The Worker Thread

[O Really]

I count as a union only organizations with power to negotiate on behalf of members. But nurses as a group - union or not - have a lot of muscle if they use it. Largely because - nationally at least - there are more nurse jobs than there are nurses. That's why nurses get paid overtime when they could all be legally considered exempt as professionals under FLSA. That's why lots of hospitals work hard on creative schedules and such. Management may abuse them, but they need them and they need them to stay around.

[Vrede too]

I don't know what the power of mobility is here relative to elsewhere.

"if they use it" is key.
First, women, the large majority of us, aren't as confrontational as men, for better or worse.
Then, there's the compassion and responsibility thing. We just want to show up and take care of people, and will suffer a lot of abuse in order to do that.
Finally, with exceptions in a few places I haven't found nurses as a whole to be very organizer/activist, in the workplace or outside of it.

Not that I've tried, so I can't really bitch. I decided long ago to keep my activism and career separate for my own sanity. Hence, I won't be rallying organized opposition to the white tops - no one I've talked to likes the idea - though I might have the skills to stir some shit up if I wanted to. Maybe that suggests another reason for the lack of solidarity - We all know that there are a thousand other jobs out there. The comparatives are usually location, pay, benefits, scheduling and patient load, not necessarily in that order. So, management can get away with silly crap like this.

[O Really]

Well, if it were me personally, I don't know that I'd choose uniform selection as a hill I was willing to die on, but that's the sort of thing that cumulatively drives employees out the door, into unions, off to the EEOC/DOL/OSHA, attorney offices, yada.

Reminds me of a guy I knew that did union avoidance seminars - he'd ask the group if any of them had ever been bitten by an elephant. Of course no one had. Then he asked if any had been bit by gnats. Everyone had, and he proclaimed, "see, it's the gnats that will always get you. The elephants you can see and avoid or will do something about. But the gnats get half-assedly swatted and ignored until they eat you up."

[Vrede too]

Good metaphor, especially for me. I find that I can handle big "evils", but little discourtesies and thoughtlessness drive me nuts.

As I've mentioned, I'm easing out of my current job, though not healthcare by any means. I now have a date ... 1/1/17 ...

No dying, just timing and excuse. If I planned to stay, I might at least try to get the scheme changed, but the odds aren't small with an "at will" employer that it would have gotten me fired, anyhow.

[Seth Milner]

I now have a date ... 1/1/17 ...

Vrede too --- celebrating on 01/01/2017 --- (Listen to the song)

[Vrede too]

... It's mindless regimentation imposed by pencil pushers that don't have to wear a uniform that makes them look like interchangeable robots.
... What's wrong with variety as long as we keep it professional? Do you really care what color the scrubs are of the nurse that's saving a loved one's life?

Having had a loved one's life saved by people in scrubs that I don't even remember the color of, I can say unequivocally "no." Wouldn't care if they had on torn jeans and greasy t-shirts....

Nurse Shamed by Cashier for Her Rainbow Hair

After work I went to the store to pick up a few things.
While checking out, the cashier, looked at my name tag and said, "So what do you do there?"
I replied, "I'm a nurse."
She continued, "I'm surprised they let you work there like that. What do your patients think about your hair?"
She then proceeded to ask the elderly lady that was in line behind me, "What do you think about her hair?"
The kind older lady said, "Nothing against you honey, it's just not for me."
Then the cashier continued to comment that they didn't allow that sort of thing even when she worked fast food and that she was shocked that a nursing facility would allow that.
Well, here's my thoughts. I can't recall a time that my hair color has prevented me from providing life saving treatment to one of my patients. My tattoos have never kept them from holding my hand and as they lay frightened and crying because Alzheimer's has stolen their mind. My multiple ear piercings have never interfered with me hearing them reminisce about their better days or listening to them as they express their last wishes. My tongue piercing has never kept me from speaking words of encouragement to a newly diagnosed patient or from comforting a family that is grieving.
So, please explain to me how my appearance, while being paired with my cheerful disposition, servant's heart, and smiling face, has made me unfit to provide nursing care and unable to do my job!

Fwiw, I have done some pretty hardcore nursing in some pretty nasty places, but full time Alzheimer’s and dementia treatment would be beyond my strength.

[Seth Milner]

She's pretty, but she didn't mention a patients eyesight; a patient's initial shock soon wears off.

The ugliest thing I see daily is beautiful young women with their bodies covered in hideous tattoos.

Each to his/her own though, if that 's what they want.

I'd love to be around to see what they look like when their skin begins to wrinkle and sag.

[O Really]

The ugliest thing I see daily is beautiful young women with their bodies covered in hideous tattoos.

In that case you must live a really good life.
But my question is, do you consider any tattoo to be "hideous" or do you just hang out around women with really awful tattoos?

[Seth Milner]

The ugliest thing I see daily is beautiful young women with their bodies covered in hideous tattoos.

In that case you must live a really good life.
But my question is, do you consider any tattoo to be "hideous" or do you just hang out around women with really awful tattoos?

Any tattoo on a woman is hideous. They look trashy. :gthumb:

[JTA]

The ugliest thing I see daily is beautiful young women with their bodies covered in hideous tattoos.

In that case you must live a really good life.
But my question is, do you consider any tattoo to be "hideous" or do you just hang out around women with really awful tattoos?

Any tattoo on a woman is hideous. They look trashy. :gthumb:

Nah

[JTA]

She's pretty, but she didn't mention a patients eyesight; a patient's initial shock soon wears off.

The ugliest thing I see daily is beautiful young women with their bodies covered in hideous tattoos.

Each to his/her own though, if that 's what they want.

I'd love to be around to see what they look like when their skin begins to wrinkle and sag.

IS SHE SINGLE???????

Edit: Oh fuck wedding ring nevermind. But - Ay bby that don't mean a thing

[O Really]

I'd love to be around to see what they look like when their skin begins to wrinkle and sag.

For reasons having to do with too much tequila and hanging with bad influences, I got a tattoo before they were cool. It still looks pretty good after all these years. It's a stylized US flag with a superimposed peace sign on my upper arm. Probably everybody remembers that. Anyway, I've never regretted it, nor felt inclined to cover it up or hide it. I'm glad I didn't get something that would look as silly and dated as big-collared shirts and bell bottoms.

[Vrede too]

That's a coincidence. The ugliest things I see most days are internet posts, sometimes Seth Milner ones y'all have quoted. Tats never bothered me and I can think of bunches of things way uglier than them or piercings - billboards, Hummers, strip development, slaver flags, Trump, sloppy drunks, Walmart, the sculpture on the north end of downtown.

[Seth Milner]

I'd love to be around to see what they look like when their skin begins to wrinkle and sag.

For reasons having to do with too much tequila and hanging with bad influences, I got a tattoo before they were cool.
It still looks pretty good after all these years. It's a stylized US flag with a superimposed peace sign on my upper arm.
Probably everybody remembers that. Anyway, I've never regretted it, nor felt inclined to cover it up or hide it.
Woodstock alumni?

I'm glad I didn't get something that would look as silly and dated as big-collared shirts and bell bottoms.
I agree with that. A picture of a big-collared shirt or bell bottomed trousers would look pretty silly on your arm . . . or chest, or lower back, or wherever.

What is this? It looks like a dragon with it's head buried in the rock.

[O Really]

Back to the pretty multi-colored hair nurse, I don't understand why any of that would matter to anybody anymore. Didn't everybody learn from the 60's 70's that styles come and go? Did the world really end when males started wearing long hair and beards? Apparently not. Anyway, almost all piercings will grow back together if you let them (don't know about the big ear gauging), and hair color and style is pretty much by definition temporary. It's interesting that in most of the future-set films or TV that hair styles/colors as well as clothing are pretty wild, (e.g. Hunger Games) but are accepted in the film as "normal." People expect styles to change, but complain when they do. And some people seem to get locked into a certain time of their life and never move forward. Example, NASCAR legend Richard Petty, who wore the same kind of caps/hats everybody else did until the late 70's (whenever "Urban Cowboy" came out) and he started wearing the feathery cowboy hat. So why still? What made that particular style appeal to him, yet nothing since has made him want to change? Do guys who wear comb-overs and rugs think nobody notices?

[rstrong]

Back to the pretty multi-colored hair nurse, I don't understand why any of that would matter to anybody anymore.

Not just artificially colored hair; artificially colored skin is accepted by even the most conservative now.


John Boehner led the way.

[Vrede too]

Yeah, I would add fake tans to the things I think are way uglier than tats and piercings, and not because of Trump and Boehner.

[Seth Milner]

He looks like an orange with the peeling coming off.

[Seth Milner]

A cordless reciprocating saw . . . I'd like to have one of those.

[Seth Milner]