"Thanks For Caring!!!"

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Just a minor and trivial rant here. My interim unit manager must have gone to management seminars that teach them to use canned phrases to encourage us lowly and gullible bedside nurses. I wish she could just address us as adults for a change, and could drop the patronizing sounding catch phrases.

I sent her a pertinent article, and she responded that she planned to read it, then concluded her email with "Thanks for caring!". All the emails that management sends us is full of this canned enthusiasism, complete with exclamation marks, that essentially talks down to us as if we are pre-schoolers. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't start handing out happy face stickers.

"Thanks for caring!" "Thanks for being part of a great team!" "You guys are a caring team!"

[bANANA]

Thanks for listening, YOU GUYS ARE GREAT!!!!!!

[/bANANA]

Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

Well, the clerks are required to ask, and if you didn't find it either show you where it is or get a manager (my dd works at one of those stores). In the one with the red phones that you can pick up for help, it records how long it took for a clerk to answer, if not in less than 60 seconds they get spoken to about it.

Nurse managers on the other hand are not lowly minimum wage clerks in a service area (some of those teenagers really needed the scripts to know how to speak to the public). I am a little tired of the kindergarten rewards (the photo with the teddy bear for employee of the month at my old hospital). The press gainey scores getting posted for this department outscoring another (we're the best!) with little stars and things. The cutsoid nursey type stuff, we're either angels or precious moment figurines. :uhoh3:

What I thought was really excellent, was CCU paid for a bunch of nurses to get their CCRN at a conference, posted all the pictures and diplomas. Now that acknowledged something worthwhile.

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Specializes in ICU, telemetry, LTAC.

My old boss had a case of managerspeak, good golly. One morning she walked up to tell us about how wonderful our teamwork was. Mind you this is after we felt like we'd been run over by a bulldozer. At the end of the yippee speech, she handed us a little pin thing that we were supposed to wear. It was shaped like a puzzle piece. It's "because you are a very important individual piece of our puzzle/team"...

To which I said, "why are we all the exact same puzzle piece then?"

It was a few weeks before she spoke to me again, thank goodness. And I wore no flipping pins to work, on my badge or otherwise. Little sharp things do not belong on my uniform.

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She also used to be House Supervisor from time to time, and would put annoying little quotes from like, Florence Nightingale and Helen Steiner Rice and the like, on the assignment sheets. She was annoyingly bubbly.

I hate bubbly. I'd have locked her in the linen closet.
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[color=white]......................................:yeahthat:

love this site.

www.despair.com

[banana]

thanks for bringing some sunshine into my day! *squeal*

[/banana]

me too !!

there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots.

attitudes are contagious. mine might kill you.

if we don't take care of the customer, maybe they'll stop bugging us.

:lol2: :lol2:

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Me too !!

There are no stupid questions, but there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots.

Attitudes are contagious. Mine might kill you.

:lol2: :lol2:

LOL - My attitude might hurt you too!

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Specializes in Public Health, DEI.
To which I said, "why are we all the exact same puzzle piece then?"

Thanks a lot! I've been up for less than 20 minutes and I've already shot Diet Coke through my nose! :lol2:

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I truly hate that kind of stuff. :barf01:But I have experienced it from the other side - as the manager.

There really are training seminars that the hospitals use and teach us to say that kind of thing to the staff. Thought it was stupid when I was a staff nurse and I felt like a bigger idiot when the hospital wanted me to tell that stuff to my staff.

The reality is THERE REALLY ARE PEOPLE THAT LIKE THAT KIND OF BALONEY! I had staff that didn't like my no-nonsense style of management and were constantly complaining that I was mean, insensitive, and intimidating. It was suggested that I try using those little "tools" on these people. And it actually worked. Those staff thought that I had changed and that I was such a nice person. When in reality, I hadn't changed, I just told them what they wanted to hear. Granted, my personal opinion of those people was a lot different than my feelings for the people that want their manager to be frank, to the point, no B.S. with them. But if that's what it takes to keep morale and motivation up......The trick is knowing who you can use this on and who will lose respect for you if you try it with them.

I honestly can't imagine a lot of Allnurses posters who would like this type of thing though, since most posters seem to go against the grain a little bit. But then, it could be that no one would admit to liking this type of feedback for fear of embarrassment or even getting flamed by another poster.

I don't want to hear that stuff and I will only use those kinds of tactics if I absolutely have to. But the point is - if people didn't like it, companies would not be selling it to people.

So now people, your job is to find all the people who enjoy having smoke blown up their nether regions and try to persuade them to come over to the dark side with the rest of us. :chuckle

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Specializes in Public Health, DEI.

Oh, there are definitely people who like that crap, no doubt. I still have no idea why what they "need" in the way of emotional validation is more important than what I "need" in the way of being treated like a flippin' adult, thankyouverymuch.

As a supervisor, it is so hard for me to give insincere praise, both because it goes against my grain and because it is counterproductive, IMO. It gets thrown in your face every time you need to sit down and discuss a problem- "oh, but you said I was doing great". For the life of me, I can't understand 40 and 50 year old women who have families that need to have their hand held and their egos stroked at work. I get my emotional fulfillment from sources other than my supervisor. All I want from her is guidance when I ask for it and to be treated fairly.

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:yeahthat:

AMEN Mercy! You are preaching to the choir. Isn't it ridiculous that adults can't do their jobs unless their egos are stroked like little children?

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.
I truly hate that kind of stuff. :barf01:But I have experienced it from the other side - as the manager.

There really are training seminars that the hospitals use and teach us to say that kind of thing to the staff. Thought it was stupid when I was a staff nurse and I felt like a bigger idiot when the hospital wanted me to tell that stuff to my staff.

The reality is THERE REALLY ARE PEOPLE THAT LIKE THAT KIND OF BALONEY! I had staff that didn't like my no-nonsense style of management and were constantly complaining that I was mean, insensitive, and intimidating. It was suggested that I try using those little "tools" on these people. And it actually worked. Those staff thought that I had changed and that I was such a nice person. When in reality, I hadn't changed, I just told them what they wanted to hear. Granted, my personal opinion of those people was a lot different than my feelings for the people that want their manager to be frank, to the point, no B.S. with them. But if that's what it takes to keep morale and motivation up......The trick is knowing who you can use this on and who will lose respect for you if you try it with them.

I honestly can't imagine a lot of Allnurses posters who would like this type of thing though, since most posters seem to go against the grain a little bit. But then, it could be that no one would admit to liking this type of feedback for fear of embarrassment or even getting flamed by another poster.

I don't want to hear that stuff and I will only use those kinds of tactics if I absolutely have to. But the point is - if people didn't like it, companies would not be selling it to people.

So now people, your job is to find all the people who enjoy having smoke blown up their nether regions and try to persuade them to come over to the dark side with the rest of us. :chuckle

That's what irritates me about this crap. It's a one size fits all approach that assumes everyone is the same. Some of the customer service campaigns are the same. They presume we are all paper dolls who are identical in our emotional response and intellectual capacity, and easily manipulated and controlled with a simple, formula approach.

I find that patronizing and dehumanizing.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

You know what I think is minor, trivial and ignorant? That someone would criticize management who is taking the effort to show that they care and not recognize that mangement is treating them as an adult and with respect. Maybe it is this manager's first effort at it and they are a bit stiff and their comment seem "canned" (I don't know what other comments wouldn't seem otherwise), but at least they are taking the time to acknowledge the efforts of the people who they manage. The alternative would be that they don't recognize the efforts of their workers at all. How would that be?

Talking down to someone is saying something like, "I've already seen this," and tossing it aside, or "I don't know why you bothered to bring me this."

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AMEN to that Mercy and JLS! I find it pathetic that some adults need this kind of feedback to be motivated to do their jobs. And the people that think this works on everyone are part of the group that thinks any warm body will do, regardless of training and skills.

I have started telling the people at Walmart the truth when I go shopping though. They always seem to ask "Did you find everything you needed today?" So now I don't lie and say "yes", I tell them that "No, I didn't. You didn't have any _____ today. But that isn't unusual since the shelves are frequently not stocked when I come shopping." It really freaks out the cashiers. I have yet to have a cashier that knew what they should do when I tell them the truth. They usually just shut up and not say another word to me.

Apparently in the general public, I am a minority because I don't care for idle, meaningless chitchat and trite phrases meant to make me feel special.

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