US Department of Veterans Affairs Employee Reviews about "upper management"

Cons

Upper management is often less capable than mid management in terms of leadership vision and direction.

Cons

Upper management threatens nursing staff to 'take' 12 hour shifts away and go to all 8s. Managers dangle the 12 hr shifts in front of you during interviews. Once hired you learn 12hr shifts are a privilege. Takes months to get hired. Nepotism at its best! It is not what you know, but WHO you know. Very qualified/dedicated staff looking to advance their careers only to denied positions for less educated staff. New hires who get hired in for entry level positions and while in TRAINING are told to apply for management positions, get the job, then you find out WHO they are friends with. This is a HUGE problem that's has led to many disgruntled staff. Staff moral is on the decline once again. Poor communication between upper managements and first line staff. Increasing patient acuities with less staff. Nurses expected to care for six patients, take floor charge, with no NAs on floor because of sitter cases. Required to carry phones and reprimanded for not being able to answer them when in the middle of patient care. Mandating! Although per 'union policy' is is not allowed unless some disaster has occurred, happens daily. People have lives. If a nurse has a family and needs to wake up at 6 AM with the children, go shopping, run errands etc. is working 1530- midnight CANNOT be expected to get mandated until 0800! The horror story's staff not being able to stay awake driving home, patient errors that don't get reported is ridiculous! If you tell management you can't stay you are threatened you may lose your job. If you work the shift and your next scheduled shift is in eight hours you are EXPECTED to be there. If you call off you must use your sick time. This practice in this day and age of nursing is APPALLING! Typical eight hour day for floor nursing. Bedside nursing report where staff must give nursing report in front patients. Some patients like this, others will yell at you because they don't want to hear everything. Usually takes 30 min. If you are in-charge you must complete all of those duties, assess your patients, and pass medications before 1000. In between there you must handle complaints, assign beds for new admissions, answer your call light because you have no NA help (they are siting with high risk patients), and compete patient care. Hold staff meeting somewhere in there to discuss patient acuities on the floor. IF you are lucky you might be able to start charting on your six patients around 1100 for 30 min before noon med pass. Have you noticed I have NOT talked about a break yet! FORGOT we must break our NAs who are sitting with the patients for their breaks and lunches! Well, you can sit in the room with a cart to chart. Ohhhh, and that is your break! Still answering phone, call light, assigning rooms, monitoring the floor to prevent a crises. Upset staff at you because they just discharged a patient, and are running behind bc of all the morning tasks and cannot take on a new patient. Pass medications 1200-1300 NEED TO GET CHARTING DONE...did you ask about lunch? No! I haven't eaten or taken a break yet. I will stuff my face with junk while I am charting. That's my lunch until we get caught trying to eat by a computer and get in trouble! Management calling wanting to know information for staffing. Need to complete 24+notes on patients. Complete nursing assignment for next shift Answer more call lights and change patients ext. I think you get the point. The final kick is not being able to complete all those notes,. You have not had 15 min to yourself in eight hours, and you can't leave at 1600. Couldn't finish all that in 1 eight hour shift! Nooooo we DONOT pay OT if you are not completing patient care. ??!! What do they think we did all day! Final, final kick! Let's MANDATE you for 4-8 hours extra because the VA cannot organize a efficient float pool to maintain staffing like EVERY hospital in the Cleveland area. This is the daily life of a VA nurse in Cleveland. In one breath management will tell you according to the research, 12 hour shifts are proven to cause more nurse fatigue and error. On the other hand they will mandate you for 8 hours when you are unprepared with child care, food for the next shift, and any plans you may have had. AND you will be expected to be there again if you are scheduled in eight hours. Not all days are like this. Estimate 75% of your days will be like this. Nursing burnout is high. Most management don't want to hear your complaints. Even if you try to offer solutions. The Cleveland VA needs management that will end nepotism, hire qualified management personal, develop float pool that works. Executive management that participates in floor nursing once every 6 months to stay in touch with the REALITY of what a floor nurse deals with on a daily tour. ALL staff wants is what is best for our Veterans. It is hard to complain about a place that does have a great benefit package with hourly rate. Bottom line, nursing is becoming unsafe. All of the benefits will not mean a thing if you lose your life from being to tired to drive home after a mandated shift, or because staffing is so short it puts your license in jeopardy.

Cons

If you don't get along with or if you're not accepted by the click don't expect to stay long. Upper management needs to worry less about getting their bonus and more about the vets.

Cons

Takes forever for anyone to make a decision and then implement. In order to be successful you need to be part of the 'clique' because management very much plays favorites. Promotions and awards go to those that speak the party line and agree with upper management. Better get along with the director and nurse exec or you will be miserable while working there. Doesn't matter if it's the right just tell them what they want to hear and you will work out well at this place, otherwise look for another place to work.

Cons

Hard to advance Secretive hiring processes Cronyism Very rude upper management Low morale is common Poor internal promotion

Cons

Office gossip Upper management acts like they wanted employee input but totally disregarded employee input at the same time

Cons

One of the most mismanaged facilities in the VA. Upper management has dissociated from the actual mission of helping the Veterans despite their belief that they do. HAS, the service line I work for, is one of the most consistently inconsistent service lines. The nursing service line is always understaffed and there is a pervasive culture of not only is that not my job, but even if I can do something to help, I won't. The pay is only semi competitive at this point for front line staff, and significantly lower for management & and executive staff. They consistently make the short list of facilities to be decommissioned due to underperformance. This is a hospital that can only admit a couple dozen patients at a time due to either provider or nursing staff issues, yet has a completely remodeled patient floor that sits empty. It's a mess.

Cons

Dysfunctional mid and upper management who have no idea how to manage people and resources. They are motivated by bonuses on the backs of those below them. I have yet to meet anyone in management that are visionary and have a talent for how to manage an organization. And it won't change because they are blind at seeing their own problems and mostly justify their poor performance on those below them. No one takes ownership. I know of no one that has worked successfully in business, actually know how to develop a business plan and execute it. Technology is old and out dated. IT hires within. They write their own software with people that were never software engineers. They never complete test any software they release in house and as a result, crashes happen often and soon after it is released. Most of it seems to be done on visual basic. GUI design is Mickey Mouse. We use Office 2003 and some of their databases are old legacy systems. Despite what you hear, there is widespread dissatisfaction within the ranks of those from GS 5- 13. Production requirements have pushed quality down. They will tell you that it is way up...only because cases are review multiple times before the quality review team sees it and before their top tear QR team, STAR, sees it so it is a joke. Instead of making sure it is done right the first time without the pressure of production hanging over people's heads, everything is rushed. Quality suffers and then they pay multiple levels of reviews to make it look like it was done right...which is costing more money and time to get it right. I have never met a lazy federal worker. They are all hard working. It is just the whole structure of the organization is dysfunctional, disorganized, and clueless how to move ahead. They keep reinventing a new way to do the same old things of fixing problems.

Cons

Upper management threatens nursing staff to 'take' 12 hour shifts away and go to all 8s. Managers dangle the 12 hr shifts in front of you during interviews. Once hired you learn 12hr shifts are a privilege. Takes months to get hired. Nepotism at its best! It is not what you know, but WHO you know. Very qualified/dedicated staff looking to advance their careers only to denied positions for less educated staff. New hires who get hired in for entry level positions and while in TRAINING are told to apply for management positions, get the job, then you find out WHO they are friends with. This is a HUGE problem that's has led to many disgruntled staff. Staff moral is on the decline once again. Poor communication between upper managements and first line staff. Increasing patient acuities with less staff. Nurses expected to care for six patients, take floor charge, with no NAs on floor because of sitter cases. Required to carry phones and reprimanded for not being able to answer them when in the middle of patient care. Mandating! Although per 'union policy' is is not allowed unless some disaster has occurred, happens daily. People have lives. If a nurse has a family and needs to wake up at 6 AM with the children, go shopping, run errands etc. is working 1530- midnight CANNOT be expected to get mandated until 0800! The horror story's staff not being able to stay awake driving home, patient errors that don't get reported is ridiculous! If you tell management you can't stay you are threatened you may lose your job. If you work the shift and your next scheduled shift is in eight hours you are EXPECTED to be there. If you call off you must use your sick time. This practice in this day and age of nursing is APPALLING! Typical eight hour day for floor nursing. Bedside nursing report where staff must give nursing report in front patients. Some patients like this, others will yell at you because they don't want to hear everything. Usually takes 30 min. If you are in-charge you must complete all of those duties, assess your patients, and pass medications before 1000. In between there you must handle complaints, assign beds for new admissions, answer your call light because you have no NA help (they are siting with high risk patients), and compete patient care. Hold staff meeting somewhere in there to discuss patient acuities on the floor. IF you are lucky you might be able to start charting on your six patients around 1100 for 30 min before noon med pass. Have you noticed I have NOT talked about a break yet! FORGOT we must break our NAs who are sitting with the patients for their breaks and lunches! Well, you can sit in the room with a cart to chart. Ohhhh, and that is your break! Still answering phone, call light, assigning rooms, monitoring the floor to prevent a crises. Upset staff at you because they just discharged a patient, and are running behind bc of all the morning tasks and cannot take on a new patient. Pass medications 1200-1300 NEED TO GET CHARTING DONE...did you ask about lunch? No! I haven't eaten or taken a break yet. I will stuff my face with junk while I am charting. That's my lunch until we get caught trying to eat by a computer and get in trouble! Management calling wanting to know information for staffing. Need to complete 24+notes on patients. Complete nursing assignment for next shift Answer more call lights and change patients ext. I think you get the point. The final kick is not being able to complete all those notes,. You have not had 15 min to yourself in eight hours, and you can't leave at 1600. Couldn't finish all that in 1 eight hour shift! Nooooo we DONOT pay OT if you are not completing patient care. ??!! What do they think we did all day! Final, final kick! Let's MANDATE you for 4-8 hours extra because the VA cannot organize a efficient float pool to maintain staffing like EVERY hospital in the Cleveland area. This is the daily life of a VA nurse in Cleveland. In one breath management will tell you according to the research, 12 hour shifts are proven to cause more nurse fatigue and error. On the other hand they will mandate you for 8 hours when you are unprepared with child care, food for the next shift, and any plans you may have had. AND you will be expected to be there again if you are scheduled in eight hours. Not all days are like this. Estimate 75% of your days will be like this. Nursing burnout is high. Most management don't want to hear your complaints. Even if you try to offer solutions. The Cleveland VA needs management that will end nepotism, hire qualified management personal, develop float pool that works. Executive management that participates in floor nursing once every 6 months to stay in touch with the REALITY of what a floor nurse deals with on a daily tour. ALL staff wants is what is best for our Veterans. It is hard to complain about a place that does have a great benefit package with hourly rate. Bottom line, nursing is becoming unsafe. All of the benefits will not mean a thing if you lose your life from being to tired to drive home after a mandated shift, or because staffing is so short it puts your license in jeopardy.

Cons

Upper management has no idea or clue how to manage and are just running their time to retirement.