Just wanted to vent..
This has been a long time coming. I (27M) have worked in healthcare for 10 years now as a custodian. Because I absolutely loved working in the hospital environment, I went and got my BSHS when I was 18 so one day I could work with patients, but apparently that wasn't good enough to be able to, so I've been stuck in Environmental Services for years. I've bounced around a few hospitals in my time, but I've been at this place for 2 years now, working in the Operating Rooms cleaning up car accidents, gun shots, any kind of trauma, and routine surgeries. I actually love the job, as gross as it sounds, and I loved the people I worked alongside.
The management was disgustingly piss poor though. From DAY 1, when I accepted the job and quit my other job, it was supposed to be for first shift (7am-3:30pm) but two days before I started, they told me that position was already filled so I could work 2nd shift (3pm-11:30pm). I reluctantly agreed since I had already did my two weeks at my other job and was sitting on my ass at home. They also told me after 15months I could request transfer to another shift or apply to other departments. I am a morning person and let me tell you, it was very hard getting adjusted to 2nd shift. I felt like a zombie the entire two years I spent there. You get home around midnight and you get that 2nd burst of energy and end up staying up until 4-5am, doing nothing of course because all you can do in those hours is watch tv and snack. Then I would sleep in until at least noon and it was time to get ready for work again. I like to be productive. I like to work on the house, cook, draw, play music, but there was just simply no time to do anything productive unless I massively reworked my sleep schedule, which I tried and failed.
Anyways, then COVID started. I started hearing about COVID during my last two weeks at the old job, and started the new one just in time for the shit storm. I was in my probationary period so I couldn't call off at all, but for some reason the hospital thought it would be a good idea to take away attendance points for calling off because they wanted to make sure nobody was coming in with COVID. What resulted was all the people who had been there for years to start using their sick time, sans attendance points. Most of them just never came back. We lost over half our staff because nobody wanted to risk their lives of their families lives for this shitty job. I don't blame them. This resulted in mandates. They would be allowed to make you stay to work another 8 hour shift if anyone from the next shift called off. I tolerated this. I hated it, but I did it a few times. They implemented “x5 overtime” if you worked 40 hours of OT, which told me they were not planning on hiring anyone else, instead they were just going to tempt everyone who was stupid enough to stay to sign up for OT.
Then in October of last year my Dad passed away, from what he thought was long COVID but was actually advanced pneumonia. I still live with my parents, and I am the only child and this destroyed us. They were the forever and ever type, and he was the best dad and role model I could ask for. They gave 3 days bereavement per “union policy”. If I wanted more time they told me to ask for vacation donations from other coworkers. I ended up huffing and puffing to the manager to get 5 days (40hours), but it was a struggle to even get the time. And it's the last thing you want to worry about when you are trying to grieve. My mom also works at a hospital and they told her take as much time as you need (they aren't union). It took them over 2.5 months for them to pay me, and even that was a struggle to get through because it was Christmas, the first one without my Dad. That was the last straw in my eyes, I wanted to quit then, but I really had no back up job and I heard there was going to be openings on first shift, so I stuck it out.
Finally, 3 open positions for first shift. A job I would love. I wouldn't have to deal with the worst person I have ever met in my life as my direct supervisor any more (a 22 year old girl who actually brought a bunch of 40, 50, and 60 year olds who have been working there 20+ years into a room together just to tell them they should be looking up to her as a mentor.. who continually breaks HR and HIPAA protocol and goes out of her way to make everybody pissed off). Since a lot of people quit I actually had seniority over quite a lot of people there, including a couple that works together in my department. I applied for all 3 positions and was told by the manager that the positions needed to be open for at least a week before I would know anything. However, because hospitals are apparently a better source for gossip than a middle school, I started hearing rumors that the manager had been calling people down to the office to ask if they wanted the first shift position, including the couple that works together in my department (they both have less seniority than me). Not only was it the manager, but it was the first and second shift supervisors doing this as well. And they did it with the subtlety of a baboon, because all of a sudden everybody knew about it and apparently the jobs were already filled, they were just lying to me and others who applied for it, and let it sit “open” for a week just to make it look like they gave others a chance. They were also going around telling everyone that I wasn't being considered for the job because I had attendance write ups, which resulted from me taking a few days to grieve about my Dad.
I was obviously furious as were a couple other people who got wind of what management was doing. I reported the manager and the two supervisors to HR and the ethics committee for lying to me, for preferential treatment, intimidating workers, and for telling other coworkers my personal information. I also reported the couple that works in my department for being in a relationship and receiving preferential treatment. The girl had lied to my face at least five times when I asked her if they were applying for first shift, or if management had talked with them about it. The guy, who I actually really like, told me right to my face it was happening because he didn't understand why it was wrong of management to do such a thing (he's from Africa). In the past, management has changed their schedules, switched their weekends, changed their shifts, and got them in the same department to accomodate their relationship, while at the same time telling people like me that they couldn't make any changes to schedules.
My Dad always advised me not to burn bridges and to always give two weeks, which I always have because of him, even though I have wanted to walk out of several places. I just couldn't do it this time. Although I wanted to walk into the office and take a shit right on the desk, I simply clocked out one last time, turned in my badge, pager, and parking, and told them I wouldn't be returning, and that they would all be hearing from HR soon. As far as I know a ton of people reported their behavior and someone will have to do something about it, I simply don't care anymore. I don't have any jobs lined up but I do have a bit of savings. My mom and friends understand and were happy to hear I left. I'll figure something out. Just wanted to get that off my chest, figured this is a good place to do it.
Healthcare is truly fucked up in the US, I have learned a lot in my 10 years about how hospitals are actually run (for-profit and no fucks given about patients). They cut corners and fix budgets in the dumbest of ways to save pennies but they have no problem overcharging an elderly lady for her pills, or performing treatments that they know won't work to rack up a bill. They will do anything to get rid of medical and financial liability. They will do it to anyone. That's fine when you are McDonald's but not fine when you are a hospital. The people I worked with were some of the most genuine and best people I have ever met. But the US healthcare system has actually managed to take an intelligent, motivated young man, who wants to help people, burn him out and make him run as far away from healthcare as he possibly can. My heart goes out to healthcare workers and patients everywhere. I know their pain. For me, I think I will get into tattooing. I'm really passionate about my art. It's something my Dad backed me up on ever since I was a little boy. I told him I wanted to be a tattoo artist when I was 16, and instead of telling me to grow up, go to school, and get a job, he went out and bought me 3 tattoo guns and told me to cover him as practice. His death has made me completely reevaluate how I spend my time here on Earth. I can tell you it won't be spent rotting away working my nights in a hospital. Thank you Dad.