[Mike]

why is it that so many people obsess over their work schedule? I mean come on you know you have to do it right? (rhetorical) so why spend all that energy complaining about it.


I had a situation tonight where an employee was not happy about where they were scheduled for the next day. they were unhappy with the assignment they were going to have. Its insane to me to even worry about it.

Then the seniority thing came up, "why is so and so working here and I am there and I have more seniority" and I have to reply when you were hired we never guaranteed you a certain assisgnment. The response is oh ok............ storms off

1 minute later another employess is in my ear telling me that I dont care about how they feel (was not aware that It was my responsibility to be responsible fro their feelings, esp since this did not concern them at all) and I was being mean.....

2 minutes after that another employee comes down and tells me that"this place does not care about its employees and that the original employee was going to quit now"

to all this I say "shrug" what am supposed to do about that?

SO I try to resolve it by discussing it with the original employee with the problem. I start off with: If not working where you want to work is reason enough for you to quit than there is more to this than just an assignment change, you really should not be telling everyone that you are quiting either, its no one elses buisness.

I get, "I did not do it and I said I was calling in not quiting if I had to do the other assignment, and you and no one else is going to lecture me. Calling in is my choice and I am going to exercise it"

The work ethic is so different sometimes. I have done countless things at work that I would have prefered not to do but did them anyway because its my job. It amazes me when people beleive they can throw a tantrum and get there way. Unfortunatley I had to give in because my boss has no spine and would have anyway. Then it would be taken out on yours truly.

Even though I love my job I feel it may be time to change.

How do you deal with this sort of thing day in and day out and not go postal on someone.

 

[rscdragon]

It's really hard to due. I deal with this as well. The best advice is don't take it personal, you will never be able to make all your employees happy.

Rob

 

[Specialk]

I agree you will not make everyone happy no matter what you do.
You are there to do your job at the best of your ability thats what your company expects from you & pays you for. They are also there to do their job to the best of their ability thats what you should expect from them & thats is what they get paid for.

Just remember your company does not pay you to have or make friends and as nice as it is to keep the peace it will not always happen.

If you assign jobs and somebody gets a crappy job the next time try to give them the not so crappy job. But if everyone takes turns at the crappy job there is no reason for complaints.

If they dont show for work because they are getting the crappy job make sure they get the crappy job the next time. And just explain they are getting it again because they didnt do it the last time.

Kaye

 

[Mike]

Thanks guys.

 

[canisson]

I just say to myself....

I could be cleaning porta-potties all day!

...everything is instantly better!!

 

[trick440]

Most of the time I'm the boss at my job. But when I'm not and I get a shitty assignment I might have a tendancy to complain. If you bitch people don't want to hear you bitch so nexttime they may pass on asking you.

When i'm running the show and I have to give the crap jobs away I try and take turns on who I give them to. If they complain oh well, thats life, I had to do all the crap work before too.

If it is a really especially crappy job, sorry but low man on the pole gets it, unless theres a volunteer. (which alot of times there is.)

My job is a little different, i'm an electrician and there is a pecking order.

But strategic complaining... is valid IMO. It would be very extreme to say your going to quit over a crappy assignment. If I heard that from somebody who had a problem with there job,... I'd think less of them to say the least.

 

[PaintGuru]

I'm not in charge of anyone (lucky for them), but if I was, and knowing my a-hole tendancies...I would probably find the worst possible job for this person to do and assign him to do it and say "Well since you didn't like your other assignment I thought you would like this one better" People just like to bitch and moan.

 

[Mike]

I am unfortunately part of the scheduling equation.

to give an example: all schedule request are do by the 15th of the month for the following months schedule. Everyone knows this. after the 15th we accomodate as we can but sometimes their is nothing you can do. So this thursday an employee tells me she has a family reunion this weekend (now she is scheduled to work) and says "I wont be in" now I dont know if anyone reads the papers but that nursing shortage they are talking about is REAL! I told her I could not give her the time off with no notice and she knows the rules. Well next thing I know she slides a hand full of noted under the door at teh end of the day with these people who will be paid overtime to cover her shift and to top it off! one of them does not get off from another job until 5pm. We change shifts at 3pm. I am on call this weekend and the yahoo's are calling me right now at 11:15!


I hate it!

 

[Wolverine]

At my work it's more the bosses who are complaining. They've had to rework how everything is done because the government has limited them to only allowing us to work for 80 hours in a week (with 10-12 extra for "special situations"); they're also not allowed to have us work more than 30 hours straight (again with certain allowances).

As for us, we don't have much right to complain, since we did this to ourselves with at least some idea of what we were getting into.

Dave

 

[ofblong]

At my work it's more the bosses who are complaining. They've had to rework how everything is done because the government has limited them to only allowing us to work for 80 hours in a week (with 10-12 extra for "special situations"); they're also not allowed to have us work more than 30 hours straight (again with certain allowances).

As for us, we don't have much right to complain, since we did this to ourselves with at least some idea of what we were getting into.

Dave

well now congress just passed a bill that says employers do not have to pay overtime to anyone who makes more than $15/hr. I feel this is just bull dooky (yes I make more than $15/hr). (now I dont know the whole bill this is jsut what I got out of it). anyways mike dont feel bad I complain all the time. But in my case I do it in a joking matter never an "I mean it" manner. Whatever my boss wants me to do I do my best to get it done. being an industrial mechanic it is sometimes hard to get done what he wants but he doesnt normally care as long as it eventually gets done. I do think that if I was a serious complainer i would not have this job. Besides there is not a whole lot of jobs out there right now.

 

[lightngsvt]

What the heck kinda job requires you to work more than 30 hours straight? Or more than 80 hours in a week? Wow! All of a sudden I feel pretty lazy for working 40-50 hour weeks.

 

[ofblong]

I only work 56 hrs a week and feel that is too many hours. I was wrong bout the bill. it doesnt affect anyone who makes between 23,600 and 100,000.

 

[Wolverine]

What the heck kinda job requires you to work more than 30 hours straight? Or more than 80 hours in a week? Wow! All of a sudden I feel pretty lazy for working 40-50 hour weeks.

Just about any job in a medical field. Actually, over the last year I was probably between 70 and 80 hours.

ofblong,
I agree with you that it's a crappy law. Fortunately, it doesn't bring me personally down at all, since I never got paid overtime anyway.

Dave

 

[ofblong]

Just about any job in a medical field. Actually, over the last year I was probably between 70 and 80 hours.

ofblong,
I agree with you that it's a crappy law. Fortunately, it doesn't bring me personally down at all, since I never got paid overtime anyway.

Dave

I agree with you on medical field. heck i work for a pharmacuticul company and it seems like we rarely dont have any work. we had a slow period couple years ago but since then there has only been a couple weekends (they happend to be holiday weekends) that we shut down.

 

[PaintGuru]

Just about any job in a medical field. Actually, over the last year I was probably between 70 and 80 hours.

One of the many reasons I did not go to medical school (probably a good thing for any patients I may have had).

 

[Mike]

I am at work right now! have been since 9PM and one of the other supervisors is here as well. It's not that we mind sharing the pain. We do not get paid overtime and never have gotten it. we are lucky to get our straight salaries. Its wild sometimes. the other night (Sunday) the final nurse showed up at 2:30 am and nothing is being done to correct her for that. My supervisors just look the other way. That is what burns me the most. When I returned to work today I was greeted with an obvious attitude from one of my supervisors because I took an extra day off because my fiance' had emergency surgery Monday evening. The audasity of some peole is beyond words. Other people do not show up or even call and all is fine and forgiven. Myself and the chap who is here tonight are expected to pull through all the time with none of the benefits afforded to the other staff such as that nice overtime pay or even simple courtesy and professional respect.

A staff nurse had a take home pay of over 4500.00 for two weeks because of overtime pay. Money that we should be entitled to but are told no. If we complain their will be consequences for it.

I am glad to be back in school now because I am giving myself more options. I am planning an exodus after February anyway because the stress and people dipping into my personal affairs is getting old. Just because they think they can they do!

 

[Wolverine]

One of the many reasons I did not go to medical school (probably a good thing for any patients I may have had).

If you read my posts on another board I regularly visit, you'd find that I don't really actively encourage people to go into this field. I try to make the downsides of it very clear. If you can work past them, there are a lot of great things about it, but there's also a whole lot about it to dislike.

Dave

 

[Mike]

I agree with you Wolverine.

It's tough and the liabilities are enormous if you make a mistake. You are always answering to either Supervisors, Peers, Patients or their families for something. It's that rare momment of gratitude for a job well done (from a patient) that keeps me doing this.

As a nurse I can tell everyone it gets harder as the years go on. Burn out is not a fairy tale and it is the reason so many people leave the field.

I wonder all the time why people still go into Nursing or Medicine for that matter. I can only imagine what those 2:30 phone calls are like every night. I only do it every fourth weekend and it wears on my patience.