Your fired! BUDGET$?…week 7

Week 7…….YOUR FIRED! 

Well I learned from my interview on firing, you can be fired for more than succking at your job. I learned firing someone can be a slippery slope, document the journey.

From the unit on budget I learned I could be a really good mafia boss. I really did not care who got the ax, as long as the budget was met. After all, in this scenario, I am leadership, not the employee being told to create a Disneyland type experience out of cancer, death, disfigurement or infection. Work like Cinderella, scrimp like like a pauper all while working in the atmosphere of Camp Green Lake.  Oh what a pleasure.

What did you actually learned from the unit. Again, I  can not stand the thought of being a leader. But if I had to do it, I would have to seperate the job from my feelings about employees and their lives.

2. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the team activities? Did it change your opinion on the subject? If so, how? If not, why? this week’s team activity was rough. Although I suspect the instructor set it up that way. There are tender hearts in my group who do not want anyone to lose their job. Suck it up buttercup. Poor management led to over staffing to begin with. 2 nurses with their entourage for every 3 patients. That is a bit excessive.

3. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice. If I were going to be a leader I would take more education on time and budget management. I do not want to lead, period. I an not consistent in any way shape or form, except in my intolerance of poor leadership.  My lack of energy alone, would sink my unit.  My indecision  would bankrupt us. I would add an extra column  on the budget for notes. I will need the notes to remember how and why things were chosen for the year before. 

4. You personal feelings about the material covered. Well, since hospitals are not for healthcare but actually just to make a buck. Budget seems a necessary evil. Kinda like Ursila, Maleficent or Shan yu.

week 6- Ethics

Ethics

1. What did you actually learned from the unit.

Apparently ethics are like opinions, personal. 

They are intrinsic values we adhere too.

Hospitals are required to have an ethics committee.

Ethics committees have no power other than the power of suggestion.

You can take their suggestion or not.

Two steps to Ethics meeting: 1- gather information 2- work toward a resolution

  

2. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the team activities? Did it change your opinion on the subject? If so, how? If not, why?

So the activities did not change my mind about the class or ethics. This class was a reminder of why I am tempted to leave nursing. If it is going to be a continual fight to do or be able to do the right thing, somebody should start paying me to fight. It used to be you did the right thing because it was the right thing to do. Now nursing is tied up in money and policy and insurance. 

3. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice. I might sit in on an ethics meeting and see if I like that sort of thing. Ethics puts a tiny spark in me that leadership will never do for me. But at least I know I can take an issue to the ethics committee if one arises.  

4. YouR personal feelings about the material covered. I feel like I go a taste or reminder about ethics. I would have liked more information.  So at some point, when I am not drowning in life/school, I will check it out again. Maybe I will watch in Modern Healthcare for ethics articles. Ethics again surpasses leadership on my  mental future to do list. 

5- What is up with the hidden assignments and missing details? How is that stuff ethical? Can’t you just put all the information in one spot. Can you please just explain yourself and your style, please. For me your class is like ADD met new technology year after year, so now I get the pleasure of guessing  and searching, just to land in a land mine. The one week I turn in for the group and it does not work. That is so messed up. I turn it in on time and it did not work! 

 

Week 5- Weak 5- Firing and Discipline

Firing and discipline

1. What did you actually learned from the unit.

Do not fire on Friday.

Keep emotions in check while firing someone.

Be nice.

Always have HR present for firing and for discipline as needed.

Always do the paperwork for both discipline and firing.

There are legal ramifications for firing people. 

2. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the team activities?

Coming to a conclusion over best leader was easy and actually so was the employee issue or non issue. Not enough detail to figure out if it was or was not and issue. That problem activity seemed to relate more to drama and trying to get blood out of a turnip. The set up was missing detail. The activity itself did not change my opinion. The group came to many of the same conclusions I did. So that was nice. Something in the reading caught my attention. Listen first. Many leaders do not find a  need to discipline if they listen first.

3. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.

I feel like the listening can go into my practice wherever I am. Consistently managing other people or their inability just chaps my hide. I love teaching, accomplishing hard work or serving, just do not make me in charge. It requires so much energy from me, it causes instant hate and dissatisfaction to deal with ungrateful or whiny axe grinding babies. I can have opinions, I prefer however to stay in a peaceful state and practice gratitude or grace. The latter of which I have none, but wish to develop at some point.

4. You personal feelings about the material covered.

Again this is a required class. I would not take this job for many reasons. I am not capable of consistency being the biggest reason of all. Number two I am not a red or a blue. I do not care enough about these things enough to have an opinion. The stress from making a choice or having to care makes me angry and sick.  I need a job I can do when my body works for me. That is not leadership.  I accept it.

5. What are you sick of? Disappearing assignments! I know it is there some place I read  it somewhere, but there is no one location with all the complete details to every freaking assignment. Why are assignments for this class like treasure hunts in a land mine?

Week 3- Hiring

Hiring

Well I hate decision making and this is a required class. I can not ever imagine doing this job, ever…! Plus, I told myself no more mean posts. 

1. What did you actually learned from the unit. Maybe hiring is not as bad as dreamed in my nightmares. Well I am not sleeping well, so day terrors I’ll call them.  What if I make a crappy choice in who to hire? Can I take it back or undo it  before stepping into the mess.  It turns out I can google how to hire just like I can google how to fix my dryer, car or fridge. Or I can just work for someone who has an HR department to guide me through it if I ever loose my mind and take a leadership job. There are rules in place for what I can say or ask in an interview and who is protected. I hate racism, agism so on and so forth. My oldest is always saying,  “I have less rights than any other group on the planet.” Turns out he is right.  Usually it highly irritates me when any group feels they are more special than any other group. Today though,  It feels like every word that comes out my mouth in an interview, can be used against me. What ever happened to do and be decent.

2. Discuss your feelings/experiences from the team activities? Did it change your opinion on the subject? If so, how? If not, why? No changes here, my thoughts are  confirmed. I do not need the stress of hiring anyone. It was interesting to learn what was important to others in hiring. Mostly we agreed upon who we would hire and why, from the get go. I think one person started down a different path and was converted by our excellent leadership or time management.

3. How you will utilize the information learned in your nursing practice.  Being open and doing homework on candidates prior to interviews stand out as two skills I could take into any job, even if I dodge the hiring.

4. You personal feelings about the material covered. It was required material. You can not lead if there are no followers. No coaching required if there is no team. No referee needed if there is no goal or rules to follow. There is only so far a one man band can go in corporate America.

week 4 hiring data

 

    • Week 4- Interview Questions Data
  • Interview Questions
  • Cameron S. with Pizza Hut, dine in restaurant, Arizona
  • What sets one candidate apart from another one? Attitude, work ethic and mannerisms set one candidate apart from the rest.
  • How long does your hiring process take? If I am hiring a team member the process takes at least 3 days. If I am hiring a manager the hiring process could take a week or more. Manager candidate names get run through a state system.
  • Do you have one set of questions you ask for all potential employees or do you switch questions each interview? We had corporate questions and then added our own set of questions to bring out the interviewees traits- I am looking specifically for values, integrity, mannerisms, priorities, how they carried themselves and hygiene. Team member questions are less strenuous than manager questions.
  • When you post a job, typically about how many people do you select for an interview? I select 5-10 candidates to interview per position, usually in waves of 3. After the first two are chosen then I re-evaluate to see how many more I might need to add, if any.
  • What are your absolute deal-breakers when you are evaluating potential employees? Criminal record of murder or other violent predator crimes and disrespect.
  • If you were aware that a candidate had been terminated from their preceding job, what lengths would you typically go to in order to find out if this person is a good fit for your organization? I did not contact the previous employer. I added questions for authority and relationship issues
  • On a scale of 1 to 10 how much does personality weigh over initial skill of the job? I believe that most people can learn these simple jobs, but it would be easier on all of us if they had good personalities.
  • What taboo questions can you think of that potential employees should NOT ask during the interview process? I did not ask any questions in relations to their politics, religion or sexual orientation.
  • When a background check is completed and criminal history (or history of any kind) shows up what really goes through HRs mind? Again, I hire felons who have done time, if the crimes were not murder or child predator.
  • What is the most important training or skill one must possess, to be a highly successful interviewer of potential employees? Social grace and good judgement.
  • If you extended a job offer and later realized it was a mistake or undesirable candidate for some reason, could that offer be withdrawn without explanation?
  •     I never withdrew any job offer, but I did have to let many go at the end of  their first day of work if they could not keep up or learn fast enough.
  • What would make an employee indispensable? Work ethic, respect, values, integrity, social skills.
  • How long is the training process and will it consist of one shift or all of the shifts before settling down into a specific shift? Every position has its own length of training, some people catch on quicker than others.
  • What level of experience is considered during the hiring process, do you only  hire newly graduates or only someone is experienced or would you consider both? I hire both. I figure you have to get your training somewhere and sometimes it is better to get and train a an inexperienced worker. Experienced workers can be good resources and require less training.

If you consider both, someone highly experienced and someone who has no experience, what sets them apart to help with your final decision? I look at how they carry themselves, hygiene, mannerisms, ethics, integrity, personality, priorities and respect. Anyone can be trained if the desire and  work ethic is there.

Team work- week 4

Teamwork

 I liked this weeks activities, not sure I could learn as much if every week was like this week.   I think  that we all belong to many teams. Some work for us, some work with us and hopefully none conspire against us.   What a juggling act we have in managing all those systems and teams.

I met two of my team mates in person and two online. The in-person meeting was more real than the Skype meeting was for me.  None the less, It was great to meet every one and put a face to the name. I did learn more about all my team mates and their strengths. It is surprising what shows up in a person, in person, that does not exist in text or e-mail. More than a name and hopefully more of me showed up…. than my very poor technology skills. Speaking of which, I thought I marked Ender’s Game private.

I belong, like most people to many teams. After many attempts at home, three visits to the tech support for a program I am using and one trip to the library, I till could not make things work. In week one I did mention that the blog thing was not working for me. No response from the instructor an nothing helpful from the site moderator. I wrote Ender’s game in sincere frustration to this leadership class. Again, while I thought I marked it private, I am sorry if anyone is upset by it, including the instructor of this class and I did mean every word of it.

That being said, I reached out to my family team. I told my kids I had had enough and was done. To which they replied, not a chance in Hell. If you do not finish this now you will never do it.  I spoke to my dad, then my mom. While I detest cry babies and drama, I new my mother would hear what I was saying. I did confess to week one and two’s harsh critique of the class, use of technology, time/resource allocation and the instructor. Ultimately I decided that I need another team, for technology.

I will preface this with the fact that my grand kids have more technology skill than I do. When I could not get week one blog  to work, after trying it for many hours, I asked one of my kids for help. After said child renamed me, and grumpily attempted  helping me, he announced the problem was not me it was the site. Before I went to bed I emailed the teacher about blog not working. NOT ONE USEFUL RESPONSE CAME BACK. What did show up in the next class message was some snarky comment about how he does not respond if sent an e-mail question at 2 am. I sent it then because I did not want to forget and had hoped that there would be a response when I got home from work that night. I literally blew a gasket.  Usually I do not like seeing another hurt or in distress and not trying to be of some use.  It brought me the upmost joy, when I did start seeing other people say they were having trouble with the blog as well.  Maybe even a cackle or two. And do not even get me started on why he, himself does not respond to questions ask. He is giving said earned grades, but most responses I find are from students. Bottom line, I do not like who this class makes me turn into.

I am generally even split white and yellow with far less, but even blue and red. I am nothing but screaming red doused in blue flames when it comes to this class. I can google how to fix my car, dryer, refrigerator or  snake a drain, watch a video a few times and make it happen. There may be moments of frustration or trips to the hardware store , but it is doable. 

Luckily  I am in a class group that has not minded Krista telling me step by step how to get to google docs or what not. I found it on accident one day and could not find my way back for the assignment. I had never played 2 truths and a lie before and that was enjoyable. The desert  game  was challenging, I had a higher score on my  own, 41,  than with the group, 36.  The boat exercise was interesting. “Humanity” started the game but “best chance of survival’ finished the game.  Again with the technology…it took 10 minutes for me to figure out how to turn on the app store and download game. Fruit Ninja was the game we played. My first score was 3. The next game I got 7. The third game I got 17. Pretty humiliating, but the group did not rename me. This team is fairly patient and  lead as well as follows. Evan’s did encourage us to speak our minds or justify our position. Nicole encouraged us to stay on track/task.  Krista got us going and Rachel served us by typing the paper and in choosing an easy craft we could imitate. It turns out seeing a computer screen through a computer screen is much harder than I thought. I had step by step instructions that could not be seen well, or at all for the Skype-rs. I am gonna chalk that up to user error, mine. 

I will utilize the this weeks information to build me one more team. A technology team or accommodation team. (Turns out the latter was doable and the first not so much.) Part of me feels extremely strongly that this is a leadership class, not technology 101. I should not have to choose which I will learn every week.  I have been ready to vote myself off the team for 2 +weeks. I have no clue of what repercussions follow that choice. My team is pretty amazing. But any team is only as good as it’s weakest link. 

 

 

Bull Shit! Week 2

If I was going to be a leader, I would hope to demonstrate integrity, service, coaching, democracy, caring, determination, persistence, ethics and lead by the model role. I would have to learn more about authoritarian and vision leadership skills, in order to use them effectively. Authority has it’s place in final decisions and vision allows for focused growth. Resource, technology and time management skills are a must.   

I could never work for someone like you. I am taking this required class because it is required. Your class requirements and understanding of a 2 credit class  are self serving and dishonest and a testament of your poor leadership skills. Any educator knows that in order for a student to have financial aid they must carry a full time load.  Six classes modeling your 2 credit class requirements would be intolerable and not allow anyone to perform any other role they had in life, with any amount of satisfaction or success. Yah! Way to go! Not only are you inept at resource management, now your gonna cause burn out! Way to go  you passionate fire starter.

For this class alone the leader has no reliable or reasonable technology resources. I am just starting back to school. He uses multiple forms and locations for assignments instead of consistency. Consistency often leads to leadership success in my experience.  There are no due dates at a quick view, just a due time. A good leader assigns clear tasks. Nope not here. Read the syllabus for the basic information, then go look on canvas for specific details, just so you can then go look at the calendar to get the due date for the assignments. I find myself wondering if the class is about technology  and its uses in education or about leadership as a concept and nursing skill. Which am I supposed to be focusing on? I thought I signed up for leadership. If combustion upon re-entry was your end goal, you succeeded.

Don’t worry you say. The only person bringing stress to this class is the individual student, you say. BULL SHIT. The only thing being reinforced daily here is what I do not want to do or be you, as a leader.  I have no vision for my future. That tiny spark of light at the end of the tunnel has been annihilated. Thank you. Your leadership passion so far has made me very passionately realize this is not a role I want, ever. I can say that with authority and determination. 

My fear now, honestly, is that this class may not get any better or clearer. Just a technology cataclysm intertwined with large amounts of resource insulting, busy work.  The constant struggle may over shadow any learning that could occur. At the end of this semester will I have any useful or usable leadership skill? Is your end goal here just regurgitative skill?

I know we have not made it to “evaluation” as a skill in nursing leadership, but you have tapped into and augmented my leadership critiquing skills, with new vocabulary.   Not sure I can take that role any place but the comedy lounge in hell, with all the other whiners. It would have been nice if light at the tunnel was hope. Not the hell experienced by Ender at the completion of his deceptively assigned mission.

 

 

 

 

week 2- Enders game

  • Who were the leaders in the movie? Why? 
  • What are the traits of effective leadership you identified in the movie?
  • Explain why you feel these traits are effective in the workplace.
  • What are the traits of non-effective leadership you identified in the movie?
  • Explain why you feel these traits are not effective in the workplace.
  • After watching this movie and learning this material, how will you incorporate this into your nursing practice/personal life?

The main leaders for me, were Ender and Graff.  Most the main characters had a leadership role at some point in this movie.  Ender was the leader for the students and some of the training staff. Graff was the overall leader, even for those leaders above him. Even Violet lead by coaching.

The leadership traits I noticed were authoritarian, servant, democracy and visionary. Graff was an authoritarian leader to everyone below him in rank and sometimes even for those above him. His authority skills worked for the movie. Graff may have been a visionary much like Hitler. The traits Graff had traits that did not work for me nor would they be appropriate in most work places, win at all cost, dishonesty and manipulation. Clearly these last three traits are a central theme, make the movie work and in my mind at least, make Graff the antagonist.

Then there is Ender. He was the protagonist  and a determined visionary. Curiosity and the need to succeed drive his learning. When he does become a leader, his style is democratic and authoritarian. Ender also displays integrity, caring and altruism. Although Ender does manipulate to some degree, it seems like his manipulation was to get his needs met or to advance against an enemy, more like stratagem. Ender also has a service quality about him.  Ender’s qualities and leadership skills would be appropriate for the workplace and make the plot of this movie successful. Although to young to completely understand ethics, Ender did have moral code he played the game by and used to manage his actions and emotions. 

If I was going to be a leader, I would hope to demonstrate integrity, service, coaching, democracy, caring, determination, persistence, ethics and lead by the model role. I would have to learn more about authoritarian and vision leadership skills, in order to use them effectively. Authority has it’s place in final decisions and vision allows for focused growth. 

 

 

 

 

DISC

 DISC Personality Test 

4. Write in your Reflective Journal (Blog):

a. The results of the test:  I have an even amount of answers for steady and conscientious, with 6 each.

b. Was this a revelation/ new knowledge about yourself? This is not new information for me.I like slower pace, well controlled environment and am usually overly cautious. If I am going to do a project, I like it done completely and  accurately.

c. How will this effect your leadership style? There are times when things just need to be done, not drug out or overly thought out. I am not the leader for that, I can be a good worker for get in and get to work, but do not put me in charge if it is not going to be done to the degree I want it done.

d. What will you do with the knowledge this test gives you? I could pick education to counterbalance who I am. I can plan work projects for success. Start early, work steady and get it done on time. I know I function better in a job that allows me to have peace, be steady as well as complete and thorough. (My desire to be helpful is over shadowed by my inability to manage time and energy.  I can say No more often, if appropriate.)

5. Include the URL to your Reflective Journal (Blog) post.

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