant principles that will complement any leadership style."-Senator Elizabeth Dole

"Leading from the Front is a brilliant, original, practical, profound, human, energetic book written by two remarkable women. It's one of the best books on leadership published in the last several years."-Tom Peters

"This engaging book packed with stories from women of courage can help build women with confidence."-Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School Professor and bestselling author of Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End

"Leading from the Front provides the reader an insider's view of each woman's experiences in America's ultimate boy's club-the United States Marines."-Gail Evans, author of the bestselling business book Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman, and former Executive Vice President, CNN

"Women and men can benefit tremendously from the leadership skills Angie and Courtney learned as Marines. They have captured the essence of leadership versus management."-Dave Gagnon, Senior Vice President, North America Company Operations and Training, Burger King Corporation

"I never thought about women becoming business leaders through joining the Marine Corps, but how terrific that Angie and Courtney not only found and honed their own leadership skills that way, but also codified their learnings for the rest of us."-Betty Spence, Ph.D., President, National Association for Female Executives

~faith,

Timothy.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

Not only does nursing believe it can say "Poof you're a manager" It also thinks it can say "Poof you're an educator!" as well...

I have to admit the jobs I didn't want to leave were because I didn't want to leave the manager.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

isn't that what i said in one of my post you don't have to do anything wrong to get fired?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

It's certainly hard to disagree with the idea that job satisfaction is STRONGLY related the characteristics/skills of the manager -- and I don't disagree with that.

But ....

At what point does blaming the nurse who is trying his/her best to manage under bad conditions become simply another form of nurse-on-nurse violence?

While there are lots of bad managers out there ... there are also lots of good managers being blamed for things they have little control of. We have to be careful about too simplistic in a "blame the manager" approach. Real life is often more complicated that it first appears on the surface.

llg

Up Vote Up Vote ×

We all know what it would take for better hospitals, that could keep nurses. Money is always the excuse for not moving forward. Interesting??

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC.
isn't that what i said in one of my post you don't have to do anything wrong to get fired?

I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think this thread is about being fired, it's about being unhappy in your job or leaving because of your manager.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care.
It's certainly hard to disagree with the idea that job satisfaction is STRONGLY related the characteristics/skills of the manager -- and I don't disagree with that.

But ....

At what point does blaming the nurse who is trying his/her best to manage under bad conditions become simply another form of nurse-on-nurse violence?

While there are lots of bad managers out there ... there are also lots of good managers being blamed for things they have little control of. We have to be careful about too simplistic in a "blame the manager" approach. Real life is often more complicated that it first appears on the surface.

llg

I agree. I think the issue isn't necessarily the UNIT MANAGER - although - I did quit 1 job as a direct result of personality disagreements with that particular manager.

I agree that 'blame the manager' is an easy scapegoat. Bad conditions are usually the result of an overall management philosophy and not any particular manager.

Unit managers tend to be between a rock and a hard place: crunched between the competing desires of admin and staff with neither side particularly willing to yield to the other and BOTH sides blaming the manager for any failure to materialize their desires.

That, and the fact that I've made more than my last 3 managers (I can work OT) is why I'd not consider being a unit manager for less than 125k/yr. But then again, I'm such a big mouth, I'm sure I've never been considered for such a position in any case. . .

~faith,

Timothy.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion