Termination – What It’s Meant To Me
Does termination mean being fired? Well, not if that all important line about you being eligible for rehire is also included. When you get fired they don’t offer to rehire you. Semantics? Well, not entirely. So, even though my position was terminated, I have the cold comfort of knowing at least it wasn’t for some violation of nursing practice or corporate rule, some act of insubordination, or employee dishonesty. No, what got me was not being able to comply with that contract that said I’d work those twelve hour shifts. At least that’s the contention of my former employer.
Having received my letter of termination I reflected on the possibilities before me. I have never been “terminated” before, so I felt that some respectful consideration was called for. How did this happen? I was so excited about this job, about the relocation back to my beloved little house in Melrose. The idea of being close enough to see all my new grandbabies, and the rest of my Florida family was something I had been pining for over the last months leading up to our move. The job was going to make all this possible. And now there was no job. No job and two mortgages add up to a cash flow crunch. Knowing you don’t have enough money to pay your bills puts an end to root cause analysis pronto!
About this time I would normally be out applying for any and all nursing positions available but now I had a new restriction on me. I could no longer work the mandatory twelve hour shifts most hospital jobs require. The hospital jobs are the highest paying jobs for nurses today. So off to apply for agency jobs I went. Actually, what I did was use the phone directory and looked up every agency I could find and applied on-line. The first five or six had no or few openings, or hiring freezes. I really wanted to work for the university home health agency that had done visits to my mom but they had no “lines” for new staff. I had just missed out on one job opening but was told they would call me in the future. I really did not want to drive to the next big city south due to the commute. It would be a commute on top of the driving between patients, which I felt would just set me up for a relapse of my back ailment. I received email acknowledgements to my applications and resumes from some of the companies and others I got no response from at all. I went to all the nearby doctor’s offices and clinics. Many don’t have office nurses. They use medical techs and are not interested in hiring nurses due to the difference in pay.
During all this time, from my last day at work until my termination, and even now I have had to continue to keep up with my exercise program, traction, and physical therapy. I did not file a worker’s comp claim. My injuries are the result of a life of hard physical work compounded by injuries in an automobile accident. The nature of my work and the length of the work day do not favor anyone with my physical issues. Just as I’ve dealt with this for many years I know I will have to be vigilant for the rest of my life to stay upright and mobile. Surgery is not something I want to think about, but there are times when I get one of those twinges that stop me in my tracks and cause my legs to weaken momentarily. Then I wonder if that’s what it will come to, my having to come to grips with it.
I had not had a paycheck in three months so I filed for unemployment. Nowadays this is something you can do in the privacy of your home. I read all the rules and managed to get through the process and was informed that I would be contacted within the week. This is exactly what happened. However, the person calling me said I would be better off filing in my previous state so once again I waded through the process. At some point I had another telephone conversation with a charming young lady who commented on how long it had taken me to complete the application. Thanks! After another week of waiting I would be able to file a “certification” that would grant me a week of unemployment that equaled about a third of what my former pay was. I’m not complaining; now I had enough income to pay one of my mortgages!
Next blog: An Angel at the Department of Labor!