Unruly staff

Posts: 8 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 8 Location: South Carolina

I supervise a staff of about 9 med techs and assistants. Recently there have been verbal fights in front of patients and on two occasions threats were made between staff but not on my shifts. Last nite 2 of them began disputing workload, verbally argued in front of patients, interrupted me numerous times to tattletale then called our new director( who was on call ) to discuss their problems ( of course in their own versions). They told me afterward. I was literally too busy to handle their personal problems at the times things started to go sour but I did tell them to be professional, divide the work and when we were at a point that things were caught up, we could all talk. They did not do so and called the director when they could not follow my verbal instruction.
Now I have to spend my day off going in to straighten out the matter with the director. I could have written one of them up for insubordination but I do not want her to be fired. Any suggestions? Shocked

Posts: 5 · Joined: 24 Apr 2006 Posts: 5 Location: Austin, TX

Don't allow that type of behavior.

By doing nothing, you are allowing the problem to fester and only become worse later down the road.

If you supervise these people, then by God supervise!! If I were in your shoes someone would be written up or fired on the spot for cause such a scene in front of a Patient.

Sorry, no excuse whatsover to justify such behavior. You either buck up and deal with it now, or be ready to answer for your own shortcomings when you're asked why you didn't take care of the situation when you were in charge in the first place.

Posts: 16 · Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 16

I agree strongly. You should have acted on the matter immediately. You sound weak in your position. You may need to consider stepping aside to let someone else who has stronger supervisor experience take the lead. There is no excuse for sitting there saying, "I could have written one of them up but did not want to see her fired." Is there a "friendship or a special circle" going on here that you are a member of. We call the one in our ER the "Pony Tail Girls" because the team leaders are all young and flighty and always favor certain ones they are friends with and come down hard on a few of the others. They wrote one up and had her fired for as little as not stocking a supply cabinet. She was not in their "Pony Tail Gang." Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. If you are that way, Get out, because you are prob. the cause of the problem. Question