Religious accommodation means no Saturdays....ever?

[momto6msn]

Hey all - I'm looking for input on the following situation:

a co-worker has been granted a religious accommodation to never work a Saturday (hospital ICU, where everyone is scheduled every other weekend). She does not have to work every Sunday, and they have not filled the hole her not working as created. As you can imagine, our Saturdays are horrible. I have gone to our union - NYSNA - but they are not willing to do anything.

She is also scheduled 8 hours less every two weeks than the rest of us, yet still maintains full-time benefits even though she is actually working what is considered part-time.

I'm becoming extremely resentful......am I valid feeling this way, or should I just mind my own business?

[Ruas61, BSN, RN]

It becomes my business every Saturday when I work short and I end up with 3-4 vents and no lunch/break for 13-14 hrs.....

That's management's fault. If they accommodate that request.

[Ruas61, BSN, RN]

It becomes my business every Saturday when I work short and I end up with 3-4 vents and no lunch/break for 13-14 hrs.....

The impact on work by having one less person is your concern. I will give you that,

However, the reason any one person is not there is not your business.

Are you going to corner that person and demand an explanation? Or, perhaps ostracize or alienate them because of it?

I am betting that your unit has staffing issues already before this event.

[Daisy4RN]

If you have requested the same exemption for religious reasons and have been turned down, then yes I would say something. If you are only concerned about the short staffing then I still would say something but focus on that only. I have worked with others who have requested to be off either all Sat or Sun, but they were still required to make up the weekend days, I would check your policies on that.

[BSN16]

sounds like this is a problem about staffing, not about a co-worker. Why do you care what special exemptions your co-worker gets, just leave them alone and stop trying to make unnecessary drama and blame your unsafe patient ratios on her. Nobody will take you seriously if you say " Well X gets special treatment and this is why we are short staffed!"

having 3-4 vented patients is NOT normal, even in some of the most severely short ICU's. That being said, there is no way that being short 1 person during the day will create this extreme shortness.

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath. It doesn't "ban working on weekends."

Not Jewish here but have read somewhere that Jewish faith considers working "in the service of others" to be the highest form of worship.

Still like others here have said. If it bugs you that much then look for another job or join a religion that forbids work on the Sabbath and use her exemption as an example. Nothing is gained by harboring resentment. The only person that hurts is you!

Hppy

[caliotter3]

Somebody should tell the patients not to be sick on Saturday and that way none of the employees would have to work on that day. Don't forget Sunday too.

[TriciaJ, RN]

I'm with the OP on this one. The whole reason we have unions is so management can't favour one employee over another. I would be frosted if someone got the same bennies for less work but everyone else was told to pound sand.

If they needed to make that deal to recruit that nurse then they need to find a way to sweeten the pot for everyone else. They also need to fill her vacant spot on Saturdays. Of course it's going to breed resentment if others have to routinely pick up the slack - especially when patient care is clearly being compromised.

It's management's prerogative to give anyone the perks they want, but they need to be prepared to equalize treatment in some way. And make sure patient care is not compromised. Shame on the union for not advocating for everyone.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

Hey all - I'm looking for input on the following situation:

a co-worker has been granted a religious accommodation to never work a Saturday (hospital ICU, where everyone is scheduled every other weekend). She does not have to work every Sunday, and they have not filled the hole her not working as created. As you can imagine, our Saturdays are horrible. I have gone to our union - NYSNA - but they are not willing to do anything.

She is also scheduled 8 hours less every two weeks than the rest of us, yet still maintains full-time benefits even though she is actually working what is considered part-time.

I'm becoming extremely resentful......am I valid feeling this way, or should I just mind my own business?

I don't feel you're valid in resenting your co-worker and I would make very sure that resentment isn't spilling into your work relationship with them. Not implying you would do it purposefully, but a lot of times when we harbor so much resentment towards someone we might not even realize how we are outwardly displaying that, because if it were to spill out we would be talking about a possible discrimination case.

You have a right to be upset with management if they aren't filling the gaps in the numbers. They can hire a baylor nurse or PRN nurse to work that shift.

At the end of the day though where is all this resentment getting you?? It's only going to make an already rough shift even harder.

I work in the ER but I used to never understand nurses that would get freaked out as numbers in the lobby started creeping up. That's all they would focus on and get more and more stressed. I finally said it doesn't matter if there are 5 people in the lobby or 50. We can only do what we can do and we just make it work. Unless anyone is actively dying or about to die, they will just have to wait.

So you can work with what you have and try and make the best of it and try to unite with the other nurses and find out what you can do with the staffing issues on an administration level. Or you can be bitter and resentful and miserable. But the other nurse is not where the blame should be placed.

[malamud69, BSN, RN]

Ahhhh...yes...religion...the scourge of any logical explanation...good luck

[MunoRN, RN]

"Reasonable accommodation" cannot adversely affect the employer or any employees, requiring an employee to do more work than they would otherwise is often given as an example of what would make an accommodation unreasonable (plus it's not actually a widely held belief by any religious group). Your employer is making a voluntary individual exception for this employee for not working Saturdays, it's not a required accommodation. I think you've got every right to be annoyed that you're having to pick up the slack for another worker unfairly.

[purplegal]

Honestly, I would be resentful myself. Favoritism has no place in the workplace, and yet it happens so often. However, like a previous poster mentioned, don't focus on it too much, because it definitely could affect the care you give your patients. At the same time, if this person's absence is creating unsafe staffing assignments, that does need to be addressed. When and if you do choose to address this, avoid talking about the specific person, though and come up with specific examples of how being so short-staffed has compromised patient safety.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

If this unit doesn't have any kind of back up plan, what happens if a person calls out? Like the unit has absolutely no plan B for any circumstance? If someone had to leave for a funeral, or broke their leg. Are we going to blame that person too? Or is it not the job of the administration to have plans in place? This person obviously meets whatever criteria they needed to meet for this one day off each week. The company obviously allows this. So how is this the nurses fault?