There has been time when I worked for employers that seem to believe I had ‘superhuman’ powers when it came to leaving my home in dangerous weather conditions to get to my workplace location. I have had management in the health care, human service, and merchandise sales industry provide an order of emergency to get to my workplace to provide service to others. It is understandable that some services provided in the healthcare industry is required come rain or shine to allow patients the best support in the healing process.
Who considers the safety and support needed for the employees in those positions during dangerous weather? I once had management inform me the management would send a co-worker to my house during a major snowstorm to provide a ride to my workplace with no guarantee of how I would return to the home. At the time, I was a single parent with a 9-year-old child to provide for it did not seem fair to consider the needs of the patients over the needs of my child. Then another management at another job position suggest going out to a client house in a rainstorm to provide service due to the possibility of the client feeling abandoned if I did not show.
I did what management requested for those situations due to fear of losing my job position remember I was a single mother trying to take care of my child keeping a roof over the child head and food in the child stomach. This request lack empathy for my safety and increased the possibility of burnout symptoms. I feared losing my job more than I valued my life in the past. There needs to be a better way for management to provide a plan of sucess of how service will be provided to patients and clients during dangerous weather that may include management providing safer options until the dangerous weather breaks. Is it fair to not consider the dangers imposed on employees when management demands service provided during dangerous weather conditions?
Voices of Burnout (VOB) 