Quit Job and Now Accused of Abandonment

[FolksBtrippin]

I quit my job without notice. I had a very good reason to do that. I am a manager and not responsible for patient care. No one was abandoned. Everyone was safe. 

I sent an email about my resignation including my reasons and a higher up person (not a nurse) stated that my company would be filing a complaint with the board of nursing for patient abandonment because I did not give notice. 

I know it’s BS. But I want to hear from you if this has happened to you and how it played out. 

I already have a lawyer specializing in whistleblowers. Just need to hear from people who’ve been there and the moral support.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

3 hours ago, Been there,done that said:

Yes. Quitting without notice will bite you in the buttocks.

Yes, nursing is a very small world. Unfortunately, it usually affects those in a situation like this, instead of the users/abusers

[Davey Do]

It seems there's quite a few people who base their beliefs and actions on others' ominous warnings which are not derived from empirical endeavors. We may as well be a bunch of lemmings running over the cliff into the sea because that's where we're being led, the reason being because someone said so.

Case in point; Over 30 years ago, I quit a job of seven years at a local hospital because basically, I was tired of putting up with some ongoing crap. My Ex and I had a dinner out with some of her relatives shortly thereafter, one being the pharmacy director of a hospital a little outside of my locale. 

I was sternly warned by this pharmacy director that my quitting a job would follow me because, as Hoosier said, our field is "a small world".

Empirically speaking, and not just because someone rubber stamped a cause & effect situation, I found the opposite of being "bitten in the buttocks" to be the case.

In my 36 years of working as a nurse, I have quit, been fired, and walked out of nursing positions, and have never found the world so so small that I got bitten on the butt by not being able to find employment elsewhere. In fact, on two different occasions after being terminated from jobs as a staff nurse, I got supervisory positions.

We should never allow others' conjured fears prevent us from acting on behalf of ourselves or the greater good.

[vintagegal, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

Welcome to the era if you don’t do what I want I will punish you.

save every email. When I left my old DON position I printed every correspondence with the higher ups and I have it “just in case” in a file at home. These emails include multiple references to unsafe practice that was also ignored.

Don’t respond and don’t look back. They are trying to stress you out. Only ask HR when your last check will be mailed to you. At the most all they can do is let your future employer know that you are not eligible for rehire. It’s illegal for them to say anything else…

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

14 minutes ago, vintagegal said:

At the most all they can do is let your future employer know that you are not eligible for rehire. It’s illegal for them to say anything else…

This is a falsehood that needs to stop. An employer/HR rep can say anything as long as it's factual. Attendance, roles/titles held, etc. Many companies won't say much, to avoid stirring the pot, but it's certainly not illegal if statements are true

[Davey Do]

Yeah, what I was told by the owner/administrator of the HH agency where I was an NS was to give out employment dates and duties to other potential employers.

Many of the nurses worked the agency per diem and would use the agency as job experience. I adhered to the bottom line info thing for most, but if the nurse was a good one, I'd give a commendable recommendation.

Speaking of good nurses and the nursing being a small world, I remembered two situations where the nurses' poor reputation followed them into other positions. In both situations, the nurses got themselves in more trouble than anyone else could get them into.

Using this as a premise, we could say that our reputation, and not our reason for leaving a position, carries more weight.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

50 minutes ago, Davey Do said:

Yeah, what I was told by the owner/administrator of the HH agency where I was an NS was to give out employment dates and duties to other potential employers.

Many of the nurses worked the agency per diem and would use the agency as job experience. I adhered to the bottom line info thing for most, but if the nurse was a good one, I'd give a commendable recommendation.

Speaking of good nurses and the nursing being a small world, I remembered two situations where the nurses' poor reputation followed them into other positions. In both situations, the nurses got themselves in more trouble than anyone else could get them into.

Using this as a premise, we could say that our reputation, and not our reason for leaving a position, carries more weight.

Truth, but if you're interviewing somewhere and they know someone where you just left from, it can change how you are viewed. Not everyone can leave off employment experience off, especially if it was a longer term and/or a first job

Nowadays, with the desperation for hiring, it may not matter

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

2 hours ago, Hoosier_RN said:

This is a falsehood that needs to stop. An employer/HR rep can say anything as long as it's factual. Attendance, roles/titles held, etc. Many companies won't say much, to avoid stirring the pot, but it's certainly not illegal if statements are true

^^^ Thank you!! This is one of those myths that people state with such surety...but they're wrong.

[Davey Do]

It would be advantageous to be able to have empirical, first hand situations  in order to back up these perceived truths.

 Otherwise, these perceived truths are merely a subjective perception with no basis grounded in reality.

[amoLucia]

11 hours ago, Been there,done that said:

Yes. Quitting without notice will bite you in the buttocks.

Yes, it really can. You could be jeopardizing State 'unemployment' benefits (after all YOU quit the job, it wasn't them who canned you). The employer can fight your claim. Also, you risk losing your unused PTO. Not too sure about losing possible COBRA insurance coverage.

There are risks to consider if taking the abrupt resignation step. Think carefully.

 

[Davey Do]

2 hours ago, amoLucia said:

You could be jeopardizing State 'unemployment' benefits (after all YOU quit the job, it wasn't them who canned you). The employer can fight your claim.

Employers will nearly always fight the claim. However, if good grounds are found in your reason for quitting, the case can be won.

 Cases in point: Out of the four facilities that I was fired from, I won the adjudication process, and subsequently received benefits from three. I would have won the fourth but, according to the adjudicator, I challenged the medical director with, "Go ahead- fire me".

The adjudicator said, "You can't tell your boss to fire you and contest it when he does".

Lesson learned.

As far as quitting a job- the one in which I previously mentioned seven year stint- the IDES adjudicator investigated the situation and found unfair working conditions, so I was, again, awarded benefits.

I've also been awarded benefits after being suspended 15 days from the state hospital for alleged "client neglect/abuse" when IDES found no grounds. Then, 2 1/2 years later, the INA had the charges sponged from my record, and I was AGAIN paid for the 15 day suspension.

I don't seek revenge, but am like a pit bull on a poodle when it comes to injustices by power drunk penciled-neck administrators who believe themselves to be omnipotent.

[londonflo]

9 hours ago, Davey Do said:

We should never allow others' conjured fears prevent us from acting on behalf of ourselves or the greater good.

Boy, I wish I had read this 25 years ago. I was single and my employer just jumped on the single employees to cover 'clinicals' without additional pay, because we were just nothing if we were not married and reproducing children. Okay I covered 2  maternity leaves of 16 hours of clinical/week (without extra pay)  for 2 months each for the Dean's faculty friend. And didn't even get told I was doing it until the faculty member went into labor. 

 Then 2 years later,  I was so afraid I would lose my job because I  had multiple absences from  a continuing illness. The Dean always showed up at my hospital room and even showed up at my home (to verify I was really sick?). 

Met my future husband who really saw the situation for what it was...The Dean is really a sick person and you need to disengage. I got another job and lived happily ever after until I retired.

(When I told the Dean I was leaving, her head recoiled back and I thought she would hit me...I thought go ahead and I will sue the pants off of this school.) She regained composure but.....the next morning she had someone call and tell me to get all my belongings out of the building by the end of that day.... I had worked there for 15 years.......

 

[KK33]

There’s no way this is abandonment. They are just trying to be a**holes. It would be abandonment if you were assigned patients to care for and left mid-shift without another nurse to take your place. They are bluffing. Good idea to have a lawyer because I guarantee they won’t even want to mess with it if they catch word that you have one.