To ignore work when they tried to call me in

[Ihavehadenoughalready]

Just worked the weekend, both days, first shift. Relaxing now, relaxing on my day off tomorrow, then work Tuesday through Friday.

Call comes I ignore it as I do when I don't know the number, listen to voice mail; they want to know if I can come tonight on third shift because X has called in again, leaving one person to cover our hospital department.

Company has told us last week that there will henceforth be no more call-in pay, no more incentive pay (we were getting that for being soooo short-staffed), and the only incentive left is if the extra day happens to make the week over forty hours, thus time-and-a-half. Which this would be for me.

But X keeeeeps calling in on third. X is not ill. X is burnt out because of working full time plus attending school. X has overbooked himself. Too bad for X.

OTOH, I feel sorry for the person left to fend for themself.

OTOH (I think I'm up to three hands now), I'm tired of the fact that we are so thinly staffed that one call-in makes for a catastrophic situation.

But I seem to have lost all incentive.....because our incentive and call-in pay was taken away.

So I thought about going in, such is my feeling of guilt, but dag nab it, I deserve days off. I ignored the voice mail and if anyone asks, my phone was on silent (it wasn't) and I didn't see that they called (I did).

When will our Overlords understand if they want hospitals to function, they must increase staffing or increase pay?

I agree with so many others - you should have answered, but that does not mean you should have gone in.

”I’m sorry Sue will be working alone but a lack of incentive pay means it is not worth changing my plans.” (It doesn’t matter that your plan is to rest and recover, it is still your plan.) It is your job to cover your assigned shifts. It is not your job to fix their staffing issues.

So to your actual question I would say you are indeed BU to not answer, but I refrain from voting that way.

Same thing everywhere tho. I work in another regulated sector and people keep leaving. No pay rise since lockdown, the one we’re getting barely makes living wage for where we live. And they keep pushing our targets and now paying double time for over time instead of recruiting to replace half the team we lost but I need my brain space for myself.

It’s all so Dickensian. It’s like they do not realise people will just keep leaving or be off long term sick with stress and then they will be up shits creek.

Sadly US hospitals have similar strategy to UK work staff til they drop, expect them to work extra for goodwill.

Very difficult to fight it, but not going in would help, though I feel bad for your coworker. Maybe they could call in too......

When i read OP I thought Radiology tech? Or something else? But alot of posters would not realise its not a nurse that does imaging procedures.

he needs to grow a pair and say no if its an issue for you both

i was in a supermarket, my days off, i ignored my phone and if i accidentally took the call, nope sorry, busy, cant come in

supermarkets have plenty of staff they can call in if they get stuck

Any decent manager will only call to ask, but won’t expect a yes. That said, I’ve definitely worked for some that will turn a complete 180 and be really nasty if for any reason you dare to say no to them. Either way it isn’t your responsibility to come in. It’s not your shift and they don’t pay you to be on call. If you can and want to pick it up then by all means do so, but X calling in is not your problem, it’s the managers responsibility to handle that.

And supermarket struggling financially? Poor supermarket can’t find workers to cover?

I’m in a similar situation in public sector. Small team. One left another on long term sick due to stress and burn out. I’ve been required to “temporarily” do an extra day per week. This now in 8th week with no end in sight. I’m now burnt out which is not good as dealing with vulnerable public. This all a result of under staffing and bad appointments at manager level. Plus at the top a business orientated approach even though public sector so out of touch. But surely you are not obliged to be in contact of any kind on days off or is that in your contract?

They need to sort their staffing out. Not your problem. I'd answer the phone and tell them this in a polite way.

This exactly 💯%