I am having to take de-escalation courses for my employer this week. There is an online component and a classroom component on how to handle patients in a crisis. The online is supposed to take 2 hours and the in-person class is another 8. Sure, I will take 10 hours of overtime. The online class consists of videos that constantly ask for interaction, so you can’t just hit play and walk away. Things like
- “Click next to continue”
- Click on each image to read more. You have to click on all of them, or the class won’t go on.
- and quiz questions on the material to test if you are listening. If you get any of them wrong, you have to start that section over.
- If the video isn’t the only window open, it stops playing.
So I am sitting here having to let the video play on a laptop while I type this on my desktop.
The way online training works is they tell you how long it should take. In this case, 2 hours. That’s all they will pay you for. I have stopped doing the training, since they aren’t paying me for it. I got talked to last week for that. It seems that they are not happy that I am not completing the required training. I told them that I only do the training that I am paid for.
Back to today: I have been watching this video for an hour and 15 minutes. I haven’t failed one of the 4 built in quizzes that I have taken so far, so I haven’t had to repeat any sections. According to the progress bar, I am only 19% complete. At this rate, it will take me 6 and a half hours to finish. Remember, they will only pay me for 2. For that reason, I am stopping at 2 hours.
I dare them to try to tell me that I need to do more.
I know that many of you are saying that I should just get a different job. The issue is that this is how every health care job that I have ever had is. They demand as much as they can get away with, which is why, in my opinion, there is a shortage of nurses. So I just set clear limits and refuse to do work unless I am paid to do it. I also make sure that I put it off so I can do as much training in a single week as I can get away with, as well as doing it on a weekend. That way as much of it as possible is at time and half and with a weekend differential. If you are going to make me do it, I am going to maximize my pay for doing it.
14 Comments
Cederq · October 26, 2025 at 7:47 pm
You and me brother, that tried that shit before we had computers and if they said they only pay for two or three hours, that is all I did. I walked out. I worked grave and I needed my sleep since I was back that next night. It is a merry go round since time immemorial the bean counters wanted maximum effort with minimal compensation.
Jen · October 26, 2025 at 8:07 pm
Good for you. Wish I’d thought of that. Instead I was always squeezing them in at 3am when things were a little slower. Couldn’t stand going in on my day off to do the modules, and they wouldn’t give us access from home.
Divemedic · October 27, 2025 at 5:25 am
We have to do it at home, because we are usually 4:1 and slammed with patients. It isn’t like they want you there doing unproductive things like training on THEIR time, so they insist that you do it on YOUR time.
The funniest thing is that the hallway near HR is filled with posters for prospective nurses, claiming that this company was voted highest in respecting work/life balance. That’s complete horseshit.
But you know what? Counting all of my incentives and base pay, I make about $48 an hour, and with overtime, I am at about $70 an hour. I am going to make about $600 to sit in that bullshit class today.
When my MBA is done, my straight time goes to $54 an hour and OT will be $78 an hour. I am doing everything I can to maximize my pay, and I am already looking for better paying positions, perhaps in management or some kind of admin job that doesn’t involve dealing with meth heads.
Dan · October 26, 2025 at 8:38 pm
The pencil necked geeks sitting at desks doing nothing productive ALWAYS want something for nothing. And get pissed when employees tell them that they work for MONEY….not for warm fuzzy feelings.
@HomeInSC · October 26, 2025 at 8:57 pm
I got paid for those stupid trainings at the Cupertino Fruit Company. What tweaked me was how lame, woke, evil, and dishonest they were.
Example: an online training about Unconscious Bias where every answer to the multiple choice questions was an admission of some sort of heinous personality flaw.
Big Ruckus D · October 26, 2025 at 9:02 pm
I guess it should come as no surprise that the state labor dept will do sweet fuckall to enforce the requirement that you are paid fully for all hours worked, even on employer mandated training. If they actually gave a damn, I have to assume this practice of expecting unpaid time form employees wouldn’t be an issue to begin with.
Plague Monk · October 27, 2025 at 3:59 am
Tee-hee! On one of my later contracts, all of us temps had to take a de-escalation class. All of us were in a large conference room, with notebook computers provided by the client. There were a few amusing aspects of this training:
1. The client was located in a high crime area of a high crime city. Those heavily tanned types were everywhere, and the night workers had to get escorts from the moonlighting cops when they went out for smoke breaks. Even in daylight, it was not uncommon for workers to be accosted by teens packing heat.
2. The client was required by the DoD to present this class, but the client was only being paid for a 4 hour/person slot, even though the material was about 8 hours long.(There was a section about sexual harassment that featured some of the least attractive young women I have ever seen). Therefore, on whiteboards, were all of the correct answers, displayed for our convenience, one section at a time. Given our obscene hourly rates, management didn’t want to shell out their money for this refuse.
3. All of us were armed, with the full knowledge of management, due to the persistent robberies in the employee parking lot. Oh, and we had a powerful radar that could be activated if fit hit the shan.(We never got to see it used on robbers, but at the offsite test location it was impressive)
4. We were not required to stay on the course material, as long we had one display showing the BS. The 2nd display was available to be used more productively: day trading, Warhammer codexes, sports sites…(no actual work allowed, these terminals were not secure, and that rule was enforced)
All of us gave top ratings to this material, so the BOSS looked good to his superiors. Happy boss, happy shoppers, happy bank accounts.
EN2 SS · October 27, 2025 at 6:50 am
Don’t take it personally, but the ‘medical’ field is not the only one doing that crap. I once was a Ford Technician and while they did pay for training mostly, in repairs we were expected to do a tremendous amount of repairs under warranty for nothing or next to nothing. When I stood up and said “I will no longer do anything for no pay”, things didn’t work out very well. Next day I was back to long haul trucking, which has its own way of screwing the truckers, but at least while working I did not have to interact with the office drones.
SP RN · October 27, 2025 at 9:02 am
And the real problem with “non-violent crisis intervention” (the class we were mandated, sounds similar) is it was bull$h!t. The nurse uses de-escalation technique, the feral ‘patient’ attacks, the nurse is injured. And everyone knew it, but we had to sit through it anyhow.
Grumpy51 · October 27, 2025 at 7:03 pm
^^^^^^ THIS!!
While working in OccHealth (early 2000s) at a hospital in NTX, I walked by a classroom and saw above described. I spoke to the hospital “in-charge” and told him the hospital was asking for a work-injury, even told him it would be a dislocated shoulder. He told me they weren’t concerned. Before the day was over, I had an injured employee (attendee of the class) in my clinic – dislocated shoulder. Reduced it and put her on light duty. ~ 2 weeks later, she’s back in my clinic with it dislocated again – slipped in the shower. Now I have to send her to orthopedics as labral tear probability is high (in ortho, patient allowed one dislocation; the second one means labrum probably torn – SLAP tear, and requires surgery). Sure enough, labral tear, surgery scheduled.
Hospital tried to deny it saying the slip in the shower caused the tear. Possibly/probably but the work-injury she received IN YOUR HOSPITAL started the cascade. She eventually had to take medical retirement as her shoulder never did “quite heal” – right shoulder in a right-hand dominant person, couldn’t lift more than about 25 pounds.
For above, and MANY other reasons, I will NOT allow myself to be used as in a demonstration. The ONLY person who’s gonna look out for you is YOU.
Henry · October 27, 2025 at 9:31 am
What always bothered me about those courses was the thought that my employer paid a substantial sum to a third party that provided the course material, and in many cases, paid consultants to come in and “facilitate” the training. All this in the midst of layoffs and frozen pay plans.
JNorth · October 27, 2025 at 10:36 am
I haven’t been stuck with any classes where the “official time” is less then it actually takes to get through all the videos and slides, more the opposite. Earlier this year they made us all do (or redo) OSHA (even though MSHA would make more sense for us) training, luckily I only had to do the 8 hour course, some folks had to the 40 hour course. In typical management fashion it was mostly supervisors, who have less need of it, that had to do the 40 hour course.
The OSHA course has ~1 hour long modules with 15ith minute videos and if you don’t keep occasionally moving the mouse or something it times out and you can’t restart until that hour has gone by. I, at least, didn’t have any issues of them bitching about hours.
Danny · October 27, 2025 at 1:31 pm
At a previous job, there were these lame training sessions but we were forced into it during regular work hours. It was a trap and there was a lot of groaning in the ranks. Learning how to “Soar to New Heights” and “We’re All Winners” – that kind of crap. You know – how to “play nice” at work.
But there was an upside. We got to go offsite to hotel ballroom and got served excellent food. Maybe they realized we earned it listening to all the hype.
Don Curton · October 28, 2025 at 8:18 am
Chemical manufacturing industry, we have all that type of training too but on the clock (while not doing any productive work). So basically paid, but boring as hell. Especially since we have to repeat certain training yearly. They call it computer based training, basically a powerpoint presentation you read thru then a short 10 question test at the end. I’ve done the same modules every year for the past several decades. The only good news is that the older modules allow you to rapidly click next page repeatedly and skim thru the 30 minute presentation in 2 or 3 minutes, then pass the test from memory. Newer modules have a time lock on them.
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