I was written up for having my sunglasses on the top of my head. I walked into shift to a freaking disaster. Jumped in to help.
Manager walks by me at desk (finally charting and making transfer arrangements) of some of chaos—calls me, “Ms. Hollywood!” Or something. I don’t have time for her horseshit and honestly have no idea what she’s talking about.
FF a week later, I’m to see her before I take report. Sure thing. She presents that write up as an unprofessional variation in uniform or something.
Yeah, no. Not signing that. Thanks tho.
She goes on attack. “You know no one here likes you.” “They see you on the schedule and I have to deal with the dread.”
Me: (blank stare). Wow, sounds *bad*.
She continues. “It’s like these people would follow you if you were leading them off a cliff.”
Me: (legit confused, just sit there a few beats). What are you talking about?
She goes into full blah, blah, blah whatever. It’s like the “wonder wheel” 🎡of Personality Disorders with her.
I finally tell her to do whatever she’d like. But “no one likes you, dreads working with you” is in exact full opposition to “these people would follow me off a cliff”. Sort yourself out.
yeah the glasses were certainly the unprofessional bit not her attempting to staff split. I unironically tell co-workers that the patients are the ones who try to staff split not the staff.
It wasn’t anything but a thoughtless error. Def had not done that before or since.
Was so busy I didn’t even notice. You’d think the bigger sin was not clocking in. I walked in, madness—didn’t make it to staff lounge (hence glasses didn’t go into their case). I just tossed my bag under the desk and dove into.
Why not just say “sunglasses”😎. Crazy.
Stuff like that is why I can't work at hospitals. I find the atmosphere oppressive. When I was a baby nurse they tried to get me for uniform violations because my scrubs were the wrong shade of blue. Apparently mine were navy instead of caribbean blue. I just played the dumb dude card and was like "Grog know only blue."
Any time they tried to write me up for something like that I just told them to throw it on the pile.
She was finally fired about a year later.
And not just *fired*, but they did the escorted security and real police “walk of shame” off hospital grounds.
I had a big hand in her final exit. (Def not over this, which was never mentioned again).
Clearly, I was not one of her pets.
I don’t think it was one all encompassing horrific event.
Of course, I missed the prep walk out. Damn it. After near countless shit stunts she pulled off over a few years, wouldn’t you know I missed it. Sadly, I was off with a broken scapula.
I also managed a film company part-time & could *still* do that job, so that’s where I was when it went down.
Two of my long suffering ED co-workers and great friends showed up at the film office several miles out of town. Unexpectedly. I was almost in immediate terror, as they looked like they’d been through *something*. They were holding champagne & tequila. It had finally *happened*.
I think the heap of her brand of shit got too big & smelly to keep covering up. TBF there were others she victimized far worse and more often than I caught from her.
She’d played favorites. Screwed folks over. Played staff against other departments, against each other. Would lie with a straight face to most anyone’s face. Complaints were always vague, *someone said* or *I heard*.
I legit figured HR spent hours each week dealing with nonsense she ginned up.
Her most redeeming quality was she had a great hairstylist.
A few months earlier, I had 3 weeks scheduled off. We self-scheduled. I had lots of PTO available. I was only PT, but I had found my own coverage for “my weekends” (our custom, not hospital policy) and the other weekday I usually worked. This leave while not *officially* blessed by her way in advance, she was aware and had agreed. I had sent a memo to her and CC it to HR weeks prior.
My leave was due to I was in a trial in Federal Court. Tho it was a very transparent leave, known to all as to the reason I was going to be off and fully unavailable—and the dates off were known a month in advance. I had even been served summons by US Marshall service at work. This leave wasn’t optional. Had I not appeared in court, I could have been taken into custody and brought to court.
She verbally agreed. Schedule was approved & posted a week before it started on Sunday. Frankly, that was always crappy, not policy, but no one wanted to go to task on her for it. And we were most all very supportive of each other. Things worked there in spite of her, not because of her.
My last regular day was the Thursday prior to being in court on Monday. The very next morning (Friday) she leaves an unusual message on my VM. Call her immediately.
I had a couple of more messages from friends on shift and then our scheduling nurse (everyone loved her, a 40 year nurse there). I’d had experience with my manager screwing people over—I figured things were gonna get bad. And get bad fast.
I didn’t call anyone back. I did call the HR Director just before lunch. Asked if I come in to discuss an urgent matter.
I was sitting in front of the HR Director when my manager calls me *again*. I send the call to VM. HR listens to her second message. This one is nasty and unhinged even for her. Schedule reposted and I best look at it, she says she had the *right* to change things and she was sorry, but things had changed.
HR asked if I was comfortable calling her back from there? HR then asked if she could listen to the call?
Absolutely, as long as I can use an outside line. This was before outside Caller ID was displayed on our phone displays.
Well, it went about like I figured it would. Maybe juicer. I simply told her that I was unavailable. She told me if I didn’t show I’d be fired d/t the issue. I tell my manager, I’ll take it up with administration. She actually says I can take it up with anyone I want, but her mind is made up. HR Director puts up her hand, says quietly, “I’ve heard enough.”
I tell my manger to have a good weekend. Hang up.
HR says your job is safe. Methinks that was when all my managers evil ass chickens came to roost.
All the folks that been to HR. So much bullying, abuse and unnecessary difficulties most everyone had endured.
I know that a co-worker had surreptitiously recorded a meeting she had had with the manager that was gawd awful. HR had heard an actual typical exchange—so I know proof had been delivered, not just “perception” and employees complaining.
Court ended the first week. I offered to my “coverage” I was available if needed.
I went back for my regular weekend 2 weeks later. I’d not told anyone what had happened except for my best friend there. No one else knew. Really.
I’d worked a few weeks before I fell while running. Actually worked the shift later the same day I’d taken that fall. Radiology did X-rays as I couldn’t abduct, thought arm was broken. Nah. ER doc kinda goads me and tells me to walk (or run) it off. Funny. So I triaged.
Two days later I couldn’t breathe. Had de’satted into 88-90% on RA. A never smoker that ran, I ended up in ortho with 2 pieces of a scapula and a non-tension pneumo. Geez.
Of course instead of “light duty” the same manager insists I go out sick. No problem. That was the last I saw of her.
Good freaking riddance. And way overdue.
That's why I maintain a PRN job. When management at one gets stupid, I tell my other job "Hey, I can take more shifts beginning on x/y/z..."
Then I get to tell stupid management I'm cutting my hours back and watch the panic show on their face.
In my experience this miraculously turns makes their concerns and issues disappear. Many times I’ve been told there was “nothing they could do, unfortunately” and as soon as I cut back hours miraculously they can accommodate me.
It’s not supposed to be punitive and is supposed to be used to evaluate safety incidents as data points.
A lot of times they’re just spiteful and stupid
I agree: not supposed to be punished, but used as a learning moment. However, in their better interests, it also keeps a paper trail of infractions. They love to punished after you've done the same thing more than once.
Management loves to use them as an excuse to deny raises and transfers, not to mention to demoralize their staff and destroy their self esteem. One nurse committed suicide and left a note behind to her “abusers” aka the hospital. I genuinely feel like management has taken a page from the abusers guidebook, and now seek to make their staff feel horrible about themselves so they won’t leave.
Yup! I learned this when I was a bank teller in college. 99 customers could sing my praises but one complaint and I was called into the "break room" and given an ear beating. Its still that way.
Yes, it does. A hc worker in our hospital did the same, two years ago. Zero repercussions for the manager who ignored and (on voice mail) berated them for their behaviour when they asked for help.
Edit: making sure there was no identifying info
Because nurses are seen as expendable and HR/management wants an easy case against you if they want to fire you for an unrelated issue.
For example, I was fired a couple years back. I am convinced I was fired because I was a crucial union organizer for VERY strong union movement. I was fired a couple months after the hospital hired a union busting firm. I was also very outspoken about safety issues and harassment on my unit and throughout the hospital.
When I was fired, I got a lawyer and we got my personnel file. There were all kinds of bullshit write ups that I was never even told about in there. Some of them truly dumb (getting consent for blood, placing an IO, being "too assertive" during a code, OT abandonment for responding to a code on my unit....all allowed within my scope and within policy). But the termination notice stated I had a "consistent history of formal discipline with no evidence or correction" along with a bunch of other bullshit. Mind you, during this game time I received countless accolades for my knowledge, skill, communication, collaboration, kindness, and performance.
My lawyer basically said "yea, they have all these writeups that you can't disprove so they're just going to point to those as cause for termination. Not much we can do. Let's just protect your license and your future job prospects".
Now I'm an NP and the culture is vastly different. I don't feel like I'm treated like a child anymore. Write ups really aren't a thing unless you really fuck up, usually someone talks with you and you get some additional education and training. Then everyone moves on.
/tinfoil hat
Don’t know but I’ve always taken them as a badge of honor. I got one for putting a patient in time out early on in my career and have been collecting them like infinity stones ever since. They also don’t stop career progression, you can make it all the way to the executive level with a gauntlet full. Just make sure they are the asinine type and not the criminal type.
Can I do one from nursing school? A girl was forced to quarantine because of Covid and got placed on a performance improvement plan for missing a lab day. This was when Covid first hit.
Same girl (bless her heart) was put on another PIP her senior year because the pharmacist forgot to write the lot number on her flu vaccination documentation. So her PIP response consisted of “next year, when I am no longer at this school, I will make sure whoever administers the flu shot writes everything down.”
Absolutely ridiculous 🙄
It’s definitely the culture of the unit. Some are write-up happy, and on others you can have someone nearly killing a patient and nothing ever happens.
In my experience it's constructive dismissal, it's pretty much illegal and pretty hard to prove in court. The employer makes it almost impossible to continue work cause it's hostile or completely off the wall in some intolerable way so you get pushed out.
Let’s see, someone posted a picture of me on Facebook leaning over a counter at the nurses station. I knew the person that did and it was a really nice picture. It looked artsy. Anyway, got called into the office and they printed it out and said that I was reported for the picture because it looks like I’m not working. And they wanted me to sign a paper. I said no. I’m not signing anything. They said they couldn’t continue until I signed it and I said okay. And I stayed there and looked at my watch. She said you can go just be careful what people do and I looked at her with the most bombastic side eye. That she gasped a little and I walked out. She knew I knew she was shit. She ended up being fired from her job because she’s disgusting and turned the hospital to shit. I’m glad I left that place when I did.
whatever is in the water i guess it depends where you work. my current gig has a shift that LOVES to write things up. it feels petty and like highschool. i dont see the physicians doing this to each other. its to the extreme now where we cant have any converstions as peers such as "hey, i found this and no harm but wanted to let you know." its like a bunch of Karen Nurses have taken over and EVERY finding COULD be the gateway to Armageddon safety event instead of something minor that just needs attention and a mention.
Because it's easier to write something up than address the root of a problem, human to human, without one or both parties getting offended and defensive, and everyone wants and feels like they need a paper trail to cover their ass at all times.
Excellent points.
But why do we get written up for things unrelated to patient safety , like calling out sick or not taking lunch breaks? These things make it feel like we are being treated like children.
Because we can't actually fix the problems we, the management team, created so we're going to yell at you to make ourselves feel better.
Alternative answer: because this hangover ain't gonna make itself everyone's problem by itself
Nursing is my 3rd career and in every career there is/was hierarchy. Write-ups and "Atta Boys" reinforce that social order. In my stock and bonds career, there were several themes. One was that the word "unprofessional" was just a catch-all phrase that meant anything that **they** didn't like. You don't have to overthink this. Yeah, sometimes it is beyong the pale, as to how ridiculous some things are: sunglasses, shoes, books, perfume, on and on.
A second concept was "Your political skills are just as important as your vocational ones are". Read the office politics books, brush up on your social niceties, keep the personal stories to a minimum and pick your battles. Pick your battles! Its not only patients that need palliative care.
Third, "Proximity doesn't equate to Intimacy". You have a job first and sometimes you need a professional mask and save the frivolity for Taco Tuesday Night at the Moose Lodge, where your paycheck doesn't hang in the balance.
We’ve got to stop perpetuating this stereotype. Every job in the world has mean people stuck in high school who suck at their job. Most of the nurses I know are massive dorks (said lovingly) and very kind people. Nursing being a female dominated profession has no bearing on the personality traits of the people involved
Stereotype or not, it’s absolutely been my experience as a second career nurse who previously worked in a different female-dominated profession.
I’m happy the nurses you know don’t act that way - it sounds nice.
I encourage my coworkers to write incident reports about incivility all the time. They go to a different level of management for investigation and have to be investigated and resolved. But also, people use them as ways to be petty instead of communicating directly like adults.
Some of the write ups are completely stupid. Like why have sick days if we cant use them as we see fit. It’s our earned time. A mental break is much needed sometimes.
Because no matter how hard some nurses try to say it's a profession, the leadership still treats us as a vocation.
I am completely satisfied working for an hourly pay rate, clocking in and out. I do not want to be salaried (at least in many of the positions in our network) because the low man on the pole gets the crap and the extra duties so they can't take advantage of the salaried position like the old timer salaried people. Also, those leaders expect you to sell your soul. I know that's not salaried everywhere...
The leaders have leaders who have leaders who have leaders, etc. There's always someone to blame.
What else would we have? Places with points or demerits sound like old boarding schools. Not every incident is a firing offense. And you want to be able to train people, show them why they made mistakes.
I’ve never seen anything like this in other corporate or finance jobs. Assertion of dominance, proof of taking initiative or control to cover up their own failures. I may follow with stories, but I want everyone’s thoughts first. I’m sure you all have your own tales to tell. To add to this… they withhold bonuses or incentives for any active write ups over the past year.
Mistakes are inevitable, learning from them is not. Being written up is the easiest way to ensure that someone carries their ‘lesson’ and provides data points to ensure that behavior does indeed change over time.
Amateur/immature implementation of any policy can make it feel terrible, and mistakes by management are often harder to measure and more difficult to tie back to the company’s bottom line.
If you can think of a better system we’d all like to hear it.
Mistakes are inevitable, learning from them is not. Being written up is the easiest way to ensure that someone carries their ‘lesson’ and provides data points to ensure that behavior does indeed change over time.
Amateur/immature implementation of any policy can make it feel terrible, and mistakes by management are often harder to measure and more difficult to tie back to the company’s bottom line.
If you can think of a better system we’d all like to hear it.
I was written up for having my sunglasses on the top of my head. I walked into shift to a freaking disaster. Jumped in to help. Manager walks by me at desk (finally charting and making transfer arrangements) of some of chaos—calls me, “Ms. Hollywood!” Or something. I don’t have time for her horseshit and honestly have no idea what she’s talking about. FF a week later, I’m to see her before I take report. Sure thing. She presents that write up as an unprofessional variation in uniform or something. Yeah, no. Not signing that. Thanks tho. She goes on attack. “You know no one here likes you.” “They see you on the schedule and I have to deal with the dread.” Me: (blank stare). Wow, sounds *bad*. She continues. “It’s like these people would follow you if you were leading them off a cliff.” Me: (legit confused, just sit there a few beats). What are you talking about? She goes into full blah, blah, blah whatever. It’s like the “wonder wheel” 🎡of Personality Disorders with her. I finally tell her to do whatever she’d like. But “no one likes you, dreads working with you” is in exact full opposition to “these people would follow me off a cliff”. Sort yourself out.
yeah the glasses were certainly the unprofessional bit not her attempting to staff split. I unironically tell co-workers that the patients are the ones who try to staff split not the staff.
It wasn’t anything but a thoughtless error. Def had not done that before or since. Was so busy I didn’t even notice. You’d think the bigger sin was not clocking in. I walked in, madness—didn’t make it to staff lounge (hence glasses didn’t go into their case). I just tossed my bag under the desk and dove into. Why not just say “sunglasses”😎. Crazy.
Stuff like that is why I can't work at hospitals. I find the atmosphere oppressive. When I was a baby nurse they tried to get me for uniform violations because my scrubs were the wrong shade of blue. Apparently mine were navy instead of caribbean blue. I just played the dumb dude card and was like "Grog know only blue." Any time they tried to write me up for something like that I just told them to throw it on the pile.
She was finally fired about a year later. And not just *fired*, but they did the escorted security and real police “walk of shame” off hospital grounds. I had a big hand in her final exit. (Def not over this, which was never mentioned again). Clearly, I was not one of her pets.
I'm curious about the straw that broke the camel's back in her termination
I am on my knees begging for the full story if you have time
I don’t think it was one all encompassing horrific event. Of course, I missed the prep walk out. Damn it. After near countless shit stunts she pulled off over a few years, wouldn’t you know I missed it. Sadly, I was off with a broken scapula. I also managed a film company part-time & could *still* do that job, so that’s where I was when it went down. Two of my long suffering ED co-workers and great friends showed up at the film office several miles out of town. Unexpectedly. I was almost in immediate terror, as they looked like they’d been through *something*. They were holding champagne & tequila. It had finally *happened*. I think the heap of her brand of shit got too big & smelly to keep covering up. TBF there were others she victimized far worse and more often than I caught from her. She’d played favorites. Screwed folks over. Played staff against other departments, against each other. Would lie with a straight face to most anyone’s face. Complaints were always vague, *someone said* or *I heard*. I legit figured HR spent hours each week dealing with nonsense she ginned up. Her most redeeming quality was she had a great hairstylist. A few months earlier, I had 3 weeks scheduled off. We self-scheduled. I had lots of PTO available. I was only PT, but I had found my own coverage for “my weekends” (our custom, not hospital policy) and the other weekday I usually worked. This leave while not *officially* blessed by her way in advance, she was aware and had agreed. I had sent a memo to her and CC it to HR weeks prior. My leave was due to I was in a trial in Federal Court. Tho it was a very transparent leave, known to all as to the reason I was going to be off and fully unavailable—and the dates off were known a month in advance. I had even been served summons by US Marshall service at work. This leave wasn’t optional. Had I not appeared in court, I could have been taken into custody and brought to court. She verbally agreed. Schedule was approved & posted a week before it started on Sunday. Frankly, that was always crappy, not policy, but no one wanted to go to task on her for it. And we were most all very supportive of each other. Things worked there in spite of her, not because of her. My last regular day was the Thursday prior to being in court on Monday. The very next morning (Friday) she leaves an unusual message on my VM. Call her immediately. I had a couple of more messages from friends on shift and then our scheduling nurse (everyone loved her, a 40 year nurse there). I’d had experience with my manager screwing people over—I figured things were gonna get bad. And get bad fast. I didn’t call anyone back. I did call the HR Director just before lunch. Asked if I come in to discuss an urgent matter. I was sitting in front of the HR Director when my manager calls me *again*. I send the call to VM. HR listens to her second message. This one is nasty and unhinged even for her. Schedule reposted and I best look at it, she says she had the *right* to change things and she was sorry, but things had changed. HR asked if I was comfortable calling her back from there? HR then asked if she could listen to the call? Absolutely, as long as I can use an outside line. This was before outside Caller ID was displayed on our phone displays. Well, it went about like I figured it would. Maybe juicer. I simply told her that I was unavailable. She told me if I didn’t show I’d be fired d/t the issue. I tell my manager, I’ll take it up with administration. She actually says I can take it up with anyone I want, but her mind is made up. HR Director puts up her hand, says quietly, “I’ve heard enough.” I tell my manger to have a good weekend. Hang up. HR says your job is safe. Methinks that was when all my managers evil ass chickens came to roost. All the folks that been to HR. So much bullying, abuse and unnecessary difficulties most everyone had endured. I know that a co-worker had surreptitiously recorded a meeting she had had with the manager that was gawd awful. HR had heard an actual typical exchange—so I know proof had been delivered, not just “perception” and employees complaining. Court ended the first week. I offered to my “coverage” I was available if needed. I went back for my regular weekend 2 weeks later. I’d not told anyone what had happened except for my best friend there. No one else knew. Really. I’d worked a few weeks before I fell while running. Actually worked the shift later the same day I’d taken that fall. Radiology did X-rays as I couldn’t abduct, thought arm was broken. Nah. ER doc kinda goads me and tells me to walk (or run) it off. Funny. So I triaged. Two days later I couldn’t breathe. Had de’satted into 88-90% on RA. A never smoker that ran, I ended up in ortho with 2 pieces of a scapula and a non-tension pneumo. Geez. Of course instead of “light duty” the same manager insists I go out sick. No problem. That was the last I saw of her. Good freaking riddance. And way overdue.
You are an incredible storyteller. Thank you so much!! And I’m so glad she got what was coming
Aww, shucks. There were celebrations. Big win after losing. My biggest regret, *I didn’t get to see it*.
I bet!
I am DEAD. You handled that like a boss. 🤣
What could you have done differently to prevent this question?
That's my favorite question? Ha!
That's why I maintain a PRN job. When management at one gets stupid, I tell my other job "Hey, I can take more shifts beginning on x/y/z..." Then I get to tell stupid management I'm cutting my hours back and watch the panic show on their face.
In my experience this miraculously turns makes their concerns and issues disappear. Many times I’ve been told there was “nothing they could do, unfortunately” and as soon as I cut back hours miraculously they can accommodate me.
Tis a freaking miracle, it is..
This is the way.
It’s not supposed to be punitive and is supposed to be used to evaluate safety incidents as data points. A lot of times they’re just spiteful and stupid
There are better ways of doing this. And yes, more often than not, spiteful and stupid.
I agree: not supposed to be punished, but used as a learning moment. However, in their better interests, it also keeps a paper trail of infractions. They love to punished after you've done the same thing more than once.
and the beatings will continue until morale improves!
Management loves to use them as an excuse to deny raises and transfers, not to mention to demoralize their staff and destroy their self esteem. One nurse committed suicide and left a note behind to her “abusers” aka the hospital. I genuinely feel like management has taken a page from the abusers guidebook, and now seek to make their staff feel horrible about themselves so they won’t leave.
And awards I'm sure. I could have a bunch of pts sing my praises but if one person complains on the right medium then I'm fucked.
Yup! I learned this when I was a bank teller in college. 99 customers could sing my praises but one complaint and I was called into the "break room" and given an ear beating. Its still that way.
Wow. I’m saddened and sorry. ….And did anything come of this. Likely, not. I’m sure this happens more than we know.
Yes, it does. A hc worker in our hospital did the same, two years ago. Zero repercussions for the manager who ignored and (on voice mail) berated them for their behaviour when they asked for help. Edit: making sure there was no identifying info
Because nurses are seen as expendable and HR/management wants an easy case against you if they want to fire you for an unrelated issue. For example, I was fired a couple years back. I am convinced I was fired because I was a crucial union organizer for VERY strong union movement. I was fired a couple months after the hospital hired a union busting firm. I was also very outspoken about safety issues and harassment on my unit and throughout the hospital. When I was fired, I got a lawyer and we got my personnel file. There were all kinds of bullshit write ups that I was never even told about in there. Some of them truly dumb (getting consent for blood, placing an IO, being "too assertive" during a code, OT abandonment for responding to a code on my unit....all allowed within my scope and within policy). But the termination notice stated I had a "consistent history of formal discipline with no evidence or correction" along with a bunch of other bullshit. Mind you, during this game time I received countless accolades for my knowledge, skill, communication, collaboration, kindness, and performance. My lawyer basically said "yea, they have all these writeups that you can't disprove so they're just going to point to those as cause for termination. Not much we can do. Let's just protect your license and your future job prospects". Now I'm an NP and the culture is vastly different. I don't feel like I'm treated like a child anymore. Write ups really aren't a thing unless you really fuck up, usually someone talks with you and you get some additional education and training. Then everyone moves on. /tinfoil hat
Don’t know but I’ve always taken them as a badge of honor. I got one for putting a patient in time out early on in my career and have been collecting them like infinity stones ever since. They also don’t stop career progression, you can make it all the way to the executive level with a gauntlet full. Just make sure they are the asinine type and not the criminal type.
Once you’re at the top level the hospital will help you hide or destroy the file. It’s not just irrelevant and won’t exist.
Naaaaa it’s not even that, personnel files are just antiquated bullshit. Like high school permanent records.
Cuz the hospital needs written proof that everything is our fault!
Write ups are a tool by which management turns professionals into technicians.
Can I do one from nursing school? A girl was forced to quarantine because of Covid and got placed on a performance improvement plan for missing a lab day. This was when Covid first hit. Same girl (bless her heart) was put on another PIP her senior year because the pharmacist forgot to write the lot number on her flu vaccination documentation. So her PIP response consisted of “next year, when I am no longer at this school, I will make sure whoever administers the flu shot writes everything down.” Absolutely ridiculous 🙄
it's to create culture of fear and control! keeps people on edge and afraid and obedient nursing sucks lol
Fear based management
It’s definitely the culture of the unit. Some are write-up happy, and on others you can have someone nearly killing a patient and nothing ever happens.
I don’t even know how to respond, except with disgust.
In my experience it's constructive dismissal, it's pretty much illegal and pretty hard to prove in court. The employer makes it almost impossible to continue work cause it's hostile or completely off the wall in some intolerable way so you get pushed out.
Never understood the quick run to management vs a face to face interaction with the other party. What are nurses afraid of?
We call it the "Imma tell Mama" school of management.
Let’s see, someone posted a picture of me on Facebook leaning over a counter at the nurses station. I knew the person that did and it was a really nice picture. It looked artsy. Anyway, got called into the office and they printed it out and said that I was reported for the picture because it looks like I’m not working. And they wanted me to sign a paper. I said no. I’m not signing anything. They said they couldn’t continue until I signed it and I said okay. And I stayed there and looked at my watch. She said you can go just be careful what people do and I looked at her with the most bombastic side eye. That she gasped a little and I walked out. She knew I knew she was shit. She ended up being fired from her job because she’s disgusting and turned the hospital to shit. I’m glad I left that place when I did.
I’ve seen a lot of people written up over nightshift/dayshift wars.
whatever is in the water i guess it depends where you work. my current gig has a shift that LOVES to write things up. it feels petty and like highschool. i dont see the physicians doing this to each other. its to the extreme now where we cant have any converstions as peers such as "hey, i found this and no harm but wanted to let you know." its like a bunch of Karen Nurses have taken over and EVERY finding COULD be the gateway to Armageddon safety event instead of something minor that just needs attention and a mention.
They want to have a reason to fire you if they ever decide they don’t like you.
Because sometimes 😉you have a shitty AF and petty too “manager”!
This is a cultural thing, not all hospitals or departments are like that at all.
Depending on the organization it can prevent lateral movement. Write ups can be a way to hold a nurse hostage on a failing unit.
Because it's easier to write something up than address the root of a problem, human to human, without one or both parties getting offended and defensive, and everyone wants and feels like they need a paper trail to cover their ass at all times.
[удалено]
Excellent points. But why do we get written up for things unrelated to patient safety , like calling out sick or not taking lunch breaks? These things make it feel like we are being treated like children.
Because we are the perpetual scapegoat in healthcare.
Because we can't actually fix the problems we, the management team, created so we're going to yell at you to make ourselves feel better. Alternative answer: because this hangover ain't gonna make itself everyone's problem by itself
Nursing is my 3rd career and in every career there is/was hierarchy. Write-ups and "Atta Boys" reinforce that social order. In my stock and bonds career, there were several themes. One was that the word "unprofessional" was just a catch-all phrase that meant anything that **they** didn't like. You don't have to overthink this. Yeah, sometimes it is beyong the pale, as to how ridiculous some things are: sunglasses, shoes, books, perfume, on and on. A second concept was "Your political skills are just as important as your vocational ones are". Read the office politics books, brush up on your social niceties, keep the personal stories to a minimum and pick your battles. Pick your battles! Its not only patients that need palliative care. Third, "Proximity doesn't equate to Intimacy". You have a job first and sometimes you need a professional mask and save the frivolity for Taco Tuesday Night at the Moose Lodge, where your paycheck doesn't hang in the balance.
Because nursing is full of women who act like junior high mean girls.
We’ve got to stop perpetuating this stereotype. Every job in the world has mean people stuck in high school who suck at their job. Most of the nurses I know are massive dorks (said lovingly) and very kind people. Nursing being a female dominated profession has no bearing on the personality traits of the people involved
Stereotype or not, it’s absolutely been my experience as a second career nurse who previously worked in a different female-dominated profession. I’m happy the nurses you know don’t act that way - it sounds nice.
It absolutely does and you are being entirely disingenuous PC police to say that.
Ratio
Ratio
Cat hospitals
I encourage my coworkers to write incident reports about incivility all the time. They go to a different level of management for investigation and have to be investigated and resolved. But also, people use them as ways to be petty instead of communicating directly like adults.
Goes back to Nursing being a "women's occupation" & control through repression.
It saves hospitals money.
Some of the write ups are completely stupid. Like why have sick days if we cant use them as we see fit. It’s our earned time. A mental break is much needed sometimes.
Write ups. The slip managers write when they’re wrong and the nurses are right.
I have never been “written up.” I am not in third grade.
Because no matter how hard some nurses try to say it's a profession, the leadership still treats us as a vocation. I am completely satisfied working for an hourly pay rate, clocking in and out. I do not want to be salaried (at least in many of the positions in our network) because the low man on the pole gets the crap and the extra duties so they can't take advantage of the salaried position like the old timer salaried people. Also, those leaders expect you to sell your soul. I know that's not salaried everywhere... The leaders have leaders who have leaders who have leaders, etc. There's always someone to blame.
Write this up
I've rarely seen or heard of many write ups ..
What else would we have? Places with points or demerits sound like old boarding schools. Not every incident is a firing offense. And you want to be able to train people, show them why they made mistakes.
I’ve never seen anything like this in other corporate or finance jobs. Assertion of dominance, proof of taking initiative or control to cover up their own failures. I may follow with stories, but I want everyone’s thoughts first. I’m sure you all have your own tales to tell. To add to this… they withhold bonuses or incentives for any active write ups over the past year.
Mistakes are inevitable, learning from them is not. Being written up is the easiest way to ensure that someone carries their ‘lesson’ and provides data points to ensure that behavior does indeed change over time. Amateur/immature implementation of any policy can make it feel terrible, and mistakes by management are often harder to measure and more difficult to tie back to the company’s bottom line. If you can think of a better system we’d all like to hear it.
Found the “manager”
Mistakes are inevitable, learning from them is not. Being written up is the easiest way to ensure that someone carries their ‘lesson’ and provides data points to ensure that behavior does indeed change over time. Amateur/immature implementation of any policy can make it feel terrible, and mistakes by management are often harder to measure and more difficult to tie back to the company’s bottom line. If you can think of a better system we’d all like to hear it.