Please stop me from handing in my notice tomorrow! NHS rant

[Rantysaurus]

I’ll keep this brief but would love any advice before tomorrow.

Me and colleague are paediatric AHPs in a very small team. Same job, banding, roles and responsibilities. Not essential for COVID in our current roles so we knew we’d be redeployed.

Manager announced today that I’m being redeployed from tomorrow (no idea where yet but probably as a healthcare support worker on acute ward going by pattern I’ve seen today among other staff) but colleague has been given at least a week worth of work she can do from home in her current role.

I asked how manager had come to this decision. Got told I didn’t need to know and ultimately I need to do as I’m told. Me and colleague are close friends and we discussed afterwards. She also has no idea how this has been decided. We both have children and taking advantage of the school childcare provision which is working well for us. She said she couldn’t think of any personal circumstances which might have swayed the decision today. She is no higher risk than me for catching covid. She is, however, good friends with our manager and they socialise frequently outside of work.

I have a strong feeling that favouritism was the decider in what happened today.

Wibu to speak to manager about this tomorrow and request a proper explanation as to how she came to this decision? Why she’s putting me more at risk than my colleague by asking me to attend our local hospital tomorrow to be redeployed while my colleague doesn’t have to leave her house?

Have read our health board policy on redeployment and it says all clinical staff should continue coming to work as usual and await redeployment if our role is not essential to fighting COVID. Nothing relevant in there about picking and choosing which staff doing the same job should be redeployed. Just says anyone not doing a job that directly helps the pandemic should attend their usual workplace and await redeployment.

Do I have any rights here to request an explanation? Why does my colleague get what sounds like the better and safer deal? Or do I put up and shut up as I need to accept I can’t be privy to this kind of management info?

I’m absolutely livid about this and actually don’t know why it’s angered me so much. Genuinely feel like packing it in. Why couldn’t we have shared the remaining workload and both worked from home on this and then both been redeployed at the same time? I’m also worried that we’re being told we’re no longer allowed to question decisions like this and just need to obey.

Clearly I’m feeling bitter that she got the better and safer deal here. Trained in a field I loved and was passionate about and that had family friendly hours now I’m going to be doing god knows what from tomorrow with potentially unsociable hours and, yes, I’m panicking slightly.

I appreciate fully that frontline staff are doing this day in and day out. And that this thread has probably made so many of you annoyed. It scares me that,actually, NHS can do anything they want with me and I can’t question it. That I can be put into a completely alien field to the one I trained in and I have to accept it without question. I’m grateful right now to have job security but when all of this is over, I don’t think NHS is the right place for me at all. Right now it feels like a dictatorship.

If you were to ask your manager, she's hardly likely to say that she doesn't want to put her friend (your colleague) in the firing line, is she? I can't see that you'll gain anything by asking her to explain her reasoning.

@unhappyclap there is nothing to raise hun... The manager found risking one person is better than two ppl... Thats just common sense...
as to favourism, its a week difference, whats the big deal to raise?

It isn’t just the NHS doing this but there are tough decision being made for so many people
Dental and practice nurses being sent out into the community
All the AHP’s I know have been redeployed in some way
Everyone is afraid. I do understand. MH and morale is low right now
Trust me a lot of ‘policy’ is being thrown out of the window on a daily basis as it’s such a dire urgent situation

No manager wants to or enjoys upsetting their staff and telling them these things. I’ve had office based staff crying on the phone to me as they are afraid - and they are in an office! They all want to WFH but we don’t have the tech and for nurses and AHP’s the workload at home is very small unless you are helping 111 on the phones. Patients are not coming in to any clinics, nurses are having to navigate telephone prescribing (which is not within their remit under NMC!) they are doing things they don’t feel comfortable with
I do understand how afraid you are
Speak to your manager about your worries not your colleague

I have been in the NHS for 20 years. This is the only time I have known mass redeployment on this level (I have been permanently redeployed in the past but that was to a similar job).

It is scary for all of us it what's the alternative? For every person who comes over from other trusts it takes the pressure off the acute trust just a little bit and do our bit to manage the pandemic.

What answer would you want though? What would help you feel better about it?

She could say, based on past performance she thinks your colleague will be more efficient completing the work at home (ouch). Or, she simply flipped a coin and you lost. She’s not likely to say, well I protected the person I like best, is she even if that was actually the case (bloody hope not). My point being, she’ll be able to respond with a HR-acceptable explanation, whatever the truth actually is.

I understand it feels unfair. It is unfair. This virus is unfair. But there’s no way around it is there. You need to find whatever way you can do of accepting it and keeping on.

Sorry. But Thankyou as well. Thankyou very much for being there for us.

You sound jealous! Not what I expect from people in your line of work.

Thanks for the replies. They’ve helped enormously and calmed me down. Have had a bit of a sob and feeling like I can cope a little better with whatever the heck tomorrow brings!

Clearly I’m feeling bitter that she got the better and safer deal here.

Not for long though. Assuming there are no underlying issues, she'll be on the front lines in a week.

Op I totally get that, it's such a shame you haven't got more of a supportive manager.

I work in endoscopy, and before that cath labs, I have never worked on a ward, I have done the odd shift and odd helping out, so I'm familiar, but not confident.
I have colleagues that haven't been on a ward since 1983!!

Were all tense, we're all scared, well all anxious about it.

Our managers are ensuring we have the correct training and refreshers, 4 were sent to itu today to buddy up and get some training to be support nurses there.

Also making sure we're sent in twos, so we have a buddy, at least we won't be in the deep end, on our own!

We've had this conversation today at work, it really does feel like no thought has been put into us nurses, we're being poorly managed by the higher ups, feels like we're always last to be thought about, because more often than not we will do as we're told, as a body of nurses, we rarely shout about what we're not happy with, we do it for our patients.

And they know that.

Not what I expect from people in your line of work.

NHS staff are allowed to be human! They're allowed to wish they could be safe.

I'm with Hannah, it's one week difference and it's better to risk one rather than 2. There could be all sorts of other reasons - maybe she thinks you're better in a crisis, calmer, etc. It's not necessarily a favouritism thing and you'd struggle to prove it was.

Rantysaurus, I just wanted to say Thank You

Could it be something to do with trying to train people quickly, in the role that they need you to undertake?
In that instance, one or other of you has to go now - they can't afford to wait for 2 of you to go together.

These are extremely hard times in the NHS OP and it really is the time to do what's asked of you with as good grace as you can muster .....even though it's shitty for you.

As PP said, your colleague, and the manager too, won't be too far behind you.

Good luck.

Yes, I am jealous @nicky7654.

I work for the nhs. So what? I’m human just like you.

My “line of work” is typically sitting with kids and helping them with games/activities for language development. Hardly life or death and very low risk!

The idea of potentially having to go in tomorrow and provide personal care to an elderly, poorly person is just as alien to me as it would be to a postman!

It takes a special kind of person to do that sort of job. I don’t think I have the right qualities for it so that’s why I didn’t choose that type of work.

There are so many arguments about just anybody getting given jobs in care homes when they clearly don’t have a passion for it. Yet here it’s happening on a mass level to nhs staff because of this shitty virus.

I am actually WFH even though I am sick (and isolating)

If this virus wasn’t happening I would be actually on proper sick leave until I was better. I am dragging myself out of bed at 8am to do conference calls all day and I am not the only one. I feel horribly guilty that I am at home and everyone else is at work
I actually think your colleague will not be gloating about fannying around at home if she is a decent person she will feel guilty and be worrying like everyone else and it will soon be her turn

It may be that your colleague does have a health concern that she doesn’t want you to know about so she is pleading ignorance about the whole thing .

Yes, you’re right. I have no idea that I’ll be placed on a ward tomorrow so I need to stop presuming. I’m just really anxious right now about the uncertainty.

Just hoping I’m given appropriate support and training with whatever it is I’m needed for.

I think it’s more the fear of change of hours that’s worrying me. I’ll have no childcare if I’m asked to work evenings or weekends in the redployed role. I voiced this concern today and was essentially told I’d have a day to sort out emergency childcare as per our leave policy then I’d be expected to be in work. And we’re not allowed to take leave until May. Manager offered no solutions today when I mentioned this and just said I was obliged to work my contracted number of hours and the NHS got to decide which days and shift patterns those would occur over.

Our NHS trust is now in a special operational mode in which decisions are all 'top down' not for debate and need to be obeyed. It isn't usually like this this is for a state of emergency and so rarely used. Never before in my 15 year career. Its likely yours is too. It's hard but understandable in the circumstances. DOn't make any decisions now about whether or not it's for you -- obviously this is a temporary situation (well, I hope so)

Re. the childcare issue. Can you speak to HR tomorrow? At least regarding the different hours. They may say you have to suck it up but no way would I just be taking one manager’s word for it. There is a difference between being redeployed which is shitty but understandable and being redeployed meaning you have zero childcare. Yes, officially they can make you change your hours. However, our Trust has said to all staff that they will be flexible with hours if people cannot get childcare. They could be lying of course. At the end of the day if people can’t get childcare they may end up having to take the unpaid leave which will actually hinder them at a time they are desperate for staff.

Ask. Ask in writing. Ask for equitable treatment. I wouid be asking
Manager may have to make quick decisions... and should also be able to justify. And ensure equity

I am a secretary in a multi disciplinary team in Scotland and I can see where you are coming from tbh.

The AHP's in our team consisting of OT's and SLT's are either office based or being sent into hospitals in their own discipline. Their manager is not making them do shift work or alter their work patterns. They don't see a place for them on the ward so they are either in the community offering telephone support or in the hospitals in their own departments.

There is a great fear right now amongst NHS staff as they are on the front line and could carry the virus home with them. I also appreciate that there are many other workers in the same boat e.g. shop workers, pharmacists, delivery drivers etc.

We are all in this together - please try and be kind to each other.

If you are in a union I would also speak to them

You’re willing to give up your job over a few extra days being redeployed? If you would have been in that position together in a few days time instead of now, that’s literally all the difference is OP, a few days.

Is there any history with a Manager you haven’t told us about? I know management can be a nightmare but if that’s the case then you’re probably being a little irrational based on past experiences. If not, then I don’t know what to say.

She had to choose one of you, you can ask why she came to her decision but ultimately I think you just need to accept it. Your colleague will probably be selected next