After this morning’s post went live (I wrote it last night) I was supposed to go to work. I was scheduled to atart my shift at 10 am. I got a text from the charge nurse at 8 am, telling me I was being pushed back to 1 pm. That cuts a 12 hour shift down to only 9 hours, but since I am PRN, that happens all the time during the slow season (summer), so I have just learned to live with it. I’ve been on my way to work and been pushed back, having to turn around and go back home for a couple of hours. Not personal, just business. Still, the ED is a bit slower than planned on those days and they are saving a few dollars by having less people there.
So, having been rescheduled, I got in the middle of a couple of small projects. At 10:30, I got another text saying never mind, they are now swamped and they want me to head in.
No. I will head in when I am ready.
That is a game that I am not playing. There is a rule in nursing that they want you to call out at least two hours prior to your shift’s scheduled start so they can find coverage. As I said in the first paragraph of this post, I’ve been called off while already on the way. It’s just rude, but I live with it.
However, pushing my 10am shift back at 8am, only to change your mind at 10:30 is bullshit. I don’t want this to become a habit.
I was scheduled to come in at 10am. Then you unilaterally changed that schedule to 1pm. Now because you are suddenly busy, you are asking me to come in earlier than my shift.
So I will teach them a lesson about courtesy. I will let them be in the weeds until I am good and ready to come in. Again, paying me for my services doesn’t mean that you own me. Will they fire me? Of course not. They already don’t have enough nurses, and this is more the charge nurse’s fault for calling me off than it is mine.
If they decide to be irrational and fire me anyhow, I have options. I get at least 10 recruiting emails per week. There are half a dozen emergency rooms hiring within a 45 minute drive of my front door. Therre are also plenty of travel gigs. I don’t need to take abuse. Employers think that, because they can eventually hire someone to replace you, they can treat you as a consumable stock item. Next time you go to call me out so you can save a little money, remember this day when you were swamped without enough help.
6 Comments
Grumpy51 · August 27, 2026 at 7:04 pm
I can count on one hand (in 40+ years) of ER nurses getting called off. The very nature of an ER is “unknown.” So either the charge nurse was getting pressure from above or is a new charge and doesn’t understand ER (SME).
And once you’ve (employer) have made your decision, so have I (as you did). You (employer) changes your mind at your own risk. I’ve literally given immediate notice over the phone when a supervisor took me off schedule so he could work, while I was headed into work (75-minute drive). Didn’t look back and never claimed them on my work experience.
Big Daddy · August 27, 2026 at 7:17 pm
There is a fine line between being efficient and being a heartless sociopath.
Corporate America is for the most part already across that line.
I find that I thrive more being self-employed than working for people like you are working for. I have done that many times, and apparently I have a look on my face that shows what I think of them even when I do not articulate it. I have no idea what that look is, but apparently my son has it too, as he is a street medic and has gotten complained on for the very same thing!
The situation calls for the very thing that you have in abundance. Skills and usefulness. They will always be somebody who will need a skilled and useful individual. I’ve always had that attitude but it grew when I paid off the farm and really didn’t have to worry about what dumb ass bosses thought of me.
Treefarmer · August 27, 2026 at 10:10 pm
I like the cut of your jib sailor.
Curtis · August 28, 2026 at 2:32 am
Good.
I watch this going on here at metroparkcentralis and used to ask the nurses why they tolerated this kind of thing. There are always jobs available.
Wild wild west · August 28, 2026 at 7:00 am
Employers can be a consumable stock item too.
Tom762 · August 28, 2026 at 2:27 pm
I have to laugh a bit reading this. It really wasn’t until around 2017 or so, but it dawned on me that They Need Me More Than I Need Them. I dont mean that to use as a hammer, rather that I take no shit off an abusive boss. If I had to count the times I was asked/told to do sketchy stuff, and did it out of fear of losing my job, it shames me. Most times now, the answer is simply “No”.Did it piss tbem off, sure. But they had no grounds to fire me and I did my job the correct way instead of the cheap way. Someday we all realize that the ONLY advocate you have is your integrity. And when you explain that to a person who has none, they cannot understand!
Tom762
Comments are closed.