Calm me down about work issue please.

[Geckos48]

We have a new senior at our work, we'll call her A. I never have this trouble with the other one.

Two weekends ago I was doing some extra calls on Saturday morning because they had nobody in to cover, I was promised by my boss (B) that I would finish at 11am, which was clear from my rota, I get a call from A as I am heading to my last call;

'When you've finished you will go to '

No please or thank you, nothing. I was in front of a client so just said 'okay speak to you in a bit', when I called her afterwards I said 'is there anyone else who can do it? I'm supposed to be off now'. She said no, a girl had gone sick. Again no please or thank you.

Last night was a cock up and I ended up going to a call twice because the office messed me calls around, I ended up out until 9.30 when I was rota'd in til 9, not great on Christmas night. It wasn't A's fault but she could have gone and done the call much earlier and saved me staying up later than anyone else at work.

Today I had my first call at 7am but a gap between 8 and 9 so I checked with my client who I am good friends with and he said I could come between 7.30 and 8am instead ( the call is for an hour) after fannying about with the car being frosty I finally managed to get to his at 7.50 leaving plenty of time to do the call, I get a call from A

'After your call you need to go to ...' I said 'sorry I can't, have just arrived at first call and can't do it'. 'that doesn't matter, I need you here' she starts shouting at me and I hang up (eventually) looked at my phone ten minutes later and had a missed call, so I phone her

'Yeah don't worry about it, I've had to go and do it, I should have finished by now but because or you I have to go to another call'

Now this woman has no kids, gets paid a healthy premium for being on call and it is her responsibility to cover not me.

I sent her a message saying that I am only available for the calls I have agreed, that I will be speaking to the office tomorrow and that I don't wish to be treated like a skivvy.

She phoned me and I said 'is this about the calls I have this morning' and she said 'no I am trying to be nice Gecko' I said I didn't want to talk to her about it and hung up. The thing is she gave the impression that I was in some sort of trouble and by making a report about her I would be shooting myself in the foot and I am worried about it. I am always going out for extra calls, working as hard as I can and often working on my weekends off. I am now worried about tomorrow :(

[Geckos48]

Quite, she could have done the call, phoned to ask me to do it (fine) and then was wholly inappropriate down the phone to me when I said I couldn't (for whatever reason)

That is the issue.

[Geckos48]

She told me she had nothing else to attend to!

'I should be finished now but will have to do this other call because of you'

[clam]

I'm kind of wondering if it's a bit similar to supply teaching, in that you can choose whether you accept the job. That's probably where the resemblance ends though.
I take it you don't need the work then?

[Tigglette]

I think three are a variety of issues beyond that. You rearranged your schedule without consultation or discussion, on the basis that your client is a "good friend", which suggests a breach of professional boundaries. You weren't where your superior expected you to be according to the rota she had for you, which is a health and safety issue. You hung up the phone and sent what was, at best, a disrespectful message to your superior albeit in response to you feeling she had spoken to you inappropriately.

I wonder what you think her response should have been when she found out you had rearranged your schedule without speaking to her.

I'd be chalking this up to experience and trying to resolve it in as low key a way as possible.

[Geckos48]

I would expect her to acknowledge my ability to make my own decisions about what I do on Boxing Day morning. As I said had I not got to the call late, I would have still been busy and still not taken the call. I don't expect to be asked to cover on bank holidays unless it is necessary, not just because she fancies going home early!

[Tigglette]

And what if your had an accident, or something had gone wrong before or after your call. When workers are out in the community it's essential someone knows where they should be and when and that person is usually the senior responsible. It's not about trusting you to manage your time, it's about knowing where people are and when. When you're being paid for a job of work you don't unilaterally get to decide what you do with your time, Boxing Day morning or not.

[RandomMess]

I think that is what would piss me off, there was no reason for her to ask Gecko to do the call in the first place. The senior was being paid to be on call AND was able to do the call anyway!!

If Gecko had said "no, I'm having breakfast with my family" the senior still would have been arsey about it because the senior did not want to take the call despite being paid to be on call.

Gecko only wants to be called if she is genuinely required to work extra if it is not her rostered day AND she wants to be spoken to with politeness and respect whether or not she is able to help out. I don't think that is unreasonable at all.

[MerylStrop]

Op that is precisely what NOT to say if you want to be taken seriously (though you possibly blew that when you out the phone down second time when she phoned trying "to be nice"/resolve things).

[Geckos48]

Well given that Christmas night I ended up alone in a clients home with no bloody idea where she was and ended up having to go back at 9pm because they had not bothered to tell her or me that the call had changed, I think they will have a pretty hard time penalising me for moving my call forward half an hour.

It goes both ways and they really messed up on Christmas night, they didn't warn the family or the client that they had rejigged the calls and that ended up with muggins here working half an hour after my finish time.

Health and safety obviously wasn't a huge issue for them then...

[Tigglette]

But she has said she is usually happy to help, and on that basis it was reasonable from the Senior to ask. Or is the Senior supposed to discern when she may or may not want additional work and only ask on those occasions she decides might be appropriate. Being on call doesn't mean you do every call, it means that you ensure they are covered and that's what the Senior was doing, ultimately doing the call herself.

It just seems to me that neither were at their best, so for Gecko to turn into a big deal by going to her manager etc feels fairly disproportionate and actually puts her own less than stellar behaviour under the microscope.

[Tigglette]

Surely if they hadn't told the client the call had changed, she would have been there?

[Geckos48]

No she was at her relatives, she returned at 7.30 which was the original time of her call and I had already been, I then had to return at 9.00 after my other calls to complete it! Even then they told me to just 'pop in and see her' when actually it was a full 1/2 hour call!

[BreakOutTheKaraoke]

Gecko, my sister works in homecare, it's a very strange working situation to get your head round. You could be working officially for only 4 hours one day, but be out of the house for your first call at 7am, and not finish until 10, because you have 8 random half hour calls throughout the day. Quite often you get a phone call half an hour before to say you're not needed after all, or the client might tell you they want to go to bed early so you're finished half an hour into an hour call. Lots of free time during the day to pop home and see family, my sister started early during christmas morning, went home to open presents, couple of calls, mums for dinner, few more calls, popped to see us, last call then home for bed.

The issue is that the supervisor shouldn't be speaking to you like that. If you say that you don't want to take a call that hasn't been rostered for you, that's their problem, not yours. You were on shift for those couple of days, they give you your rota, you filled it. If your client asked you to call half an hour later, and you could fit it in, that's the clients choice. Yes, you should have passed it on to the office, you might get a bit of a bollocking for that, but totally not your fault if they haven't rota'd someone in to do the extra calls.

[TeaAndSconesTwice]

I agree 100% with lougle.

I have been in this job in nearly every position, this is the exact reason I left, it's chaos, it's hard hard work, the pressure is immense, people speak to you like shit.

If your out though gecko your out, if you say I can work morning shift on this day then if you have a gap you expect it to be filled, you broke the 1 rule no one should do & that's changing your call yourself without notifying anyone, you can't do this for many reasons 1 of them being safety & you also are not insured to be in that service users home at that time because that is not the original time.

I understand where your coming from but I also understand where your supervisor is coming from.

I think all home care places are the same unfortunately, it's chaotic due to staff sickness, not enough employees, to much work taken on, pressure from management, pressure from social services to take new service users, emergency cover, people being discharged from hospital etc etc, losing battle in my eyes & my experience.

[Geckos48]

breaking absolutely, that is absolutely the issue that I have.

[lougle]

" If your client asked you to call half an hour later, and you could fit it in, that's the clients choice."

No, no, no and just to be clear, NO. There are two contracts in place in this situation.

1. Contract between client and Care Agency, which says that they will attend to do care as stated.
2. Contract between Care Agency and Gecko, which agrees that Gecko will do calls as agreed with CA.

Gecko is not in a position to agree a change to the contract between the Care Agency and the Client. Under any circumstances.

If Gecko wanted to change the call time, she should have approached the Care Agency, who could approach the Client to see if that was agreeable.

If the Client wants to change the call time, she should approach the Care Agency, who can see if they can cover that change, either by Gecko shifting her hours or replacing Gecko with someone who can do the hours requested.

It is not for the client to agree with Gecko a change to the agreement with the Care Agency.