[RisuNeko]

I've been having a LOT of problems with my boss. I work at an assisted living home with 11 residents which is supposed to be staffed by two workers at all times. My boss, who is in charge of staffing, has left me working alone on way too many shifts, doing twice as much work as a normal human being is able to do (meds, showers, dinner, toileting, diaper changes, emotional help, redirection, entertainment and the list goes on...and never really ends.)

All of the people in the house have severe dementia and it is simply not safe to have just one person working in the house, especially considering we have 4 people who need two people to help transfer them from bed to wheelchair or wheelchair to toilet or whatever. I sent her a text about how I think we employees are being treated poorly when we're understaffed like that and the residents are getting neglected as a consequence and her response was a 4 part text saying how awesome she is at staffing and how hard her job is (she should try working one of MY shifts, then she'll know what hard work is) and how she has been staffing our house perfectly for months. Yet two people have quit in the last month and two more are about to quit and she has done nothing about it but send us agency people who have backgrounds working in preschools or whatever and have no idea how to even change an adults diaper, much less get them ready for bed or anything else. They get paid about 5 dollars more than us and we employees end up doing 90% of the work. The agency people aren't allowed to pass meds or do insulin shots which takes up half of the shift if you're doing it alone, and they also don't do any work unless you count sometimes washing the dishes or doing the laundry (if you're lucky). Yet she keeps either leaving us alone in the house or sending agency people to us which is basically like working alone. I looked at the schedule tonight when I got done with the majority of my work today and saw that I was scheduled with the same person for the rest of my week, presumably a new employee (yay?).

But before a new employee can work the floor they're supposed to get two shadow days to learn everyone's routines and how to do the job properly. Today I simply asked my boss, am I training someone new for the next two days, and if so, will there be someone else on the floor because we need two people working the floor for the residents to get the care they need and deserve? (they're paying 7000$ minimum for their rooms and it goes past 20000 if they need a lot of cares.) My boss's response was, why are you trying to talk to me on a Saturday? and then she got all defensive and completely dodged my questions like she always does and *****ed at me for a while. She's supposedly going to text me in the morning,with answers but I already know that's not going to happen, because it never does. She never gets back to people. She never even comes to our house to do any administrative work there. She just ignores us and hopes we won't pressure her to do her job. Well I've been pressuring her to do her job for a while now, because someone needs to do it before we all get fired for neglect and elder abuse because she can't staff worth a ****. Don't get me wrong, I love my job. Even with the long hours and butt wiping, and getting peed and pooed on and having to try to figure out what to say to a resident that just wants to "go home" or call the police, or call a lawyer because another resident stared at them for a minute and it scared them half to death. I can deal with that stuff. I love my residents and they love and trust me. What I can't deal with is a boss who doesn't do any work and makes my life a living hell trying to do double the work without double the pay. Last time I had to work by myself her excuse was "Well..I really wanted to fishing". She said that to my face. I just smiled and nodded until she left. But I am getting sick of this. And so is everyone else. I hear horror stories from everyone at my house and the other 3 houses on the campus that she's in charge of, and they're all about her laziness and shadiness, and drunkenness, and rage, and inability to answer simple questions or get back to anyone even in emergencies. She even makes us staff our houses ourselves for the most part. One of my coworkers who has since quit had a death in the family and she had to find coverage for herself with no help from our boss because our boss was "out of town", when in reality, she LIVES on campus and was seen several times throughout that day on campus. And that's not the only time that's happened. It's just getting ridiculous. I know she's stressed out about her job and I understand that because she clearly doesn't know what the hell she's doing. But she either needs to quit or get fired...and quick! Or I'm going to lose it on her one of these days. And I am not an angry or rageful person.

Am I the only one who's boss effing sucks??

[Frankbtl]

Hi RisuNeko, sounds like your boss not only sucks but she's also putting you, staff and patients at risk!!
Is there any higher management you could report to?? Or if not, the Department of Health and Human Services?? Or any other regulatory bodies you have??
It absolutely does need addressing........so if could you document all the concerns you have, all the concerns you've raised with her/when/and her reactions to these and pass it upwards??
It is absolutely excellant that you care so much about the residents, and are so committed to them........so time for the next step for them and for you.
And for right now.........well it's absolutely no solution but for the agency workers, could you write down a list of tasks that they need to do while they are there?? And then check with them at intervals during your/their shifts that they are up to speed with those tasks. That way if it can maybe at least take a little pressure off you, and allow you to focus a little more on the residents.
Alison

[pegasus]

Hello RisuNeko,

I'm from the UK and I work in health too so I know exactly what you are talking about. This a real safeguarding issue! You should not be working alone, it is illegal to be using equipment on your own and your clients are being put at great risk! Here in the UK we have CQC which is the governing body to go to. You should have a number to ring if there is a safeguarding issue, please ring them as soon as possible, they need to be alerted.

[RisuNeko]

Thanks for the responses guys. I have already talked to my boss's boss about all of my concerns and the concerns that other staff members have brought to my attention. I've been trying to advocate on behalf of everyone on our side of the campus (the side she's in charge of), and her boss's response was nice, but not really useful. She just said "Thank you for telling me! You're such a good caregiver. We're lucky to have you..." But I don't know if she spoke to my boss about changing her ways or has any intention of reprimanding her for her wrongdoings. But I've been trying to rally everyone else to talk to her boss too so that it's not just me "complaining". I want it to be clear that there's a genuine problem. So far most of the people I've talked to have been to scared to lose their jobs to speak up but I'm working on that. I'll try to find a number to call and at the very least let my boss know I will call that number if things don't change, and quick. I don't really want state to show up and be looking over our shoulders at our every move while we work and I don't think that would solve the administrative problem. But I'll see what I can do.

[pegasus]

It is your duty to protect the vulnerable people in your care so you have to alert the authorities, I believe you can do this anonymously.

[RisuNeko]

Yeah anonymity would be important because this company likes to fire people like crazy for the stupidest reasons. I will do everything I can to protect my beloved elders. They deserve the best care possible.

[Frankbtl]

Hi RisuNeko, got to really commend you on how much you've done to try to change the situation. But now I see no other alternative than to contact the authorities.
I'd say that threatening your boss with calling might not be very productive in really changing things, might give your boss time to come up with false excuses for if they are questioned, time to cover up some things, and maybe fire/discredit you.
And if authorities are looking over your shoulder you can be really filling them in on what's been going on, give them the evidence. And with the administrative problem.........well the authorities will have different ways to address that.
I do really admire your drive to change things but sometimes that has to come from the outside, for the residents protection, for your protection.
So maybe you'll find some useful phone numbers here:
Abuse and Fraud Information How to Report Abuse and Neglect
Or at least they can point you in the right direction.

Alison

[RisuNeko]

Thanks for the info. I know I need to contact someone on the outside of the situation. I just have kind of a phobia of phone calls, and I would need to work out what exactly I would report, because I don't have dates memorized of when people have had to work alone, and just complaining about my boss to someone wouldn't really be a proper report. I need some time to come up with what to say.

I'm also worried that state won't care, because all facilities like this are understaffed, and that's not the kind of thing they ding us for, they get us for not using strong enough laundry detergent, and not having a hot enough dish washer, or not having a cold enough fridge etc. They don't look at the administration. They look at some paperwork, so if it was pointed out to them they could see the holes in the schedule and be told that there was no coverage that day but it would take a lot of remembering and help from my coworkers to pin down all of the dates that we have had to work alone. I don't think complaining about agency would be a valid concern to them because as long as enough people are on the floor they're satisfied, even if the agency people are just sitting around or eating all day.

I'll work on what I will say.

[Frankbtl]

Hi RisuNeko, the fact that they're looking at things like the heat of the dishwasher and temperature of the fridge, sounds like a really good thing to me because it tells me that there are likely to be a lot of strict regulations in place where you are. So you're probably going to find that you're going to have evidence to show that plenty more are not being met.
Sounds like the place you're working in is registered?? So perhaps try to get hold of a list of registration standards, standards they are required to meet..........and from there fit your experiences into those not met. So when you phone, you've got more behind you.
And when you phone detail the neglect, detail the risks.
E.g. you're probably not going to have time to change some residents continence pads in a timely manner, for inspection standards that's going to be potential risks with infection control, with health and safety and definitely deficits in providing dignity!!!
If there's limited time for personal care or you have to take "short cuts".............then same as with the pads.
If you're not having time to give people meals and drinks in a timely manner there's risks with nutrition and hydration.
If you're leaving people in bed for unreasonable amounts of time because you're short staffed then that's impacting on their rights.
If residents are left without support due to being short staffed..........risk of significant distress or even aggressive behaviors towards others putting them at risk too??? Although the residents clearly will have difficulties recognising some risks and may potentially endanger themselves without the specific support they need. So if you could specify some for them.
If you're transfering people with inexperienced staff then lots of very significant risks there.
And if they have support plans (which they should??), then I'm betting you're not able to follow them with the time constraints you have with short staffing..........lots of neglect or risk you can establish for those.
And that's just for starters, not knowing where you work.
So, I'd say that hopefully if you put things across in a way that pinpoints areas of breech of care standards and in significant risk........then they will care.
And if you can't remember specific dates........then rough ones...........or even roughly how many times in a week/month those things have happened and then that can be inspected further.

Alison

[RisuNeko]

Those are all great specific examples. That's a great starting point for me. Would it be worth going to corporate first before I go to state? Corporate is more likely to fire my boss or at least put her on some kind of probation .

[Frankbtl]

Originally Posted by RisuNeko

Those are all great specific examples. That's a great starting point for me. Would it be worth going to corporate first before I go to state? Corporate is more likely to fire my boss or at least put her on some kind of probation .

Hi RisuNeko, really sorry but can't give you an answer on that one as I aren't from the US. While I've got a basic understanding of systems over there, you're probably going to have a lot more knowledge on the advantages of going either state or corporate routes.
Really sorry I couldn't be of any help on that one, but if there's anything else I may be able to help with...............
Alison

[pegasus]

Hello RisuNeko,

I don't want to frighten you but if something dreadful happens at work now, it would be you that would be taken to court/prison, not your employer. So you really need to do something about this, you are aware of it so you have a duty to report otherwise you would be one of the ones in the hot soup.

Here in the UK, you personally do not need to come up with all the dates/ times etc, you can contact the authorities anonymously, or say you work for the company but don't want to say who you are. It would be good to have a list of your concerns. Going to corporate will do nothing as they will just bat it back to the manager that you have already been to. In giving your list of concerns to the authorities, it does not mean that they will shut the place down, what they should do is investigate and usually they bring in 'service improvement' first and doing that will make it better all round for you, other staff and your clients.

I know all this seems scary but these safeguards are in place for a reason. I don't want to sound harsh because I'm not, I've been there too.

[RisuNeko]

Thanks for your concern and advice. I'll work on it. I have a phone phobia so this is going to be hard for me but I'll do my best. Maybe state has an email address for reporting these kinds of things.

[hvert]

You can mail a letter to the state. That would be better than calling anyway.

I would keep a detailed journal for a month of all the violations. Note the date and time and keep it handwritten. Don't worry so much about what happened in the past - just keep good track of what happens now. Maybe get your coworkers to take their own notes (although it sounds like they are not as interested in this?).

[thecrankyone]

Most states have whistle blower laws to cover you. I'd check into that. Also document everything, the more evidence the better.

[chocaholic]

No, you are not the only one with a bad boss. I was the eighth (8) full time instructor to quit because of a bad boss in under 12 months. And that doesn't count the people who were hired but stayed only a week then walked out when they realized how bad the situation really is.

Health care is in trouble, but your boss should be held accountable for her attitude. Make sure the owner of the facility comes to visit without announcing his/her intention ahead of time. You may have to enlist the help of family members and/or the media, but these clients deserve better treatment.

:< H.

[Crazy Hitch]

Ugghhh Risu just wanted to say sorry about that - many years ago I had a few sucky bosses. Not nice and not good for our mental health. So I just wanted to say hang in there because you're worth far more than to be treated like this

[RisuNeko]

Apparently a lot of people have gone to her supervisor and complained so i don't know how much longer she'll be there. Plus I'm quitting in august to move to the town where my grad school is. So it won't have to suck forever. Thanks hooligan.