Quit after 2.5 shifts!
Curious the fastest you ever quit a toxic nursing position?
This is definitely a record for me. I accepted a job as dispensing nurse at an outpatient MAT facility (methadone/suboxone). I ignored some red flags in the hiring process.
First off, I wasn’t contacted for about a month after applying. I was gearing up to accept a job elsewhere that I really wanted even though it was a long commute but then at the last minute I changed my mind to pursue the dispensing position instead because it was so much closer to my home.
Once I interviewed and was offered the position and accepted it, the interim director could not keep straight what parts of the onboarding process I had/hadn’t completed. I chalked this up to her being overwhelmed by managing 2 facilities. But I didn’t get confirmation about my start date until the Friday afternoon before. When I emailed her basic questions about my first day (ie: what time are they expecting me, what entrance, should I make sure I bring anything, etc) it was ignored. Twice.
On my first day I show up at 4:30am thinking that someone is bound to be there, I’m knocking, nobody is coming, I call the office, phones aren’t on so it’s forwarded to an answering service of some kind and that person messages someone in the office to let them know I am there but apparently that message wasn’t received until hours later. Finally someone inside happens to hear me knocking but they almost didn’t let me in because they thought I was a client looking to dose early.
There is no formal orientation process, so I spent the next 2.5 shifts kind of just watching my preceptor. Instead of taking downtime to walk me through things, she spends the time either sharing stories about her personal life (I know everything about her ex husband, current husband, previous jobs, every grievance she has ever had, every shred of gossip she had ever heard, every outdated opinion she holds, etc) or gossiping with coworkers who come up to her window about other coworkers or clients. All I could do was sit there feeling invisible while everyone around me just spewed toxicity. It was really uncomfortable. They were bullying one lady who works there. You knew this has been going on for a long time.
The interim director called me today to let me know that I hadn’t clocked in yet. The reason that I hadn’t done this is because she told me to use the computer in a co-workers locked office and she expected me to pick the lock with a credit card in order to get in. When I told her I wasn’t comfortable doing that so I refused, she actually got defensive.
I grabbed all my stuff, took my break, and sent my resignation email. I’ve been a zombie all day since. Going into this job, I was warned that the clients can be difficult. But in 2.5 shifts, the staff proved to be the ones who made the job impossible. I couldn’t sit there and listen to their shit another second. I’m exhausted.
/rant