rant.. "4 weeks notice"

[misyan]

So long rant..I currently work in a level II ICU as a PT, however there were no FT opportunity on the unit so I was fortunate to find a ft position in a level III ICU in another city. As soon as I got the official paperwork, I talked to my manager and gave my two weeks notice as the new unit wants me on orientation in two weeks. I still very much so like my unit and worked well with the team, therefore I told her I would like to stay on as a causal staff. I have been trying to find someone to cover my shifts with no luck so far, so I emailed my manager and she told me to I need to give 4 weeks notice and "let the hospital know you will start in next month instead". I have never heard of this and anyone with a brain know that there is no way to tamper with a new job like that.

[artisticmind]

Both my current and former hospital systems require a 4 wk notice for licensed personnel. Maintenance, dietary, house keeping were/are required a 2 wk notice. As a nurse, especially new grad, orientations typically last 12 wks so that 4 wk notice hopefully gives them time to post and interview candidates for replacement but we all know that administration moved at a snails pace. I personally would say sorry I'm not able to accommodate the additional 2 wks of employment and start the new full gig with no regrets. It'll suck that you lose out on the PRN assignment but your soon to be former employer dropped that ball long ago.

[icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN]

The HR policies are usually accessible on their intranet.

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

Many hospitals require 4 weeks notice. Where you were moving to another city, perhaps this notice was taken from your manager as a you would not want to come back anyways thing.

Did they accept your resignation? I would speak directly with HR, tell them your resignation letter as written was accepted, and that you would like to be PRN, therefore you are in essence not resigning, just changing job categories.

Best wishes!

Excellent point. If she is just going PRN, she's probably required to finish out the current schedule.

[klone, MSN, RN]

At my current job, I would/will give as long a notice as possible, but four weeks MINIMUM. All previous jobs were "staff nurse" type jobs, and I've always given 2 weeks (one manager negotiated with my new manager to keep me for 3 weeks because we were right in the middle of transitioning to Epic during that period).

[lovely07]

i would also check, too, if you'd be forfeiting your sick/vacation pay or whatever else they would pay out by not giving 4 weeks (depending on the policy). From my experience, the hospital will hold it if you don't give proper notice. Still, a full time job trumps a part time job and in the end if it's what you have to do it's what you should do.

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

I had a similar situation where one person told me 2 weeks written notice. I did that and THEN was told I needed to give 30 days. Luckily, I was able to work out with my former employer to make up the 2 weeks of shifts (I worked around my new orientation schedule) so that I would keep my "eligible for rehire" status AND, more importantly, be able to cash out my accrued PTO time. I think people forget about that. I rarely use my PTO so it was almost a whole paycheck.

I have learned that nursing is a very small world and that I wanted to avoid burning a bridge whenever possible.

[Katie71275]

4 weeks notice is pretty common. That's our requirement where I work.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

I'm an independent contractor, not in nursing (yet). My contract with one of my clients includes one month notice for BOTH PARTIES. That means, they need to give me one month notice if they want me to go and I do the same. If they don't, they have to pay me for one month. This is pretty standard for contractors, but for an employee it does seem like a lot. Especially since they usually let you go with no notice at all when they do it. Check your employee contract. If it states "one month notice" then I think you should honor it. Or, if they pay you one month's severance in case they have to let you go, I would also think that you should honor it.

Like PP said, if it doesn't hurt you to give 4 weeks notice, you probably should not burn that bridge.

[VANurse2010]

If you're "punching a clock" - two weeks should be sufficient. I'm not saying that employers don't have stupid policies that say otherwise, but in my view that's how it should be.

[nightfly]

You gave them notice, and you have a better job to go to. Don't short change yourself just because your old manager can't do her job staffing her department correctly. Most nurse managers are there simply because they've been there a long time, not necessarily because they're good at managing. Besides, notice is not LEGALLY required at all. It's a courtesy to your employer. As an RN the only thing that you legally have to do is make sure you are relieved by another RN if you are working with an active patient load, and if you've already worked 16 hours and are exhausted, your supervisor must come down to relieve you (although declared disaster conditions may change that, of course). If you simply stop showing up, they are still legally required to pay you for all the days you worked, and depending on your state, are usually required to mail out your last paycheck within 14 days of your termination date (most companies consider not showing up for work three scheduled days in a row to be automatic resignation). Many employers will tell you that their policy is that you must give them a certain amount of days notice, or that you will forfiet your last paycheck or earned vacation time. This is not necessarily true, as upon hiring your vacation time is included as part of what is referred to as your compensation package, and is just as much earned as your paycheck. By labor laws, they must pay you for time worked. You can check with your local labor board for this. As far as giving notice, two weeks is more than adequate. Long ago when working as a manager, I was taught that as such I was responsible for maintaining an adequate staff, and keep a list of potential candidates for positions that may need to be filled. A manager is also responsible for staffing, not the employees. When you are hired, you are also given either personal/legal holidays or PTO days, and 30 days notice of using one of those should be more than adequate as well. Managers who try to make their employees responsible for staffing are poor managers. If you're a good worker and come to work on time, any manager will value you. Yet there are some who treat all their employees badly, and to them, you have no reason to feel obligated at all. If at some point you want to work at the old company when a new manager comes on board, it's easy enough to tack on a cover letter with your resume explaining why you left under the circumstances you did. A good manager will not hold it against a good employee just because a previous manager wasn't able to do her job correctly. Remember, not all managers are good. Stand by your abilities and your record, and if you interview with a manager who does not seem good to you, move on. Remember also that you are also interviewing THEM when you go in. If they don't meet your standards, it won't be worth your while to work for them. That said, best of luck on your new job. There's a reason you took it. Don't sacrifice a good job just because of threats from those at the old one. Oh...you may also ask around about any employees who were laid off at any point in the past, and how much severance pay they were given. If they weren't given any, then that's the amount of time you should be requred to give them. None.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

dont feel bad, my coworker had to give 7 weeks notice. Had to work out rest of schedule,there is no one to take her shifts

This is absurd. Staffing the unit is the manager's/hospital's responsibility. It's not the responsibility of the departing employee to ensure that her shifts are covered.

[nightfly]

This is absurd. Staffing the unit is the manager's/hospital's responsibility.

Yes, but pretty much every hospital manager I've worked for has behaved this way. Burned out nurse managers who came up through the ranks feel their workers are still their friends; then take everything personally when problems come up. My last one always got annoyed whenever someone called in sick, and complain, 'why is she doing this to me? Doesn't she know we're already short staffed?' as if the employee was intentionally calling in sick just because she hated her manager. We see this behavior by nurse managers all the time. They take things personally, then start to hate their employees. It gets worse because the senior hospital managers feed into this, and create an adversarial relationship between the staff and the managers, all in the pursuit of increased profits. They conveniently 'forget' to approve overtime, and tell the staff they can't fix the paychecks until the next pay period (which of course is false). But this is off topic. Lets just say that most nursing managers aren't very good at managing, because that's not what they trained for.