Team player

[missmollie]

I am on time, arriving at work usually 20 minutes before my shift starts. This gives me enough time to walk to the unit, put away my food, find my assignment, and take report at least 3 minutes early.

Today, the nurse taking over for me eventually makes her way to take report 7 minutes after. I rush through, because we only get paid to a certain time, and after that it's on you. She says to me "You are being really hostile right now. I'm new, and this is all about teamwork. I need you to be a team player right now."

I about lost it. My husband was called in for an emergency, my 10 year old is home alone, I want to get off work as quick as possible. Seven minutes late and the blame is falling on me? Oh hell no.

"We would have more time for report if you were here to get report at 7am. I have something at home and I have to get to i"

"Well, teamwork is best, so I need you drop the attitude"

"I wasn't giving you attitude, I was giving you report. It may be quick, but that is facilitated by your tardiness"

"No, you refuse to be a team player"

Am I wrong here? She clocked in at 7 am and took her time to get report by seven freaking minutes, then blamed me for my rushed report. All patients stable, no real health or pertinent issues present. I clocked out 10 minutes later than usual, and she really thought she was in the right. What do you think?

[dontbetachy90, BSN, RN]

I wonder if the lack of insight/hypocrisy on the part of this co-worker is that, or if they've got sociopathic tendencies. (Manipulating the "team" mantra when it benefits them and only them, and seeing nothing wrong with leaving you hanging. Oh, and reporting you for not being at their beck and call...)

Sometimes I lose faith in people.

Manipulation is key here. I work with a nurse (call her Miss True, because nothing she says is true) who TELLS ME what I will do to help her, especially when I am charge nurse. "I'm gonna need you to do this ultrasound IV." "My patient needs a boxed lunch, I kind of don't got time to get her one so I'm gonna need you to." "You're going to go in there with me to talk to this family about code status." There was a time I was watching another nurse's patients while she was on lunch and I went to assess a patient who was crying out in pain. The nurse heard the cries from the break room and came in to see what was going on. Then, in walks Miss True, coming to save the day as always and push my incompetent self aside. When the patient was crying and speaking intelligibly, Miss True looked me square in the face said, "She told you to go away" in a rude, flat tone.

I do my best to be respectful to all, and make it a point to ask each person how they are doing and if they need help on any of my shifts, especially when I am charge. As rude as that nurse is, I still ask if she's doing okay and offer help (and follow through, of course) when things get hairy. Like someone else said, don't get down and roll in the mud with them, but don't let them walk all over you, either. Take note when they are unfair, condescending, and rude; when the final straw has been reached, you will have an orificenal to help plead your case. I have yet to go to my manager because I haven't felt so totally violated by her petty behaviors, but I can imagine there will come a day. Work relations are such a drag sometimes.

[broughden]

"No, you refuse to be a team player"

Im picturing an early twenty something that grew up playing on soccer teams in the suburbs where everyone got participation trophies, and her parents always told her she was special.

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

Manipulation is key here. I work with a nurse (call her Miss True, because nothing she says is true) who TELLS ME what I will do to help her, especially when I am charge nurse. "I'm gonna need you to do this ultrasound IV." "My patient needs a boxed lunch, I kind of don't got time to get her one so I'm gonna need you to." "You're going to go in there with me to talk to this family about code status." There was a time I was watching another nurse's patients while she was on lunch and I went to assess a patient who was crying out in pain. The nurse heard the cries from the break room and came in to see what was going on. Then, in walks Miss True, coming to save the day as always and push my incompetent self aside. When the patient was crying and speaking intelligibly, Miss True looked me square in the face said, "She told you to go away" in a rude, flat tone.

I do my best to be respectful to all, and make it a point to ask each person how they are doing and if they need help on any of my shifts, especially when I am charge. As rude as that nurse is, I still ask if she's doing okay and offer help (and follow through, of course) when things get hairy. Like someone else said, don't get down and roll in the mud with them, but don't let them walk all over you, either. Take note when they are unfair, condescending, and rude; when the final straw has been reached, you will have an orificenal to help plead your case. I have yet to go to my manager because I haven't felt so totally violated by her petty behaviors, but I can imagine there will come a day. Work relations are such a drag sometimes.

You said you haven't bumped it up to a manager. So how do you handle her "commands" at this point?

[dontbetachy90, BSN, RN]

You said you haven't bumped it up to a manager. So how do you handle her "commands" at this point?

I judge each situation differently. When I am in report with the other charge nurse going over 24 patients and Miss True tells me "she kind of don't got time to run and get a boxed lunch," I tell her that I am in report, I ask her if she knows the process for obtaining extra lunches after the kitchen has closed, and I let her know that she can delegate that task to a clerk or nursing assistant, but that I cannot help her. When she commands me to do an ultrasound IV, I ask probing questions, such as whether she has tried for herself (because that is our policy) or if one of her peers has tried yet, what the patient needs the IV for/if they need it right this moment etc. If the patient truly needs the IV and I don't sense a task is simply being dumped onto me for the sake of dumping, I will make it a priority. If it's not a priority for me, then I let her know I have such and such that I must deal with and if she needs it sooner than x amount of time, she may call the SWAT nurse.

I don't always refuse to help when I am being offered these demands, and I would never intentionally not help someone simply for the sake of putting my foot down, but I know when I'm being manipulated or condescended to and the task is something that she can handle on her own. I'm a fairly patient and reasonable person. In your opinion are these behaviors something I should address with my manager, or just chalk it up to a nurse with a bad attitude?

[pixierose, BSN, RN]

Question: When you clocked out 10 minutes late, did you write down the reason you were leaving late? I would have. I would have left a note in the timekeeper system saying something like: "Relief was not ready to start report until ___"

^^^ This works.

There is a night nurse that was always, always running late to work by 15-20 minutes. Then, when she got there, she'd take her sweet time (printing out the patient caseload, putting her dinner away, saying hi to someone). By the time she'd finally come get report, it was now 25-30 minutes past my departure time. And by the time I was finished giving report, it was near 40 minutes. And she would do the, "you're racing through report ... you're not being a team player" bull hockey too.

It was INFURIATING.

I documented. All it took was that documentation. I didn't play that game with her. The NM took it from there; that 40 minutes adds up.

She now punches in 7 minutes before shift change.

[broughden]

I'm a fairly patient and reasonable person. In your opinion are these behaviors something I should address with my manager,

YES!?!? Of course!

No coworker should be "demanding" anything of you, period. They can kindly request assistance using "please" and "thank you", and if they cant or wont I would kindly tell them to go pound sand.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

We are to report ten minutes prior to start of shift to receive report when we are relieving another nurse in extended care home health. Almost universally, I am never relieved on time. My employer defended the nurse who would come as late as 42 minutes after the start of her shift. They expected to pay her for the 42 minutes I had to remain with the patient while she dawdled getting to work. Any time I make a mention of being relieved late, I am held in poor regard by my employers. However, the clients know when nurses are supposed to arrive, and they have remarked that I always get to work on time. Since there is no time clock involved, and I don't like being unemployed, I try to keep my mouth shut as much as possible. It keeps my paycheck coming in. So, in the long run, you are not alone by any means.

If you are relieving her in turn the next shift, I suggest you let her know that you need to come in 45 minutes later than usual. Apologize, but if you aren't getting paid for the extra time, you aren't going to give it for free to her. If she knows that's how its going to be, she may develop better habits.

[caliotter3]

If you are relieving her in turn the next shift, I suggest you let her know that you need to come in 45 minutes later than usual. Apologize, but if you aren't getting paid for the extra time, you aren't going to give it for free to her. If she knows that's how its going to be, she may develop better habits.

In that particular case there was a big fight when she threw a fit with the agency about ME. That was when the agency told me they could only pay for one nurse at a time in the home and I was supposed to use the time my shift was supposed to end, NOT the time the princess actually showed up. I told them "Labor Board". Princess accosted me again, to my face, venomously, and abruptly quit the case. I had to listen to how angelic the agency found her to be, and how they did not know what they would do without her regal presence. Within days, they pushed me off the case, and never offered me work again. I have had to defend myself when that employer is brought up in interviews. I used the trite descriptive words to convey how I perceived how they came across to me, not to appear as a smart rear end. We aren't supposed to bad mouth a former employer but how am I to counter what they have said about an employee who came to work on time?