NADONA's Director of Nursing Forum
I can see & understand them to some degree.
BUT a job is a job & there is, or should be, a committment to be there as schedueled if you want to keep that job!
The commitment & ethics & over all accountability does seem to be missing from many of the people flooding today's workforce - Nursins, CNA, kitchen staff, even some administrative people!
The way I see it, can't afford gas to get to work? Then get a job closer to home, as you no longer have one here....unless you are willing to find another way to get here!
It would clearly be different if my area was experieinces supply shortages at the fuel pumps, but we haven't yet encountered such problems.
The Fuel shortages I experieinced in the 70s was different & required some understanding & latitude...but what I was paying for gas in the 70s vs what I was making/hour - gas was much much MUCH more expensive in the 70s then it is now!
My facility is making some concessions.
We are adjusting some shifts based on bus scheduels & the necessary connections & transferes to get here. Okay, so they are either 1.5 hours early or 45 minutes late.
We will work the scheduel around that, even help with the part of the purchase price of the monthly pass...but the response we keep getting is much the same:
"You want me to ride what?!?!?!"
As for management, we are discussing 4-day work weeks (11 hrs days), but everyone wants either Monday or Friday as their day off, & that isn't going to work. BUT we are talking management here, not direct care or support staff, so 4 10hr days could be feasible for us.
Some of the management people aren't any more committed then those that "call-out" because they don't have gas money.
Personally, I have taken to toting my "brown bag" with my lunch in it rather then eating out for lunch each day! Not as glamerous or as fancy, but a simple sandwich & some salty potatoe chips sure do taste good! Been a long time since I've brown-bagged!
As much as we are in need of staff, if they aren't committed to being reliable staff, then I don't want them!
I personnally can't spend my day here, drive back home & about the time I'm getting into bed get a phone call that so & so didn't show up & when called says she has no gas money.
Then I have to expend my gas money to drive back into work a 2nd time & spend the night working on the floor!
It use to be that I didn't accept a job unless it was where I could ride the bus, walk, or peddle a bike to.
I'm now about 12 miles out of the city & away from the facility, but I would still do whatever was necessary to get there!
When I was a kid growing up, that's what you did! A 1.5 mile walk to school was the norm - even in the winter! Mom walked to the grocery & back a couple times a week to keep the cupboards stocked. If we couldn't walk or peddle, we waited until there was multiple reasons to drive, or we car pooled.
Granted, most of us now live too far from our facilities to walk or peddle, but there are buses & at least where I live, most of my neighbors are going the same general direction I am. I can hitch a ride most the way, walk a few blocks (1/2 mile at the most) & do the reverse in the evenings.
I'm not sure the $10/hr the CNA is making is much less in reality then what I am making.
I have house payments, 2 car payments, insurance costs, medical bills, kids, A HUSBAND!, totally flooring "school fees" for my high school & middle school students (about a full months wages!); All sorts of financial responsibilities - each one being a "top-priority". I'm lucky if I get a dinner out a sit-down resturant once a month or once every 3 months. My wedding anversary dinner a few months back was just he & I at Dairy Queen - & a buy 1 get 1 free coupon!
Most of my CNA's don't realize how jealous I get listening to them talk about their weekend trips to Vegas or eastward to Blackhawk or the new sporty car they are buying, the concerts, ball games........
Where do they come up with all their money?
My neighbors wife just took a job at a clinic. They had wanted her to stay home & raise the kids in the "traditional" sense. The idea of her going to work is so difficult for them, such a hardship....the gas prices are so high that they can't afford to live without her going to work......
But I look at what my neighbors do for "fun" & realize that a good percentage of their money (& the reason she had to go to work!) is "fun money"!
Budgeting, planning, & prioritizing is what it all comes down to. If we make a bad decision, then I guess we have to walk or ride the bus for a few days until the next pay day.
I know, that type of attittude requires some ethics & personal standards that I'm not sure the younger generation were ever taught.
Kind of worrisome as to what this country is headed for when they are the ones in charge & leading & making the decisions!
Oh well, enough complaining, back to work 
GRIN & BARE IT
