Reprimanded in front of coworkers becoming the norm....??

[PixieButtercup]

At the facility I work at, it seems to have become normal practice for our nurse manager to let employees know about our "mistakes" by hanging a list of employee names with nasty messages and frowny faces on the bulletin board for anyone to see. This has been going on for months and everyone on the floor is upset about it, but we are not really backed up by management so nobody has gone to HR about it or brought it up with our nurse manager. I just got an email that was addressed to me and 4 other RN's informing us about a part of our documentation that was missed. All information was included in the email...our name, which part we missed, how many times it occurred, and the date. It seems to me like 5 separate emails would have been more appropriate. Does anybody have any ideas how to address these occurrences?? Or are we overreacting?

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

That entire situation is unprofessional. Frowny faces, for real?

Any sort of discipline should be addressed one-on-one, face-to-face, not in an email (mass or otherwise) and not on a list.

Remember, your boss has a boss also...someone might should let that person know what is going on in your department.

[chevyv, BSN, RN]

I'd be ripping that sheet right off the bulletin board, discreetly and having a chat with her and her supervisor asking her to either email me directly or talk with me. The board of shame is a horrible way to manage any team. I may mention that it has a very negative impact on morale. I may include some sad faces and some frowny ones because it lets me feel oh so kindergartenish.

[Art_Vandelay]

I have to agree with the previous two posters; that is entirely unprofessional. I was once given negative feedback by a preceptor in front of others. That same day, I pulled her aside and said that it made me upset and if she were going to give me feedback, do so freely but in private. She was appropriate after that meeting. Embarrassing someone is not a way to encourage growth.

[sauconyrunner]

I don't know if it is becoming the norm. But I do know at my last hospital, they would post the MD's SCIP compliance, not by Dr Number, but by name and in HUGE font outside of the OR. It was a technique to get the MD's in line. Perhaps...they are trying this. None of the MD's protested. They just kind of got in line so that they did not have the frowny faces.

I would have a hard time with that kind of behavior. I don't think you are overreacting. I imagine you don't have a very good relationship with this manager...any way to ask her WHY she is chosing to do this?

[nursel56]

Frowny faces? Are they the stickers first-grade teachers use to grade the kid's spelling tests or does she just draw them herself? :uhoh21: Note to the AACN - all the advanced degrees in the world you hope to see bedside nurses one day have won't mean squat as long as "professionals" are treated like 6-year olds.

I don't think the missing documentation e-mails are quite as bad, as the intention there isn't to publicly chastise like the frowny faces intends to do. Sounds like the entire atmosphere there is toxic if people have been silently putting up with it for months. Sorry you have to work under those circumstances.

[Lynx25, LPN]

Ugh. Our manager was going to start doing that, until I offered to go to Wal-mart and pick up some frowny stickers to put next to our names. I also asked her what kind of raise I was going to get, if I got 7 gold stars in a ROW!

She got all huffy, but I think she got the point.

It's a childish way to try to manage anyone, I can't believe yours actually went through with it.

[DeLana_RN, BSN, RN]

How about this: NM comes into the facility in a foul mood and berates the newest night nurse in front of everyone in a loud, b****y voice for her "lack of time management " for charting late (never mind there were legitimate reasons which NM had not bothered to question this nurse or the charge nurse about).

Is this a way of managing anyone?!

Me thinks NM only made one person look bad, very bad, and it was not the targeted nurse (who was seriously considering resignation, but decided to see what will happen to NM first )

[rn/writer, RN]

If she's up for public humiliation, you staff nurses could leave little responses for her on the same bulletin board.

Seriously, this is so ridiculously unprofessional, and it violates the principle that you praise in public and reprimand in private. Cultivating resentment will result in a bumper crop of disgruntled and disloyal nurses.

[zoe.ysobel]

this is clearly unprofessional, maybe other people are just having a power trip or something and trying to accentuate who's who in the field.

[docomo]

Quit! now! Don't work for someone with such poor management/leadership skills. Sooner or later they will throw you under the bus.