I will freely admit that when I wrote my last Get To Work post, I was basically in an emotional free fall. I was devastated. I felt like I was given a Harlem Globetrotters style layup and hadn't only missed the dunk, I'd fallen flat on my face. I mean, how do I interview with ten years experience as a correctional nurse for a position that I've held in the past with three people that I've worked with and NOT get the job?
My plan of moving forward, at the time, was a pretty good idea and I got to work on it that very day.
I wrote a follow up email to the HUM, asking again for clarification on the problems I've encountered while applying for jobs with the department of corrections. 48 hours after that email and over a week since the first email, and I still haven't heard back from her.
Next I reached out to the recruiter. I kept it professional by simply letting her know that I didn't get the job I'd interviewed for, that I hadn't heard anything from central HR, and asking if there were any other positions available.
Next up was applying for the manager position at the state hospital where I'd last worked. I got stuck as it was asking for my official college transcripts and I couldn't find them in my digital rat's nest. While searching, I got a reply from the recruiter that stopped me cold:
"Unfortunately, due to your previous employment and time and attendance leadership has decided not to hire you at this time."
What the actual FUCK!?
That was a HUGE splash of cold water on my face. My 'time and attendance' was not only addressed IN the interview, it's all for medical reasons that was protected by FMLA. That's federal LAW.
I fumed for a quite a bit with that news before I calmed down enough to respond, again with a professional tone. I thanked her for letting me know why I'd been turned away and then explained what was going on as she wouldn't have any idea what my 'time and attendance' issues would be. For all she knew, I could be tardy and late all the time. After I explained about the migraines, the FMLA, quitting, getting treatments for two years, and finally getting better enough to come back to work, I asked if she could either pass that along on my behalf or give me the name of someone that I could plead my case with.
Her response was both quick and very telling. The first thing that was telling was the fact that she called me on her personal cell phone. Not her state issued cell phone, not her state office phone, and not via email (on her state email). Her private cell phone which isn't tracked by the state. She didn't want to leave a trail that she even talked to me after that last email.
What she told me is that 'leadership' was clear and emphatic that my time and attendance would keep me from being employed by them again. She then said it came from the analyst that set up my appointment and that she 'ran' the areas where I was looking for work, specifically the four prisons in my home county and the one that she (the recruiter) had previously worked at and had said she'd get me in contact with.
A quick aside, this system analyst that the recruiter is saying is blocking me IS in the Bureau of Health Care Services but is NOT in a leadership role. The analyst works directly for one of the Directors of Nursing and she IS Leadership. She'd also cover the prison that I interviewed at and would explain why I didn't get the job there. Maybe, just maybe, the HUM did want me but has been told from 'on high' that I couldn't be hired, and is now flummoxed on what to tell me since I'm asking her what's going on as a friend. And as I alluded to above, not hiring me because of 'time and attendance' issues that are covered by FMLA would be illegal. The recruiter shouldn't have told me that.
Per the recruiter I wouldn't be getting a job where that person was involved (in my head, the Director of Nursing, not the analyst). But she also mentioned that there were other possibilities and that I could always continue to apply. She even mentioned that the prison system's mental health crisis center (a prison specifically for mental health crisis patients), was looking for nurses but wasn't putting out a job posting yet.
I thanked her several times for letting me know why I'd been turned away as that really did set my mind at ease. Don't confuse being at ease with being okay with it. I was, and still am, furious about it. But knowing why and who is blocking me is way better than NOT knowing.
So, I finished finding my transcripts and applying to the state hospital manager position. I then emailed my former supervisor there and asked how things are going and if the hiring freeze was still in effect.
One good thing about being a nurse manager at a large facility, managing a lot of good nurses, is that I know a lot of nurses at a lot of different facilities. It just so happens that one of the night nurses I managed had gone on to become a supervisor at the mental health crisis center. While I no longer have her email address (that was in my old state email that I no longer have access to), I do have her phone number as we'd text back and forth (she was great at picking up overtime). I reached out to her with a text, asking if she was still at that facility.
She responded almost immediately and told me she no longer worked there and had moved on to the prison hospital. She did say, however, that she could reach out to a supervisor at that facility and see if they were looking and even recommend me. We chatted back and forth a bit with her asking if I wanted to get back into management and even asking if I had a shift preference... and I knew then that she was 'recruiting' for me to come work at the hospital.
I think I've talked about this before, but to summarize, I don't want to work at the prison hospital. It's acute care which I don't care for (as opposed to ambulatory care at the other facilities I've worked at), and they are almost always short staffed. Even the supervisors get hit with overtime often as they have to cover shifts left and right. Worst of all, the patients don't change. Sure, there are the ones that come in for a short recovery like from an operation or something, but most of the prisoners there are there for long term care. There is no moving them to another facility as this is the only facility that has the capability of caring for them. And they know it. I hated even being trained there when I worked at the intake center (they're both technically the same facility).
I let her know that I wasn't interested in working at the hospital. At least not yet. She was gracious and we chatted a bit back and forth and she said she'd reach out to the supervisor at that other facility on my behalf.
Later that evening I got word back from my former supervisor and she said that the hiring freeze was still on, meaning that they couldn't hire me. She did tell me that working at one of the other state hospitals would be good as it's a good team, but that facility is a longer commute, isn't the higher security hospital level that I'd like to work at, and actually pays less as the management position is different. BUT it's at least an option. I'd think that if one of the hospitals were under a hiring freeze they ALL would be, but maybe not. So I put that away as something to consider.
The next morning I had my therapy and most of the session was talking about the job search situation since it's the main thing on my mind. A thought came up that I shared with my therapist... why NOT work at the prison hospital?
We chatted a bit about it and I finished by saying that I'd have to give it more thought, but the itch had started. I needed to work this out. I thought about it some and even talked to R and Mom about it to just get some other opinions. Here's what my thinking was:
The state hospital is always short of nurses. I don't like the idea of working in acute care. I don't like the idea of possibly being mandated to a bunch of overtime. No one likes working there. But that first stat, the fact that they are always short of nurses, means that they are a little more desperate for nurses. And nurse managers. It also doesn't have a Director of Nursing over it. Technically it has the Director of the Hospital which is the equivalent of a Director of Nursing. That means the person blocking me now wouldn't be part of the hiring process at the hospital. In other words, getting into the hospital as a manger might be relatively 'easy'.
Now, if I was comparing this to working at my old facility as a manger OR a nurse, or working at a different 'normal' facility as a nurse, I'd put those WAY above working at the hospital. But those jobs aren't an option now. Right now I'm looking at either working in the mental health crisis center, which is almost as unpalatable as the prison hospital, or working at a state mental health hospital that I haven't worked at before. And remember, I didn't exactly like working at the state mental health hospital last time. The other options are working for the federal Bureau of Prisons (have to wait for the government to open and even then it's a big dice roll to get that job and I have no idea if I'd like it or not), or working for the county jails (which would be working for a contracted healthcare company putting me further away from providing actual care).
In shorter terms, the prison hospital would be a known 'dislike' quantity but probably 'easy' to get into. All other options would have a high chance of being 'dislike' with a small chance of liking the job, but be problematic to apply and get into.
The prison hospital would also get my foot into the prison system again. After working there for a year I could always transfer to other positions. And while the Director of Nursing has all the power in stopping me from being hired externally, she'd have a LOT more trouble stopping me from transferring internally.
After considering it for a few hours after lunch, I reached out to the nurse I'd worked with and is now a supervisor at the hospital and talked to her about the job. It's certainly doable. Her biggest complaint is that it's "easy and boring". I'd probably have the same problems but those aren't bad problems after being out of work for two years.
Long story short... I have my application in for the prison hospital and that nurse will put in a good word for me when she gets back on Monday. She's also going to reach out to the prison mental health crisis center. I can't apply for that position as it's not listed. Yet.
I think I'll hold here for a week. That's with applications in at the state mental health hospital I worked at before (and is on a hiring freeze) and the prison hospital. Next Thursday I'll put my application in at the other state mental health hospitals and look into the federal prisons (assuming the government is opened back up).
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