Our country's financial situation is pretty scary right now for many of us, including the situations we are faced with right here in our own town. We are all on the edge of panic, wondering how we'll stay afloat, and rumors and half-truths that abound don't help the situation any. Reese, I don't know who told you that there would be no jobs lost. The message I received was that at the current time (when meetings began on the issue) no layoffs were planned-hence the bazillion managers meetings. I think I feel better knowing that there was plenty of discussion and research done before any huge decision such as layoffs was made. It has driven us all nuts not knowing what plan was in the making, but I respect the management's discretion in the matter until final decisions were made. It may be easier to cope with loss of hours, increased workload, and watching your coworkers be let go if you are able to point a finger at someone--anyone. Those dishonest, greedy upper managers (a picture you've painted) would be a logical target except for the fact that if you happen to watch the news, or read the newspaper, or hear from other healthcare workers in other states you'll see that this is happening everywhere. This facility is trying to do whatever it can to stay open to serve our community-there are hospitals in others areas that aren't so lucky. The financial crisis is not the fault of any one entity at Holy Rosary-it's just the way it is all over this nation. Do we really have 25 managers? Maybe so. I suppose that if you take a look at the facility phone directory you'll see that there are at least that many departments. There may only be 50 hospital beds, but there is also a clinic, surgery dept, emergency dept, cafeteria, physical therapy, respiratory, housekeeping, laundry, maintenance, nursing home, outpatient chemotherapy, accounting, etc. We need all those departments and there should be leadership in each area. None of this is going to be easy before it is all over. I, for one, believe that whether I have a job tomorrow or not, or whether I have to continue to figure out how to cram 8 hours of work into 3 hours, the whole reason we work where we do is to care for the patients and just do the best we can with what we have. And maybe I'm naïve, but I believe that is the main objective of Holy Rosary, too. We just need to try to get through this crisis. I know this website is a place to vent, so I suppose that is what I'm doing as well. I just don't think that posting one side of this situation to a community that is already facing a lot of uncertainty is very productive to the overall situation.
[This message has been edited by TamiLY (edited 2/5/2009).]