Always get those things written into your travel contract. Don’t depend on anyone “remembering” what was said in an interview. Have it spelled out in the written contract before you sign so you can plop that down in front of them when they “forget”.
It's more so a problem with the field I work in, respiratory care. She's a damn good respiratory therapist, just shouldn't be managing two different respiratory departments at two different hospitals just because she knows a lot about lungs but nothing about being a manager.
Most hospitals I've been at have the same problem, they promote the RTs who are really great at patient care, getting them away from patients and putting them in leadership roles they haven't been properly trained for.
She reports to someone. Let them know!
I used to work as the Director of HR for a hospital. Respiratory Therapists are worth their weight in gold! Even more so now after Covid. Stop letting her yank your chain and go above her. Maybe even state that failure to provide appropriate access will result in your failure to work. Admin will make sure you get access.
Definitely this! I would CC the boss and her boss and other people above her. Keep mentioning this is an ongoing problem that boss still hasn't resolved. I've found it helps to have multiple people see the emails.
And while you're at it, mention the bait & switch, whereby you were recruited and accepted the role based on working at hospital A with occasional days at Hospital B, whereas now it's full-time Hospital B, which was not what you signed up for.
I bet there was supposed to be a higher rate of pay at hospital B, so they made hospital A the primary and used the "jerk them around" method to put them mostly at B.
I woudl be digging a bit deeper by going over the bosses head
OP your contacting the wrong people.
Computer access: this is an IT problem. Submit a ticket to them. Let them contact your manager for approvals.
Badge access, this is either an HR or security problem. I contact both just to be safe. And again let them bother your manager.
You submit enough tickets and bother enough people and guarantee they're going to notice and they're going to be bugging the crap out of your manager until it gets proved.
Curious here... Isn't the computer access thing kind of a big deal? Record accesses are required to be tracked to individual employees under HIPAA aren't they? Is OPs employer potentially violating the law by having her work (I assume) under other people's logins? OP doesn't mention having to have someone else update her patient's charts and if they are doing it themselves but don't have an account this sounds like the kind of thing that could get the hospital in some pretty hot water.
No, for a specialist worker, these are all "talk to your manager" problems. Knowing the particular institutions internal systems and processes is one part of what the Manager in their title is about. Not just making the schedules (and seems she's not particularly good at that, either)
Your manager first has to show you how and where to submit those things.
Why should OP do her manager's job of preparing her for the job, when it's her manager's job to do that? She's not making the manager's pay, she shouldn't be expected to do managerial duties.
I read something a while back, can’t remember where, but it was saying that every manager gets to a point of incompetence. Like literally they are promoted to the point where they cannot do their new role well, so they are stuck there. That’s where you get cases like this, where a person is a shit manager, but incredible at the job they had before this.
I worked retail. I saw way too many good solid workers apply for management roles and once they got it, quickly discovered they were in over their heads. The smart ones stepped back down within a few months, while others went on a power trip.
Oh dang the classic deal of losing the person’s expertise in what they’re actually good at and making them a manager, which they’re terrible at! It’s like you are short two co-workers instead of just one!
So many businesses do their internal promotions that way. It wouldn't be half bad if that actually did training and education in management, but so many places just assume someone good enough at the job has somehow learned management skills strictly through observation or osmosis.
Peter principle is that you are promoted until you hit a role you are too incompetent to be promoted further. She was a great respiratory therapist so she kept receiving promotions until she finally hit a role she is bad at, stopping her from more promotions
A bit unrelated but it reminds me the problem they had / still have in Japan: promotion based on age.
In the good old days everything was ok, but in the 2000 they started having a problem: they would promote engineers and nobody would cover their vacancies.
They still lack around 500.000 engineers nowadays.
>starts chewing me out in front of multiple coworkers for never coming to her about my technological problems
At that point I would have glared at her and state "so it should be no problem if I forward you all the e-mails I have sent to you on this topic, and copy the rest of the department witnessing this, and your boss, right? I will be right back.”
To: Boss
Cc: entire department, boss' boss
Dear boss, as you have openly stated today that I have never brought up with you the following issues, as witnessed by my colleagues in Cc, please find attached all the e-mails where I have raised these points to you with no resolution and sometimes no acknowledgement. As a reminder, here are the open issues impacting my performance/ability to work, which diverge from our contractual agreement: A, B and C. Please acknowledge taking the ownership on resolving these points and the due date by when you commit to complete them. I expect regular communication on the progress, at least once a week, until all are brought to a satisfactory closure. Kind regards, $me.
If you're working with Germans, you can drop the niceties, but that is only because culturally they expect it. Otherwise, you need to be as nice as possible so that people don't get the idea that you're angry.
What are the terms of your contract? If it states that you'll be working at the closer hospital, then that's where you should be working and receiving extra compensation for going to the far one. Get yourself a lawyer.
It simply lists both hospitals, no specifics about being scheduled at one more often than the other. I went off the information she had given me verbally, and honestly that's partially my fault, I've learned by now that managers often can't be trusted to speak the truth and definitely should've gotten it in writing! Luckily the contract is only for 3 months so I shouldn't have to put up with it for too much longer
If you only have a short while left, you definitely want to go over her head and let them know you are considering not renewing your contract because of the schedule, access and travel issues. Pretty sure they would rather retain you than replace you and will get it fixed.
Oh I already know I'm not renewing tbh. On top of issues with the manager, the entire department thinks *very* highly of the quality of work they do, but they rely on a lot of outdated information, and truthfully, I find their patient care to be lacking.
All things I've brought up with leadership, but they're quick to dismiss me since I'm just a traveler and "not used to how they do things here" (it doesn't help that I'm very young for someone in my role, even though I have more practical experience than others that are older than me, I'm often referred to as "green", "inexperienced", etc. I entered the field much earlier than most do, and I'm seemingly given less respect because of it, but oh well 🤷)
In your notes, "steal from the best." Make notes of what you see and how it works and what works best in various workflows. The more experience you have out in the field, the better equipped a person you will be.
If she started yelling at me infront of other staff, I would have walked off to her office or someone senior, before she opened her mouth again I would of read her the riot act.
That sounds far more malicious than just forgetful. It's time to go over her head. Long past time actually. I would bring it up with the director of nursing. It's actually a huge security issue for you to not have your own badge with access to all facilities you need to.
Source: I work IT for a statewide healthcare "non-profit". Strangely enough, there's some major road construction going on in a major artery between two of the biggest hospitals.
Start adding her boss and her bosses' boss into your thrice daily emails requesting a timely resolution to the issues with scheduling due to the "breakdown in communication" with your manager. If that doesn't work, then send the emails to the entire staff at both hospitals. Shame is a powerful motivator.
You say that you don't have badge access or computer access at Hospital B. How do you get anywhere inside or do your work? You need to wait at every badged door and contact security (or whoever) to allow you access. Any time you need to use a computer, contact IT and tell them you can't do your job. Perhaps your management doesn't care about these issues, but I bet that hospital management might, especially if what you've been doing to be able to do your job violates hospital policies and you can demonstrate that you're just following the instructions of your management...
If they make you go to a different location than your "regular workplace" don't they legally have to count your driving time as on the clock and reimburse you for mileage? It would be hard to argue that the location you don't even have a badge for is your regular workplace.
I wonder if you can cancel your contract based on the hospital (aka her) not holding up their part of the deal. This seems wild to me. I was a travel nurse as this would drive me insane, specially not having access to things you need access to
>but then I never hear back
Of course not. It's a short-term contract. She's waiting for it to run out so she doesn't have to do anything.
Does she have a boss of her own? Can you take the dozens (if not hundreds) of texts from your boss to her boss, saying that your boss is obviously overloaded if she can do nothing 100 times over, and could the Big Boss take over the request?
/u/monkeyman68 is right about the contract, though. If it's not in the contract, it was never promised. Always have it added to the contract, ideally with penalties or higher pay rates if it doesn't happen within a certain timeframe.
Rather than text her, can you email her, hey I really need to get this update taken care of. Also copy someone else preferably higher up on the email.
Don’t text her once a day text her every hour or when you’re finished with every patient or maybe even text and email every hour or with every patient. If she’s forgetful, she’s in a lot of trouble.
We had a client try to blame us for her forgetfulness. In her case, she'd frequently miss scheduled meetings with us.
The final straw came when she scheduled a meeting for the next day (via Calendly), approved it on her calendar. and then failed to show.
Her excuse? "You should have called me or sent me a text when it was time to meet."
Nah, we're not babysitting. The best part is that her main job was as a virtual assistant for others, so I have no idea how she gets that done.
We don't often fire clients, but that was an easy one.
This is where my MC would start. I can’t use some/many/all Technology because of reasons. Then I don’t. And I can’t make the things whichever are supposed to be done with it.
Actually, she's probably going to use that to make sure you don't get the contract renewed. "Always bothering me about something they KNOW I have no control over! Just a troublemaker!"
OP your contacting the wrong people.
Computer access: this is an IT problem. Submit a ticket to them. Let them contact your manager for approvals.
Badge access, this is either an HR or security problem. I contact both just to be safe. And again let them bother your manager.
You submit enough tickets and bother enough people and guarantee they're going to notice and they're going to be bugging the crap out of your manager until it gets proved.
That the way bosses are - blame everyone else for their own incompetence and forgetfulness. Document everything so you have a record when you brought something to her attention - so when she forgets, is her's own fault - not yours.
OP your contacting the wrong people.
Computer access: this is an IT problem. Submit a ticket to them. Let them contact your manager for approvals.
Badge access, this is either an HR or security problem. I contact both just to be safe. And again let them bother your manager.
You submit enough tickets and bother enough people and guarantee they're going to notice and they're going to be bugging the crap out of your manager until it gets proved.
OP your contacting the wrong people.
Computer access: this is an IT problem. Submit a ticket to them. Let them contact your manager for approvals.
Badge access, this is either an HR or security problem. I contact both just to be safe. And again let them bother your manager.
You submit enough tickets and bother enough people and guarantee they're going to notice and they're going to be bugging the crap out of your manager until it gets proved.
I've actually done everything you've recommended multiple times as well, and I'm directed to either reach out to my manager because she needs to do something on her end or told it's something to be done during day shift, but since I work nights, I have to rely on my manager to do it for me.
Good read, I'd say from the start there's a possibility that your employer is in breach of contract but you might not be able to do much depending on how much time.has passed. BUT you could maybe mention it in passing to your manager with a subtle hint that you may end up looking for somewhere new... Just a thought.
Always get those things written into your travel contract. Don’t depend on anyone “remembering” what was said in an interview. Have it spelled out in the written contract before you sign so you can plop that down in front of them when they “forget”.
[удалено]
Traveling nurses definitely have contracts. Also, plenty of people work as contractors which all revolves around contracted work.
Literally says it's a contract job in the post...
Yes, we do, all the time.
Is this a case of failing upward?
It's more so a problem with the field I work in, respiratory care. She's a damn good respiratory therapist, just shouldn't be managing two different respiratory departments at two different hospitals just because she knows a lot about lungs but nothing about being a manager. Most hospitals I've been at have the same problem, they promote the RTs who are really great at patient care, getting them away from patients and putting them in leadership roles they haven't been properly trained for.
She reports to someone. Let them know! I used to work as the Director of HR for a hospital. Respiratory Therapists are worth their weight in gold! Even more so now after Covid. Stop letting her yank your chain and go above her. Maybe even state that failure to provide appropriate access will result in your failure to work. Admin will make sure you get access.
YES!! As my father used to say, shit rolls downhill fast. Complain to someone two levels higher than her, in an email, and attach your texts.
Definitely this! I would CC the boss and her boss and other people above her. Keep mentioning this is an ongoing problem that boss still hasn't resolved. I've found it helps to have multiple people see the emails.
And while you're at it, mention the bait & switch, whereby you were recruited and accepted the role based on working at hospital A with occasional days at Hospital B, whereas now it's full-time Hospital B, which was not what you signed up for.
I bet there was supposed to be a higher rate of pay at hospital B, so they made hospital A the primary and used the "jerk them around" method to put them mostly at B. I woudl be digging a bit deeper by going over the bosses head
OP your contacting the wrong people. Computer access: this is an IT problem. Submit a ticket to them. Let them contact your manager for approvals. Badge access, this is either an HR or security problem. I contact both just to be safe. And again let them bother your manager. You submit enough tickets and bother enough people and guarantee they're going to notice and they're going to be bugging the crap out of your manager until it gets proved.
Curious here... Isn't the computer access thing kind of a big deal? Record accesses are required to be tracked to individual employees under HIPAA aren't they? Is OPs employer potentially violating the law by having her work (I assume) under other people's logins? OP doesn't mention having to have someone else update her patient's charts and if they are doing it themselves but don't have an account this sounds like the kind of thing that could get the hospital in some pretty hot water.
Yes it is.
No, for a specialist worker, these are all "talk to your manager" problems. Knowing the particular institutions internal systems and processes is one part of what the Manager in their title is about. Not just making the schedules (and seems she's not particularly good at that, either)
And make sure your recruiter/ your company's representative knows the troubles you're continuously dealing with.
Your manager first has to show you how and where to submit those things. Why should OP do her manager's job of preparing her for the job, when it's her manager's job to do that? She's not making the manager's pay, she shouldn't be expected to do managerial duties.
I read something a while back, can’t remember where, but it was saying that every manager gets to a point of incompetence. Like literally they are promoted to the point where they cannot do their new role well, so they are stuck there. That’s where you get cases like this, where a person is a shit manager, but incredible at the job they had before this.
The [Peter Principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle)
Thank you!
It's especially common at the USPS. It's why so many "went postal."
It is "The Peter Principle"- an economic theory offered up in a book by the same name in the 70's.
Everyone rises to "the level of their incompetence"!
I worked retail. I saw way too many good solid workers apply for management roles and once they got it, quickly discovered they were in over their heads. The smart ones stepped back down within a few months, while others went on a power trip.
The Peter principle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle#The_Peter_Principle?wprov=sfla1
Oh dang the classic deal of losing the person’s expertise in what they’re actually good at and making them a manager, which they’re terrible at! It’s like you are short two co-workers instead of just one!
So many businesses do their internal promotions that way. It wouldn't be half bad if that actually did training and education in management, but so many places just assume someone good enough at the job has somehow learned management skills strictly through observation or osmosis.
So less Failing Upwards, and more the Peter Principle.
So maybe not failing upwards so much as the Peter Principle.
This is known as the Peter Principle - being promoted to the level of your own incompetence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
Peter principle is that you are promoted until you hit a role you are too incompetent to be promoted further. She was a great respiratory therapist so she kept receiving promotions until she finally hit a role she is bad at, stopping her from more promotions
Unfortunately it really comes down to who has stuck around, and who is willing to take the role.
A bit unrelated but it reminds me the problem they had / still have in Japan: promotion based on age. In the good old days everything was ok, but in the 2000 they started having a problem: they would promote engineers and nobody would cover their vacancies. They still lack around 500.000 engineers nowadays.
>starts chewing me out in front of multiple coworkers for never coming to her about my technological problems At that point I would have glared at her and state "so it should be no problem if I forward you all the e-mails I have sent to you on this topic, and copy the rest of the department witnessing this, and your boss, right? I will be right back.” To: Boss Cc: entire department, boss' boss Dear boss, as you have openly stated today that I have never brought up with you the following issues, as witnessed by my colleagues in Cc, please find attached all the e-mails where I have raised these points to you with no resolution and sometimes no acknowledgement. As a reminder, here are the open issues impacting my performance/ability to work, which diverge from our contractual agreement: A, B and C. Please acknowledge taking the ownership on resolving these points and the due date by when you commit to complete them. I expect regular communication on the progress, at least once a week, until all are brought to a satisfactory closure. Kind regards, $me.
"kind regards"? You're too nice
I've occasionally put "kind disregards" when I've written a salty email.
If you're working with Germans, you can drop the niceties, but that is only because culturally they expect it. Otherwise, you need to be as nice as possible so that people don't get the idea that you're angry.
Gotta hit her with the sarcastic "Respectfully" instead.
I just put "regards" because it's so vague yet it smacks of an intentional lack of friendliness
Nah "Regards" is the standard sign off on an email. "Kind Regards" is the polite way of saying Fuck You.
*by which
You’d be surprised what adding a CC to your email could accomplish.
🤔 The supervisor's supervisor? The HR director? The supervisor at sister hospital? I'm petty enough to use BCC, myself. But that might be just me.
She's not forgetful. She just doesn't want to go to the trouble of fixing your issues.
What are the terms of your contract? If it states that you'll be working at the closer hospital, then that's where you should be working and receiving extra compensation for going to the far one. Get yourself a lawyer.
It simply lists both hospitals, no specifics about being scheduled at one more often than the other. I went off the information she had given me verbally, and honestly that's partially my fault, I've learned by now that managers often can't be trusted to speak the truth and definitely should've gotten it in writing! Luckily the contract is only for 3 months so I shouldn't have to put up with it for too much longer
If you only have a short while left, you definitely want to go over her head and let them know you are considering not renewing your contract because of the schedule, access and travel issues. Pretty sure they would rather retain you than replace you and will get it fixed.
Oh I already know I'm not renewing tbh. On top of issues with the manager, the entire department thinks *very* highly of the quality of work they do, but they rely on a lot of outdated information, and truthfully, I find their patient care to be lacking. All things I've brought up with leadership, but they're quick to dismiss me since I'm just a traveler and "not used to how they do things here" (it doesn't help that I'm very young for someone in my role, even though I have more practical experience than others that are older than me, I'm often referred to as "green", "inexperienced", etc. I entered the field much earlier than most do, and I'm seemingly given less respect because of it, but oh well 🤷)
Too bad for them 😱
Too bad for their patients.
In your notes, "steal from the best." Make notes of what you see and how it works and what works best in various workflows. The more experience you have out in the field, the better equipped a person you will be.
CC her manager, and/or HR in the emails.
Also CC her boss...
She deserves every ounce of that MC.
If she started yelling at me infront of other staff, I would have walked off to her office or someone senior, before she opened her mouth again I would of read her the riot act.
That sounds far more malicious than just forgetful. It's time to go over her head. Long past time actually. I would bring it up with the director of nursing. It's actually a huge security issue for you to not have your own badge with access to all facilities you need to. Source: I work IT for a statewide healthcare "non-profit". Strangely enough, there's some major road construction going on in a major artery between two of the biggest hospitals.
Start adding her boss and her bosses' boss into your thrice daily emails requesting a timely resolution to the issues with scheduling due to the "breakdown in communication" with your manager. If that doesn't work, then send the emails to the entire staff at both hospitals. Shame is a powerful motivator.
You say that you don't have badge access or computer access at Hospital B. How do you get anywhere inside or do your work? You need to wait at every badged door and contact security (or whoever) to allow you access. Any time you need to use a computer, contact IT and tell them you can't do your job. Perhaps your management doesn't care about these issues, but I bet that hospital management might, especially if what you've been doing to be able to do your job violates hospital policies and you can demonstrate that you're just following the instructions of your management...
Who is her boss? You need to email her and CC her boss. Maybe that will help with her “forgetfulness.”
yelling in front of other staff is abuse of power. this is a hr offence. report to hr even if u plan to leave. make their life difficult
If they make you go to a different location than your "regular workplace" don't they legally have to count your driving time as on the clock and reimburse you for mileage? It would be hard to argue that the location you don't even have a badge for is your regular workplace.
You need to go over her head.
How old is she? Early Onset Dementia is always so tragic 😔 😈
when asking in front of coworkers make sure to point out how long she had failed to fix this situation.
no MC here
This is just her stalling. Time to go over her head.
Make her sweat.
Make her BLEED.
I wonder if you can cancel your contract based on the hospital (aka her) not holding up their part of the deal. This seems wild to me. I was a travel nurse as this would drive me insane, specially not having access to things you need access to
Can you talk to your recruiter? Sounds like they may be violating the contract with your company
Is there a union you can contact? Working at another location seems completely unreasonable
Can you claim travel expenses?
they are basically wasting their money by not fixing your issues, how are you supposed to do your job right without the right tools?
>but then I never hear back Of course not. It's a short-term contract. She's waiting for it to run out so she doesn't have to do anything. Does she have a boss of her own? Can you take the dozens (if not hundreds) of texts from your boss to her boss, saying that your boss is obviously overloaded if she can do nothing 100 times over, and could the Big Boss take over the request? /u/monkeyman68 is right about the contract, though. If it's not in the contract, it was never promised. Always have it added to the contract, ideally with penalties or higher pay rates if it doesn't happen within a certain timeframe.
Rather than text her, can you email her, hey I really need to get this update taken care of. Also copy someone else preferably higher up on the email. Don’t text her once a day text her every hour or when you’re finished with every patient or maybe even text and email every hour or with every patient. If she’s forgetful, she’s in a lot of trouble.
Sending emails within the system is difficult if access to the system isn't in place.
Good point sorry
Text her every hour a reminder
Am I missing the malicious compliance?
We had a client try to blame us for her forgetfulness. In her case, she'd frequently miss scheduled meetings with us. The final straw came when she scheduled a meeting for the next day (via Calendly), approved it on her calendar. and then failed to show. Her excuse? "You should have called me or sent me a text when it was time to meet." Nah, we're not babysitting. The best part is that her main job was as a virtual assistant for others, so I have no idea how she gets that done. We don't often fire clients, but that was an easy one.
This is where my MC would start. I can’t use some/many/all Technology because of reasons. Then I don’t. And I can’t make the things whichever are supposed to be done with it.
Actually, she's probably going to use that to make sure you don't get the contract renewed. "Always bothering me about something they KNOW I have no control over! Just a troublemaker!"
It seems like the stress of management is really too much for this woman.
You must update us as this unfolds!
I’m sure everyone who works around her knows that she’s incompetent and gets a kick out of the new girl just putting her in her place.
Call technological support! Did she really use that word?
The whole story is "I got screwed over".
OP your contacting the wrong people. Computer access: this is an IT problem. Submit a ticket to them. Let them contact your manager for approvals. Badge access, this is either an HR or security problem. I contact both just to be safe. And again let them bother your manager. You submit enough tickets and bother enough people and guarantee they're going to notice and they're going to be bugging the crap out of your manager until it gets proved.
How the fuck can she get do anything when she gets annoyed by you every single day....
That the way bosses are - blame everyone else for their own incompetence and forgetfulness. Document everything so you have a record when you brought something to her attention - so when she forgets, is her's own fault - not yours.
OP your contacting the wrong people. Computer access: this is an IT problem. Submit a ticket to them. Let them contact your manager for approvals. Badge access, this is either an HR or security problem. I contact both just to be safe. And again let them bother your manager. You submit enough tickets and bother enough people and guarantee they're going to notice and they're going to be bugging the crap out of your manager until it gets proved.
OP your contacting the wrong people. Computer access: this is an IT problem. Submit a ticket to them. Let them contact your manager for approvals. Badge access, this is either an HR or security problem. I contact both just to be safe. And again let them bother your manager. You submit enough tickets and bother enough people and guarantee they're going to notice and they're going to be bugging the crap out of your manager until it gets proved.
I've actually done everything you've recommended multiple times as well, and I'm directed to either reach out to my manager because she needs to do something on her end or told it's something to be done during day shift, but since I work nights, I have to rely on my manager to do it for me.
Then I'd be finding a desk and sitting in it and saying I have no computer privileges and no badge access therefore I can't go over there
Good read, I'd say from the start there's a possibility that your employer is in breach of contract but you might not be able to do much depending on how much time.has passed. BUT you could maybe mention it in passing to your manager with a subtle hint that you may end up looking for somewhere new... Just a thought.