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.

If OP has not childcare then she may have to give up her job! Unless the Trust will be understanding, which some Trusts are. You can’t magic up unsociable hours childcare from nowhere if you don’t have it.

Also, it might feel like a dictatorship right now because NHS is in desperate need. I’m sure they couldn’t just move you anywhere at normal times. I do agree with you though, that it sounds like it’s not the right kind of work for you to do.

Think you really need to let this one go..i understand you would like to know the reasoning behind the decision but fact is you wont be told and you are only going to jeapordise your friendship and working relationships if you pursue it.

It’s only one week. And formal processes are our window at min! We are in a pandemic

You absolutely don't have to work shifts. They can ask you but you don't have to do it. Many many workers in the AHP field are now having to work compressed hours around childcare drop offs etc. Some can't come to work because of it, they cannot force you to do anything you don't feel comfortable with or are able to do. I'm in a similar boat (adult SLT) and currently in my actual job but even if I'm redeployed, I can't do shifts.

I do think you should just help out where needed without complaining about it or threatening to hand your notice in. Then again I've seen how being friends with the boss outside of work can get people promotions and special treatment and can totally understand your resentment.

Also, virtually every person I spoke to in the hospital is thinking of handing in their notice. Not because they don't care but because they are being treated like crap, no one is telling us anything, incorrect PPE throughout the entire hospital, no regard to safety or morale, some people are being belittled on wards because they don't have skills and ward staff don't want to train them etc. Throw in the fact the NHS is quite happy to trade lives in favour of covid. We're barely at the beginning of this and people know where this is going and they don't want to be part of it. If you've got a good trust, it maybe a different story. I don't.

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

Well said. I feel for you, OP. It must be very hard. Hope you feel less anxious tomorrow. Tbh, your manager sounds a bit shit, but they are obviously also under pressure.

OP I get how you are feeling. You are being suddenly dropped into an unfamiliar environment which holds very real risks to you and your family's health, to do a job you are completely untrained for. It seems unfair that you are being expected to do this without question, I wonder how many of the 'do your bit and stop moaning' posters are actually frontline NHS.
I am a TA and suddenly being asked to work in an environment which could make me or my family unwell. Its scary and I didn't sign up for it. No one has stopped to ask if I am OK with this, and my Head had a huge rant at me when I questioned how she was organising some things. We are just expected to shut up and get on with it. On a very low wage I might add. I am currently questioning where my priorities lie.
You have to do what you feel is right, personally I would ask the question but be aware your manager is almost certainly under huge pressure and you may well just get told the same again.
Good luck.

I think how the Trust is to their staff is so important spirdygirdy as you say. I have been hugely impressed with our Trust and I know morale is actually not too bad. There will be a lot of goodwill towards management after this. Frequent briefings, lots of information and lots of reassurance that, in particular with childcare, you may not be able to do shifts or work loads of hours and that’s ok. Because they know you will do your best and give them the hours you can work. Lots and lots of messages to please not just hand in your notice but to speak to HR or management or even your union about the hours you can do. So yes, of course people are being redeployed but there is an absolute assurance that if you are vulnerable or do not have childcare then you will not be pushed to do more than is feasible. Lots of messages about preventing burn out. Because they don’t want to be even more short staffed than they already are. As a result huge numbers of staff have actually volunteered to up their hours and be redeployed.

Ask me again when it’s all turned to shit and I might give a different answer though .

Your manager had to choose one of you and there is no other explanation than that. Somebody needs to work on the ward...'ooo I have Janet and zoe available janet can go.'

@TooStressyTooMessy that's actually made me well up a bit because I've realised that is what I really need to hear from our management at the moment and I know it's not going to happen and we all feel so unsafe. They've set up a phone line to call who can signpost you to charity support. That's it.

I'd assume she has a health condition that she doesn't want to talk about, or her DC/DP does.

There will be a reason but they have no duty to have to share it with you.

Tell them tomorrow you feel unwell and cannot go to work. You do not need to resign.

spirdy. Weirdly I would say usually the Trust is mediocre at these things. Pays lip service to staff morale and burn out. They have really stepped up to the plate here .

I guess you would still be pissed off if your manager told you that they had literally tossed a coin and you lost.

Let's face it, you could ask tomorrow and this be the reply you get.

You may think it is favouritism but have absolutely zero way of proving it.

The noise you make now about this will be remembered long after.

Resigning seems to very much be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater but if you are happy to jump ship when you are most needed and be unemployed to boot, crack on.

OP I completely understand your fear and honestly don't feel that you have to just shut up and do as your told, especially as your actual role is a million miles away from frontline nursing.
There have been some terrible decisions coming from government, and senior management; and staff are expected to just STFU and obey, no clarity, detail or reasoning given.
Just like soldiers in WW1 and in Afghan, some people in some roles are expected to put up with shitty equipment, and shitty leadership, putting their own lives at risk, whilst PPE is 'on its way.'.
I'm not sure what to suggest, but I've noticed that all of a sudden blind loyalty is expected, media is banging on about the 1000s of amazing volunteers, and HCPs (and to a lesser extent, teachers) are made to feel guilty if they object to some of the things demanded of them.

TooStressy - if only my management was like this, I would have had more goodwill towards them.

OP I would say that maybe it is not who has been chosen and why is not really what is bothering you. Maybe it is the going in the first place. If you feel you are putting your health at risk for a job that doesn't pay enough and dont want to go don't. As pp said are they expecting something completely out of the confines of your role?

It looks as though one of you had to do it. Would she be complaining if you had the "at home" job.? I think, in the current circumstances, you might be gracious enough to help the NHS in any way you can.

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.

This happens to nurses on a daily basis at my hospital pre covid19 (but also during as well) , they are sent from their own place of work to work in other wards which are deemed busier.
Its terrifying and dangerous as many havent worked in wards in over 20 years since they were students and although highly skilled in their own departments have no idea of what do to on wards and are often in tears on their way to the other ward and frequently go off with stress.

So ..... I say if you've never known this about the NHS before then you've had a rude awakening to what it is daily reality for many nurses. (I appreciate you're not a nurse).

Current situation with Covid19 , nurses from all over are being moved from their workplace to work in critical care with no experience and are terrified.

Yes it seems like its unfair that your colleague gets to sit at home while youre working but arguably its unfair that so many people all over are getting paid to stay at home while those on the frontline in hospitals and community dont get to stay home and are putting their own lives at risk due to lack of protective equipment.

I guess you have to do what you feel gives you peace, either reframe it in your mind and perhaps say, ok Im scared but this is a challenge i can rise to to help out my country during a pandemic, or you can decide its unacceptable and hand in notice because the conditions you will be subjected to are not safe and thats ok as well.

totally understandable IMO

Are you a physio? I am and in a similar situation. I’ve been fuming all day. I have been redeployed to a hospital 1hr 30mins from my house. I normally work in one 10 mins away. I have a young m child and DH who is also frontline NHS and a much more critical/lifesaving role than me. Last week he worked 60 hours, and that’s in the calm before the storm.

I’ve decided to take unpaid leave. My DD’s school has closed to key worker kids because of staff shortage. She has been offered a place at a different school in a neighbouring town but she is 5 and I know this will be too much for her.

So I’ve decided to stay home to care for my daughters and supper my DH. The harder he works now, the more lives will be saved. Me, however, as a physio who hasn’t worked on a ward for 15 years (went into outpatients after 5 years rotating) will play more of a rehab role once the pandemic is on the downward curve. That’s the bit I’m skilled at and can add most value. I’m part time at the moment but will go up to full time to try and make up for what I didn’t do over the next 4-12 weeks.

I know some might consider that selfish, and I have agonised over my decision. But it’s the right one for me and my family.

After 20 years of service to the NHS, I hoped I’d be given the opportunity to work from home like MANY specialist physios are doing because they have ‘project work, so I can at least pay my mortgage. But no, it’s unpaid leave.

You are not being selfish Knobbly . As you say you are supporting another worker in a skilled frontline role. You are looking after your daughter too.

Lots of people will have had to make similar decisions and they are not selfish either

Thank you @toostressy

I’m feeling a lot of guilt. But the alternative is that we all feel stressed and run down.

My DH is almost doing enough hours to cover my contribution anyway. And he’s more useful. So it makes sense.

I am very aware he’s a ticking time bomb for catching it though. Trying not to think about that.