Everyone has their days at work but this nurse was just so exhausted with her tiring routine.

She had to get herself out of it.

Let’s check out what she did!

Don’t take every second Thursday off? Ok.

Many years ago I worked in Aged Care as a Personal Care Assistant, the lowest rung of Nursing staff, basically responsible for all the physical labor, such as showering residents, assisting them to go to the toilet, getting them in and out of bed, that sort of thing.

She adored what she did.

I loved my job, I genuinely did, and for a while worked at an agency going form place to place before getting poached by a specific Nursing Home which is where the Malicious Compliance takes place.

I had been working there for about a month doing 4 days a week, all afternoons 3-10 PM, and two of those afternoons were back to back Wednesday and Thursday, and this is where the other nurse comes into play.

But this one person made it impossible for her.

Every second Wednesday, without fail, she would call in about 20 minutes before her shift (the 10 PM – 6 AM overnight shift) was due to begin, leaving no time to get agency staff in to take over.

Now I could wait until they arrived but by the time they got there it would likely be after 12 and my trains home would not be running, so in the end I took on a double shift, 3 PM to 7 AM, leaving me tired mentally and physically trying to get home on a packed morning rush hour train.

So not much fun, but given the other option was to leave my residents without proper care, and that would never, ever, happen.

She was exhausted!

This meant that by the time I got home it was around 9:30 AM and couldn’t get immediately to sleep due to needing to eat, shower and do the plethora of tasks needed to be done before going to bed for the day, meaning I wasn’t able to get to sleep until around 12:30, and my train to work left at 13:00.

This was obviously untannable, and after trying to do a double, followed by a regular shift sans sleep a few times I realized I was becoming a danger to my residents, my fellow staff members and myself due to not being able to maintain concentration.

She wanted her days off.

In the end I told my RN that on the Thursdays after a double I would not be able to do my shift for fear of someone getting hurt which would open the nursing home, and myself to potential legal trouble, not to mention someone suffering because of my choices.

So this had been happening for about 6 months now when I get called up to the office of the owner who promptly sat me down and berated me for “taking every second Thursday off” and “not being a team player”.

She had her genuine reasons.

I tried to explain why it was that I was taking those Thursday’s off but she would not listen so in the end I walked out with a write up and a threat of termination if “this behavior continued”.

Fast forward to the next Wednesday when, as usual, the other nurse called in 20 minutes before shift start saying she couldn’t make it, leaving us a nurse down for the night, so the only person on for that entire shift would be a Registered Nurse, and you can’t lift or assist people with only one person without using a hoist, and even then you are meant to have two people for safety reasons.

The nurse wasn’t budging.

The nurse in charge of afternoons rolled her eyes after the call and said “Looks like you are doing another double Bearded Guy” to which I replied, I can’t, and since staying until agency staff get here is not an option since I wouldn’t be able to get home, I suggest you call the owner and see what she recommends, and if she needs me to stay I will, but only if she gives me the direction herself and then confirms it with you.

After 10 minutes the owner hadn’t answered any attempts to call, and I said “sorry I have to leave, and the RN for the night shift began to get angry, to which I responded “I will get fired if I stay here and then need to take tomorrow off, or someone could get harmed if I stay and then work, neither of these is a great outcome so I have to go”.

She had to do something about it.

Now I knew they were never going to be able to get agency staff with such short notice, and that even by the slimmest of chances they could find someone it would be several hours between registering the request and someone showing up.

So I walked out the door, and hung around the corner for half an hour, knowing I would get a call sooner rather than later, and that I needed to be close by in order to get back and ensure my residents got the care they needed over night, and had my idiot grin to wake up to in the morning, especially for the 3 people who loved early morning showers.

She did what she had to.

The call came, I returned and two nights later I got a call from the owner, who ‘authorized me to work doubles as needed and take the next day off for safety reasons”

As far as I know the nurse who did the late call ins was still working there when I left a year later.

In the end my Residents got the care they deserved and I got to get some sleep after working 15 hours straight.

OUCH!

That must have been tiring for this poor nurse!

Let’s check out how the Reddit community responded to this story.

This person has an important question.

This person doesn’t understand the management.

This person doesn’t sound very fond of the ending.

This person has some questions..

This person hates the owner.

This poor guy!

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.