Current Events > I'm so insanely depressed I can't sleep

(+) Yeah! (+)

My work situation has progressively gotten worse and worse over the last year. We've struggled a lot with staffing, workers taking time off for pregnancies, workers getting COVID, etc. previously - but around 6 months ago a few my boss got approval to schedule 10 hour shifts and change workers' designations. This was a terrible idea, and we're a 24 hour operation that has alphabet letters assigned to different positions with well defined duties; before you had positions and a relief for two of those positions (for example, E was 5 8 hour shifts, F was 5 8 hour shifts, and E-F relief was the remaining 2 days for each of those positions). The creation of 10 hour shifts meant relief shifts couldn't function the same way; you basically need a relief for each individual position for it to operate on a standardized level. Not only was this not accounted for - but we also had two overnight workers quit shortly before my boss got approval for the 10 hour shifts, my boss was scheduling temp workers for regularly scheduled weekly shifts (which is not their purpose), and many of our workers are other students and had limited availability or are mothers and asked for their hours to shift back an hour or two (which disrupts the workflow).
My boss also tries to be super accommodating to peoples' requests - so basically tons of workers just asked to only work Monday through Thursday. So for example - yesterday we had 5 workers all day and today they'll have 9 workers. We're a hospital - so it's not as though the volume of work is drastically different either, or at least enough to warrant a 2 worker deficit yesterday and a 2 worker surplus today.

It's even more complicated than everything I'm posting here - but basically my boss made all these changes over the last few months that have severely disrupted the workflow, resulted in severe understaffing basically every Thursday through Sunday (sometimes the other days, too), and multiple just trashy looking changes to my department.

I was so happy to have this job. I've been here 5 years and it's my first job that required a degree. I actually felt proud of my work - and now I'm just embarrassed half of the time at work by how many corners everybody cuts. I totally made a poor judgement call on something today that resulted in a risk report, and I also took a deep breath on the phone with a nurse and she went off on me saying, "Are you taking a deep breath because I'm frustrating you? I don't appreciate that" etc. etc. so who knows if I'll have a complaint filed on me for that, too.

I'm so over this and so drained. I can't even go to sleep even though I'm off for a few days.

bobbaaay posted...

I also took a deep breath on the phone with a nurse and she went off on me saying, "Are you taking a deep breath because I'm frustrating you? I don't appreciate that" etc. etc. so who knows if I'll have a complaint filed on me for that, too.

She sounds like a bitch.

Lonestar2000 posted...

She sounds like a bitch.

I stand by my opinion that the worst nurse is worse than the worst customer in retail, and nurses generally have just as much push and shove as customers do in retail. Instead of "the customer is always right," it should be "the nurse is always right."