u/Combfromhell

I’ve been nursing for 8 years through some difficult periods in healthcare. COVID was brutal — chronic understaffing, getting sick, fear of bringing illness home, burnout, exhaustion, patient aggression, and constant pressure. But honestly, one of the hardest parts of this profession hasn’t been the workload. It’s been the workplace bullying between staff.

I’ve worked across multiple departments in my hospital, specialized, floated, picked up overtime — and I’ve consistently seen a level of cattiness, gossip, and toxic behavior that’s honestly disappointing. In my experience, it’s often younger staff with inflated egos or people trying to establish some kind of social dominance on the unit. Meanwhile, many of the older, more experienced nurses tend to keep to themselves, stay professional, or are at least direct instead of engaging in gossip and backstabbing.

Some units genuinely have more drama than a restaurant full of high school employees, which is wild considering we’re in a profession built on ethics, teamwork, professionalism, and empathy.

What’s most frustrating is that a lot of the behavior has nothing to do with poor work ethic or being a bad partner. It’s just outright bullying. I’ve seen nurses intentionally isolate coworkers, spread rumors, and even tell new staff not to associate with certain people on the unit. That kind of behavior creates a toxic environment for everyone and pushes good nurses away from bedside care.

I stay in my own lane and focus on my patients, but it’s hard not to notice how much negativity exists between certain staff members. It’s disappointing to see educated professionals behave this way, especially in a field where support and teamwork are supposed to matter.

Has anyone else experienced this in their hospital or unit?

I’ve worked as an RN in BC and Alberta for 8 years across multiple hospitals, and the situation inside many Canadian hospitals feels completely detached from what the public thinks healthcare currently is.

We are told there are “bed shortages,” “hallway medicine,” and dangerous ER wait times because of staffing and funding pressures — which is true — but a major part of the conversation that nobody wants to openly discuss is how many acute care beds are being indefinitely occupied by patients who no longer require acute hospital-level care.

A growing number of admissions are tied into homelessness, addiction, behavioural concerns, inability to discharge safely, or lack of supportive housing placements. Once admitted, some patients remain in hospital for months or even years because there is nowhere else for the system to place them. If they came from the street, they can’t go back to the street

Meanwhile the burden falls directly onto bedside nurses, care aides, security, and other patients.

And yes, after years of this, resentment starts building among staff. I think many healthcare workers are afraid to admit that publicly because they’ll immediately be accused of lacking compassion.

But compassion fatigue is real.

Last week we responded to a code situation involving a patient smoking meth/crack inside a hospital room. Nearby patients had to be relocated, staff had exposure concerns, security became involved, and the patient ultimately required a blocked room and additional monitoring resources. And a blocked room in Canada is basically a private room- what people pay large money for.

Staff also deal with constant theft issues that never get talked about publicly. Supplies disappear, food gets taken, belongings get stolen from unsecured areas, and even staff lockers are targeted in some hospitals. Nurses are expected to tolerate increasingly unsafe and chaotic environments while still providing compassionate care under constant pressure.

Situations involving intoxication, aggression, threats, verbal abuse, disappearing from the unit for hours, returning impaired, demanding narcotics, refusing care, or creating unsafe environments are no longer rare events in some hospitals. They are part of normal workflow now.

One patient on our unit has occupied a bed for over a year while openly discussing how much money they’ve saved on disability because they effectively have free housing, meals, medications, nursing care, and security inside the hospital system. Meanwhile admitted patients wait in emergency departments for beds and elderly patients are placed in hallways.

That creates moral frustration for staff whether people want to acknowledge it or not.

This does not mean every homeless or addicted patient behaves this way. Many are respectful and genuinely sick. But there is also a subset of chronic high-utilizer patients who understand exactly how difficult discharge laws and policies have become, and staff are left managing the consequences indefinitely.

The public conversation around healthcare in Canada often focuses entirely on funding and staffing shortages while avoiding discussion about how hospitals have become catch-all institutions for addiction, untreated mental illness, homelessness, violence, and social system failures.

Acute care hospitals were never designed to function this way.

Nurses are burning out because they are expected to simultaneously provide high-level medical care while also acting as security, social workers, addiction support, behavioural management, and crisis response — often with little institutional support and increasing exposure to violence and abuse.

I’m curious how many other Canadian healthcare workers are seeing the same thing in their hospitals, because from the inside it feels like the system is reaching a breaking point.

I’m trying to figure out if anyone else has run into this, or successfully pushed back on Apple.
I bought an iPhone 17 Pro Max recently and started noticing internal condensation forming inside the camera lenses during normal temperature changes (going from cold outdoors to warm indoors). This started very early after purchase.
There’s:
No external damage
No drops, cracks, or submersion
Normal day-to-day use only
At one point, after light moisture exposure (nothing beyond what you’d expect for an IP68-rated phone), the issue escalated and:
Front camera stopped working properly
Rear cameras developed visible issues and degradation
From my perspective, this points to a seal failure or manufacturing defect, since moisture is clearly getting inside the device.
Apple inspected it and:
Claimed it’s not covered under warranty
Quoted me ~$1200 CAD for repair
Would not escalate further even after speaking with supervisors
Their position is essentially that any liquid damage voids warranty, regardless of cause.
What I’m struggling with:
An IP68-rated device shouldn’t develop internal condensation under normal environmental changes
There’s no visible external damage indicating misuse
The failure mode looks like compromised sealing, not user error
I’ve filed a BBB complaint, but I’m trying to understand:
Has anyone had Apple reverse a decision like this?
Is there any success escalating seal failure / internal condensation cases?
I’m open to any realistic next steps.

I’m trying to figure out if anyone else has run into this, or successfully pushed back on Apple.
I bought an iPhone 17 Pro Max recently and started noticing internal condensation forming inside the camera lenses during normal temperature changes (going from cold outdoors to warm indoors). This started very early after purchase.
There’s:
No external damage
No drops, cracks, or submersion
Normal day-to-day use only
At one point, after light moisture exposure (nothing beyond what you’d expect for an IP68-rated phone), the issue escalated and:
Front camera stopped working properly
Rear cameras developed visible issues and degradation
From my perspective, this points to a seal failure or manufacturing defect, since moisture is clearly getting inside the device.
Apple inspected it and:
Claimed it’s not covered under warranty
Quoted me ~$1200 CAD for repair
Would not escalate further even after speaking with supervisors
Their position is essentially that any liquid damage voids warranty, regardless of cause.
What I’m struggling with:
An IP68-rated device shouldn’t develop internal condensation under normal environmental changes
There’s no visible external damage indicating misuse
The failure mode looks like compromised sealing, not user error
I’ve filed a BBB complaint, but I’m trying to understand:
Has anyone had Apple reverse a decision like this?
Is there any success escalating seal failure / internal condensation cases?
I’m open to any realistic next steps.