Years ago a Dr invested in building a Nursing Home. Nice guy, successful, with a waiting list for his over 120 rooms. Years later it was sold to a health care corporation and then started the slooooow decline. Last year it sold again to investors and they are now down to about 50% occupancy. The facility is in good shape but is under staffed and moral has plummeted.

They don't pay that well and turnover is a huge problem but my wife has over thirty years employed there... over 30 years of dedicated service, virtually perfect attendance. Hell, just two years ago they named one Hall/Wing, after her.

The new investors just announced they are contracting out some services/departments. The current employees will transfer to the new company... as NEW hires... as in zero seniority. She even lost her vacation time with none possible until after a year with the new company.

My wife came home from work Tuesday with the news... she told them to pound sand. Gave notice she was gone 3/1. She is 65 in March but would have stayed on had they done right by the old employees.

quote:

The current employees will transfer to the new company... as NEW hires... as in zero seniority. She even lost her vacation time with none possible until after a year with the new company.

Good for her. This is bullcrap. There comes a point where you've put your time in, don't owe anything to anybody, and have the financial freedom to do what you want. It sounds like she's reached that point, and once you're there, the level of bullcrap you have to put up with from an employer is much lower than early in your career. Its better to get out now rather than spend your days pissed off about the injustices at work when you don't really have to. IMO she made a good move.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:

quote:

The current employees will transfer to the new company... as NEW hires... as in zero seniority. She even lost her vacation time with none possible until after a year with the new company.

Good for her. This is bullcrap. There comes a point where you've put your time in, don't owe anything to anybody, and have the financial freedom to do what you want. It sounds like she's reached that point, and once you're there, the level of bullcrap you have to put up with from an employer is much lower than early in your career. Its better to get out now rather than spend your days pissed off about the injustices at work when you don't really have to. IMO she made a good move.

Amen

To your wife...



I know all to well what it's like to get up in the morning and LOATHE...absolutely LOATHE...going to your "job". May y'all enjoy her retirement!!!

My guess, they wanted people with seniority to quit.

Cost them less.

They did the same thing to my wife. They wanted her to quit. She had twenty five years with a local grocery chain and they wanted her gone so that they could hire someone else at a lesser pay rate. She was at the top of her bracket pay wise.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:

She even lost her vacation time

Are you saying that she lost vacation time that she had accrued, and was not reimbursed for it?

I worked for a company that wanted me to relocate. I told them no, I was not going to uproot my family and move a thousand miles. I am here, I am willing to work, and I'm not moving.

They told me that they would take that as my resignation.

I replied that I was not resigning, they could fire me if they wanted to.

So they fired me. And they told me that I was forfeiting accrued vacation, that I had on the books.

I mentioned this to a lawyer. He promptly wrote them a letter. I never saw the letter, I do not know what he said in it, but the day after he wrote it and FAXed it to them, they dispatched a check, paying me in full for the vacation that I had on the books. FedEx overnight.

They are already short staffed and can't even find help that will show up to work. They are going to be in a world of hurt if vary many others quit. 60 or so helpless patients to care for and too few to do it! The state of Tennessee might have a problem with that.

60 empty beds times ~6k per month amounts to a big shortfall. I suggested to them a couple years ago...
1) Cut your prices, gradually, until you fill the dag-gum beds. Then perhaps you can afford the staff needed to do the job properly.
2) Use a temp service to fill the jobs. Kick to the curb the useless ones ASAP.
3) Hire and pay the good ones enough to keep them.


They have had to resort to taking short term Hospice patients, very high turn over and very inefficient compared to permanent/long term patients.

Wife was told today they would actually need to apply for their jobs... New company HR coming to town Monday. I told her to consider just refusing to apply for the one more month she already told them she would stay anyway. BUT we will see, they may come around some if they lose enough of the current staff to get desperate. She doesn't have to work but likes something to do and enjoyed it in the past. We did use the company health insurance but will both be eligible for Medicare this springy April.

Ha! Maybe she should ask for severance pay...

this in an industry that is growing like crazy and is woefully understaffed , as it is.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:

She even lost her vacation time

Are you saying that she lost vacation time that she had accrued, and was not reimbursed for it?

I saw the writing on the wall a couple years ago and have been pushing her to use up most of her accrued time. She has.

The issue now is she will to start from scratch, like a new hire, to earn any vacation time going forward... She would get Zero vacation for the first year... Might be legal but it sure ain't the way to reward good help.

Pay scale hasn't even been mentioned but she does receive bonuses that bump her above the top pay scale for her position. Bulldog may be on to something.

On a lighter note...

Yesterday she asked... Who would kill who first if we have to spend 24/7 together for the first time in 41 years of marriage? (I'm already retired)

I answered... Doesn't matter, problem solved either way!

Stealing/cheating employees out of their vacation is a time honored tradition. Its how less than honest managers earn their bonus. They basically have you by the short and curly.

I ran into that back in 1980. I asked for a raise and was turned down. I was working way too many hours for a meager salary ( for what I was doing). So I went looking and found a new job. Then I put in for my vacation, and was turned down. I never could figure out if I was that indispensable, how they could screw me over so pleasantly. Didn't matter, I gave notice that same day. Then they refused to pay me my vacation. So I did the American thing, I sued! . All I had on my side was company policy of accruing vacation each payday. Years of accounting records.

I didn't mind paying the attorney 1/3 of my vacation to put on public record the way they treated people. Yeah, it was settled after the first conference. My attorney just pointed out how all the jurors were probably working people, ones who hated corporations cheating employees.

The reality is that you are allowed to quit. And any retaliation during the final time of employment doesn't do well by them. Yes, I had gotten to the point where I hated the upper management. Who had gotten there in the traditional way. Family connections.

Retirement is good. Enjoy yours. Laugh at them from time to time. Cheating employees seems to be another American tradition.

quote:

The new investors just announced they are contracting out some services/departments. The current employees will transfer to the new company... as NEW hires... as in zero seniority. She even lost her vacation time with none possible until after a year with the new company.

Maybe she could be available as a contracted consultant.

Im as conservative as anyone, probably more conservative than most. But the vindictive side of me might want to start talking about forming a union before I leave. Companies LOVE unions!

My Grandfather spent a lifetime with the USPS as a letter carrier. My Father spent a lifetime with Wisconsin Bell. I tried to spend a lifetime with a bank that became a different bank - that became a different bank - that become a different bank. I made it 25 years before they disposed of anyone making real money.

The days of spending a lifetime with an employer are gone. cparktd - she's lucky she is at a retirement age. My wife and I have been 24/7 for 5 years and love it.
Mike

The company I quit last March after 13 years has been pushing out all the tenured employees. Robbed me of about $4500 worth of sick time, made it harder and extended the amount of time you had to work to earn time off. Health insurance cost and deductibles so high that you were better off paying cash. Impossible goals. Now they’ve got 80% turnover rates some months and home office is pulling work from the site because they can’t handle it. Great plan!

loyalty if tough these days when no one is loyal back.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

loyalty if tough these days when no one is loyal back.

Agreed, but this is nothing new.

It has been going on for many, many, years.

That is why I went out on my own, as a contract worker, in the 1980s.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:

She even lost her vacation time

Are you saying that she lost vacation time that she had accrued, and was not reimbursed for it?

I worked for a company that wanted me to relocate. I told them no, I was not going to uproot my family and move a thousand miles. I am here, I am willing to work, and I'm not moving.

They told me that they would take that as my resignation.

I replied that I was not resigning, they could fire me if they wanted to.

So they fired me. And they told me that I was forfeiting accrued vacation, that I had on the books.

I mentioned this to a lawyer. He promptly wrote them a letter. I never saw the letter, I do not know what he said in it, but the day after he wrote it and FAXed it to them, they dispatched a check, paying me in full for the vacation that I had on the books. FedEx overnight.

This is because vacation time is an accrued wage. You can't make earned vacation time disappear. You can change a policy on how it is accrued, but once earned, a company owes you any unused vacation/sick time. If his wife wasn't compensated for her unused time, it's straight up illegal.

quote:

Originally posted by arcwelder:

This is because vacation time is an accrued wage. ....unused time, it's straight up illegal.

Better check your source on that last. It will vary based on state law.