obligatory I’m a German nurse living in Germany, but the German channels on lemmy don’t have as many members as this one, so I ask here.
When I work I like to do my job and then relax. To me, doing it the other way round is just stupid. I was never the kind of person that goes to work to socialize, I don’t need it and I strongly resent forced socialization.
For the last 2 years I’ve worked within the same hospital system and it’s clear to me now, nobody thinks like me: all my coworkers spend the first hour of the shift talking about their private lives, as they were looking for excuses not to work and expect anyone else to take care of patients. And because I’m the only one with this job mentality, it’s always me the one who works while the rest do nothing.
This is very frustrating and I’m now applying elsewhere, but it bothers me that my new workplace can turn out to be like this.
I’m also applying for office positions (no shifts) and wonder: does this happen there as well? Ideally I’d be completely responsible for my work alone.
I feel like a student at school again, when the teacher forced me to work in a group with the lazier ones and I ended up either doing most of the job or became as lazy as them. Why work when they don’t?
I don’t want to work with people who slow me down.
I can’t speak for German work culture, but in America, you absolutely will get lazy workers in office jobs.
It’s like 99:1 ratio of lazy workers to working workers. Unless you’re on 3rd shift. Then you’re the only one there.
Why is work so important for you? I think you’ll find that a large number of people simply go through the motions because the stakes are low and their lives outside of work are more interesting. To them, it is an exchange of labor (that isn’t valued anyway) for (not enough) money. Why push yourself at work when it simply doesn’t matter? And what will drive you nuts later is that people from that “lazy” group will eventually end up promoted over you. The work is ultimately inconsequential, but the relationships built matter.
I don’t really have an answer for you other than to introspect a little bit on your work ethic.
Unrelated to your main question: you can try !fragfeddit@feddit.org or !fragfeddit@feddit.de, and ensure you set language to Deutsch.
work is important to me because I like having a roof, food and healthcare. I don’t have the luxury of not having to work.
Are you saying that work is a place to dump your issues or what you did on the weekend to the point of not doing your job? This is something I find very odd. I don’t want to work with people with this mindset.
Are you advising me to ignore patients when they call? cause that’s what they do and if a job is simply inconsequential, why bother?
Are you also advising me to listen to them when they rant against greens (an ecologist party in Germany) or migrants? It’s tiring and closeted racist.
I don’t see how my work ethic is the wrong one, or how yours would be better. Better if I want to become a careerist? absolutely. Better if I want to feel good with myself? absolutely not.
I like having a roof, food and healthcare.
You live in Germany, you actually have the luxury to not work. Everyone gets a roof, food and healthcare, even without working.
Also, this is not an argument against your co-workers: if they do less than you, isn’t your job safe then and everything is good?
I don’t want to work with people with this mindset.
Then you should stop working, because they will be everywhere to some degree.
Are you advising me to ignore patients when they call?
If your work is done, that’s exactly what you do. Or if you’re in the process of doing something else/handling another patient, idk how it works exactly. It’s the responsibility of management to ensure that all patients get treated, not yours. You can and should of course report when this doesn’t happen and you notice it.
There is now a very common and mainstream change in approach to how those subjects are viewed (for the better). One could argue that at some (vaguely gestures throughout time) point in our history there was a “social contract” but due to greed and consolidation of wealth, it’s no longer the standard.
Some would argue that “work-ethic”, which benefits the ruling class more, is antithesis to “family-values” at this point in time. I would argue that the terms are abused too often for actual debate, what we admire is dedication and focus regardless if you’re in an office or raising a barn. Corporation loyalty and exploitative consent often gets mixed up into the definition which the majority don’t agree to so there’s push back.
And because I’m the only one with this job mentality, it’s always me the one who works while the rest do nothing.
This is very frustrating and I’m now applying elsewhere, but it bothers me that my new workplace can turn out to be like this.
You’ll see this everywhere. If you’re not their manager, it’s not worth worrying about.
so how would a smart person react to this?
I wouldn’t worry if we distributed patients: I’d have my patients and do only them, but management expects me to cater to all patients, including the ones from the lazy ones…
Im seriously thinking about becoming like them… I jut hope management doesn’t yell a lot when I do that.
I wouldn’t worry if we distributed patients: I’d have my patients and do only them, but management expects me to cater to all patients, including the ones from the lazy ones…
Don’t overwork yourself for others. Help out if you want, but don’t feel like you have to. If your boss reacts negatively, well, then it might be time to look for a move.
so how would a smart person react to this?
I would just start working the same way they do. If you’re the only one with that work ethic and picking up their slack you’re probably enabling them to be lazy because they know it will get done. If things stop getting done in a timely manner someone higher up may notice and do something about it then hopefully everyone will have to start contributing again. Also might be worth talking to your boss about it.
I’m not sure how common this situation is, but I’d assume different places have different work cultures. Looking for another job is a good idea, hopefully you’ll find a place that’s a better fit.
Nah, unless there’s some type emergency going on, you don’t have to worry about anyone but your assigned patients. Management can’t write you up for not catering to patients who aren’t under your care. If management complains, first of all it’s ridiculous, and second - it’s all talk. They don’t have shit. Direct other patients to their assigned nurse.
I don’t like being that person (“you’ll have to talk with your nurse”), but some workplaces require it due to lack of fairness and teamwork. Otherwise you get taken advantage of. So don’t feel bad.
And if management gives you shit and starts targeting you, talk to your union. Always have a paper trail. Or if no union, look elsewhere for better bosses to work for.
Define the expectations of how many patients you need to care for in one hour. Since there is more than one employee they can’t say you need to attend to all patients. So count all the patients, divide by the number of workers. And attend to that many in an hour.
Then you won’t be overworked and management can’t say you aren’t doing your job.
I’d say this happens everywhere, with some exceptions maybe. Like I used to be in academia, it’s generally a stressful environment since you are 100% responsibe for everything. There is freedom in that too, but stressful.
Now I work in an office. There are some that take any chance they get to relax for a bit, socialize, snd so on. I don’t, I go there to work. I’m a bit introvert, so I don’t socialize much, but I put in some effort not to appear antisocial, but that is it.
I like my work, as in the tasks I do give me some satisfaction. I do it for me. I don’t socialize or relax at work because I happen to perfer the tasks. I know I’m lucky here, a lot of people do not get to work jobs like this. My collegues probably do not think the same way about their jobs, and I don’t blame them.
What I don’t get with what you are saying is the following. If everyone is “slacking off”, you get to do your work. I suppose you are not in a position where doing the tasks are satisfying enough to you, and that is why you’d want the others to do the tasks as well. But if you don’t get that satisfaction from doing the tasks, don’t you sympathize with your coworkers? They too probably do not get the satisfaction they’d prefer from the job alone, just like you? The difference between you and them is maybe then in the desire to socialize at work.
If you, unlike them, do not have any way of getting some base level of satisfaction at work, by the tasks alone or by some other means, and instead start resenting them for trying to get that satisfaction, then if you have to opportunity to change your line of work may help. People will probably still be the same, but maybe you won’t resent them?
their first hour consists of looking for excuses to do nothing but talk with everyone around, whereas I prefer to finish my duties as soon as possible. During the other 7 hours, if somebody from another unit comes to ours, that’s another excuse to do nothing for 10 minutes. If while checking vitals somebody gets a funny meme or video sent to her, another 10 minutes go to waste. Something that could be done in 15 minutes like serving food lasts 45. This is what grinds my gears.
And I just want to finish my duties and go home.
It is true that changing jobs might help, but it’s also true if people are like this everywhere, I’m going to keep resenting them.
German office worker here. It can be the same, or some other way that drives you nuts. My current coworkers are just extremely slow. I mean really. They “work” all the time, but it takes them like an hour to write a short email. I usually get my days work done in an hour or two and then do my own stuff and will still have achieved more that day than the slow ones. So of course, I get more workload because “I get things done”. I sometimes even secretly do their work because I like some of them and don’t want them fired… The boss is prone to hiring idiots (I mean, look at the people he has, including me), so it’s usually worse people coming in when someone leaves.
That said, your or my situation or variations of them are pretty much the norm. If you really want to put the work in, don’t look at big offices or established companies. I guess some small places or startup might be the way to go. Or mobile nurse, where you have your own route and patients. And of course, if you like being overworked, there’s always Amazon …
