To hand my notice in at work

[Notwavingimdrowning]

I work in the nhs and although things are difficult at work at present ( lots of changes by the powers that be, lots of politics and no communication) I love my job. My problem is that I have just been given my Christmas rota and while I expected to be working some of Christmas or new year, I didn’t expect to be working all of it and other staff be off for all of Christmas and new year. In previous years we have worked short shifts and everyone was fairly treated and most were very happy with their off duty, me included. This year, I have been given night shift for 5 of the nights over Christmas. So, three nights in a row, a sleep day Xmas eve, then two more night shifts, Xmas day and Boxing Day, as well as long days New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. I have been and spoken to my manager who agreed that it was very unfair and has now taken one night shift (Boxing Day night) from me. My January rota is also just night shifts, literally every weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights, not a single day shift at all. I really don’t mind nights and weekends, it’s part of the job, however I do mind every weekend and all night shifts and have spoken to her about this before.
Again I have been to see her and she said that she couldn’t please everyone and that somebody had to have the short straw, I’m guessing that the somebody is me.
I am seriously considering just handing my notice in. I know it sounds like I’m having a temper tantrum ! I don’t expect to have everything changed for me and I know that somebody else will then be allocated my shifts, which makes me feel utter crap towards my colleagues, but it’s the attitude from my manager and unfairness that is the problem. I cannot afford to just give up work really without another job to go to, but my husband will support my decision 100% and I will easily pick up bank shifts so won’t be penniless. I’m not trying to hold them to ransom, I really don’t expect anything to change and do not kid myself that I am irreplaceable, I’m just so unhappy 😞

Good luck Op I think you are in a really strong position, there is no way your off duty should be endless weekends and nights it should be balanced.

Band 5 nurses are harder and harder to recruit ( well certainly where I work in the community), Have you thought of moving to the community😉. The ward manager on your friends ward sounds like someone who can see an opportunity to recruit, find out from your friend how well the off duty is managed, then jump!

The shortage of nurses is such that there are many many jobs out there do not stay where you are unhappy, taken for granted and likely to burnout. Look at it as career progression.

Santaclarita standard nhs contract is 8 weeks notice for band five.
If you have a/l owing you probably won't be allowed to take it as your leaving shifts if the off duty is done, they'll make you take it at the end so paid leave after the 8 weeks.
Also if you are leaving for another role in the hospital ie not leaving the trust you don't have the same power as if you were leaving the trust. So when I left my ward recently my manager had a fit as so short staffed so she rang my new manager and told her I couldn't start for another week ie I had to work 9 weeks not 8! 😡

Talk to that other ward manager OP and keep a good look on NHS jobs. In our trust many jobs are posted with a really short application window so you miss the ideal job if you're not keeping a close eye. I'm so grateful to a friend who left my ward for my new area a couple of years ago, we bumped into each other in the supermarket and she tipped me the job was coming up and supported my application. That's how the good jobs go in my trust. But certain ward managers are always looking to poach staff so it helps to network a little.

I moved off the ward into a specialist area recently and I'm SO pleased I did it. No more shifts. It coincided with payrise so I'm not noticing much of a drop without the weekend pay. Suddenly I have evenings and weekends and can plan my life. I know I'll have all the bank holidays and maybe some extra days too. And I'm loving my new area, will never be moved to work on another ward to make up numbers again. And I have time to really do my job properly not just racing around trying to manage unmanageable patient/staff ratio. I feel so much calmer and less stressed. So make that move OP because you are being treated like shit.

Also, my last ward the previous year's Christmas/New Year off duty is posted next to a blank for the two weeks so people are expected to take note of what they and others have done previously and volunteer accordingly, everyone doing some of either Christmas or New year so it was pretty fair.

Tell your manager her off duty is completely unacceptable and she should do something as above to be fair.

This is a major reason why the wards are so short staffed. Senior management at trusts take no notice at all and leave it to the wards to sort, each ward will operate differently according to the ward manager. Trusts could really do with coming up with some guidelines for how ward managers should operate fair allocation of off duty and holiday. Everyone is desperate to get off the wards in my trust, they are on their knees with coping with staff shortages and shit off duty.

When I worked in ITU in Australia I had the best off duty ever. Everyone had a line which repeated every month, if you needed to swap you could either swap a whole four week line or an individual shift, so long as it was with someone at the same grade and you arranged it between yourselves and confirmed with the manager. There was always a week off with post nights days off combined with days off from the next week.
You always knew what you would be doing and could plan. I've never understood why ward managers up and down the country struggle to juggle the off duty every month although I suppose constant low staffing and people leaving and sickness mean certainty isn't possible. That wasn't a problem in that ITU in Aus!

Oh OP that rota sounds appalling and totally unfair. I would be making it clear to your shitty manager that either the shifts be reallocated fairly and your colleagues made to do their fair share over Christmas and New Year or you willbe handing in your notice. Nursing agency and bank shifts are plentiful and would give you so much more control overyour life.

YANBU. Persistent rota unfairness is quite a common and easy to prove example of bullying within teams. If you really stand up for yourself and confront the manager repeatedly about it and they still don't budge then you know you'll need to leave

Ward managers get away with this kind of unfairness and pressure because they rely on people just sucking it up and not making a fuss.

I'm glad you are going to put yourself first and resign if necessary.

My MIL worked as part time healthcare due to her back but somehow for Christmas New Year etc was expected to do as many "horrid" shifts as the full timers... one year she put her foot down and management were most put out but had to acknowledge she was in the right. I think they'd put her down to work all her shifts for the 2 weeks on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, NY Eve and NY Day... none of the full timers expected to do the same!

I’m an American RN all my career spent working in hospitals-rule for holidays was you had to work 1 summer holiday and 2 winter holidays however if you work only weekends and if holidays didn’t fall on weekends you weren’t obligated by your contract but I volunteered as I felt a team player would do so

American holiday system very different to European though. I don’t think you can compare U.K./US expectations.

@Pennypinkhair - how did it go today?

I would tell the manager that the rota pattern has affected your work morale and you will likely be giving your notice in on Monday!

Making a rota is always a thankless task and from experience really difficult to please everyone. However the unpopular shift hours should be evenly distributed.

How did your conversation go today?

Sorry just woke up from nights. I went to see her this morning, with my charge nurse who is very supportive of staff. I had worked out that over the last year of my rota ( actually 55 weeks ) I have worked 39 weekends and the 16 weekends that I was off I swapped 4 weekends, and requested 3 off and was annual leave for 4 of them so in over a years rota I have been off for only 5 weekends on the rota and how badly it is affecting my work/ life balance. She has agreed that it is very unfair when looked at like that and has agreed to look at my hours over the xmas period and in future. She said all the right platitudes but I insisted that I hear the outcome of any changes she can make by the end of today as it really is the last day I am able to hand my notice in before the xmas period... I’m still waiting. She doesn’t leave till around 7 pm usually so I will wait till 7.40 pm which is the time day shift finishes and will email my resignation, as talked about. I’m not holding my breath to be honest and don’t really expect that she can juggle things now that the rota has been handed out, so it looks like I will be leaving. Will update again if I hear anything and thanks for the support.

Please don't miss that deadline for handing in your notice.

Sounds like she will make you work over Christmas if you have your notice in.

Can you write your resignation in such a way that it states your unfair allocation of shifts and you feel that you have no choice but to resign?

It does appear like they have behaved very badly.

Good luck Op. in your resignation letter cite the reasons specifically

If they do rejig the shifts slightly, would that be enough to keep you there?

No job is forever

Have just spoken to my manager who has literally just phoned ! It’s amazing that suddenly she has managed to re organise things so that I am now off every other weekend, which is fine, as I said I don’t mind some nights and weekends, I just mind ALL my shifts being nights and weekends. She is still working on my December shifts and has absolutely promised that she will work them out more fairly. I will still look around for something else and I hope that I’m not being lulled into a false sense of security with her efforts today, but I also feel that I have to give her some credit for sorting things so far. I understand the nightmare that sorting a rota can be and actually feel a bit rubbish and sad that it had to come to intending to leave before my issues were taken seriously and I was listened to.

Good for you, I work for the NHS and it drives me mad that they take advantage of good people all the time!

That's a good start, in hindsight because you haven't moaned/complained/stamped your foot previously you getting the raw end of the deal has been very much taken for granted.

I also feel that I have to give her some credit for sorting things so far.

She absolutely doesn't deserve credit for sorting an issue which only appeared because she can't rota her staff fairly.

Honestly, this kind of thing is Management 101, and the fact the NHS nearly lost an experienced nurse because of her inadequacies is ridiculous.

Oh please just quit and do bank work after Xmas! Have a lovely Xmas with your family instead

What will you do though if she can't change the xmas rota?

What's your notice period? Did I read eight weeks or was that someone else? Don't let her prevaricate for too long. If it's eight weeks you'd need to resign tomorrow in order to finish on Christmas Eve.

Don't worry too much about your colleagues. Nice as they may be, no one offered to help by taking the odd shift off you.