Some background: I work at a board and care facility for the elderly with psychiatrist diagnoses. Most of the residents I work with are schizophrenic, have dementia, or a traumatic brain injury that leaves them unable to take care of themselves. I am an appointment coordinator and my job is to manage their medical health by scheduling and taking them to all of their medical appointments, as well as advocating for them during those appointments and making sure all their needs get covered. Most of the residents aren’t able to articulate what their health issues are and can hardly understand why they’re at doctor appointments half the time, so it’s very important for me to be there to make sure everything goes smoothly and report the progress and outcome of each appt back to our staff at our facility.
Yesterday I had to take a resident to the ER because his blood work showed he was positive for MRSA. My managers stopped me in the middle of getting ready for a diff appt and told me I had to take the MRSA resident asap since MRSA is a pretty serious infection, so I did just that. We left around 11:40AM, and I was there until 6PM. Throughout this whole time I never received a lunch break or rest breaks. My manager never even bothered to check on me to ask if I needed someone to come cover me so I could go on my lunch. I wasn’t able to leave my resident on his own because he is high needs and needs to be supervised at all times while out in the community. I clocked in to work at 8:30AM and didn’t get off till 6:15PM (usually I’m off at 5:00PM) and went the whole 9.5 hours without food or a break. I am so incredibly upset by this.
My manager(s) knew I was there. They kept asking how the resident was doing, but not once mentioned sending someone to cover me. The reason I didn’t say anything sooner about needing someone to cover me is because in the past when I’ve gone to the ER with a resident and have asked for someone to come replace me, I’ve been told that no one was available to take my spot, so I’ve been forced to stay overtime until the resident either gets admitted into the hospital or discharged from the ER.
It wasn’t until 4:30PM, half an hour before I was suppose to be off, that I texted my manager asking for someone to replace me bc I hadn’t had a lunch break all day. He responded ten min later saying “so sorry. Someone is gonna go replace you.” That person didn’t get there till a whole hour later. (Not blaming them btw). I could’ve said something earlier, but I wanted to see how long my manager would go without offering me a lunch, and it seems he never would’ve said anything if I hadn’t spoken up myself. I think that’s incredibly unprofessional and insincere. How can you willingly and knowingly leave your employee without food or a break for 9.5 hours straight? I have a degree in cognitive science, live in California, and make $19/hr—not nearly enough to deal with this bs. It’s not the first time something like this happens which makes it even more infuriating.
Needless to say, I’ve put in my two weeks.