Thrown From the Tower!!

[pcaldea]

Hello fellow nurses,

I'm posting a follow-up post to the last one. So my supervisor gave me a verbal warning in the form of a letter that detailed my various workplace sins. These included asking for too many days off, leaving early, arriving late, forgetting to pick up a blood sample, not using an interpreter, and being disrespectful.

Asking for too many days off: For December I took a nice 2 weeks of taking advantage of the holidays and just asked for some days in between. I was going through some medical stuff which caused me to at times ask for a day off at the last minute (2 days before the appointment for instance.)

Leaving early: This didn't happen as often, perhaps 3 times at most and always by checking with my supervisor. Granted this happened without advance notice and when I did leave it was due to medical appointments.

Arriving late: My start time was 6:30 am (a start time she said she never approved but nevertheless used it as a point of reference to count how many hours I arrived late on 3 occasions.) Once I arrived at 9:30 because I overslept having been up all night coughing a lung out. I was going to call out but decided against it. The other time my car refused to start and I ended up taking another car. I arrived at 8:45. The third time I had gone to a doctor's appointment and got there at 9:30. There was hardly anyone at the office because that particular day we had a department wide meeting. The fourth time I had another appointment and I got there around 8:20. All these times she knew about. All with 3 to 4 days notice beforehand. In her warning letter she stated that my team had suffered because of my tardy arrivals. I tried to confirm this with my co-workers and they were like "no, we were fine."

Anyway she agreed that we would meet again in 3 weeks to see if any improvement that been made. Well the date came around and that morning I asked her "so what time are we meeting today?" and she replied "Well it turns out that the HR director can't come today so we will reschedule it." She didn't give me a date and I left it at that. Mind you she's involved 3 other supervisors besides her.

At any rate we met a couple of weeks ago for the second time at which point she pointed out 2 times in which I arrived late. One happened because I missed the commuter bus and it only leaves every 45 minutes so of course I arrived 40 minutes late when I was supposed to arrive 40 minutes early. That same day that I arrived late I told her that the commuter bus left at 3:30 but that I was going to stay until the next one left, around 4:15. So she was like fine, but I could tell she wasn't too happy about it. She and I were working off site at that time and she's used to staying behind and having someone else bring back the blood samples to our main job site for processing. Since she had told me at the last minute that I was to work with her that day, I didn't make arrangements for someone to pick up my kids so that's why I ended up taking the commuter bus. At any rate she gave me a choice on two tasks and asked which one I wanted to work on. I picked one and she said that she'd do the other one and left to go work on it. Well I finished my task and asked her if she wanted me to do anything else, then she asked me to do the task that she was supposed to do. So I ended up doing both. She said that it was fine I could go so I did.

Anyway to make a long story short she wrote me up for the above mentioned things that also included not using an interpreter. She had earlier that day advised me to not walk into a non-English speaking patient's room b/c there was no interpreter. Of course I forgot and walked into his room, quickly realized that I shouldn't have done that and excused myself and left. Well she included this in her write up.

I feel like she wants me to be absolutely perfect and that there is no grace/understanding. So I decided that the next step would probably be me being fired so I asked HR what was the minimum leave of notice so as not to be blacklisted from the institution. They said 2 weeks, so I gave my 2 weeks notice. This job provides great benefits and I'm going to miss that. Thinking back I don't know if it would have been better to ask for a transfer and now perhaps it's too late. I have 2 weeks left on that job. A job that I enjoyed very much. My sister pointed out that I worked very hard to go through nursing school full-time while having kids and how I basically let it go for a difficult person.

No one seems to understand where I'm coming from except for my husband. He's heard me complain about this lady for months. He knows that I tried to get along with her. It seems that the perfect person for that position is someone who is used to putting their family in second place. Someone who is dedicated so much that they would spend 12 hours in one day if needed.

I used to work on the floor so I came from having 4 days off to working 5 days in a row. It was a huge adjustment. I supposedly took the job to have more time for my family but it turned out to not be the case. Where before I was spending 4 days with me kids now it was less. I earned more yes but the work was intense. I enjoyed it though. But having that supervisor was like tasting vinegar.. it didn't help to know that I didn't even have to be there. Hubby sometimes earns in one day what I earn in a month so I wasn't doing it for the money..

Now that this has happened I'm taking a step back and thinking about my choices. I've been thinking about preparing for the GRE and possibly starting school later this year. Or maybe working in another specialty, perhaps ICU.. I'm basically here to vent and to get feedback/advice. I have loans to pay off and not working right now would put them on hold but still their balances loom over me. I've paid a good bit off but I took out several.

Please don't tell me in your replies that you did your nursing degree with little to no debt, because saying that would help me how...??

Thanks for reading!

[pcaldea]

Oh yes I forgot to the explain the 'being rude' part. So during a meeting I reported some numbers that she thought were incorrect. Instead of following up with me or checking with me to say "Are you sure those #s are correct?" she immediately emailed the study contact to verify that this was indeed true. When I saw the email I went to her desk (our desks are in an open area but are in partitions) and asked her "if you were unsure about the #s why didn't you ask me?" Well in my write up she said that I had "argued loudly" with her. That is such a lie that it is actually funny at how sensitive she is. She needs to grow some thick skin!! My husband is like maybe she's jealous of you and how much you earn or because she's single and miserable. I don't know about her personal life but she is single. We are about the same age and I have a wonderful, handsome, smart, kind, and talented husband that spoils me and makes me breakfast and lunch every now and then. My other 2 coworkers know about him and tease me about how spoiled I am..

At any rate, that was a blatant lie that I must address in a follow-up letter. She's made me go through a good bit of stress, me, a person who hardly ever stresses out

[elkpark]

I feel like she wants me to be absolutely perfect and that there is no grace/understanding.

It sounds to me like she wants you to show up when you're supposed to and do your job. That doesn't seem like an unreasonable expectation to me. Maybe I'm missing something.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

It sounds to me like she wants you to show up when you're supposed to and do your job. That doesn't seem like an unreasonable expectation to me. Maybe I'm missing something.

Me too.

When you accepted the position, you are supposed to adhere to policy, meaning, if you need time off do so in a timely manner, as well as show up at the appropriate time to work and because she's your supervisor, do the work that is asked of you...I don't get the "she's jealous of me" bit; she wants you to do your JOB.

[springchick1, ADN, RN]

Where I work, you would have been suspended for so many tardies in such a short amount of time. Then you would have been let go. I think you are going to have a hard time finding sympathy here.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

You have a lot of excuses for not doing your job, excessive tardiness (you'd be terminated after 3 in some facilities. 3hrs late would be considered job abandonment. It's not your employers fault that you missed the bus or had unreliable transportation. Staying late does not make up for arriving 2-3 hours late. It doesn't matter if there was a meeting or not.

Your write up details that you failed to meet job expectations. You confronted your supervisor in an open office. Going to your coworkers to ask if you burdened them was inappropriate.

Even with 2 weeks notice you are likely going to be eligible for rehire due to excessive tardiness, excessive absence (unless work related appointments it doesn't matter) and insubordination.

I don't see jealousy I see a supervisor with expectations to show up as scheduled, on time and do your work.

[nutella, MSN, RN]

Perhaps I am not understanding the whole situation right.

But - in my understanding - if you have to come to work at a certain time you have to show up on time. Yes, there can be emergencies but in general it is your responsibility to make sure you have transportation, catch the bus, and so on and forth.

Besides that, of course you have to do your best to adhere to policy and procedure. But also, when a new person makes a couple of mistakes right at the start, it does not look good and can lead to more scrutinizing.

In any way - learn from that and make sure you are on time with your next job, always use an interpreter and in general put effort into working according to policy and procedure. Nowadays, nursing is highly regulated in many ways and if you appear to be a liability or hard to get along you may find yourself in the same situation.

[pixierose, BSN, RN]

"My husband is like maybe she's jealous of you and how much you earn or because she's single and miserable."

You definitely lose my sympathy with this statement. Pulling out the 'jealously' card, ugh. Annoying.

Show up when you're supposed to. Voila. A major issue could have been prevented. Only one to blame is yourself.

[Farawyn]

"My husband is like maybe she's jealous of you and how much you earn or because she's single and miserable."

You definitely lose my sympathy with this statement. Pulling out the 'jealously' card, ugh. Annoying.

Show up when you're supposed to. Voila. A major issue could have been prevented. Only one to blame is yourself.

Not the jealousy card! That road is always bad, and littered with cheesy selfies.

Sorry. Flashback.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

I think if posters read your original 3 threads they will get s better picture. You had multiple errors, you did not want to reveal why you had last minute call outs or requests off that were contrary to company policy, excessive tardiness with many excuses and no proactive correction reported on your part.

You've expressed hate for your coworker that was promoted to management for her performance and worth ethic. Apparently you were too laid back and could not compensate to meet job demands. Consider this moving forward. Take a per diem job if you need flexibility.

[pixierose, BSN, RN]

Not the jealousy card! That road is always bad, and littered with cheesy selfies.

Sorry. Flashback.

Images of amazing abs of steel flash across my brain .... (curling into fetal position and trying to remember what it feels like to be 21 again)

[smf0903]

You gave 3-4 days notice that you were going to be late for coughing up a lung and another time for your car not starting? That makes no sense. I couldn't even read past the paragraphs about being 2 1/2-3 hours late for work multiple times. Honestly I think you're lucky that you still have a job. Good luck.