‘As punishment you can not pick up extra time.’ Nurse Endures Mistreatment By Her Boss Because She Works Extra So She Maliciously Complies And Gets Revenge

Nurses are some of the hardest working professionals on the planet, and when covid was raging, well…I honestly don’t know how any of them survived.

This woman worked on the covid ward and wanted to follow protocols as far as staying away from work whenever she felt sick. She would take a test and, if negative, return to work.

I’m a nurse at a large hospital. The floor I worked on was selected to be the COVID unit during the first and second waves. More nurses than not were catching covid. So whenever I got an inkling of being sick I would call out and get tested.

Now if I tested positive then I would get two weeks off without penalty. But I tested negative and returned to work. I get called into the office and got a verbal warning because I had one too many sick days.

Her boss had a problem with the number of sick days she was using even though she was following the written instructions for the ward.

I said to my manager “you realize we are in a pandemic right?”

She says “yes, I know that but we still have to stick to the original policy.”

When we clock in, there is an electronic message that pops up on the time clock that reads “During the pandemic we need to self monitor ourselves and by clocking in you are declaring that you are fit to work.”

There was no adjustment to the policy even though we were a covid unit during a pandemic. So I would either have to lie about feeling sick when I clock in, or call out and get in trouble.

OP also used to pick up extra hours in a neighboring department but soon enough her boss forbade this practice, since their department was short-staffed, too.

Here is where the malicious compliance comes in.

I had always picked up a lot of extra time in a sister department. Not because I needed the extra money but because the hospital was always short staffed.

My manager didn’t like the fact that I picked up extra time in the other department. She wanted me to pick up extra time in our department.

So she said. “As punishment you can not pick up extra time in the other department for 90 days. You should be responsible enough to pick up extra time in your own department.”

So, OP just stopped picking up extra hours. She didn’t need the money, she was just trying to help out, but helping out her rude boss didn’t appeal.

As I didn’t need the extra money, I didn’t pick up ANY extra time in that period. I got called almost every day to ask if I could come in because they were short staffed.

One of the reasons they were short staffed was because our sister unit was even more short staffed and the nurses on my unit were getting pulled to go work there. If only more nurses picked up extra time on the other unit, hmm.

When things settled down OP turned in her notice, and when her boss tried to guilt her into staying a whole month, she relished saying no thanks.

At the end of the 90 days I was told I could pick up extra time in the sister department again. At which point I handed in my two weeks notice and told her I accepted a position at another hospital.

She then tells me that because of my years of service I need to give four weeks notice.

I tell her “no, that’s just a courtesy. So I’ll extend the same courtesy I got when I needed to call out sick.”

Does Reddit think OP went too far or not far enough?

Let’s find out!

The top comment says jobs like this are never worth it.

Too many people have these stories – but made the right call.

They definitely shouldn’t regret it.

No one had any trouble imagining the whole thing.

I hope readers took a lesson from this one.

Value yourself and your time, because your job most likely will move on without a hitch.