Hello everyone. I have been reading discussion on this site for the past few years. Ive finally decided to come here to vent and get some advice. My manager asked me to work every Monday night on this schedule, while still doing two 7a-8p shifts. We do 13 hour shifts at my facility. She claims that the night nurses that she has can not work Monday nights. These nurses do not have young children, but just "prefer" not to work Monday night. I have a one year old child. I agreed to work the shift, but only be because she said I would work Monday night and then come back on a Thursday or Friday.
Well she didn't make the schedule out that way. She has working every wedensday morning. They only gives me one day off. I will sleep most of that day. I worked like this last week and was utterly exhausted and disoriented. When I asked her if I could have some time to thin about working Monday night she said no I have to get the schedule out. Then she stared going on about making it "mandatory". This manager also asks me to cover a night shift whenever she has a call out. She does not ask the other nurses. I've only been at this job a few months.
I feel like I'm being taken advantage of. What do you guys think? Should I suck it up or seek other employment? Sorry this is so disjointed! Your feedback is appreciate.
If this schedule isn't working for you and you've noticed you're exhausted after doing it for just one week, then I would seriously re-think this. Something that I've learned and am still very upset about it, I let unfair scheduling on my unit negatively effect me but positively impact others. You might get stuck working this schedule and be miserable. Not to mention that Tuesday is really just a fake day off because you're going to be tired and want to sleep or lounge most of the day since you worked the night before. My mom is a Nurse and has always told me "Remember, to the hospital, you're just a body. Everybody is replaceable." My mom is very straight-forward and just tells you the truth. And now after many years, I understand what she meant!
I did great things where I worked. I stayed faithful to one unit for 7 years, never complained, never had a complaint from a patient, I made patients happy and confident in our unit when they were requesting to transfer to another unit because they didn't find the nurses on my unit to be compassionate or knowledgeable, I had patients write so many letters to my nurse manager and the hospital's president, I was part of our Magnet designation process, but none of that mattered. My body started to get sick from all the unfair rotating, I would rotate Ams and PMs the same week and have "fake" days off, I was constantly staying later than my scheduled shift because the unit was so busy and acute and I was in charge and couldn't just leave. I have an autoimmune disease that didn't like my body rotating like this and doing so much extra with little gas to power my weakened engine. My doctors told me to stop rotating or my treatments would be pointless because my body needed to be strong. I had 4 doctors/specialists write letters explaining my condition and I took them to my hospital's Occupational Health and they approved me to just to AM shifts but it was up to my unit's nurse manager to officially approve it. I took the paperwork to my nurse manager who I worked closely with for 7 years and she knew how good of a nurse I was and she said to me "I cannot accommodate this request, you have 12 weeks to find a new job." Talk about shock and heartbroken! Yet there were people on my unit that didn't have a medical accommodation and didn't rotate just because they don't want to and my nurse manager let them not rotate! This proved to me that I was just a body and I was replaceable. It didn't matter all the good things I did. I sucked-up the unfair scheduling for 7 years and never said a word until it literally made me sick and then it was like "Oh well."
If I could turn back time I would have spoken-up more and stood my ground because I am my own advocate. If you speak-up and say that this schedule really doesn't work for you and you still get push-back, then smile, maintain the peace, work that crappy schedule and in the mean time, be looking for other employment. Don't let your job make life harder for you. Remember... be your own advocate! I wish I would have known how things would have turned out for me and the unit I called home... I would have been out of there years ago!
Specializes in M/S, Pulmonary, Travel, Homecare, Psych..
It has nothing to do with seniority. Having a child does matter actually. Nurses without children do not have to worry about childcare and should be available to work any given night. I was hired for day shift and am being assigned a Monday night shift because of "preference" and not necessity.
I've always wondered if nurses who expect having children to be considered when schedules are made.........I just wonder if they really know what they are asking for.
If having children (or not) affected scheduling, and people with no children were expected to accommodate those with.......it'd be a different world. Not a better one, a different one.
Trust me, if the accommodation you are expecting were given, you would be sorry. The repercussions to you would be harsh and more unbearable than just working your share of off shifts is.
Last but not least: What is your standing on this unit? Do you get along with your co-workers? What does your manager think of you? Been written up lately?
I'd take a close look at your standing on the unit and ask yourself "Why the inconvenient schedule?". As others have said, a schedule like the one you were given often is used to.........hmmmm........be free of someone without outright firing them.
For one, no one would hire nurses with children if they were obligated to make such accommodations. There would be a storm of threads right here on this forum: "It's so unfair, no one will hire me. I believe it's because I have kids."
Then you would have the nurses who upon seeing having children grants favorism on the schedule, would abuse it.
We haven't even gotten to how your co-workers without children are going to treat you since they have to take the less desireable shifts while you soak up all the gravy shifts.
Trust me, you don't want the accommodation you are feeling you are entitled to.
With all that said, going from nights to days with no real time in between is dangerous. Let your manager know you can't do that. But be prepared to make accommodations for others too, not just demand them for yourself.
I haven't seen it mentioned, but why is her manager/scheduler allowing BOTH noc shifters to have off the same night every week? No it doesn't matter that she has kids, but any place I've ever worked (going back to the 90's in call centers) they only allow so many people off per shift. Why should she be expected to cover every single Monday night - seniority or not?
Specializes in M/S, Pulmonary, Travel, Homecare, Psych..
I did not imply that I knew what their lives were like. You appear ignorant to make that assumption about the post. Would you like to work my Monday night 13 hour shift and report to work at 0700 Wed.? Feel free to do so. This is an unfair schedule. An EMPATHETIC manager takes someone's home life into account when creating a schedule. No one should have to rotate unless there is a dire necessity. Not just because the other nurses "don't like Mondays".
Yes, a good manager knows what schedule will make or break an employee.
Don't assume it's an accident that she is choosing to break you.
Yes, a good manager knows what schedule will make or break an employee.
Don't assume it's an accident that she is choosing to break you.
Assuming she IS a good manager.... She may be clueless or likes to take the road of least conflict.
i had a manager who started hiring nurses to work 2 eight hour shifts and 2 twelve hour shifts per week. The nurses working either afternoon or night shifts were required to do their 12 hour shifts at night. The afternoon nurses often had to come in at 3pm after just getting off at 7 that morning. It was amazing how quickly these nurses got burnt out. The manager had no sympathy, saying they all knew what was required when they hired in. (They were mostly new grads desperate for their first jobs). These nurses were exhausted all of the time. None of them made it to their one year anniversary. The manager was still clueless about how difficult that kind of schedule this was on any human being. The turnover was very high on this unit, and the manager no longer works there. I also left for a contingent job, and am so much happier being more in control of my schedule.
However, I do agree that this is an excellent way of getting rid of undesirable employees without having to fire them.
Yes, a good manager knows what schedule will make or break an employee.
Don't assume it's an accident that she is choosing to break you.
I had this thought too. Not because of anything I thought about the OP but because I've seen this happen over and over again. It's a pretty dirty thing to do.
Specializes in M/S, Pulmonary, Travel, Homecare, Psych..
Assuming she IS a good manager.... She may be clueless or likes to take the road of least conflict.
i had a manager who started hiring nurses to work 2 eight hour shifts and 2 twelve hour shifts per week. The nurses working either afternoon or night shifts were required to do their 12 hour shifts at night. The afternoon nurses often had to come in at 3pm after just getting off at 7 that morning. It was amazing how quickly these nurses got burnt out. The manager had no sympathy, saying they all knew what was required when they hired in. (They were mostly new grads desperate for their first jobs). These nurses were exhausted all of the time. None of them made it to their one year anniversary. The manager was still clueless about how difficult that kind of schedule this was on any human being. The turnover was very high on this unit, and the manager no longer works there. I also left for a contingent job, and am so much happier being more in control of my schedule.
However, I do agree that this is an excellent way of getting rid of undesirable employees without having to fire them.
I think your clueless manager is the exception to the rule.
My experience has shown me that when a manager wants to be free of you (but HR says the person can't be fired, don't want to pay unemployment) the first thing they do is start handing you a rough schedule.
I will even one up that with: Working a night shift then immediately switching to days is the most popular way of doing it.
It just seems to me that this sort of thing happens more frequently to a very specific population of nurses. That population being the ones who call off a lot or are being reported every day by their co-workers.
The OP has to decide for herself if my hunch is worth listening to or not. She may indeed be in good standing and the manager is edesperate or something. Either way, she needs to get that issue resolved. And going to the manager with nothing more than "I have kids so I can't do it" isn't going to resolve it.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I haven't seen it mentioned, but why is her manager/scheduler allowing BOTH noc shifters to have off the same night every week? No it doesn't matter that she has kids, but any place I've ever worked (going back to the 90's in call centers) they only allow so many people off per shift. Why should she be expected to cover every single Monday night - seniority or not?
Perhaps one of the night shift nurses has her regular chemo appointment on Monday and will be too sick to go to work and the other has to take her child to visit his father for the week (or retrieve said child), a six hour drive, every Monday. Perhaps one has a parent with Alzheimer's and Monday is her designated day to sit with Mom. Perhaps one was granted every Monday off for classes toward her BSN or MSN and after that accommodation was made the other (or her child) was diagnosed with a medical contain and the only doctor her insurance covers is in the big city four hours away and can only see her on Mondays. Every week. It doesn't matter. I'm sure that the OP's hiring paperwork specifies "and other shifts as needed" or "other shifts as agreed upon" and the OP agreed to cover the Mondays. Why other day nurses weren't asked to cover the Mondays is now immaterial. It could be seniority, or previous schedule agreements or just that no one likes the OP because of her entitled attitude. The real issue is the Wednesdays.
Sometimes the manager has agreed to an accommodation for one staff member's school or little league or whatever and another employee can cover it. But then the second employee has an issue -- chemotherapy or a sick mother or sick child -- and so the manager looks for another solution. Asking a day nurse to cover temporarily is a valid solution, and the if the OP is one of the least senior employees, she will be one of the first asked. She was asked. She agreed. Monday night is no longer an issue.
The Wednesday day shift is a problem, but it's not a deal breaker. Some people don't mind bouncing back that quickly. The OP does. So that is the issue that the OP needs to resolve, and it has nothing to do with her reproductive choices or status.
Specializes in M/S, Pulmonary, Travel, Homecare, Psych..
Perhaps one of the night shift nurses has her regular chemo appointment on Monday and will be too sick to go to work and the other has to take her child to visit his father for the week (or retrieve said child), a six hour drive, every Monday. Perhaps one has a parent with Alzheimer's and Monday is her designated day to sit with Mom. Perhaps one was granted every Monday off for classes toward her BSN or MSN and after that accommodation was made the other (or her child) was diagnosed with a medical contain and the only doctor her insurance covers is in the big city four hours away and can only see her on Mondays. Every week. It doesn't matter. I'm sure that the OP's hiring paperwork specifies "and other shifts as needed" or "other shifts as agreed upon" and the OP agreed to cover the Mondays. Why other day nurses weren't asked to cover the Mondays is now immaterial. It could be seniority, or previous schedule agreements or just that no one likes the OP because of her entitled attitude. The real issue is the Wednesdays.
Sometimes the manager has agreed to an accommodation for one staff member's school or little league or whatever and another employee can cover it. But then the second employee has an issue -- chemotherapy or a sick mother or sick child -- and so the manager looks for another solution. Asking a day nurse to cover temporarily is a valid solution, and the if the OP is one of the least senior employees, she will be one of the first asked. She was asked. She agreed. Monday night is no longer an issue.
The Wednesday day shift is a problem, but it's not a deal breaker. Some people don't mind bouncing back that quickly. The OP does. So that is the issue that the OP needs to resolve, and it has nothing to do with her reproductive choices or status.
I was thinking too that there may be some avoidance of Mondays for whatever reason.
A M/'s unit I once worked on did this "skin review day" every Thursday. Every patient had to have forms about their skin integrity completed.
If the pt had no breakdown, it took 15min. to complete thenforms. If they did have breakdown, whoa.......close to an hour.
Guess what day of the week had the most call offs. Guess what day of the week everyone couldn't work because of....... well, whatever.
If it is a situation where Monday nights is aggravating for a reason like this, I can see being upset.
But like you, I believe if the Wed were fixed, all is well.
I think your clueless manager is the exception to the rule.
My experience has shown me that when a manager wants to be free of you (but HR says the person can't be fired, don't want to pay unemployment) the first thing they do is start handing you a rough schedule.
I will even one up that with: Working a night shift then immediately switching to days is the most popular way of doing it.
It just seems to me that this sort of thing happens more frequently to a very specific population of nurses. That population being the ones who call off a lot or are being reported every day by their co-workers.
The OP has to decide for herself if my hunch is worth listening to or not. She may indeed be in good standing and the manager is edesperate or something. Either way, she needs to get that issue resolved. And going to the manager with nothing more than "I have kids so I can't do it" isn't going to resolve it.
Fair enough, but I do think managers tend to not know or forget how difficult switching shifts can be. That or they don't care. I've seen very good nurses abused this way, and I don't think they were being weeded out. They just didn't advocate for themselves. It happened to me, too. When I started saying no, suddenly my evaluation took a sharp turn to the negative. I got out of there.
Anyway, I do agree with leaving the childcare issue out of it. She should finish out this schedule but have a serious talk with the manager. It would be interesting to find out what happens!
I'm sorry if this has already been said. I had little desire to read 9 pages of posts about kids, seniority and unfair scheduling.
To the OP: If you have not already done so, please sit down with your manager and politely suggest to her that she misunderstood your previous conversation. Let her know that you were willing to cover Monday night ONCE as long as you did not return to work until Thursday day shift, at soonest, to allow for adequate recovery from sleep deprivation, necessary for safe performance.
No need to drag children, fellow employees, conspiracy theories or any other hot button topics into the conversation, which would only serve to inflame the situation and cause her to become defensive. Nor is it necessary to begin job hunting over a one-time slight.
Unless your manager has proven over time to be incompetent or vindictive, please allow her the courtesy of making a bone-headed error once in a while.
As a manager who makes mistakes (shocker!), I always appreciate it when they are calmly called to my attention.
HonestRNBSN
1 Post
If this schedule isn't working for you and you've noticed you're exhausted after doing it for just one week, then I would seriously re-think this. Something that I've learned and am still very upset about it, I let unfair scheduling on my unit negatively effect me but positively impact others. You might get stuck working this schedule and be miserable. Not to mention that Tuesday is really just a fake day off because you're going to be tired and want to sleep or lounge most of the day since you worked the night before. My mom is a Nurse and has always told me "Remember, to the hospital, you're just a body. Everybody is replaceable." My mom is very straight-forward and just tells you the truth. And now after many years, I understand what she meant!
I did great things where I worked. I stayed faithful to one unit for 7 years, never complained, never had a complaint from a patient, I made patients happy and confident in our unit when they were requesting to transfer to another unit because they didn't find the nurses on my unit to be compassionate or knowledgeable, I had patients write so many letters to my nurse manager and the hospital's president, I was part of our Magnet designation process, but none of that mattered. My body started to get sick from all the unfair rotating, I would rotate Ams and PMs the same week and have "fake" days off, I was constantly staying later than my scheduled shift because the unit was so busy and acute and I was in charge and couldn't just leave. I have an autoimmune disease that didn't like my body rotating like this and doing so much extra with little gas to power my weakened engine. My doctors told me to stop rotating or my treatments would be pointless because my body needed to be strong. I had 4 doctors/specialists write letters explaining my condition and I took them to my hospital's Occupational Health and they approved me to just to AM shifts but it was up to my unit's nurse manager to officially approve it. I took the paperwork to my nurse manager who I worked closely with for 7 years and she knew how good of a nurse I was and she said to me "I cannot accommodate this request, you have 12 weeks to find a new job." Talk about shock and heartbroken! Yet there were people on my unit that didn't have a medical accommodation and didn't rotate just because they don't want to and my nurse manager let them not rotate! This proved to me that I was just a body and I was replaceable. It didn't matter all the good things I did. I sucked-up the unfair scheduling for 7 years and never said a word until it literally made me sick and then it was like "Oh well."
If I could turn back time I would have spoken-up more and stood my ground because I am my own advocate. If you speak-up and say that this schedule really doesn't work for you and you still get push-back, then smile, maintain the peace, work that crappy schedule and in the mean time, be looking for other employment. Don't let your job make life harder for you. Remember... be your own advocate! I wish I would have known how things would have turned out for me and the unit I called home... I would have been out of there years ago!