Ex-Military Nurse Gets the Drop on Karen Boss

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  • 01
    Text - Posted by u/BangarangRufio847 14 hours ago I have to find my own coverage? Alrighty then! oc Rule 8 Super long(sorry) TL;DR at the end About 10 years ago I got my first job at a nursing home after coming off of active duty military. The director of nursing, who we'll call Dawn, was in the reserves so we hit it off pretty quick. I got my nursing license while in the military and I had only really cared for young strapping soldiers, not the elderly, but Dawn and other nurses taught me the r
  • 02
    Text - It was a good place to work. I was able to pick up shifts whenever I needed them, I made some really good friends, and the residents and their family were all pretty great(with the occasional not so great ones). Now when I went off active duty I enlisted in the reserves. I wasn't quite ready to be fully done with my military career. Drill was ALWAYS the first weekend of the month... ALWAYS. I still made sure the scheduler had a copy of my drill schedule. After a year, Dawn deploys. Enter
  • 03
    Text - Within the first 2 months of Karen being there the scheduler quit. I made sure new scheduler had a copy of my drill schedule. New scheduler was cool. Was able to change us from 8hr shifts to 12s, made sure the same nurses worked the same halls for continuity of care. Never had an issue with her. After 3 months that scheduler quit, along with a few staff. A young girl from the front office covered staffing for a few weeks until they were able to fill the position. A nurse transferred from
  • 04
    Text - She lasted about 4 months. The girl from the office once again stepped in and eventually got the position full time. I pointed out my drill schedule to her(it was hanging on a bulletin board where the previous girl put it) and she said she understood. By this point my patience with Karen was running thin. She found ways to make sure I knew she didn't like me with almost every shift. Checking to make sure my med cart was locked 5-6 times a day(she never checked other med carts), go into ro
  • 05
    Text - Now I worked that hall 3-4 days a week, 12+ hours a day. I had that hall down to a science and I had the best cnas in the building. They were rockstars! Karen decided that I could handle it and pulled my cnas during breakfast for dining room duty. I had to do morning med pass, check blood sugars/do insulin on the diabetic residents, toilet them if needed, pass breakfast trays, and feed a few ppl on my own. I had 34 residents on my hall and only about 12 of them went to the dining room. I
  • 06
    Text - Then on a beautiful snowy Thursday at the very end of January, the schedule for the rest of the week, weekend, and following week came out. The coming weekend was the first weekend of the month. Aaaannnddd what do I ALWAYS have on the first weekend of the month? Yup.. drill. I was still on the schedule for that weekend. Scheduler was no where to be found and not answering her phone. I text the nurse who works my hall on days I'm off to see if she could pick up and I would work for her nex
  • 07
    Text - So I went to her office once she got back from wherever she was and as nicely as possible point to the drill schedule hanging on the wall right next to her desk and ask how she couldn't know when it was hanging right next to her. The blood drained from her face and she said she will figure it out. I remind her to tell the other nurses that I will pick up shifts in return if it helps cover it. An hour later good ol Karen comes up to me and lays into me. She tells me I'm irresponsible for n
  • 08
    Text - I'm a pretty laid back person and I'm usually very calm. My blood was boiling. I was able to get my shifts covered pretty easily since we were pretty well staffed. The scheduler hadn't even tried apparently. Well she tried throwing me under the bus. Drill weekend comes and goes. Monday morning I bring copies of my dd214 from active duty, my orders sending me to my reserve unit, about 10 copies of my drill schedule, and printed pic of the drill schedule hanging on the wall next to the sche
  • 09
    Text - After morning med pass, tray pass, feeding, and toileting were finished, i walked into Karen's office, handed her the dd124 and the orders. Told her that there is her proof of my military duty. Handed her the pic of the schedule hanging on the wall, told her I should not have to remind them every month especially when it's hanging next to the schedulers desk. Handed her the 10 drill copies just in case they needed more since the one didn't seem to be enough. She just sat there glaring wit
  • 10
    Text - Then I slammed my 2 weeks notice on her desk and explained to her that what she tried to pull was illegal and that I could have the department of justice in there so fast her head would spin. As I walked out of her office state walked into the building. "State" audits nursing facilities. They watch everything and go through everything and make life hell for mainly management for a week or 2. One of the state auditors ended up being ex army! She hung out on my hall just chatting every day
  • 11
    Text - I trained my replacement the next week. I went on to the local hospital and I'm still there. Karen went back to corporate once Dawn came back from Iraq. She learned what happened and reported her to corporate for that and some other things. Karen was fired. The scheduler was fired a few months after I left. Turns out her mom, who was a unit manager, was doing her job. TL;DR Boss makes work life suck bc she didn't like me. Tries to get me in trouble for the schedulers lazy mistake. I won.

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