Am I being screwed over at my job?

If your not in a union your employer can do just about anything they want, as long as it is deemed safe.
If you work a day shift and a night shift(without any time off, they must pay you overtime)
Or whatever your state labour laws say.
Swing shifts do indeed suck, did them for a great many years, lucky now I have straight days.

Nope, no unions here. I admit, I’m tempted to start looking for a job elsewhere and put in my required 2 week notice once I find something else. I know my boss would be left in the lurch and scrambling to hire. It’s not a wonder why there is such a bug overturn rate here, being paid peanuts for swing shifts in a job that requires you to work holidays and weekends.

I just wondered if it sounds like a bad deal for me, if maybe i should try my luck elsewhere. I have BS but it’s one of those that’s useless unless you go to grad school.

I guess I’m leaning towards staying where I am and bailing asap when I get into school.

@seekingwolf Good luck changing jobs can be a scary ordeal , a lot of companies swing shift, can’t you appeal to the boss about doing it on a 2 week stint , instead of at his/her whim?

Sounds like a bad job.

@seekingwolf check out your states labour laws, and make sure all of this is legal.

I would start looking for another job soon; it sounds very unpleasant. How soon do you plan to start school though?

It’s legal. Most of the jobs here at the hospital are not swing shift. If I changed jobs, it would be done internally. I could fire off an application to another part without my boss knowing and if I got it, put in my 2 week notice. That’s only if I found something decent.

The sudden change would make me think they’re just trying to make it work for now until they can get more night staff. They can’t rewrite those contracted folks, so everyone else has to flow around them. It wouldn’t be fair to shift any one individual to nights, so they’re spreading it around thinking that’s a more equitable solution, maybe?

Before you make a decision I would talk to my manager and ask if it’s a temporary situation, and see if you can set up something more livable, maybe you even take the night shift for now if that would be better? Is there at least a shift differential?

Switching shifts constantly would bother me more than the shift change.

Whatever you do, you know you have options, just do what’s best for you, be professional, and everyone really does understand it’s just a job.

@janbb IF I get accepted soon to some places I applied, then the fall. If I don’t get accepted, then next fall. We’ll see.

I’ve met so many people who want to work straight nights. Not sure why she didn’t want to hire a few of those and then a few people for days. She thinks swing shift would be better. One of the people she hired is fresh out of college. She’s probably going to burn out. No one sane would take this job. No one.

I think it’s going to blow up in my boss’ face and I noticed she made a few oversights that will come back to bite her but I just smiled and kept my mouth shut.

Would you want to change jobs, then leave when you start school? Would you work through school?

There are pros and cons for that—if you changed jobs, you could develop a good rapport with the folks at the new place and have a place to come back to IF grad school didn’t work out. However, if you changed, then only worked there for a short time, would that reflect on your resume or would it still be within the same company?

If you worked through school—you’d definitely need a straight shift job. That’s a given, so I’d definitely look for another job.

Are they looking for more staff? If yes, then this situation might be temporary. If no, then I would look elsewhere because it’s two problems—understaffing/overworking people plus the swing shift, which is a serious management issue.

I would look for another job.

It sounds from your post above that the other job would be in the same hospital?

Yes they are looking for more staff.

There is no “if grad school didn’t work out”. It’s going to, it has to. If I am dating when I enter grad school, I will end the relationship because I don’t want any distractions. I need to get another degree. My degree is useless right now and I’d, frankly, rather take a nail in the head than stay here with these guys for the rest of my “career”.

@janbb

Yeah probably, if I applied internally, it would be in the same hospital.

Btw I have worked at this job for 2.5 years straight. Not a short time.

Most of the people I know who have done nursing have gone through at least one experience like this. I have no idea how this kind of schedule can be deemed necessary – you have hours to fill, fill them with regular schedules for the people you have. Some people just are just terrible at scheduling, I suppose.

But you have no control over the people who make the schedule where you are now. The recourse is either to unionize or to wait and make sure your next contract reflects your needs.

In CA you have to sign an at will agreement that states your job and hours specifically. If they want to change it you have to agree and sign a new agreement. You can say you can’t work an ever changing shift. They might accept they might not. I’d try.

Yes, you are getting screwed. No one seems to follow employment laws. I’ve worked in horrible conditions, but unless I want the hassle of going to the state, there isn’t much to do.

When I hear stories like this, I am grateful to work not only under a union contract, but for a union itself. Many people don’t like unions now for various reasons, but look what can happen when there is no union present. The job schedules people willy-nilly and the employees have little recourse.

If I were you, I would express my unhappiness to management and if they don’t either hire more staff or do something to mitigate the scheduling issue, I’d plan to look for another job.

I was hired for all hours. I prefer days but I was agreeable to this. Straight shifts are fine, whatever. It’s the swing part that gets me. I don’t get it. Just hire people who WANT nights, easy, done.

My boss is currently hiring more staff, one girl just started (she does nights only) and one girl is being trained. Another girl in the process of being hired. I was switched to straight nights without anyone asking me what I felt because “the new girl needs to orient and can’t work alternating shifts yet”. I got screwed over on the holiday too. Working Christmas eve overnight and then I get Christmas day and 26th off, only to go back to work a 12 hour day shift that starts at 6am. What a joke.

My boss told me that once the new girls are in, that we will be expected to work alternating shifts. So she says she’s hiring more poeple…. And THEN putting us on alternating shifts?

This whole place is a joke. I laugh when they wonder why no one sticks around.

I suggest you discuss it with management. Maybe they’re too blind or busy to see what the personnel issues are, why people leave.

Never a good idea, going to management with a criticism of how they’re doing their job, though @jca, no matter how well founded it is.

Not saying criticize management, I’m saying she should tell them that the schedule is very hard for her to live with. If they chose to do nothing about it, she knows where she stands and the next move is hers.

There are so many disquieting aspects to this question that I can state in all honesty that I am once again depressingly startled to find myself grateful for being old. “Fresh out of college at $10.50 an hour?” Please consider on your trip toward post-graduate education the realities involved with printing press runs of advanced degrees in relationship to the job slots available. I’m out and about quite a bit, and would STRONGLY recommend anyone seeking advancement toward a better life through a college degree to take a look at the bleak landscape awaiting them for the trouble. Personally, I would take a close look at the niche situations in the skilled trades serving the still thriving regions of the country. And once again, as the astute here have pointed out, it is the union jobs which persist as the last ditch defense for a middle class standard of living. There are still free apprenticeship programs out there paid for by the dues of electricians, plumbers, sheetmetal workers, etc. People driving cement trucks can easily earn in excess of $150,000 yearly here, because there is so much work, and wet concrete can’t be imported from China. Our country is so vast and diverse, that there are still situations where one might shelter from the economic abrasions involved with the sandstorm blowing money to the rich.

I work in health care. My degree is in health care. My post grad degree will be for health care (not medical school, btw). If you think I’m going to give all that up and go become a cement truck driver, you’re out of your mind.

Yes, these industries need to be considered. But if I’ve already spent time working in health care since I was 18, and it makes me happy overall and I know it’s what I like to do to make money and give back, why the heck would I give that up? Yes, a cement transporter can make 150k but it wouldn’t give me an ounce of personal gratification. I don’t care for construction.

I seriously can’t believe your answer got that many lurve. Terrible advice for my situation. “Dump your current career, go work in construction!” Yeah, okay. rolls eyes

Seriously, this really miffed me. Mod, can you close this question before I get another ridiculous political left-sided answer that does not have any relation or bearing to my particular problem?

@seekingwolf “I seriously can’t believe your answer got that many lurve. Terrible advice for my situation. “Dump your current career, go work in construction!” Yeah, okay. rolls eyes”

It’s not you; it’s part of the anti-intellectual wave occurring at Fluther lately.

Anti-intellectual? Is that pro uneducated? WTF?

I’m definitely not ant-intellectual but the advice @stanleybmanly provided was fair. Before you progress to complete another degree, you do need to consider what employment options are at the other side, the work conditions they involve and whether the pay and conditions will suit your long-term needs. Are there plenty of positions available, with better conditions than you’re experiencing now, at the other side of that degree? If yes, fine, go ahead. It’s not bad advice to suggest you spend some times researching what the likely opportunities are after completing more study or pointing out that there is work at high rates of pay available if you chose not to continue on your current course.

With your situation now, it doesn’t sound as though your boss has your best interests at heart. I’m all for loyalty in the workplace, but we work to live not live to work and if your boss isn’t consulting you prior to making decisions that affect your life, that’s not likely to change. What will you lose by applying for these other positions? What hours do they involved and is the work something you want to do? If your current boss won’t know, and they offer better conditions/pay and a more understanding boss, apply.

@janbb asked whether you plan to work while studying, while you may not want to, it may be necessary in order to survive financially. Your current boss doesn’t sound as though they’ll give you any flexibility.

Do some research and figure out where your own best options are. Changing jobs isn’t fun however, being exploited is definitely not fun and it doesn’t sound like that’s about to change soon.

@Earthbound_Misfit Fair point. I have done a lot of research. I would make a decent amount of money, be in demand, could find work in a variety of areas, have job stability, and of course, make use of my current degree and experience which is completely relevant to what I want to do.

On the other hand, I would work in healthcare. Which means yeah, it’s not 9–5, and I work every other weekend/holiday, but I’m already used to that. My parents work in healthcare, I get it. I’m fine with it. I enjoy what I do. I’ve done barely enough landscaping “work” to know that construction is not for me.

I do not plan to work during grad school. I will go for ~2 years. It’s not the kind of thing that you can work while you go to. Many programs prohibit it, actually. My family will help me out. I will be okay. I will pay it forward to my parents when I am making more $$ and they are older and need help (not financially necessarily, but with everything else, you know).

I am looking into an internal transfer.

I am just in my shock. My boss, I’ve worked for her for 2.5 years. I love her, she’s awesome. She’s never done anything remotely like this. She even was accomodating when I had to take off 1.5 months for WLS, I was on short term disability. She was so awesome. In turn, I have been a good employee. I prefer days and evenings but will work nights sometimes. If someone calls out, if I am not having plans, I’ll work for the part of the day to pick up the slack. I’ve done favours for my boss. I respected her and I felt like she respected me because she was always upfront about changes and everything. This is totally left field.

I don’t get it.

Wolfie, I’m not out to upset you. My leanings are decidedly to the left, but my long winded answer to your question has nothing to do with my politics. The simple answer to your question “Am I getting screwed in my beloved field to which I intend to dedicate my life?” is a resounding YES. That answer doesn’t change with the revelation that a college degree applied to your profession merits a wage obtainable by a grade school dropout at Jack-In- the-Box. If you truly believe that bottom line financial considerations are somehow beneath your dignity, then go in peace. I wish to join your current employer in expressing my heartfelt wishes for success in your fulfilling career.

@seekingwolf: Realize that your boss, unless she is the owner of the company, is under pressure from above to make do with short staffing. This issue occurs everywhere, now, even in civil service (spoken as a public employee). It’s called “doing more with less.” We refer to it as “downsizing,” but now some employers refer to it euphemistically as “rightsizing.”

@stanleybmanly I’d rather make 60k less in a field that I enjoy than make 150k or whatever hauling cement in a truck. That’s great for you if you only care about money and are happy to take whatever mentally boring and unsatisfying job just to get a fat paycheck. Seriously, good for you.

I will not be able to get licensed and thus a good wage in the job of my choice until I get my Master’s. Bottom line. I knew that going into it and I was prepared to deal with that. As you can see, I’m not complaining about the pay at my job just the difficult change in shift times. I know where I’m going to end up someday. I didn’t saddle myself with the burden of having a husband, 2.5 kids, and a mortgage for a house right out of school. I was always prepared to work for less for a while and finish school so I could get a license and be in demand for what I want to do.

@jca She just hired a new person (I trained someone today) and she is in the process of hiring another. I know because I saw some come in for interviews.

No one was downsized at my job. The reason why we are short now is because We had 1 person leave suddenly in November because she got a job closer to her home and she went to that. Then within DAYS of her putting in her notice, we had another person put her notice because she was upset that she would have to work 2 weekend days in a month instead of no weekends at all (which is what she has been used to for the past 6+ months but my boss had her work 2 weekend days until we could hire someone to replace the first person who left) so then this person left too.

It stinks.

Update:

I trained the new person. What a ditz. Fresh out of college with a BA, no clue about the real world, never had a real job, lives in her own apartment but doesn’t pay rent, never stayed up a night in her life, etc. She’s rather immature and I hate hearing her yammer on about how haaaard it is working a 6 hour day shift at a desk. Okay then.

Anyway, she tried to say “Well, the boss said to make it easier on us, one could work straight nights and one could work days.” I know for a fact my boss didn’t say this. I smiled and said “Oh, that’s nice. I’m going to work switch shifts though. Nights and days in the same week. I’m not switching to straight nights.” The look on her face was PRICELESS. I think she seriously thought I would want that. Think again, Princess! She whined “How do you get through it?” I looked at her and said “Caffeine and pharmaceutics (not a lie), I’m sure you’ll find something that works for you.” she looked like she was going to die when I said that.

my plan is to work the switched shifts, like my boss said. She offered to have me work all days for a couple weeks and then nights and I said HECK NO and told her that I want to worth both and she said that’s fine and seemed to be pleased with me. I’m going to talk to my boss and see if I can work 3 12-hour shifts a week, which I prefer, more time off. I’m thinking she’ll go for it. I can take switched shifts but Princess can’t, which is nice, because she’s going to flame out or pitch a fit, or both. Looking forward to the drama and the fall out.

She’s my boss’ problem now, not mine.

I’m perplexed. I thought you really didn’t want to work the switched shifts.

What confuses me, @seekingwolf, is that you seem to want the new person to fail and then you’re all back to being short staffed and overwhelmed. I’m not saying you should concede your wishes to accommodate the new person, I’m just confused by your seeming to be happy that the new person is not that good and was thrown an unexpected schedule.

Nice attitude. I hope people at your next place of employment are just as helpful as you were to a young girl just starting to make her own way.

I don’t want to work switched shifts but I REFUSE to be stuck on nights only because Princess doesn’t want to work them. I’m picking the lesser of 2 evils here. I refuse to be stuck forever on nights because this brat doesn’t want to work any. She has some real nerve.

For anyone condemning me, get off your high horse. You really think I should suck it up and take all nights so Princess gets the easy shift? I don’t think so. You wouldn’t do that yourself so don’t give me a lecture about making it easy for a new person, please.

When I started to work, I worked straight nights for a YEAR. Yeah, there was no one making it easier for me. The person who was training me was a smoker and kept taking “smoke breaks” and hanging out with friends and I would be left holding the bag and doing it all myself. Princess needs to grow up and I caught her in a lie so I have no sympathy. I got thrown up on my first night too. I owe nothing to this new girl who only wants to work 9–5 weekdays. Really, how can you sympathize with someone like that?

I’m not going anywhere at the moment. I haven’t bothered to look yet for other jobs but I will in the future. I’m working switched shifts, just like my boss wanted. I look good and flexible to my boss and at least I get some good shifts amidst some crappy ones, versus only crappy ones, which is what Princess wanted. New girl will flame out and then my boss will see that her idea was not a good one. That’s the goal.

I don’t think anyone is confused or saying you should take all nights.

They’re reacting to your passive aggressive treatment of someone you deem to be less than yourself and the built up bile you have for someone you’ve spent a few hours with.

It doesn’t work. You churn all that bile over and over while she goes on with her life, either in this job or another one. Your boss isn’t going to be damaged either, they’ll just keep filling the seat until it fits someone. The only one hurt is you.

Put another way, if she’s “Princess”, what’s your nickname?

Few hours? Try a few shifts, plus an overnight. Don’t make assumptions. My head hurt from hearing her whine the whole time as I was trying to train her. She kept making statements about how this job sucks because she doesn’t like to stay up at night. Uh? I just kept quiet and kept training, ignoring her whining.

anyway, I refuse to work straight nights. I know you’d love to see me take up crappy shifts to please new girl, but I’m not going to. My boss has this weird habit of wanting to hire people out of college, even though Millennials (that includes me) generally suck and are overqualified for the job. No one is getting hurt here. I can and will adjust to the shifts just fine. I guess this is better after all, especially since my boss is happy that I’m doing it so I should be getting the 3 long shifts that I want, which is what I always preferred.

Haha, I don’t have a nickname. People like me at work because I don’t gossip at work and I am reliable and nice and I will sometimes pick up shifts for other people when they are sick. No one else does that. I get great performance reviews too and my boss tells people that she wishes she could clone me. Even Princess likes me, she has no idea I can’t stand her and nor does anyone else, well, except you folks here. I don’t talk badly about people at work and I don’t let my personal life come into work. That’s what it means to be professional, to have a calm demeanor and good front even when you’re angry inside. I’m really good at that. You guys here are seeing my true thoughts.

I mean truly, what are my options here? Do what my boss says (what I’m doing now), pitch a fit (I’ll leave that to New Girl since she has already pitched one fit, that’s not my style), or work all night shifts like she wants?

I mean really, if you were in my position, what would you do? Let’s be real

Excuse a quick story…

A while back, when I was probably about where you are now, I worked in a tech startup in their support department. It was a 24 hour department like yours and I carried a pager just like you do. A lot of people came and went, eventually I had some responsibility, trained others, got promoted and worked a lot of hours.

Someone leaving the company let me know I was the lowest paid person in the entire company, new people coming in were hired at a better rate, and I trained them. They didn’t think it was right and wanted to let me know. Thanks.

I kept working, made other plans, and left. No hard feelings, no nasty names for the people I worked with, I just did what was best for me and everyone understood.

The company I left for ended up failing and closing. My boss called me and they rehired me at a higher rate for another role, so I was only unemployed for a few days.

——

In your situation I’d do whatever made me feel best, but I’d realize it was my decision and not punish others for it.

No one deserves to work with someone like that any more than you do.

@funkdaddy

I’m not punishing anyone. I am doing what is asked of me. If I’m working switched shifts, then the new girl has to work switched shifts too. That’s how everything will get covered.

The way i see it, we each get a piece of a shit sandwich, rather than one person being stuck with the whole sandwich for entirety like she was hoping I would be.

For the record, I am one of the lowest paid. I know that to be true. I haven’t been here all that long. I train a lot of people. It stinks. I will not be here long though. And I’m getting a lot of good experience. So that counts for something.

You seem very unhappy in your work and bitter about your treatment @seekingwolf. Given this impression, perhaps you should consider a new job. We work for far too many hours to spend it feeling so miserable.

Yes, I am bitter about my treatment. I would feel better if I didn’t feel so jerked around. I don’t know where to look for another job. Seems like I’d be screwed regardless of where I’d end up, it seems. I just keep telling myself “it won’t be for long”, “it won’t be for long”....

I don’t think anyone really understands the depth of my unhappiness at this point. I live alone now and I am dying of loneliness. I LOVED my job before I lived alone, now I just want to be done with it all. All of my friends have moved out of state because they want to be in huge cities. This area is good for healthcare and my family is here so I won’t move. I see my family once a week. I am miserable at work, miserable at home. I take 3 different antidepressants now so I don’t feel like hurting myself. Because I’ve had weight loss surgery, I don’t take pleasure in eating or drinking so I don’t know what I take pleasure in anymore. Reminiscing?

That’s a whole other topic. Just hanging in there. I go to work and paint a smile on and everyone thinks I’m awesome and that’s all that I really care about.

Acknowledging how unhappy you are is the first step, and you’ve taken that. If you were happier when you lived with people, perhaps you can get someone to share with you or move to a share house. Why did you end up living alone?

I know you’re planning to study, so perhaps try to focus on what you can do to improve your life in the meantime. While your work is less than ideal, it does sound as though there are a number of other things that are contributing to how unhappy you feel and you’re focusing all that despair on your work.

I know I always feel better when I’m ‘acting’ on the things that are contributing to my misery. I don’t feel so helpless then. Perhaps a question about the little steps you could make to help improve your life might be a good start? Sometimes the smallest change can have a huge effect on our lives.

I lived with a boyfriend for years. I ended the relationship and moved out. My mother was worried for my safety (my city is not safe) now that I am alone and so she helped cosign me into a new apartment that is super safe. I am technically too poor to live there, that’s why she consigned me. I pay all the rent though.

It’s super quiet and safe, so that’s good. I guess I just didn’t want to do the roommate thing. Friends of mine have a house share and they got majorly screwed over and cops were called and it was a mess. I guess I am scared of that. I couldn’t live with them anyways they smoke a lot of weed indoors and listen to loud music at all hours. That would be okay for someone else but not for me.

I do my best to try and keep happy. I take all my pills. I work out. I try to sleep enough and I usually do. I work on my heath. I try to look forward to the future. I try to see my family as much as I can,as they are the ones who matter most to me.

I don’t know Wolf. I can’t tell from your descriptions whether it’s your particular employer that’s obtuse in regard to your treatment, or if your plight is par for the industry as a whole. There are certain clues in what you’ve been telling us which make me suspect that it is your field of work itself that has adopted a sweat shop salt mine approach to staffing. When management openly admits that you are a stellar employee, and is nevertheless heaping more work on your back while saddling you with a schedule apparently arrived at by rolling dice, the conclusion must be drawn that you are either expendable or have no choice but to work where you are. If the shop down the street were more enlightened in its treatment of staff, your place would be foolish indeed to “whip the slaves” as incentive. Your reaction to the “princess” brings up an interesting point. How long do you suppose she will put up with the nonsense, before abandoning you and the plantation? You might take satisfaction that her spoiled little self couldn’t stand up to the “real world”, but you should realize that the people who “own” you probably could care less if either of you split. Your supervisor would be in a big bind, because you are capable of training the upcoming crop of revolving employees. But for those reaping the financial rewards derived from your mistreatment, your supervisor doesn’t matter either. Your friends didn’t abandon you for the big city. They left for opportunity. Your employer has concluded (sensibly) that those left behind have no choice when it comes to being treated like dirt, because those who can’t escape have no other “opportunities”.

And getting back to my leftist politics, have you ever thought to ask yourself, “just who is it that reaps the benefits from my being treated like a turd”?

I guess I would have expected that if they were going to offer the option of straight days or straight nights, you as the senior employee over the Princess would have the first choice of shift.

Ugh, let’s not make this political. And my friends left because they like the big city. They are all struggling to find good work and live with roommates in tiny apartments. I think I have it way better where I am. They struggle with a high cost of living. I don’t. Ultimately, once I finish school, I will be demand for a good job here. That’s it. Of course I’m expendable. I’m working in a job that makes me so.

Do things suck right now? Yes. Do I have the ability to make it better? Yes. I don’t take the slave mentality though. I could quit my job, sublet my apartment and move back home and my parents would support me. I don’t want to do that though. No wonder liberals are so miserable. I have my share, I don’t need more.

@janbb Yeah, would have thought so too. Seniority should count for something but it doesn’t.

Princess doesn’t get first choice in shifts though, at least. If I don’t get it, neither should she.

Speaking of Princess, I am stuck with her sorry butt tonight for 12 hrs. I wish I could drink in the job because I need a liter of vodka to put up with her whining all night.

I was never thinking you should give the new girl all the best shifts and you should take the crappy shifts. I just continue to be confused by the fact that your office needs help and yet you seem resentful of the new person. If she leaves and you’re left holding the bag, that probably will mean more work for you, work-wise and schedule-wise.

I’m also confused because you say “I don’t think anyone really understands the depth of my unhappiness at this point, then you say “I try my best to be happy.”

I was wondering why management might have given the new person day shifts, and perhaps it’s because there is likely to be more support for her while she is being trained than there would be at night. I’d imagine at night the place runs on a skeleton staff and you’d want your experienced staff to be at work then. Just a thought anyway.

Yet I’m training her to work night shift. It makes no sense. My boss said we have to work all shifts though,so that’s what I intend to do.

I’m actually on night shift right now. Taking a bathroom break. Princess is yakking again about how she hates hospitals and blah blah.

Here’s the kicker, if I quit now, there will be no one to train anyone for nights. No one. Even my boss can’t do it. She can’t do my job and doesn’t even try to explain what I do. She is computer illiterate and can’t print out schedules and she doesn’t even the accesses that I do. I don’t even know how she grades my performance, she can’t really. No one in the hospital does a similar job either so literally no one could train anyone. The person who trained me quit entirely and is unreachable.

@jca New girl is a stupid ditz and so is my boss for hiring her. I want new girl gone so we can actually hire someone competent.

New girl wants to go into morgue here and take social media pics and post about how “cool” it is. I’m dealing with a freaking 13 year old.

My boss can’t ask me to work more than 40 hours. Not pressuring people into OT is big here. You can’t. No one works over 40 unless they want to.

I am just very sad and lonely in my life now that I live completely alone. I’ll go days without physical human contact. I do try to be happy, but that doesn’t mean I’m actually happy. It means that I am doing what I can to try and get there. That means I keep myself heathy and I work out.

I even play a raquet sport. Although I am currently looking for another partner cause my current partner is a creepy, repulsive married man who keeps hitting on me and asking me out. I ignore his flirtations and only concentrate on the sport. I intend to use him as a partner until I can find one who won’t hit on me, and that point, I’ll just drop him and not contact him.
But when I play that sport, provided that he is silent and I can ignore him as a person and just focus on the game, that’s the only thing lately that brings me any semblance of joy besides seeing my family.

I have nothing else.

It never ends for us women, does it. My grand daughter, who is only 11 but prematurely mature, is dealing with the bull shit already. She told her mom that something inside of her is telling her not be be alone with a certain person, that he makes her feel uncomfortable.

Hang in there @seekingwolf.

^ I hope her mum told her to listen to that voice @Dutchess_III. However, I don’t think this question is gender specific. Men are also exploited in the workplace. I’m not getting the sense that @seekingwolf‘s problems relate to whether she’s male or female.

I was just referring to the sexual harassment part of her post above me.
Yes, her Mom told her to always listen to that voice.

Yeah, I think she was just referring to me playing badminton with an icky married man while in search for another playing partner.

No worries, I do not play alone. We always meet at a public gym. I just outright ignore his advances and do not act friendly. He’s so stupid but he’s a decent player so if he’s enough of a sleaze to try to cheat on his wife, I am going to “use” him to at least get some decent matches out of him until I can find a worthy replacement and I feel no guilt about that.

People can be icky!

Reason took told of me, guys. I need to blow this girl in. She did some bad things today that I can’t overlook. I will talk to my boss tomorrow. She can’t work alone at all. We will be unable to cover everything without her but I don’t care. This girl can’t be working here. She is compromising patient safety and integrity and I can’t in good conscience let her do this. I am thinking if I had a loved one in the hospital, I would be scared to have her around.

I will call my boss tomorrow.

Btw, my boss is going to have a fit once she hears what has happened.

@seekingwolf: Can you tell us what happened?

She doesn’t want to leave the office alone. She won’t trust security here either. Yet she leaves her car in an empty lot. I think she will try to pull the “I’m too scaaaared to work nights!” bit. She can’t be left alone at this job.

She can’t answer the phone properly and she can’t reiterate crap. I think there’s something wrong with her head. Someone called saying “I need 2 staff members at x unit”. She answered the call in front of me, turned to me right after she was done, and said “Oh, y unit has two extra staff members”. Me and one of my superiors ran with that information and it turns out it was false. It ended up that someone wasn’t covered and it was a serious patient safety issue and staff issue. All because of that call.

She needs to be told everything like 3x and she is happy to let me do everything while she plays with her phone. I leave her alone for all of 5 min to finish a task while I go do something else and she goofs off. Then blames me when someone asks her why it isn’t done. I can’t trust her with a phone. She doesn’t know how to page anyone even though I wrote out instructions.

She also more seriously mentioned AGAIN how cool it would be to take a picture of herself in the morgue to share on FB because “Oh wouldn’t that be funny”. NO IT WOULDN’T.

One of my superiors saw this happen today and was really upset at the new girl and apparently wrote her up and gave me a talking to about going to see my boss to tell her this because that’s what she will be doing as well.

It does sound like she needs to be fired.

Maybe they’ll give her a stern talking to since she’s new. They may have her be more closely supervised (work for you, @seekingwolf) and give her some tips on keeping things straight (like making notes when phone calls come in).

Sounds to me like she can be sternly talked to until hell freezes over, but you can’t force someone into having good judgement and common sense.

@Dutchess_III: That’s a decision that would be made by her superiors, but to me, only working two days is not enough time to tell. I’m sure that in the jobs I’ve had, I did some things in the beginning that were considered stupid, but then you learn why it’s foolish and you learn the rules (and remember the rules because in the beginning of a job, the rules may be overwhelming).

Sure! And so have I. But they were honest mistakes. However, Princess sounds rather arrogant and uncaring, and clueless about what is acceptable. Wanting to take pictures of herself with dead people to post on facebook? Seriously? We’ll just have to wait and see what happens to her.

She hadn’t worked for 2 days. It was just a few days with me. She has actually been training for 2 weeks. Someone else was training her for the day portion. I don’t know what she (other coworker) thinks about her.

I have told her multiple times to take notes while on the phone. That doesn’t help her though because she’ll hear a call and write the WRONG stuff down. I wrote out step by step instructions for how to use a pager. Doesn’t help. I have checklists of duties to do per shift, things to check, things to charge, etc. I made a sheet of how to get to each unit in the hospital step by step. I explained the alpha numeric storage system in the basement that you rifle through for supplies. It all doesn’t matter because I’ll tell her stuff and she sits there and stares blankly. She still needs to be constantly told what to do, which can’t be done in this job because (especially at night) you are alone for multiple hours and work very independently. I feel that she is a tiny bit resentful now because when I train, I have the new person do almost everything as I look over their shoulder. My other coworker “splits” the work with the trainee. I don’t do that because when you’re alone, you have to do it all yourself so I won’t do her work, just supervise,so she can learn.

Her last day of orientation was with me. Now she’s off entirely and I’m truly worried that patients will be neglected with her around.

The morgue thing was the cherry on top. She already takes a lot of selfies, she showed me some that she took at work, but I was very worried about the morgue. Granted, it is locked and after her comment, I decided I wouldn’t give her the combination. I lied to her and told her if she needed to go inside, she should call the coordinator and explain the need and ask for the combination. I feel that’s a deterrent for her but the fact that I have to think like that is RIDICULOUS. I shouldn’t have to worry about a coworker taking selfies in the morgue. I feel like I’m dealing with a toddler that needs to be told not to put things in its mouth. Quite fine for when you’re a toddler, not when you’re an adult.

@seekingwolf: What was the outcome?

Right now? I don’t know. But I just had two other coworkers come up to me with concerns about her. Apparently she has worked 2 shifts by herself now and didn’t get over half of the tasks done at all. I encouraged them to go to my boss with their concerns so maybe she could be talked to.

I am going to see my boss in person. I’ve been stuck on night shift lately so I haven’t had the chance.

Came into work tonight. Princess did less than half of what she was supposed to do. I was going to have to do it all. Then proceeded to hold up a small picture of a flower and said “Oh I drew this” proudly and left it on the table and left.

Unbelievable.

Anyway, the good news is, while I may work switched shifts, looks like I may get a lot of 12 hours, which I prefer. With the shift differentials from the occasional night shift, I will now have more $$ coming in.

@seekingwolf: If you are training her, are you supposed to let her know what’s expected and guide her? Or is it up to your boss to do that? I am just curious because when I’ve been trained by people, they let me know the expectations, not necessarily the higher supervisor.

Nope, that’s up to me and my other coworker who trained her. We have trained other people and they didn’t turn out badly at all. My boss actually doesn’t know how to do my whole job and couldn’t train anyone for it, sort of funny really.

Anyway, we have clear, concise bullet point lists of what duties need to be done per shift (D/E/N) depending on what’s going on in the hospital, patient needs, etc. The checklists are to show you what needs to be done and checked and what is expected of you depending on what shift you work.

I used them when I first started. I’d run down be list. If all was done, then I’d be done. But she didn’t even do half of it.. And I showed her the lists multiple times and told her how to use them..

I had a job once. The girl who was supposed to train me actively did not. Our boss would send us both an email with instructions to do ABC. I’d ask the girl “How do we do ABC?”
She would say, “Oh, that’s nothing you need to know. I take care of all of that.”
Seriously came back to bite me in the butt.

@seekingwolf: Do you, on a regular basis, go over the list with her one by one and address why the things that were not done were not done?

This could be your chance to show you know how to lead.

We do “hand off” at the end of every shift where you pretty much go down the list (there’s quite a bit but there’s a list) and tell the other person what you have done and any issues that have come up and need to be addressed. She was taught how to do this. I went through the list the last time she did hand off to me, just like everyone else does, and she said she didn’t do some of it because it got “busy” (yet she was drawing when I got there, and she was working during the slower part of the day) and then she lied and said she did a couple of the tasks and later in my shift, I found that she didn’t.

This is a very independent job. You’re pretty much on your own and you come to know and understand the hospital both as a whole and its parts very well. People ask me questions all the time, doctors even. It takes a lot of responsibility and common sense and even though I don’t get paid much, I do take pride in what I do because that’s how I am. I think everyone who does a job at a hospital is important in their own right, everyone from the doctors to the housekeepers who keep everything clean. I am just a cog and maybe I am a replaceable cog but I am a good cop, I see the value in what I do, and I’m part of something bigger. She doesn’t get that and she is not stepping up. She doesn’t see that her mistakes have actually already affected patients and made it harder for us to work.

I wish I get her to see..

Feel like I’m in a soap opera!

@seekingwolf: What I think is that you, as the person who is training this girl, should sit with her and clarify that there are things she is not getting done, things that are expected of her, and she needs to do blah blah blah to get it done. Management will be looking to you and probably asking if you have specifically addressed with her what is not getting done. I suggest you explain to the girl that she needs to make every effort to get it done, not just accept that it’s not done and wait for her to fail.

@jca

Yeah, I just did that. She did it again after that talk. It has been reiterated to her again by me and others that she needs to do these tasks and finish them but she doesn’t care.

She’s off of her training now, nothing I can do now. She’ll crash and burn. I think the only thing that would help the situation would be to fire her but I can’t do that.

She was told that she needs to finish the tasks. She won’t. How do you deal with that?

Just let it roll. She’ll be gone in two weeks.

Let the chips fall where they may.

Please update us as to whether she stays or goes. Good luck to you as her mentor.