So this weekend I was the "back up" on call person. I know I've talk about this before, but allow me to refresh your memory. We always have a person who is on call. Always. Our program provides 24 coverage because you just never know when someone is going to be in crisis, right? Well, after a few mishaps early on with the answering service not being able to contact the on-call person, the powers-that-be decided to add a fail-safe mechanism to avoid dropped calls. So to speak.
This is where I come in. I was the fail-safe this past weekend. And I hate it. HATE it. You have to carry the phone with you everywhere you go and be prepared to leave at any time. The thing is, you aren't the first person the answering service calls--you're the second. The pinch hitter. The emergency generator. And there is no rhyme or reason as to how these calls are going to come in, if they come at all. You can make no plans and essentially have to kiss away an entire weekend for fear of the phone ringing and tearing you away from your life. Why do I do it? Politics, plain and simple. I want to be considered a "team player" after all. Can't not be one of those come annual evaluation time. Not that a raise or bonus is tied to it, but whatever.
When I'm back up, I consider my role as the one to step in if there is a genuine need. I really don't mind getting called out if the primary person gets hit with two calls (or more) in a row. I mean, we're Super Social Workers and all, but we've yet to manage the trick of being in two places at once. I also don't mind going out if my coworker's been out all night on consecutive calls and one comes in not long before her shift ends (which I'll get to in a minute). Working back-to-back assessments is physically and emotionally exhausting. If a coworker's done three or four consecutive ones and another walks through the door, I would gladly take over.
I DO mind getting called when the primary person conveniently doesn't answer the phone (one person I work with has a nasty habit of doing this.) Or the primary person feels as if it's "my turn" because she's already taken one (For the record? No. If you're on call, you're ON CALL. Suck it up if you have more than one, we all do it all the time.) Or if the primary made shopping plans with her sister in an hour and the phone just rang, can you take it please? (You're kidding me, right?)
Which brings me to my next point: When to punt a call? Our night shifts are long--15 hours. Granted I'm at home until the phone rings, but for 15 hour increments I have to be emotionally prepared to leave when I hear the phone. The witching hours are from 9pm to 3am, but I've had calls as early as 4:30 in the afternoon to as late as 6:30 in the morning (my shift is 5pm to 8am). It's that last hour that puts a monkey wrench into things, especially if no calls have come in at all--you've pretty much written off the shift and emotionally moved on. It is the most devastating sound in the world to get this close to the end of your shift and then hear that bloody phone ring.
If there's an hour left in your shift, you simply cannot call the next person in line. That's just bad form. (For the record, calling the back up person is OUT unless it's an extreme set of circumstances. Shopping, even for shoes, is not extreme, so don't even try to lob that one out there and expect it to fly.) 45 minutes is still in the "unacceptable" range (I need a chart). What about 30 minutes before their shift starts? Well, it depends. A half hour is murky territory, but there are a few circumstances that can occur that would make it acceptable. Twenty minutes? You're getting close. Fifteen minutes? Probably. Fourteen minutes or less before your shift is over is golden, the magic window! Even if you're AT the hospital and they have have another assessment that walks in, you can quite reasonably punt the call to the next person and hold your head high at the office. Unless the person that's on call after you is your boss. Then you suffer in silence. ->
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tXCM/~3/RxX-4RXQ2iI/politics-of-on-call-punt.html
Posted
27 Apr 2009 2:58 PM
by
Trench Warfare
| Report Abuse