We did something about our mean supervisor!

My coworkers and I (11 of us total) all got together and decided enough is enough with our supervisor. She depresses us and makes us feel real small, so we decided to write the director. we all compiled everyones thoughts into one letter. It's intimidating because the director of our department is our supervisors friend, but we did let the director know that we have every intention on taking this to human resources if she can't get anything done. I'm so proud of us! I am going to paste the letter here. I will have you all know though, that I am looking for another job. I will not be stressed out and risk my pregnancy and baby. Nothing is worth it! So here is the letter below the line. Jan is the director...Sue is the devil...I mean supervisor
____________________________________________________________________

Dear Jan.

The PM shift would like to present some concerns we have.
In no way is this intended to “bash” Sue. We do not want her to loose her job; we are just trying to get some respect from her. We want her to respect us as people, as well as employees.
We begin by mentioning the high turn over rate on the PM shift, where is the problem? Hopefully some of the following information will help.

Almost the entire evening shift wanted to speak to you, but most backed out because Sue makes it no secret to us,
· that you are her grandkids Godmother
· that you are her POA for healthcare
· how you traveled with her by helicopter when her grandson passed away
· how your husband and her husband are co workers and friends

so even after talking about meeting with you for about a week, the thought of it has scared everyone away from the actual face to face meeting. Resorting to compiling a letter to say what and how we feel. The contemplation of going to HR is there, but we felt like we wanted to address this with you first.

Some of the points are personal some are how everyone is feeling.

It is very difficult to focus at work, because of the constant worry about being yelled at or talked down to. We all understand the need for correction, but the form of correction that we receive from Sue is almost a punishment. It’s not about what you say…its how you say it.
We always feel like we are walking on egg shells with Sue, is today going to be a bad day or a really bad day. Good days with Sue are few and far between.
Many people from the PM shift are afraid to approach her, she is very confrontational. She says if you have a question, come and ask, but then when you do, you are made to feel stupid, and that makes us apprehensive to ask her anything else.
People from the ER are afraid to come down to the office because they are afraid of her!
Many of us dread coming to work because we have to work with Sue. When Sue is not here, everything goes smoothly, work is enjoyable, but when she is here, we can’t even talk to each other, if we do she is right there, giving us something to do, or inquiring about what we are suppose to be doing. In my opinion, this is not how the work environment should be. People are more efficient and eager to do well, when they are happy and content with their job.
Sue is consistently looking over our shoulders, controlling our every move. She questions our every move and what we are doing. She stands behind us while we enter patients; she gives hand signals in the waiting area to tell us that we need to move the patient along, not allowing them time to talk, when grieving. Where is the Magis in that? Where is her Care, Concern, Compassion and Respect? We understand the job is fast paced, but brushing a patient out the door who may need just 2 minutes of a listening ear? We have been told that if we are in the middle of registering a patient, if it is 5:00pm we need to begin our lunches, so we need to stop what we are doing and go to lunch, passing the patient along to another co-worker, regardless if the other person has a patient or not. I know if I was a patient being registered I would not like to be passed off, like a number just so someone can go to lunch? We actually get in trouble fro Sue if this does not happen.
We don’t think it is fair that as adults we have to tip toe around here, afraid to do something wrong, afraid to get into trouble. We SHOULD be able to go to our supervisor and ask questions when they arise, without being lashed out at.
When Sue has a day off, she still calls into work to see what is going on, did anyone go for Sigs, were lunches done on time, it is overwhelming! Then we received an email from her about leaving early on weekends, Jan we never called Sue just to ask her if we could go home, if she called in to check on us, we might have asked, or if we had something else to ask, then we would ask her that. We would never bother her on her day off to ask that!
Sue has a habit of threatening us with your name, well I am going to have to ask Jan if that is OK, or I will have to tell Jan about this. As if we are being threatened.
Sue continues to give ANYONE who calls in for a sick day or personal day a hard time. We would understand if it was someone who consistently called off, but it’s not, she gives everyone a hard time. It should not be this way, if you are sick and can’t come in then that should be OK.
We never know what to expect.
Sue needs to understand we are all adults. I understand her expectations are high, as are mine for myself; however she creates a terrible work environment.
Sue likes things done HER way. This creates a lot of frustration for new employees. We are not trained by Sue, therefore when we do something in a different way; she once again gives us an attitude as if we have been told hundreds of times over.
There are several of us whom like our jobs, and are considering looking for a job elsewhere, because of the tension Sue creates. We can’t work this way.
We don’t hear positive feedback from Sue. The first time we heard anything positive was when she emailed us about not being able to leave early, she said she was proud of the PM shift, this was a welcome surprise!



Here are a few specific examples:

Here is a reenactment of what happened.
I was learning how to type death certificates…I typed one and showed it to Sue for review, she looked at it, and then said in a sarcastic way “why did you type the address this way?” Well, because that is the way I was trained. Sue replied “By who?” I said Kim. Sue replied “she didn’t train you that way; she doesn’t type them like this!” OK so now I am lying. Kim does type the address in two lines, as well as Donna Mac! But I am a liar!
This type of incident has happened more than once to me!
I went to Sue once because a doctor was on the phone and was asking if there were any floor beds available, her response to me; she had a paper in her hand that she slammed on the desk and said “Didn’t I tell you how to answer those kind of calls? Let them know that we are working on beds! You should know this! This is just one of many times this sort of thing happens to all of us.
We are told to take messages for beds, then when we do, we get yelled at because we didn’t do it right.
This is the way it is for us each and every night.

The above examples are just a couple things that we have experienced; these things make us so intimidated by her to the point of being afraid to ask questions, which we know in the end affects our job functions.

Even if nothing above matters, just the fact that it is scary enough working with her should be enough to do something about this.
There are never any good days, just stressed days…very stressed days.

The only reason I am still here, in this position, is because I love working at Loyola. I know for certain that this is the place for me. I have been blessed and have been a blessing to very many here. If I had one wish, it would be that I had just as good of an experience in this department as well.

Our last thought….
Some of us literally say a prayer asking God for strength before we walk in the door every day. We should not have to work like this!