this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2024
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Nurses with an overbearing manager, how do you pass time at work without getting caught? (linux.community)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/workreform
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cross-posted from: https://linux.community/post/792581

Overbearing manager means somebody for whom relaxing after doing your job or reading on downtime means lazying around.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

I had a boss that was a constant micromanager. I started compiling lists of questions I had or things I actually needed for him and whenever he would come around I would just hit him with the list. I would even chase him down every time I knew he was in the vicinity. Eventually it got to the point where he would try to avoid me because he didn't want to do any actual work. He just wanted to "supervise" and I was ruining that for him.

Talk about irony, the same guy like to brag about not taking vacation time. I told him that people don't usually brag about their poor life choices. Fuck him. One of us was lazy and it definitely wasn't me.

[–] ExtraMedicated 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

My mom was a nurse. For her there was no down time. Usually she couldn't even stop to eat lunch. She'd just grab a granola bar or something and keep going. Hospitals are dangerously understaffed.

Yet there were still some people who would stand around chatting or whatever while her arthritic ass ran around the floor taking care of people.

[–] Zachariah 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So some people knew it is healthy to carve out downtime instead of relying on management to give it to them.

[–] ExtraMedicated 7 points 7 months ago (4 children)

In most lines of work, that's perfectly fine. In a hospital, someone can die if there isn't enough help.

But again, this is entirely the hospital management's fault for failing to properly staff their hospitals.

[–] markstos 12 points 7 months ago

Someone can also die if the nurses burn out and quit because their job is not sustainable.

Understaffing is a system failure, not a personal failure.

[–] NewNewAccount 11 points 7 months ago

But it’s not the fellow nurses responsible for hiring and scheduling enough help.

This is one reason why unions can be so effective for nurses.

[–] Buddahriffic 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I reject the idea that HCW, or any kind of emergency or life support workers for that matter, should be treated like slaves because of the consequences to others if they are treated as fairly as other workers in less urgent lines of work.

[–] reversedposterior 4 points 7 months ago

Agree. It's yet another case of underpaid and understaffed industries. If nobody wants to do a job because it's too long and hard, it's because 1 person is being expected to do the work of multiple people.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Okay, and…? Do you think people in the business of saving lives shouldn’t get downtime at all, just all go from clock in to clock out? Like it’s a concentration camp instead of a hospital?

Your mum sounds like she’s awesome, but she remind me so much of mine. Self-sacrificing to a fault, and potentially like she struggled to internalise that she needed breaks, because otherwise “someone (could) die”.

[–] ExtraMedicated 1 points 7 months ago

Whoa, not what I was trying to say at all. Nor was I implying that OP or anyone else here is lazy.

There's a huge difference though between not getting a break and not being willing to do what is expected of you (within reason), and this isn't really something that can be generalized so easily.

Again, I never meant to imply anything about any particular person, so I apologize if it came across that way.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago

I just straight up stay away from management lol. Work the night shift.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

I don't work in medicine, but I've had plenty of demanding managers. My advice is to start advocationg for yourself and making sure you take your breaks, no excuses. And don't cut them short, put a timer or something. In some states, if your manager interrupts your break, the break restarts, check if that's an option for you and do just that. Same goes for your lunch. Know your worker rights and be ready to advocate for yourself as well as share that information with your coworkers. Finally, slow down your pace. Work is a marathon, there will always be more work for you. Rushing will only exhust you, and you will still have to do it again tomorow. Instead slow down so that you can do it again tomorrow.