staffing tried to trick/bully me in today!

apaisRN, RN, CRNA · Apr 16, 2005

My hospital comes up as "unavailable" on my phone, and I don't answer any call unless I have a pretty good idea who it is. The Red Cross calls all the time and won't take no for an answer. I'm not dodging my workplace in particular. They don't call much in any case because I so rarely agree.

RNKPCE · Apr 16, 2005

Sounds like we could all do a commercial for our local phone companies showing another good reason for caller ID. :chuckle

I have been off the last week and have been called 6 out of 7 days to come in and work. Most of those days I was actually not home but on a couple I saw my caller ID and didn't answer.

PicklesRN, RN · Apr 16, 2005

I just finished dealing with staffing. I received a very angry call. "Where are you. You are scheduled to work today. You have to come in". I explained that my copy of my work hours says I'm off, that my hubby is in all night budget meetings and that I had two hours of sleep...could I come in from 11p-730a. "NO! Come in now. It's your responsibility to cover your shift." Decided to call my nurses station and found out that there were no changes on the schedule and I was not on for today. Also staffing tried the same thing with two day shift nurses today! Ya'll know what was really going on? This is my short week. The hospital doesn't have to pay me overtime. My theory is they decided to scare and bully me in to save a buck!:angryfire

Did you confront them on this? If so, what did they say?

I've had something similar happen to me, kinda. I had to use up some of my vacation before the end of the year and it was already the middle of December. I picked a Tue/Wed. When it comes to using vacation time or losing it the hospital had the 24 hour rule. They had a right to change their minds about giving the time off in an emergency staffing situation when the time off was 'use it or lose it.'

I received a call on Wednesday asking where I was. Well, I was at home. They insisted I was on the schedule, I insisted I wasn't. Then he told me that the 24 hour rule applied, I said that was fine but nobody told me I needed to come in. He said he left a note in my box on Tuesday. ?? I had Tue/Wed off. How was I supposed to know he changed the schedule?

He wrote me up. I gave him my two week notice. The department head reversed the write up but went on to say that I should have called in to see if there were scheduling changes on Tuesday. He handed me my resignation letter and I told him to keep it. I still quit.

mattsmom81 · Apr 16, 2005

I worked 3 months last year in a LTAC and I heard via grapevine to watch out...the stafffing coordinator was pulling this kind of stuff.

So...I kept a copy of the schedule religiously. The first time the facility angrily called me demanding I come in because I was on the schedule, I pointed out no, I was not...I keep a copy. They then tried to say 'but the schedule changes and you have to keep up.' I politely replied I had not discussed schedule changes with anybody and I had already made plans, could not come in, and any schedule changes needed to be agreed to by me in the future. She was not pleased.

This stuff continued so a group of us went to our DON, but she supported the staffing coordinator and began to write up nurses for 'no call no show'. This was one of my final straws with this place and I had to resign.

This kind of stuff is why facilities get so dang dysfunctional and people start turning into vindictive manipulators just to survive.

hock1 · Apr 18, 2005

I had to read this twice to make sure I was comprehending what I was reading. You're saying that you weren't scheduled to work today, but they tried to make like you were by calling and harrassing you to get your butt in even though you were off? So you called your unit to make sure there weren't any changes made that you weren't aware of and you were really and truly off today. Am I correct? If I am, that is truly unbelievable and they have a lot of ballz to do something like that and I would have told them rightfully so. :angryfire Cheeses, you can't even have a day off in peace. Get that caller ID.

You are correct

hock1 · Apr 18, 2005

SO did you go in or not? I'd like to know what happened either way... They really suck for doing that to you!

No. I called them back and said I was not on the schedule. I also stated in an email if there was any way our floor could inform staffing who was on and who was off just to let us know. I was P**SSED but kept the email professional.

hock1 · Apr 18, 2005

Oh my! Ummmmmm screen your calls!!!!! I don't ever answer my phones until they are screened, have been doing that for 5 years because of my hubby being called in for mandatory overtime (see post uner mandatory). Everyone that knows us knows they have to speak on the answering machine before we pick up, or call my cel phone (and a number I don't know will not be answered).
I would speak to your human resourses or charge nurse and explain that this is unexceptable and you are not very trusting now of people calling you if you were to accidentally make a mistake and are scheduled to work. That someone has cried wolf, and now you are leary. That being honest and saying they had a shortage and needed your help and ASK you to work would be fine, but a bold lie like that is not acceptable to a professional! That would so tick me off!!!!
Yep, I got use to not using my phone...I use messenger, cel phone, and screening calls at home as part of my lifestyle and job now..LOL!
Oh yeah, and my hubby (paramedic) use to come home and immediately drink a beer so that he couldn't go if called in! Not healthy, but a common practice sadly (this was during the mandatory overtime spell).

My calls are picked up by the answering machine first now.

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Apr 18, 2005

I had to read this twice to make sure I was comprehending what I was reading. You're saying that you weren't scheduled to work today, but they tried to make like you were by calling and harrassing you to get your butt in even though you were off? So you called your unit to make sure there weren't any changes made that you weren't aware of and you were really and truly off today. Am I correct? If I am, that is truly unbelievable and they have a lot of ballz to do something like that and I would have told them rightfully so. :angryfire Cheeses, you can't even have a day off in peace. Get that caller ID.

BIG FAT DITTO !!! Wow. The gall. How do they sleep at night? :angryfire

Blackcat99 · Apr 18, 2005

I'll never forget the DON from the LTC who called me into work many years ago. I had been drinking and I told her I couldn't come in because I had been drinking. She told me to "come in anyway." :angryfire

When I lived in West Virginia they would call people at their homes on their days off and say "Right now you are being mandated to come in on your day off and work. If you don't come in you will be written up period." They were tricky too. They wouldn't always use the hospital phone to call you. They would use their own cell phones and even pay phones to call you. :angryfire

estrogen · Apr 18, 2005

:coollook: I got entirely rid of our home phone line. All we have is cell phones with caller ID and voice mail. (The internet is via cable/broadband anyway.) ...And I never EVER pick up, when I see on caller ID, tht it's work. They are welcome to speak to voice mail. I got entirely sick and tired of them harrassing me at odd hours and on my days off and asking me to come to work ...and then me being forced to come up with excuses and explanations why I can't come etc. ....Heck, it's my day off... if I wanted to work don't you think that I woul sign up for work, or make myself available to staffing in the first place???

The wonderfull management of hour hospital layed off a bunch of LPNs with the least seniority last year in an effort to save money and now they keep harrassing us who survived the lay off, to come to work on our days off... My usual response (at least in my head, since I am unfortunately not bold enough to say it out loud) is: Well you guys didn't give a rat's a$$, when I was in crisis for two months last year because I didn't know if I will have job, so see how much I care now that the hospital is in crisis and doesn't have enough staff. You are wellcome to call agency nurses and pay four times as much for them as you would for the LPNs that you layed off.... :angryfire

Please forgive me for the angry vent but I'm one raging LPN right now

estrogen · Apr 18, 2005

I'll never forget the DON from the LTC who called me into work many years ago. I had been drinking and I told her I couldn't come in because I had been drinking. She told me to "come in anyway." :angryfire
When I lived in West Virginia they would call people at their homes on their days off and say "Right now you are being mandated to come in on your day off and work. If you don't come in you will be written up period." They were tricky too. They wouldn't always use the hospital phone to call you. They would use their own cell phones and even pay phones to call you. :angryfire

OHMY GAWD! :angryfire

Fiona59 · Apr 19, 2005

I know it happens. The local hospital hasn't hired a new LPN in over a year. The ones working there are fed up with working overtime and short calls. They're complaining about it.

Learn people. Turn the shifts down, eventually they have to hire new staff....