Out of prison

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I will be retiring from state service in order to pursue a different professional opportunity. After 21 years, I will no longer be locked up on the job. It came down to me finally getting sufficiently fed up with the poor management and virtually nonexistent communication in my division and the condescending treatment of facility medical administrators. An APRN who I worked with at DOC got similarly fed up, and he took a job with a hospice company. Said hospice company interviewed me and offered me a job on the spot. My hope is that I can work for these people for 2-3 years and do sufficient damage to my bills (with both Social Security and state retirement coming in) to never work again. Weekends and holidays off, job will consist of documentation review and marketing. It was to be a pure case management job, but apparently they noticed that I communicate well and develop rapport quickly, so I got added to the marketing wing as well. It is a smaller company with two locations in Arizona and one here. I got a very good feel when I went to the office for the interview. I can tell pretty quickly what an office atmosphere is like, and this one was overwhelmingly positive. I start orientation with them immediately after Memorial Day. My last day in the office was yesterday.

Probably the biggest adjustment will be having choices for lunch.

Edited June 5, 2022 by Vegas Halo Fan

[Redondo]

I wish you well with your career change

[AngelsLakersFan]

14 hours ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

I will be retiring from state service in order to pursue a different professional opportunity. After 21 years, I will no longer be locked up on the job. It came down to me finally getting sufficiently fed up with the poor management and virtually nonexistent communication in my division and the condescending treatment of facility medical administrators. An APRN who I worked with at DOC got similarly fed up, and he took a job with a hospice company. Said hospice company interviewed me and offered me a job on the spot. My hope is that I can work for these people for 2-3 years and do sufficient damage to my bills (with both Social Security and state retirement also coming in) to never work again. Weekends and holidays off, job will consist of documentation review and marketing. It was to be a pure case management job, but apparently they noticed that I communicate well and develop rapport quickly, so I got added to the marketing wing as well. It is a smaller company with two locations in Arizona and one here. I got a very good feel when I went to the office for the interview. I can tell pretty quickly what an office atmosphere is like, and this one was overwhelmingly positive. I start orientation with them immediately after Memorial Day. My last day in the office was yesterday.

Probably the biggest adjustment will be having choices for lunch.

Did you do two weeks probation?

[Vegas Halo Fan]

51 minutes ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

Did you do two weeks probation?

Four, actually. Unlike them, I was courteous. Since I am vacating an administrative position, I gave them 30 days notice. Part of my motivation was selfish, however. Being on the payroll in the month of June, even if it is just for a few days, gives me health insurance coverage for the entire month. My new insurance kicks in July 1.

My staff had a pot luck dinner for me on Wednesday. The Chief of Nursing Services and the Medical Director attended. I told my charge nurse, "I'm glad that the reasons that I am leaving showed up to pretend that they care." The Medical Director said maybe two sentences to me - his only communication with me since I made it public on May 3 that I was leaving. The Deputy Director of my division called me a couple of weeks ago to thank me personally for all that I have done - especially fixing a couple of truly dire situations that the agency was in when I arrived at two different locations (I tended to be sent to the trouble spots). My own division head? Crickets. As if I needed confirmation that this is the right choice. The sad thing is that I liked my job overall, and the location where I was most recently assigned was the best stop during my career. I just could no longer endure what was going on above me.

I will miss the people who I worked with, but not the people who I worked for. I have valid information indicating that they will be down five nursing directors by the end of summer. I know who they are and where they are going. One I recruited to the hospice company that I am joining on May 31 - but they don't know that yet. This particular DON is one that the Chief of Nursing leans on very heavily, and she is totally sick of it. They will see these departures as just an unfortunate coincidence, and it will not even occur to them that they caused them. As is their custom, the Department of Corrections will address this after the damage is already done, and decades worth of experience have already hit the door. During our conversation, my deputy director told me that he is aware of the problems in the division, "but I have been prevented from fixing them."

Note to my former supervisors: When you treat people like shit, they tend to leave, and longevity is not protection against it.

Edited May 21, 2022 by Vegas Halo Fan

[PattyD22]

16 hours ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

I will be retiring from state service in order to pursue a different professional opportunity. After 21 years, I will no longer be locked up on the job. It came down to me finally getting sufficiently fed up with the poor management and virtually nonexistent communication in my division and the condescending treatment of facility medical administrators. An APRN who I worked with at DOC got similarly fed up, and he took a job with a hospice company. Said hospice company interviewed me and offered me a job on the spot. My hope is that I can work for these people for 2-3 years and do sufficient damage to my bills (with both Social Security and state retirement also coming in) to never work again. Weekends and holidays off, job will consist of documentation review and marketing. It was to be a pure case management job, but apparently they noticed that I communicate well and develop rapport quickly, so I got added to the marketing wing as well. It is a smaller company with two locations in Arizona and one here. I got a very good feel when I went to the office for the interview. I can tell pretty quickly what an office atmosphere is like, and this one was overwhelmingly positive. I start orientation with them immediately after Memorial Day. My last day in the office was yesterday.

Probably the biggest adjustment will be having choices for lunch.

Good luck @Vegas Halo Fan on the new opportunity, buddy.  Your mental well being as well as your family is always the #1 priority.  Good luck.

[Slegnaac]

@Vegas Halo Fan Life is always evolving and changing.

All the best to you in your new career. 

Edited May 21, 2022 by Slegnaac

[Blarg]

21 years in the prison system and the laugh is you would have served less time for murder. 

[Lou]

VHF, it's good to hear that you've made this decision. It's not an easy thing to do, especially after doing one thing for such a long time. Quality of life is much more important and it seems as if you've chosen that for your future. 

Don't look back or dwell on not getting pats on the back from your superiors. Most take it personally as if you're wronging them. Focus on the future.

[gotbeer]

Grats on the change.  It's tough changing, especially if you have been there for a long time.  

[Tank]

I thought this was gonna be a thread about cals trip to Ireland.

[Tank]

Congrats, Vegas. Being happy and content at your job is a big deal. Hope all goes well, my friend.

[gotbeer]

3 minutes ago, Tank said:

I thought this was gonna be a thread about cals trip to Ireland.

I was kind of disappointed also.  Also in the running was this from someone that disappeared like Lifetime.  

[Blarg]

2 hours ago, Lou said:

Quality of life is much more important and it seems as if you've chosen that for your future. 

He did mention lunch choices. 

[Taylor]

Pulling a Ty Buttrey? JK

Congrats, VHF! You're doing the right thing for you and your family. Life's too short to be stuck in a crappy job situation.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

On 5/21/2022 at 6:27 PM, Blarg said:

21 years in the prison system and the laugh is you would have served less time for murder. 

I always told people that I was doing a life sentence on the installment plan.

I wasn't expecting to be looking for another job at this point in the game, but I have never seen my division be as badly managed as it is right now. My current boss was once one of my colleagues. I knew that she wasn't going to be a dynamic leader, I was just hoping that she wouldn't do anything stupid or destructive. That hope went by the boards pretty quickly. I'm not sure that she understands how she comes across. Talking down to me doesn't play well with me, especially when I have five times the experience with the agency and I came up through the ranks when she came from outside straight into a nursing director position. I was also the one who she referred everyone else to when they had a question about anything, and the one who edited anything that she (or the Medical Director) were sending to anyone above them. I thought about interviewing for the chief position when it came open, but I decided that I didn't want statewide responsibility at that point in the game. I didn't want my phone ringing at 3 AM because something stupid happened at Lovelock.

My Medical Director. Where do I begin. First off, good luck getting an answer from him on anything. Most of the time, he doesn't return calls or emails. What really tore it for me with him was an incident that happened about two years ago. One of our nurses had been on quarantine for COVID, and he had just returned to work. The Medical Director called me and he asked me whether the employee had written clearance to return to work. I told him that it was my understanding that he did, but I wasn't handling the matter. I was at a facility with two nursing directors, and my (unfortunately late) colleague was handling it. I had no reason to question his decision to allow the employee to return. No letter was found, so the Medical Director accused me of lying to him and he opened an investigation with the Inspector General's office. Nothing was found because there was nothing to find - even though I had to waste my time and theirs recounting everything that I had said. Anyone who has known me at all knows that I don't fabricate, exaggerate or falsify anything. I have always operated completely above board, and there have been times when my frank honesty has gotten me in trouble with people who can't handle the unvarnished truth.

My staff had a pot luck for me last Wednesday. I was thrilled to see both the Medical Director and the Chief of Nursing show up to pretend that they care. The Medical Director said maybe two sentences to me - the first communication I had from him since I told people on May 3 that I was on the way out. I got a service plaque for 20+ years of service. One unique feature about it (apart from the fact that it is shaped like an outline of the state) is that it contains coins that were once used in inmate casinos. Only in Nevada. Inmates were once allowed to gamble (from the 1940s until some time in the 1960s), and these coins (of several denominations) were used for wagering. The theory was that if inmates were playing blackjack, roulette or craps, they weren't involved in more nefarious stuff. They also didn't dare cheat, because they would get shanked on the yard. In typical NDOC fashion, I was sent an invoice for $20 from Prison Industries. Yes, I paid for my own recognition plaque.

I had been on several interviews since the first of the year, and a couple looked promising. This one is definitely better, because the others were management positions and probably would have been a lot more grief for just a little more money (and I was already in that situation). For the first time in a long time, I feel energized about going to work. Time to see if this old dog can learn some new tricks.

Edited May 27, 2022 by Vegas Halo Fan

[Tank]

Paying for your own recognition plague? Wow, and I thought my employer was cheap (which they notoriously are). 

[Slegnaac]

1 hour ago, Tank said:

Paying for your own recognition plague? Wow, and I thought my employer was cheap (which they notoriously are). 

At least he got the employee discount price.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

On 5/22/2022 at 4:07 PM, Slegnaac said:

At least he got the employee discount price.

I'm not sure about that. I don't know what they charge other people for something similar. My guess is that there isn't a discount for anything.

[T.G.]

Congratulations, @Vegas Halo Fan! Good for you!

[ten ocho recon scout]

Congrats! Wish you well on the new career!