Taking work home

[CECTPA]

I'm posting my situation to see, if anyone is in a similar one and to find out what you guys think. Any comments with your experience would be appreciated.

I used to work as a staff nurse for 2 years in a very stressful setting. I started to question my choice of profession and was burning out.
I had a rotation of 12 hour shifts, half days, half nights.
I hate night shifts, they are especially stressful and hard on my health.

Now I've got a nurse admin office job, Mon-Fri 8 to 4 pm, no night shifts, 100 times less stressful due to tons of experience with admin jobs before. I'm losing about 6K/year due to night hours/weekend hours costing more, but it's totally worth it. I'm still in my union, job security and the benefits are the same. The pay is still good too.

But the thing is when you are a manager, sometimes it gets busier. Not more stressful, just sometimes you have to stay after work to finish something, or after a vacation when your stuff piled up. No overtime pay for that. That doesn't look like a bedside nurse situation: after your hours you go home and others will carry on with whatever you didn't finish, probably bitching about that among themselves.

Now sometimes I go home at 4, not tired at all, not stressed or exhausted, and then remember that I forgot to finish something and just do it at home. And it kinda feels good to have everything in order, even when you have basically volunteered your hours... But I don't mind... Or should I?

Question to managers here:
- Do you get overtime pay if you have to stay and finish something? None of our managers do.
- Are you able to finish everything in your 8 hour day?

My plan is to stay in this position for about 3 years and then go part time, transitioning to early retirement.

[Farm_or]

Are you paid hourly or salary? Can you accept any amount of the overtime on your part due to a need to improve your time management, or is it simply the case of your employer asking too much?

There's been a trend for employers in every category to cut the workforce to the bare bones. The cutting puts extra work on everyone until something snaps. At that point, the employer adds just enough to get by.

[CECTPA]

It's basically salary and I think this is due my time management skills at this time (been on this job for less than 1 month). It should get better. I'm just developing my way to do routines and learning where to delegate, and the amount of work doesn't look overwhelming so far. But sometimes something comes up like 2 meetings in a row, and then I need to skip my break or stay 30 mins after work. Or finish something at home.

Yes, that trend is not a news flash for the Canadian healthcare system. In Alberta they are doing operational changes now and the only word of advice for consumers of health care I have: stay healthy.

[Riggerjack]

When I was considering switching to management, I talked to an older manager, who for health reasons had scaled back from much higher up.

At one point we were talking about layoffs. Now, as a foreman, I had laid off triple digits over the years. I was always focused on who was going first when work slowed down.

But Larry said something that blew my mind. In management, you can't tell who is getting things done, who is actually overworked, and who is just bitching. The signal to noise ratio is nearly all noise. So, when the word comes down to reduce head count, you cut until something breaks. Then back off a bit.

So, look around, see what others are doing, use that as a guide. In my experience, you can work circles around the average white collar worker, without breaking a sweat. But that is rarely appreciated, by boss or by coworkers.

For that reason, I would try to pick up unfinished work in the morning.

[CECTPA]

Interesting, Riggerjack. That's very true for a big organisation. In a small one it is very clear, who's working and who's not. It's a small hospital and I'm responsible for a unit of 8 beds. And I'm not interested in a promotion or a pat on the back. It just feels good when the work is done right

[Sclass]

I hate night shifts, they are especially stressful and hard on my health.
.

I spent a few days recovering from open heart surgery at a big hospital. The night shift looked very interesting. There was a definite cultural difference because there were no doctors or hospital management around. It was quiet till the shift change.

By the end of the week I wanted to get a job doing IT on the night shift. It looked fun. Oh well, I guess from my point of view it wasn't stressful unless they were drawing my blood.

It really depends on how much you're taking home. An hour of tidying up so you can sleep tight is nothing to worry about.

I've worked at some places where salaried people were expected to stay past 8pm. that sucked but I don't think that's what you're talking about. I used to ignore the pressure to work late hours for the sake of keeping late hours at my own demise. Coworkers schemed behind my back but hey they were losers who had nothing better to do at 9pm other than sit at the office. I used to call it "diluting my hourly wage". My CEO complained about my "bankers hours" but I stuck to my guns and he backed off. Management always backed off. The sad part was once an employee started keeping late hours to impress management, management smelled blood and started putting on more pressure. It was like showing weakness in prison.

Good luck. If I had to choose between tidying up my work for an hour rather than watching TV I'd do the work. Especially if it made me feel better. Just not too long.

[Did]

If you have a sweet gig do what you have to do to keep it. It's a package, so I wouldn't worry about the fact that technically you're off the clock.

@sclass I was in the law and also used to leave work often at 6 (8-6), and watch the hoards stay madly working at their desks. A couple of years later they were gone, burnt out perhaps. I wanted to be known for being smart rather than a madly hard worker. Be careful about what you are famous for. It will just lead to exploitation if it's the wrong thing.

[1taskaday]

I work/kind of manage a small number of staff.

I actually hate managing anybody except myself-too similar to babysitting which I already do at home and am not paid to do at work.

I NEVER take work home with me because I am lethal to the point of rudeness about managing my time.

Meetings are the biggest waste of time...I run every lunch and will often miss meetings if they interfere with my run "schedule".

This sounds extreme but it's all about people respecting my valuable TIME.

It's amazing what is accepted if you just do it.
Now everyone knows that I work out at lunch and that's just accepted as the way it is.
It is so important to start as you mean to continue.

I am really efficient and follow through on everything that I am supposed to...But am I liked as a co-worker? Who cares...I am paid to do a job and this is what I do and finish every evening bang on time.

One of my greatest irritations are time wasters who never finish ANYTHING on time and need to be coaxed and reminded a million times to hand in a piece of work.What a waste of energy...

Be courteous but curt about managing your time/workload and people eventually get the message.

[CECTPA]

In case of being a licensed professional it is a bit different. No one tells me what to do. I know what to do because I have policies, guidelines, and standards that guide my profession. I have to make sure my unit is up to the standards. My boss could not care less when I leave work, as long as we pass audits and the unit is working fine. My management is not even on site. But I know for sure that my manager sometimes stays at work after hours judging by the time some emails are sent. And his manager too. The only thing is if it becomes clear that it is impossible to do my job within a decent time frame, I'll probably have to have conversations about having an assistant or delegating something to someone.

But yeah, 1taskaday, for some reason it always happens that your assistant is a freaking idiot and you wish you didn't have any

Now I think it's more getting used to the routine and time management problem, because the workload seems quite manageable.

[CECTPA]

By the end of the week I wanted to get a job doing IT on the night shift. It looked fun. Oh well, I guess from my point of view it wasn't stressful unless they were drawing my blood.

I don't mind night shifts if I'm just working as a bedside nurse, drawing blood, giving pills, changing diapers, not a big deal. But a registered nurse in our hospital can't have such luxury. In the absence of doctors and management I become in charge for ER, Acute care unit and extended care unit. Whatever comes through the door, puking, fighting, having hallucinations, dying – becomes my problem. And not much help.

And now my new job is no sweat at all. Managing an 8 bed unit, full of cute demented old folks, going home at 4 most of the days and sometimes spending 1 hour after work retouching some documents so far looks like unicorns and roses I'm even thinking of postponing my goal retirement date

It really depends on how much you're taking home. An hour of tidying up so you can sleep tight is nothing to worry about.

Yeah, about that much. And I sleep oh so well!