Welcome to Nurses’ Week

Sorry it’s been a quick bit since my last post. That was unintentional.

I’ve been remarkably busy at work these last few weeks. You know, as it turns out, burnout is a real thing. They’ve pushed me all the way around the Matterhorn past caring too much to the point of not caring at all. And since I’m naturally a pretty caring person — someone who has, since birth, wanted to excel at every single bloody thing I do — that’s an impressive feat.

With exactly 26 major deadlines in my inbox that I should be attending to, I’m taking a good hour out of my day to write for myself instead. Why? Because I don’t care. See, if I do a crappy job, I’ll get hassled. But if I do a great job, I’ll get hassled and I’ll get more to do. Actually, whether I do a good job or a poor one, I’ll still get more to do, so honestly, it doesn’t matter one way or the other.

This is a far cry from what I thought this job would be — let alone nursing itself. What a complete waste of time these last ten years have been. The hope of a better life sure was shattered, wasn’t it?

A few weeks ago, my company decided to switch things up on the spur of the moment. My company is like an umbrella organization with all these little companies underneath it. Hospitals, outpatient facilities, labs, etc. Well, for whatever reason they moved me and my job from This Company to That Company. And, while under any normal umbrella organization that might mean minimal changes for me, it does not in this instance.

By moving me to That Company, I lost my time in grade, my PTO, my 401K, and my Direct Deposit. I no longer have the same pay date. I no longer have the same vacation days. It really is as if I got fired — but “lucky me” kept my job — yet ended up working for a company I didn’t ask to work for.

Now you would think That Company would have planned this ahead of time and thought it through. It’s a HUGE umbrella organization so you’d THINK this would have been well considered. After all, I wasn’t the only person this happened to — everyone at my office had the same thing happen. But I assure you, it was NOT planned or thought through well or at all. Nobody knew what was going on. Then or now.

It just, one day, happened. I was told only after it had occurred.

I fought to ensure I was getting paid. I called HR each and every day. And each day I spoke to someone else who didn’t know what was going on either. In the end, I was paid. It was late, but it was there. Problem was, this little “minor change” threw off all my automatic payments, like my rent, my car loan, and my student loans. They all tried to go through and failed, and my bank generously took their $35 fee for each bum transaction.

Do you think my company cared? No. I was told to be happy because I still have a job. As a matter of fact, when I called HR to complain about this massive boondoggle, I was chastised for not planning my automatic payments better. That I should have a safety net for such occasions. That I should manage my finances better.

Yes, they really said that.

(Even though NONE OF THIS was my choice.)

It’s one of many irritants these days. Every company wants you to provide adequate notice if you plan on departing, but they can change the very ground you stand on with no notice at all.

For instance, if I choose to separate and leave this godforsaken land, under This Company, I would have had to give a standard 2-week notice in order to be rehirable and get all my banked PTO. Under my new title at That Company, they expect a minimum 3-week notice to be rehirable but will get NONE of my banked PTO either way. So what if I don’t wish to be rehired? Can I just go?

Before you ask, yes I am looking for another job. And yes, when and if I find something suitable, I plan to offer a 2-week notice which is what I originally signed on for. Especially since my PTO is no longer a deciding factor and so my coworkers don’t have to suffer a sudden departure as a result of admin’s unnecessary nincompoopery.

My body clearly knows that I’m not having a good time. Because yesterday, after months without an episode, my heart went into afib again — so bad I had to take the day off. I had to shut down and let my body heal because it’s clearly rejecting everything. Five hours of hell, then rest.

I came in to work today to discover a Happy Nurses Week poster and some goodies from my coworkers. I’m grateful for the recognition — especially since I hold nothing against those I work with. The staff at my job is wonderful. The upper management, however, has a lot to learn. Not that they care, honestly, because they don’t. They really don’t.

Our parent company (the umbrella of which I speak) advertises they’re all about patient care. “We care about your care.” But in reality, they — like every other health care organization — cares about your money, not your health. While organizations get compensation for providers office visits and hospital stays, nurses don’t bill for their services. They fall under overhead. The same pool of money that pays for supplies and cleaning staff. That’s why, for nurses’ week, I got a branded lunch bowl from my umbrella organization instead of a bonus check. Yes, a bowl.

Still better than the last place I worked which gave me a non-working pen stamped with a local bank brand instead of the hospital’s name. Happy Nurses’ Week. Another place handed me a “hero” sticker.

You can’t make this stuff up.

See, the thing is, I never got into nursing to get rich. I wanted to help people — and I figured it was a rock solid career move wherein I’d always have a job that pays decently if not well.

I started life off as an artist. Back when artists could make a living at commercial art because we had a talent that no one else had. Then computers became ubiquitous and teenagers had a lot of time on their hands, so being a commercial artist was no longer lucrative. Everyone did it. For fun. They could do a crappy job and still get paid.

So with that no longer viable, I went into nursing. Thought this would be safe, but it’s not.

Now they’re saying that computers — AI — are going to take over the nursing industry as well. Why? Because we humans are too expensive. And a robot won’t ask for a raise or go on strike when they’re asked to work seven 12’s in a row. And they won’t require any Branded Bowls for Nurses Week because Nurses Week will be no more. Admin everywhere will rejoice.

Twenty years from now, you’ll see hospitals filled with AI Robots while the administration will claim that they’re providing “superior patient care.”

Now what?

Maybe I can go back to singing. AI hasn’t taken that over… yet. (Probably because there’s no money in it.)

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“The higher the minimum wage goes, the lower the threshold will go for robots to replace humans in many minimum-wage roles.” — Tom Purcell