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...??
Yea, I'm sure there's another place in this world for you other than nursing. Can't think of any right off the bat given the many personal requirements that you have that totally contradict what most employers look for in employees. Perhaps consider self employment so you can take it at your own pace. nice rant, ps if you are trolling, this has to be one of the better ones
Your work habits won't fly in the ICU either. Just saying.
Could you imagine what would happen if someone was three ******* hours late to work on an inpatient unit? I know my manager would tell them just to stay at home. My unit has a reputation for making it work, and most people who don't pull their weight wash out.
Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
Could you imagine what would happen if someone was three ******* hours late to work on an inpatient unit? I know my manager would tell them just to stay at home. My unit has a reputation for making it work, and most people who don't pull their weight wash out.
Referring to the original poster in all of the below in agreement with the quote above. If you showed up 3 hours late regardless of your excuse (overslept, family admitted, missed bus, car wouldn't start, census changed so you changed my schedule), you'd likely be considered to have abandoned your job voluntarily and be referred to HR once you showed up. You likely would be barred from clocking in.
It doesn't matter if you are the worlds greatest clinical research nurse (you weren't based on your previous poss regarding data entry errors, forgetting lab specimens, other significant errors that can adversely affect a clinical trial) and the investigators all love you if you aren't there to do your job!
Thanks for the few helpful replies, others were entertaining :)
So the times that I was late was due to being sick, car not working, and surprise coming from doctors' appointments that she had given me permission to attend. So how does she give permission to arrive late then turn around and write me up for being late. hmm..
I had and still have health problems (at one point I had emergent surgery and once I almost passed out) but the focus is on attendance, nevermind that I'm going through a health crisis. I didn't qualify for FMLA so that was out of the question.
I will exit from this post now and will take away the kindness and understanding of nutella's post to name a few. You are right nutella I was pretty green coming into this discipline and am proud of myself for coming this far. I taught myself a great deal of things along the way since there was no formal training/orientation. It has all been a learning experience.
And honestly I expected a better reply and attitude from fellow nurses, calling my husband pretty boy? Hilarious! So typical! Nice one! Mentioning HIS comment about jealousy?? Wow, what a mistake!
Good night and thanks for the well wishes :)
Oh, OP... didn't get the responses you wanted, hmm?
What exactly was a mistake? You were the one who mentioned your husbands comment; hence, others will mention it as well. Jealously is an ugly beast. However, it's not your boss's jealousy I'm referring to.
Blaming others for your behavior ... *that* is a mistake. How you can't see that: that is a problem I hope you are able to reconcile before you seek other employment. I'm not optimistic.
First, apologies for invoking the words of Dr. Phil, but sometimes he says things that make sense - and yes, I am aware that even a stopped clock is right twice a day. I may need to borrow Farawyn's bag.
OP, you can't change what you don't acknowledge.
You need to take an objective look at this and your previous threads and read them as though someone else wrote them. Do you see the drama, self entitled attitude, and many errors in judgement they contain?
I see no jealously from your supervisor, and to suggest she is jealous of you is such a cop out you use to not take responsibility for *your* actions.
You need to be brutally honest with yourself and make some major attitude (and behavioral) changes.
B) I'm not a nurse yet, but I'I have experience with management at a retail level.
If you showed great work ethic and dedication and were a productive Co worker that came to be for a meeting about her medical issues I *might* maybe be willing to excuse the lateness. But I haven't. Because even my fresh out of high school employees took more responsibility than that, by scheduling appointments outside of their job, switching with someone else, or coming to me before the schedule was made. Or else they got fired.
And company policy DOES NOT CARE for the reason for your tardiness. You are not in elementary school, there is no excused vs unexcused absence.
Your boss does not have to take into consideration consideration your medical issues or your car breaking down. Shoot, that wouldn't fly for clinicals in nursing school!
If YOU can't maintain your hours and these tardiness, leaving early for, and asking for last minute time off continues, maybe you need to cut back your hours or go per diem.
Think about what this is doing to the schedule and the inconvenience and increased workload you are giving to both your supervisors and coworkers.
So the times that I was late was due to being sick, car not working, and surprise coming from doctors' appointments that she had given me permission to attend. So how does she give permission to arrive late then turn around and write me up for being late. hmm..
I suspect that she was giving you, as the saying goes, "enough rope to hang yourself" -- creating a clear record of your behavior and attendance problems so there would be no question about the validity of her firing you eventually. Or that she actually was attempting to be understanding and supportive of you for as long as she could reasonably justify being so, perhaps expecting (hoping) that you would eventually get your act together. You would not have lasted as long as you have, based on the behaviors you've described here, any place I have ever worked. You would already be gone.
I deleted my original post. You have to take care of people, patients, and put them first for 10-12 hours during your shift. Doesn't matter if your car won't start, doesn't matter if the kids are sick, and if you are having issues, it's time to let someone who can do the job take over. Nursing isn't about you, it's about the patient. Be on time, give your time, clock out and go home. It's that simple.
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Mentioning HIS comment about jealousy?? Wow, what a mistake! 
Ard123
37 Posts
Yea, I'm sure there's another place in this world for you other than nursing. Can't think of any right off the bat given the many personal requirements that you have that totally contradict what most employers look for in employees. Perhaps consider self employment so you can take it at your own pace. nice rant, ps if you are trolling, this has to be one of the better ones