I'll keep some details somewhat vague, since it just happened and idk if this could get me in trouble, but I feel like I need this off my chest. I worked in home healthcare, and had experience in the past doing it (about 3 years or so), so I'm not clueless or anything. I don't have a degree, just training courses and a lot of common sense. With a past client, she was suffering horrendous bed sores because her other workers weren't changing/cleaning her often enough, and after I got there, her sores were healed within a month and gone completely in 3 months. I didn't join up home healthcare for the money or praise, I just really like helping people, and I knew some people who needed help, so that's what I did.
So this past summer, my fiance's mom fell and broke her wrist, and her insurance wouldn't pay anyone to stay around the clock with her, so we went and helped out. I want this to be made very clear, I didn't decide to apply for the job on my own. My fiance's mom, then my fiance, and then the regular healthcare home aide all made suggestions that I could apply to work and make a little money while being there. I asked multiple people multiple times, his mom the most, if they were certain they wouldn't view it as me taking advantage of being greedy. Needless to say, no one thought that, so there I went to apply.
I jumped through so many hoops to get hired on, it was unreal. The application, the tests to determine my general knowledge, there never really was an interview so much as “recruiter calls me, asks about my work history, calls my previous jobs, cool you're hired”, the background check, the physical exam, the multiple TB tests (which they keep losing and I've had to make copies of numerous times to resend when some higher up requests it), and then the hiring orientation. There were numerous red flags that I really should've seen as signs, but I was already 80-90% there, so just went on.
When I went for my orientation, I was told it would just be the usual paperwork, rules and policy, procedure, etc, so I dressed office casual, slacks, nice blouse, cute heels. I get there and the home office manager ends up having me do a walkthrough scenario of “what would you do in a client's home in XYZ scenario” in a mock home setup. Like a pop quiz, but for something they'd already determined I was qualified for, and I certainly wasn't dressed for? So weird, but again, I guess it made sense.
So I go on and do my thing, and get situated for working. Now all parties had agreed it was an odd situation, but still apparently legal. So it was agreed that whatever hours worked for the client (my SO's mom), and us, would be fine with the office so long as they don't go over her alotted hours. Mind you, this is important, because this is why I'm now unemployed. Never once was it mentioned there was a strict and specific set of hours required, it was very c'est la vie, do as you need so long as the client okays it. So I've been working afternoon to early evening weekend shifts for months now, because it works best for everyone.
His mom has gone in and out of physical therapy rehab, partially because she keeps falling and partially because her wrist still bothers her sometimes, so after she was released from her most recent stay, I inform the office and get ready with the schedule. Now since she's been in and out so much of the rehab, her weekday home health aide had to get another job, to afford having a family and all, and the office supervisor let me know I can pick up any hours I wanted.
So I suggest M, W, F, 1pm-6pm, which is actually an early shift compared to what I'd been working. She says no problem, we'll pencil it in. A mild suggestion that maybe the client might prefer to have me in earlier in the day to maintain routine, which I shrugged off with “she rarely wakes up and stays awake before noon, but if she needs or wants me in earlier, we'll need someone else to cover because we also care for my fiance's elderly dad”. This isn't a new situation. Everyone in the office with regards to hiring me had been aware of this from day one. It's never been made an issue of.
So Monday comes, I head in as usual, get to the home, try and clock in and see I'm not even scheduled a shift. Odd, but it's happened a few times before and nobody has once said anything to me besides “oh, hah, sorry, someone must have forgotten to get you in the system”. So I call the office, let them know. The lady I get isn't trained with the new system we switched to recently and says she'll get help and for me to go on with my shift. An hour into my shift, I get a call from someone higher up than our home office and she just lays into me.
Apparently, my SO's mom is alotted a certain schedule, M-Sat, 10am-3pm, and this course can never be deviated from. If I can't work the schedule, they need to find someone else. If I continue to blatantly flout the rules, his mom can lose her state benefits. Now, me not being able to work was no skin off my back. It was extra income we didn't necessarily need, but nice to have money for coffees or a cute shirt once in awhile, breathing room from bills, etc. What made me see red was the threat to his mom's benefits. I'd been working these odd hours for months, and the closest I was to being told it wasn't allowed was a vague passive suggestion that the client might prefer to wake up earlier than my shift.
So after taking all this crap tossed at me about how I could lose my job (like I care), and being told that my home office supervisor had no say so to decide my hours (this is my fault how), I just calmly state they'll need to find someone to take on the shifts, and due to the utter lack of competence and communication, I'm afraid I won't be available to take on any other clients. Oh, and by the way, my fiance would like to know how we might go about searching for a new healthcare provider that doesn't practice competence, hypocrisy, and arrange for poorly or entirely uninformed staff to care for their elderly parents.
This is day three after the fact, and we have no new home aide. My SO and I, and his sister, have been taking it in turns to go visit his mom and make sure she has food, drink, medicines, etc and spend a little time with her. His sister has three kids and a husband. He and I live with his elderly father who is in the beginning stages of dementia and has on numerous occasions left the house and forgotten his wallet, phone, keys, etc. His dad has about seven dogs that we also care for, and a large plot of land that (surprise!) we also take care of and maintain. We can't just go take off at the drop of a hat whenever we want to help out. All said and done though, at the end of the day I'm the most angry about was that the office managers put his mom's benefits at risk with their lackadaisical and inept management. Had I been informed from the start, I'd never have put her at risk for what amounts to chips and soda funds. Sorry for the rant, I just have been alternating between laughing and raging at the sheer level of idiocy on display here for the last few days and still can barely believe it.