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...??
While I don't agree with comments like the "pretty boy" thing (among others), you have to look at it from your supervisor's point of view, though it may be difficult. I too, have had a couple situations where my boss had given permission for appointments, then turned around and tried to penalize me for them (which is why I always get things in an email and print them out, if possible) and that's not right.
However, I also get migraines and that's not my fault, but it's not the hospital's fault either so they're usually decently understanding, but not too much so. I can't even think straight when I have one and am usually vomiting as well as wanting to "end it all" in some way, but that's not their worry, even though that's hard to hear.
That being said, maybe a different job (per diem or on call) where you can be more flexible with your hours/family time would be a better solution for you?
OP lost me completely when she said her hubby made more in one day than she did in a month. If as a nurse she made even $4,000.00 a month then he would make 120,000 a month? 7 figures a year? Why the heck are you working? And why would you have loans to pay back??? Me thinks there's a stinker in the room!!!
My husband makes that kind of money. I still work (not full time), I am NEVER late, I have only called in sick once in the last five years, I work hard and play fair when I'm there, and I plan to die with an active license because I worked too damn hard for it to let it lapse. I would be unhappy not ever working; volunteer work is good and noble, but I like the knowledge that I can still contribute a few bucks to the family, and worst case, could support myself if needed.
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.
I was confused about that too. Like..that's some amazing Jedi skills right there.
I can't believe you actually had the chutzpah to post this and expect sympathy. Like others have said, you have to show up, do your job, minimize mistakes, and leave when you're supposed to. You have to follow day off policies. If you have "medical stuff", bring a note. If you had appointments for the medical stuff, you should follow policy about how far ahead to give a heads up about needing that time off. Seriously, most places would have fired you already, with good reason. And nobody's jealous of a whiner.
So... you leave early... for appointments... give her little notice... for appointments... show up late... because of appointments... miss the bus... and it's not your fault. And she's jealous of you... THAT'S why you're in trouble... because of your awesome husband. Couldn't possibly be because of the fact that you're never at work.
I can count on one hand the tardies I've had at my job the past eleven years. You have exceeded that in what seems like six months? While emergencies happen you seem to have a lot of them in a small window. Managers generally understand that life happens. However, when it becomes a recurring theme they tend to not be. I also would question if your coworkers really are upset with you being late? They may have gone to her in confidence and are not comfortable discussing it with you. Bottom line get to work on time.
Maevish, ASN, RN
396 Posts
While I don't agree with comments like the "pretty boy" thing (among others), you have to look at it from your supervisor's point of view, though it may be difficult. I too, have had a couple situations where my boss had given permission for appointments, then turned around and tried to penalize me for them (which is why I always get things in an email and print them out, if possible) and that's not right.
However, I also get migraines and that's not my fault, but it's not the hospital's fault either so they're usually decently understanding, but not too much so. I can't even think straight when I have one and am usually vomiting as well as wanting to "end it all" in some way, but that's not their worry, even though that's hard to hear.
That being said, maybe a different job (per diem or on call) where you can be more flexible with your hours/family time would be a better solution for you?
Take care,
xo