Technician who needs to be fired....

[Thumper17]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hey all,

I work as a technician (just started P1 year of school) a mid-size hospital (500ish beds) in a city of ~175,000. This is my 3rd year of work there. I love my job, the people I work with, and pretty much everything else there.

Except for one third-shift technician. She is lazy to the point of being counterproductive, refuses to do even the most basic job duties even in times of extremely high census/workload/equipment downtime, refuses to help others (techs and pharmacists alike) and has left the pharmacy during her shift/fallen asleep on the job more times than I can count.

She is a danger to every patient that is cared for in that hospital and the license of every pharmacist in the building. Sadly, pharmacy management knows about all of her failures but refuses to fire her or discipline her in any way. I think they fear a descrimination lawsuit, I am more afraid of a patient being harmed either directly or indirectly (others rushing excessively to pick up her slack) by her presence.

Is this something I should take to a higher level of management in the hospital organization? Clearly pharmacy management has no plans of acting on their own, as she has been this terrible of an employee for my entire time at the hospital.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[crazybob]

IMO, you should speak to someone in higher level of management, since they would have more authority and would be able to do more about what they think is necessary.

 

[MindOverMatter]

Is this something I should take to a higher level of management in the hospital organization?

If everything in your story is as you say it is, absolutely.

 

[diastole]

My husband used to have the supposed power to hire and fire in a non-health care profession. I say supposed power because when he wanted to fire someone, HR put up so many roadblocks that it was near impossible to do so. They didn't want a lawsuit so they had to document, give the worker a chance to improve, document some more, etc. He pretty much had to convince the worker to leave on their own because HR wouldn't give the green light.

Now that was in the case where the boss wanted to get rid of the person. In your case, management doesn't want to do that. You can try to take it up with upper management but I suspect the probable result is that nothing will happen and your bosses will get mad at you for going over their heads.

 

[owlegrad]

My husband used to have the supposed power to hire and fire in a non-health care profession. I say supposed power because when he wanted to fire someone, HR put up so many roadblocks that it was near impossible to do so. They didn't want a lawsuit so they had to document, give the worker a chance to improve, document some more, etc. He pretty much had to convince the worker to leave on their own because HR wouldn't give the green light.

Now that was in the case where the boss wanted to get rid of the person. In your case, management doesn't want to do that. You can try to take it up with upper management but I suspect the probable result is that nothing will happen and your bosses will get mad at you for going over their heads.

I agree 100%. Upper management will likely wonder why a technician is bringing them this problem and not the DOP. Meanwhile you will be sowing discord within the pharmacy. Do you want your boss/coworkers to think of you as a trouble maker? Do want this person to track your every mistake/misdeed? Just do your job and leave her alone. Now if you were the boss my advice would be different, but you're not. The best you can do is stay out of it and try to make it so that she affects you as little as possible.

Why doesn't your boss do something? Either the person in your story is not that bad or your boss has some other reason for not wanting to fire her. Also you don't know what is actually going on with her, maybe she is on her third written warning, you don't know.

 

[Sparda29]

Stay out of it. If you get involved in this and the person ends up getting fired, everyone is gonna be looking over their shoulders while you are around, and you won't be trusted.

 

[DAW2]

got a union?

 

[chuckle beast]

Hey all,

I work as a technician (just started P1 year of school) a mid-size hospital (500ish beds) in a city of ~175,000. This is my 3rd year of work there. I love my job, the people I work with, and pretty much everything else there.

Except for one third-shift technician. She is lazy to the point of being counterproductive, refuses to do even the most basic job duties even in times of extremely high census/workload/equipment downtime, refuses to help others (techs and pharmacists alike) and has left the pharmacy during her shift/fallen asleep on the job more times than I can count.

She is a danger to every patient that is cared for in that hospital and the license of every pharmacist in the building. Sadly, pharmacy management knows about all of her failures but refuses to fire her or discipline her in any way. I think they fear a descrimination lawsuit, I am more afraid of a patient being harmed either directly or indirectly (others rushing excessively to pick up her slack) by her presence.

Is this something I should take to a higher level of management in the hospital organization? Clearly pharmacy management has no plans of acting on their own, as she has been this terrible of an employee for my entire time at the hospital.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

We work at the same place?

 

[charfdorn]

Hey all,

I work as a technician (just started P1 year of school) a mid-size hospital (500ish beds) in a city of ~175,000. This is my 3rd year of work there. I love my job, the people I work with, and pretty much everything else there.

Except for one third-shift technician. She is lazy to the point of being counterproductive, refuses to do even the most basic job duties even in times of extremely high census/workload/equipment downtime, refuses to help others (techs and pharmacists alike) and has left the pharmacy during her shift/fallen asleep on the job more times than I can count.

She is a danger to every patient that is cared for in that hospital and the license of every pharmacist in the building. Sadly, pharmacy management knows about all of her failures but refuses to fire her or discipline her in any way. I think they fear a descrimination lawsuit, I am more afraid of a patient being harmed either directly or indirectly (others rushing excessively to pick up her slack) by her presence.

Is this something I should take to a higher level of management in the hospital organization? Clearly pharmacy management has no plans of acting on their own, as she has been this terrible of an employee for my entire time at the hospital.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

It's an ethical dilemma. It's the right thing to do, but from a legal responsibility standpoint, you aren't going to ever be on the line for someone else's mistakes if they have the same title and responsibilities as you. I think either way is fine, and of course there's the risk that you'll say something and nothing will come of it, which would be pretty terrible.

 

[Hansel]

Many tried but many got in trouble. I'd just do my job and go home. I'd let supervisor aware of the situation though. Never let them know, though. There is a reason why job turnover is high. Get in, get hours, make money, get out, and forget it. Good luck.

 

[J ROD]

Stick your neck out and it might get chopped off.....

 

[Quiksilver]

If its possible for the tech to pull the race card, it won't happen. Thats probably why it hasn't happened.

 

[pharm B]

Stick your neck out and it might get chopped off.....

I HATE when I get my neck chopped off.