When they call you in to work extra shifts...

cjan · Jan 20, 2005

answering machines, caller ID best invenions ever made. I try to remember that my family comes first. If I have time to go in extra fine, if not I don't answer the phone. At our hospital it goes both ways, they either try to call us off or call us in.

Quickbeam, BSN, RN · Jan 20, 2005

I worked 10 years straight nights. We were always short and I'd get called constantly, all day. Got CallerID and turned the ringer off, however like another poster, my hospitals always showed up as "number unknown" on CallerID. One place I worked would leave a message "if we don't hear from you we'll assume you are covering the shift". That is why I no longer have an answering machine.

Of course these were jobs with no on-call requirements.

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Jan 20, 2005

One place I worked would leave a message "if we don't hear from you we'll assume you are covering the shift".

That's dirty, low-down, rotten---and impossible to enforce, if you think about it. Because what'd happen if someone went out of town for a weekend?

I'd have gotten fired because my response would've been....none.

Kudra · Jan 20, 2005

the first thing i said to my husband when i got my first nursing job was that we had to have caller id because i want to know when it's work calling...

i get called quite a bit for extra shifts... mostly nights, which i'm not usually scheduled to work, nor am i interested in working... staffing here only calls once, which is nice as well...

i don't usually hear my phone from our bedroom, so the early morning calls aren't usually a problem... during the day, i screen my calls... only 2 people come up on my phone as a Blocked Number: the hospital and my Mum... so i let the answering machine pick up and as soon as i know who it is, i pick up accordingly...

now, if i could only train the boy to remember that if caller id says Blocked Call (especially at 6 am), don't answer it!

LPN1974, LPN · Jan 20, 2005

There's some kind of service you can get from the telphone company that will tell "Private callers" or "private numbers" or "blocked call" that you don't accept those calls, and they should "unblock" their number and call back.

Had a supervisor once overhear a staff nurse, an LPN, say that she had gotten a cell phone. The supervisor told the LPN she HAD to give her the number.

The LPN said, "I don't think so. This place isn't paying my phone bill."

Boy, they try any kind of intimidation tactics they can think of won't they?

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Jan 20, 2005

There's some kind of service you can get from the telphone company that will tell "Private callers" or "private numbers" or "blocked call" that you don't accept those calls, and they should "unblock" their number and call back.

It's called "Call Intercept" and the caller may also ID themselves by voice. :) You pick up the phone and have the option to either accept the call or wait till the caller IDs, or refuse the call. Of course, an automated voice tells the caller you don't accept the call, so you never even have to deal with it directly at all.

This is a great way to give it back to the telemarketers too, by the way!

Blackcat99 · Jan 20, 2005

Yes I use to be a victim of phone harrassment. I'll never forget the day off I was enjoying when the LTC Director of Nurses called me. I had been drinking and I told her I had been drinking. She told me to come in anyway and that it didn't matter that I had been drinking. She was so obnoxious trying over and over to guilt trip me into coming in. She kept saying over and over that it was my responsibility to come in since I was the "charge nurse" on that unit etc. etc. etc. I was furious!! I finally started yelling at her at the top of my lungs and I said "No you are the director of nurses it is your responsibility to cover the unit." and I slammed the phone down as hard as I could. :angryfire

At another job I had they wouldn't use the hospital phone to call people because of caller ID. They would try to trick people into answering the phone and would use their own cell phones to call people. :angryfire

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Jan 20, 2005

They would try to trick people into answering the phone and would use their own cell phones to call people.

You know, my phone ALWAYS acts up on phone calls like that!! It just SHUTS OFF and I can't for the life of me get it to accept phone calls for the rest of the day. Hunh. Weird, isn't it?

ICUsleep · Jan 20, 2005

I had been drinking and I told her I had been drinking. She told me to come in anyway and that it didn't matter that I had been drinking. She was so obnoxious trying over and over to guilt trip me into coming in.

She told you it DIDN'T MATTER that you had been DRINKING??? :eek: :eek: :eek:

Makes my head hurt to think of how much that DOES matter and why. Sheesh!

boulergirl, CNA · Jan 20, 2005

I've learned to turn down my answering machine and turn off the ringer on my off days. However, one of my co-workers was harassed by the boss' assistant (who thinks she IS part of management) when she called out with a migraine. She interrogated my co-worker over the phone and tried threatening her into coming to work. Needlessly to say, the boss was informed about this later.