GeneralistRN

Thanks carolina. It's sad that we have such hypersensitive people who take personal offense to critiques of their employers' reprehensible behaviors or their own inactions that enable their employers to get away with wage theft. Do people think so little of their profession that they want to shut down those of us who want to put an end to that exploitation? Only in nursing...

If you are consistently working through your lunch WITHOUT pay, then you're definitely having some issues going on. If it's not a problem with being assertive, then it's a problem with your time management, efficiency, or having trust in the people you work with. I've worked in a nationally recognized cardiothoracic ICU. Half the entire unit would leave for lunch at once while the other half covered their patients. Patient care didn't suffer as a result of the nurses having to keep an eye on 1 to 2 additional patients for thirty minutes. People just had the common sense to medicate for pain and so forth before stepping away from the unit, so that the covering RNs wouldn't be overburdened. Also, if it is indeed true that your manager is aware that you are working through your meal period without pay, and not recording it, then she stands to be disciplined by HR if discovered. You could be disciplined as well. In all likelihood, HR just hasn't heard that this takes place. Otherwise it would stop, fast, because it it violates federal wage law. No offense, but if you are working in a department where the expectation or culture is that you eat lunch on the unit, while working, then you are working in a real cesspool. That is not normal at all. If they are deducting thirty minutes of pay every day while you do this, well, that's just deplorable. And if I were a patient there and knew that the nurses were sitting at the desks greasing up the computers and monitors, eating while working in the unit, after just having gotten up to clean up bowel movements or something, I'd say something. That's just gross as all hell. Furthermore: to the the nurses making excuses for why they work through lunch, no one should condone what you are doing, which is enabling your employer to do something illegal, and I have no respect for you.

Unless you've been willfully neglectful to your patients before leaving to go eat, or haven't charted their vitals or condition your whole shift, then your license isn't going to be in jeopardy for some unexpected occurrence that takes place while you're off the unit. It doesn't happen. So... yeah. You aren't risking your license by going to lunch.

Sometimes people come from different backgrounds, have different upbringings, and have varying degrees of familiarity and acceptance of different groups of people. It is best to recognize the positive impact that this variety of worldviews has in healthcare, as it continually makes our professional environment more engaging and diverse.

Honesty is not a policy that is rewarded in nursing. I'm glad you learned something from this.

Never answer a question to a question without an answer.

Don't take this the wrong way, but there's something wrong with you if you don't feel comfortable leaving your patient for 30 minutes in the hands of your coworkers and consequently are taking meal periods on the floor without pay. I'm assuming you work in a critical care area if you have "critical patients." I see problems here. For one thing, you're eating lunch in the unit and caring for critically ill patients at the same time? You are nasty and dirty for doing that and I strongly doubt that it is allowed. Two, I've worked in critical care: both in a medical ICU and in a cardiothoracic ICU. Finding people to cover a critical patient for 30 minutes is not a big deal and there is no reason you shouldn't feel comfortable doing that. Lastly, if you're at lunch at the doctor says he need to put in an art line and needs help (although I don't know why he would even need your help with an art line after the timeout...), then you just tell whoever is calling you that "I can't help right now; I'm at lunch. Tell him he has to find someone else." Problem solved. Learn to assert yourself.

You can't permit your employer to get away with not paying you for a meal period that is interrupted. Anything that they had you "sign off" is immaterial and cannot override the FLSA, which requires that they pay you. The manager can say it's your fault for not finding coverage, until they are blue in the face, but they must still pay you.

If it's interrupted, then by law you must be paid for the meal period.

I don't see what the issue is. You are doing this to yourself.

What does it matter? Leave the employer out of your work history. Problem solved. Or just don't mention being ineligible for rehire.

What is that?

Well that was a mistake -- disclosing that you have smoked pot. What was your reason for doing that? Many people have smoked pot. However, most people when looking for jobs or professional licenses don't go around volunteeering that information. It doesn't make sense to do so.

Sue her.

That would be a convenient interpretation. However, no one would let it slide if the positions were reversed and the OP used the expression "old timer" when arguing with someone else who was experienced in the field. People would flip out and call it ageism in a second -- which is what this is.