Top 10 Reasons We Get Fired: Freedom of Speech

The right of freedom of speech....unfortunately doesn't have freedom of consequences...as I have learned the hard way....lOL

Me too, Esme12!

Count me in too Esme12. I once got talked to about my tone in an email. I realize I was probably rude. After I spoke to our scheduler about 5 times to tell her the day and time of a monthly meeting I had enough. I bold printed something in an email and she got her feathers ruffled. I told her I only did it because she just didn't get it.

What a surprising number of people don't seem to understand is that the First Amendment means (only) that the government can't restrict your speech (and there are even some limits/restrictions that the government can set, as determined by the Supreme Court over the years). Employers are certainly welcome to, and have pretty obvious, clear limits on what you can and can't say at work.

2nd Elkpark. Freedom of Speech applies to the government, not employers, not websites. And the government historically violates that constitutional amendment anyway (McCarthyism, anyone?) so thinking that you can say whatever you want without consequences in any situation is just incredibly na�ve.

I am fighting this paper trail and problems to the max. My manager "doesn't remember" so often I got a recorder. Then I am "untrustworthy" because I want proof. It is a small nursing staff and the accusations fly. When they had another nurse to blame it was ok for me, but now I am the one they blame. I won't take it and correct and there is always another way around. The supervisor worked the clinic the other day and did the same action I was written up for. There isn't much winning, but that write up quoted nursing board regulations and I want her to retract this. This is going to be really hard to counteract.

"Weeks later I was taken into the managers office and told my tone was not appreciated the day I informed her about the day the crash cart had moved! Really! Managers can be like elephants they never forget anything! I did not perceive that my manner was rude or abrasive that day as my personality is intense but normally I am not rude."This is a very legitimate issue and highlights one of my major gripes, as a newer nurse, from what I've experienced so far of nursing. When policies and procedures are based off of people's feelings, this kind of nonsense happens. Productivity gets demolished because you're supposed to be worrying about other's feelings while you say what you do. Sometimes things HAVE to be said in a tone that will annoy others, because you need to get the point across. Someone could have died over this.I am glad that we've differentiated between what you're allowed to say in the workplace and what the government is supposedly allowed to let you do. One of the problems that I see is that policies from the government has made the workforce so 'politically correct,' especially in nursing, that every little thing you say and do can be used against you in one way or another by anyone else looking to get back at you. If someone above you doesn't like you, or if there's somehow a threat of a lawsuit, you are in serious jeopardy. Job security is dead. As nurses we have to play the game to protect ourselves, but simultaneously, hopefully we all have the integrity to not attack a coworker the second they 'offend' us over something that is not ultimately a big deal.

persons misunderstanding of "tone", or the outright purposeful "misunderstanding" of tone goes on right here at AN.

Quote from madwife2002 Emails have tones? Note to self-read a book on Email Etiquette .

We always have to remember, we are our "nursing" selves and our "personal" selves. If in one's personal life one is passionately debating (AHEM, not talking about MYSELF.......HAHA) then one may need to reign that in for work. In a private work enviroment, the power that be can say and/or do whatever they would like to. The same can not be said for the staff. Unless one wants to drink the kool aid, which is a story for another thread...

+1 to what joemomma35 said. Nursing is a weird culture, to anyone who goes there from a more diversified profession. It's unrealistic to expect or demand so much submission, imo. I drop in here every now & then to see what's trending. But I am still glad that I did not suffer through another year of nursing school, because I truly found it the most miserable year of my life.Anyway, I heard a story on NPR news this AM. Can't locate the story online. It was about a study of bullying. Results were most of the bullying in workplaces occurs in healthcare and teaching, two traditionally female professions. He said that these workers are more susceptible to bullying because they are "the do-gooders" who try to do the right thing. 58% of the bullies were women. Most of the victims, I believe, were also women, and for certain he said that women target women. The bullying usually results in the victim leaving.The causegiven for the bulling, per the author, was to get control over someone who might be superior to the bully in some way. So, there ya go: Just one more reason to NOT care what your bullly thinks. hahaha!How to combat it, he said:It's emotional damage to victim. Victim must make dispassionate and logical arguments to higherups in admin, not the HR reps, about how this bullying adversely affects the workplace in financial terms:turnoverhigher burdens placed on remaining staffloss of experienced workersmoney the employer has lost in training a worker who then leavessick days and absenteeismhigher staff turnoveretc.That study just backed up what I have said about nursing all along: Nurses have been too docile and compliant for years. Ditch this Flo Nightengale carp about self-sacrifice. It's a job, it's a career, so treat it as such. And demand respect and fair treatment. Change your environment, don't let it run over you. Take your pee breaks, take your meal breaks.And I'm glad I'm out! lol

Quote from TC3200Anyway, I heard a story on NPR news this AM. Can't locate the story online. It was about a study of bullying. Results were most of the bullying in workplaces occurs in healthcare and teaching, two traditionally female professions. He said that these workers are more susceptible to bullying because they are "the do-gooders" who try to do the right thing. 58% of the bullies were women. Most of the victims, I believe, were also women, and for certain he said that women target women. The bullying usually results in the victim leaving.The causegiven for the bulling, per the author, was to get control over someone who might be superior to the bully in some way. So, there ya go: Just one more reason to NOT care what your bullly thinks. hahaha!How to combat it, he said:It's emotional damage to victim. Victim must make dispassionate and logical arguments to higherups in admin, not the HR reps, about how this bullying adversely affects the workplace in financial terms:turnoverhigher burdens placed on remaining staffloss of experienced workersmoney the employer has lost in training a worker who then leavessick days and absenteeismhigher staff turnoveretc.That study just backed up what I have said about nursing all along: Nurses have been too docile and compliant for years. Ditch this Flo Nightengale carp about self-sacrifice. It's a job, it's a career, so treat it as such. And demand respect and fair treatment. Change your environment, don't let it run over you. Take your pee breaks, take your meal breaks.And I'm glad I'm out! lol