Friday, February 26, 2010

The Economy Hits Hard (and doesn't play fair)

My boss dropped a bomb shell on all of us recently. She is pretty much being forced to interview for a new position as manager of another floor in the hospital. This was quite devastating to all of us. She is probably the best boss I have ever had, and we all love her. She is hard-working, very visible and approachable. She has been so understanding through my infertility, it makes me cry just thinking about it. She is such a huge part of our floor, it is going to be weird without her.
They are asking her because we have been having some major budget issues. I didn't think the economy would be much of a problem in a hospital, but it really is, and it is way worse than I thought. Scary worse. Like I am wondering what they are going to do with my job. There is talk of "cross-training" and "redistribution". Words that make my skin crawl. I have always been an Intensive Care RN, and at this point, I think I always will be. It is such a huge part of who I am, I couldn't imagine doing anything else. And when someone talks about training me to work somewhere else "just in case" it makes me want to run.
I can't help but wonder if they are going to close our unit, or combine it with another. Then what would all of us nurses do? That would be too many nurses for one floor. That's where the "redistribution" would come into play, I would imagine. Yuck. What a freaky thing for me, worrying about my job. I NEVER thought I would ever have to worry about that. We are short one million nurses in this country and I am worried about job security. Something is wrong with that.
Do I look for another job, being 18 weeks pregnant? And if I interview do I tell them? Is it worth giving up the built up time I have in place for maternity leave, which right now is about 3 weeks (not much)? I am totally at a loss. This is so weird.

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