Anonymous,
I retired from hospice at the right time. Corporate toxicity was bad enough my last several years. The poem below gave me solace during stressful times caused by executive whimsy, mendacity and greed. I share it with you in the hope it serves as a balm.
The Oak Tree
by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr
A mighty wind blew night and day
It stole the oak tree's leaves away
Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark
Until the oak was tired and stark
But still the oak tree held its ground
While other trees fell all around
The weary wind gave up and spoke.
How can you still be standing Oak?
The oak tree said, I know that you
Can break each branch of mine in two
Carry every leaf away
Shake my limbs, and make me sway
But I have roots stretched in the earth
Growing stronger since my birth
You'll never touch them, for you see
They are the deepest part of me
Until today, I wasn't sure
Of just how much I could endure
But now I've found, with thanks to you
I'm stronger than I ever knew
Distorted executive priorities and inhumane behavior are the damaging wind which feels unceasing. Sick leadership eventually collapses from the unnecessary weight it imposes on others. Stand strong until that day. Listen for the voice of God for his peace and mercy are always available. Rest in his palm when the burdens seem too great.
Strange Tony
Your message could not have come at a better time. The leaves are gone from our hospice. Broken branches scatter the floor. Yet many remain because of who they are. It's getting harder as management arbitrarily chooses to not pay people for hours worked or miles drive.
ReplyDeleteWe endure Humana, which considers us a management distraction, and its private equity partners who want to make a fortune flipping the company for a multiple of EBITDA. Financial rapscallions make more money by paying us less. We have a fancy software program that underpays people on purpose.
Strike fancy software. Replace it with garbage in/garbage out software that tries to do all things but does none of them well.
DeleteI expect the company is making huge profits, especially now that they are stealing time and mileage from hard working employees. Our managers order staff to get caught up on paperwork then deny the hours staff worked to comply. Managers deny the hours without talking to the employee.
ReplyDeleteThe backlog for paying staff hours worked and complete mileage must be as large as the clinical documentation backlog. It appears staff won't be paid for their time to work either backlog.
Executives must be ecstatic as they get a chunk of proceeds from Humana buying out WCAS and TPG for a multiple of earnings. The less staff are paid the higher goes Kindred at Home EBITDA. The incentives are absolutely perverse.
Class action lawsuit anyone? C'mon Justice Department, KAH employees need you.
Amazing that these days your management does not consider the risk of not paying staff correctly. I would be done, there has to be a better work somewhere. A late check or delayed payment is one thing, not paying me what I am owed...no deal. As big as I read this company is, who is watching out for the little guy!
DeleteThe Department of Labor would be appalled at management's payroll practices at our hospice. Hours are arbitrarily denied by management even though HCHB shows the employee working. Surely KAH Risk Management executives can run a report on that. They need to clean it up internally before employees file a complaint with the Labor Department. Staff should be paid fairly for their time and mileage, not cheated by a crappy system and bad managers/area VPs.
Deletehttps://www.worker.gov/actions/whd-claim/
DeleteManagement is happy HCHB is shorting staff both hours and mileage. It makes their numbers look better without them having to raise a finger. When people up the chain notice something amiss, which is quite rare, local management blames the workers. Nothing sticks to our DODO.
ReplyDeleteSomeone said our top two huffers and puffers, David Causby and Larry Graham, talked to KAH employees today. What did they say?
ReplyDeleteNot much. They mostly blew their own horn. To dedicated employees it sounded like a political speech vs. a substantive leadership discussion. Humana's a great employer for David Causby and Larry Graham as they have significant equity stakes. Humana is not our employer, otherwise all staff would have bonus opportunities, two weeks of paid caregiver time per year and a five times larger retirement match.
DeleteLarry Graham said "With Humana as your employer". KAH employees would have a much better retirement match.
Delete"The 401k matching is great! 125% of up to 6% of salary"---Current Humana Employee in San Diego, California
April 28, 2019 at 6:04 AM
Executives paid for two employee surveys. One was a general employee satisfaction survey, however not all staff received one. Apparently, some voices are not worth hearing in Kindred at Home. The second was a benefit survey.
DeleteKAH's David Causby is well aware of management's takeaways from employees in the run up to and execution of the last two sellouts. Management cut the PTO benefit, dropped the retirement match before re-instituting it at 1/3 the prior rate, made health insurance worse, and cut two holidays for 2019 (floating holiday and employee appreciation day.
Employees don't feel appreciated by management because we are not. Despite the clear facts Hospice Chief Larry Graham had the temerity to refer to "enhanced benefits" in his recent diatribe to employees. Humana and its private equity partners may have enhanced Larry's benefits but this did not trickle down to the little people doing the work, i.e. producing the "very strong results" for the company.
Merit adjustments promised by our site director months ago have a few more months gestation. Only David Causby knows how long it will take executives to "address merits in the coming months."
It won't cost the company much when they hit our hospice. I think the good people will be gone by then.
Management shorted hospice staff on hours and mileage for months. They now want to offer training. The Department of Labor must be getting close.
ReplyDelete