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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To tell my boss she can't look through my pockets?

186 replies

ScaryBoss · 28/08/2014 09:23

I'm a nurse in the nhs.

New boss is randomly stopping people and demanding to see their nails to make sure they're clean and not too long. Checking earrings, socks, etc conform to uniform policy. I can kind of cope with this though do slightly resent it.

But also asking you to empty your pockets to make sure you don't have a mobile phone in your pocket? Can she do this? A police officer couldn't without a warrent?

There's nothing in the uniform policy saying you can't have your phone in your pocket. Obv taking it out and answering calls or texting would be very unprofessional. However a lot of staff have their phone in their pocket on silent incase a school or childminder need to contact us. So we'd feel it vibrate and go and check it when possible after doing what we're doing.

We can't give a ward/land line number to schools, etc as we are often moved to different wards without notice so don't know where we are from one day to another.

OP posts:
bronya · 28/08/2014 09:42

Get a small cheap old-style mobile and keep it in your bra. Problem solved!

Bithurt · 28/08/2014 09:42

I work in nhs. Although we're not allowed to have our phone in our pocket we've never been asked to show what's in our pockets. We get moved if were quiet but the nurse in charge would know where we went so would be able to pass on the number.

Original poster
ScaryBoss · 28/08/2014 09:42

Dh is the main contact but if it was something bad that needed someone sooner then he'd ring me.

OP posts:
rainbowinmyroom · 28/08/2014 09:43

Then you use your DH as contact and text him before you shift daiy as to which ward you are in. Or your mum. The school contacts them and they ring the switchboard and ask for the ward you are in.

Mobiles have zero business on the staff's person during working hours.

If you don't like that or it doesn't work for you, you need to get another job that let's you kee your phone on you or near enough to hear it. What did people do before mobiles Hmm?

Nicknacky · 28/08/2014 09:44

If something that bad happened, you would be traced. You said your phone has only went at work a handful of times in six years so you might need to suck it up if the boss said no phones allowed.

Original poster
ScaryBoss · 28/08/2014 09:45

Believe me I am looking for a new job.

OP posts:
Original poster
ScaryBoss · 28/08/2014 09:46

But regardless of the phone issue. Is she legally allowed to search me?

OP posts:
MammaTJ · 28/08/2014 09:47

You have a regular ward you work on. IF you get sent elsewhere, they will know where you have been sent.

All you have to do is give the school your normal work number, then make sure your colleagues, you know, those generally caring people who you work with most days, have the decency to point them in the right direction if they ring. It is not something only the ward sister can do.

It seems odd to worry about something that has only happened a handful of times in 6 years.

Nicknacky · 28/08/2014 09:49

Technically she is not searching you, she is asking you to empty your pockets and you could refuse. She can't then search you. I think that's your only grounds for complaint if you want to take it further.

Minisoksmakehardwork · 28/08/2014 09:52

I'd check your contract or employee policies. If you can't find anything in there then ask her to direct you to the policy which says she can search you randomly.

However, it does feel like you're trying to find an excuse to keep your mobile on you.

I used to and dh does work in a prison. It was policy that you'd submit to random searches and obviously we weren't allowed mobile phones in work. Given that dh could also be moved at a moments notice, every emergency contact detailed both switchboard and extension numbers. Clearly we have sensible switchboard staff because if he isn't where he normally works, the switchboard staff ask where he is and put me through there.

Acolyte · 28/08/2014 09:53

Ask somebody who is office bound (with a landline) at the hospital to be your emergency contact.

Then can then pass the message on to you if necessary.

naturalbaby · 28/08/2014 09:53

If it was an extreme emergency then surely the switchboard would be able to track you down?!

Who would collect your child if she had a temperature/throws up at school? Would you be allowed to leave your shift early to collect her?

ProcrastinatorExtraordindaire · 28/08/2014 09:56

But imagine something serious happening and someone else being the emergency contact....

The emergency contact wouldn't be able to contact the op either. So the dc could be in a situation where they really should have their mum but no one can contact her. I wouldn't be happy with that.

Op, I agree it stinks that while you are supposed to be responsible enough to care for ill, possibly dying people, you are not considered responsible enough to have your phone in your pocket and use it appropriately.

I have no idea about the legal side of her looking in your pockets, however in the interests of establishing and maintaining good working relationships, I would approach your new manager with your concerns to discuss possible solutions to this problem. After all, you can't be the only person who needs to be contactable. If everyone feels confident in the system, they are more likely to comply with the no phone rule, hence reducing your managers need to be wasting time and building resentment within the staff team about this issue.

Who decides where you end up working each shift? Is it a back/agency manager? Or the sisters on the wards? Someone must be responsible overall for knowing which staff agency are where for various reasons from fire procedures to the prevention of wages fraud.

I really think if you approach your manager with an attitude that shows you are willing to comply as long as there is some method of being contactable, rather than a 'nah, sod you, I am keeping my phone on me' attitude, you will have more success resolving this effectively.

And this must be an issue in so many workplaces, may be worth investigating...
maybe through your union.
Good luck op.

Panzee · 28/08/2014 09:59

I know you're asking if you can be searched, and my answer is I don't know.

However: Do you work at the hospital local to your child? From a practical point of view, if she's on her way to you in an ambulance even if it takes a few extra minutes to get hold of you, you have saved the time it takes the rest of us to get to the hospital. If it's something else then the few extra minutes won't make any difference.

I understand: I would want to know immediately because my son is my son. But from a practical point of view I can't abandon a class straight away and it's better for us if dad gets the call.

Original poster
ScaryBoss · 28/08/2014 10:02

Take last night for example I started off on one ward. I then transferred a patient to another ward and while there was asked to stay as they were short staffed and we were ok. I don't even stay on the same ward for be shift sometimes! That happens quite a bit. Generally between four different wards, personal best is working on three wards on one day.

Sometimes your colleagues won't know where you are. My dh did try to ring me the other week. My phone was on silent so I never noticed it. He rang the ward I was on. Someone answered the phone and told them I wasn't there and they hadn't seen me. Then they saw me 30 mins later and were like, oh your dh rang, I told him you weren't here.

That's because I was on a 9-5 shift. My colleague was on a late. So I wasn't in the late shifts handover. They hadn't seen me and assumed I wasn't there.

OP posts:
Vycount · 28/08/2014 10:03

When I read something like this I always wonder - how did we manage without mobiles??
Op - you're in a job where it isn't appropriate for you to carry a mobile around with you. You've already admitted that you'd have it on silent but take it out to look if you got a call or text. Apart from the distraction, the fact that you'd be wasting time on non-urgent as well as urgent calls (you wouldn't know until you looked!) - it's unhygenic. Our hospitals have enough problems with hygiene, and this shows that staff lack understanding of the issues.

quietbatperson · 28/08/2014 10:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DifferentCountrySameShit · 28/08/2014 10:04

You don't come accross very well in your op, it sounds as though your boss is taking standards seriously, after a recent hospital experience I would welcome more like her!!!! Life is possible withour a mobile phone, it sounds as though you are just making excuses.

Nicknacky · 28/08/2014 10:04

Even if there is nothing written in the policy I don't think there is anything stopping them banning phones (unless I'm mistaken)? After all, they can't list everything that isn't allowed!

So you probably will need to think of a solution.

Original poster
ScaryBoss · 28/08/2014 10:07

I wouldn't take it out to answer it a patients bedside. I wouldn't even stop what I was doing and check it. I'd wait till I could......and at times that's been over an hour later.

You're right I obviously don't understand the infection control risk. Its either in my pocket or I answer it with clean hands. The hands that I wash dozens of times a shift. The same hands which are hygienic enough for me to use to eat a sandwich with. And I'd wash my hands after using my phone. I frequently wipe my phone with an alcohol wipe, the same as I do my laptop as I know about them been bug magnets. And obviously I wash my hands before and after any patient contact.

OP posts:
naturalbaby · 28/08/2014 10:07

What does your boss suggest you do then? What do other nurses you work with do?
If it was a serious emergency then don't you believe that someone would be able to find you in the hospital?
Seriously, what's the worst that could happen?? My DH was in a rta and I missed several calls from the hospital. In the end it didn't really matter whether I got there within 1/2 hr or 1hr later as he was in safe hands. If it was one of my kids then a member of school staff/childminder would be with them until me or DH could get to them.

Catswiththumbs · 28/08/2014 10:08

^Contract doesn't say anything about mobiles. Neither does the uniform policy. The main things I use my phone for at work are drug calculations and google translate.
^

Maybe this is what your boss is bothered about Hmm

Fwiw- you are in the building, they will find you in an emergency. You don't need your phone on shift. Silent or not it is distracting and a health risk. There has to be a blanket rule even if you personally aren't abusing it.

Nicknacky · 28/08/2014 10:08

But not everyone will possibly be as cautious as you, how can they make exceptions?

LEMmingaround · 28/08/2014 10:08

Tbh you sound like a teenager. Of course you are contactable at work. If its urgent then someone will find you.

I would have thought, as a nurse you of all people would understand about infection control. You can do drug calcs on a calculator which i would have thought would be avail in the office/desk and why on earth would you need google translate?? That is a bit of a worry

rainbowinmyroom · 28/08/2014 10:08

Then he rings round till he finds you. What did people do before there were mobiles? Having spent a lot of time is hospitals, they have no place on staff persons, they are unhygienic and distracting.

Banning having them on your person at work is a great thing, IMO.

Plenty of professions do not allow employees to have a mobile on their person during working hours and they manage to comply with the rules.