There has always been the 'joke' that Federal employees are overstaffed and useless. I can't speak for all, of course, as my experience was always as a nurse at a VA hospital. My unit of which I was nurse manager, was very tightly staffed, just enough, never ideal. I was always fighting for staff, especially to fill any vacancy, which the bosses at my hospital AND in D.C. resented having to fill. Frontline staff, any kind, were lowest on the totem pole for honoring what we did, fair pay, filling vacancies, etc. And our salaries were NOT competitive with the private sector, another misconception.
Workers are due a salary, vacation time, safety at the workplace, a 15 minute morning break and 30 minutes for lunch. You learned to bring your lunch since going to the cafeteria took up the whole 30 minutes. We were due 15 minutes in the afternoon, but never took it, too busy. Then after the day's work was over and patients gone, I stayed 1-2 hours most nights getting 'my' management work done in the office, no pay for that. In the private sector a nurse manager didn't do patient care, stayed in their offices doing their administrative work. I ALWAYS was out there doing patient care, to support my staff, ensure the best care possible.
On rare occasions the bosses would breeze by to say hello (yeah, right). I don't know how they did it, but they'd ALWAYS come in when there was a very brief lull in the midst when staff had time to sit down and do their documentation, right before change of patient shifts (dialysis) which was frantic and a risky time for all. Kind of like take off and landing for an airline. One time our water system malfunctioned in the middle of the first shift. All the patients had to be taken off, either sat and waited or sent home for two hours while we waited for the water system people to come from 150 miles away to do the repairs, then get the patients back on their machines to finish their treatments, then the second shift was 2 hours behind, all staff had to stay tho they got overtime if it ran over their shift.
Of course after we got the first group off their machines, got them some lunch etc. while they waited, and we nurses had time to eat and breathe, to take up some time I gathered staff for an impromptu 'staff meeting', darned if the bosses didn't walk in while we were all 'sitting there.' Of course it looked to them like we were gold bricking. They knew better, but that is what stuck in their minds, as in "do we really need that many nurses in the dialysis unit?" Grrr.
Candy
