Mrthdrb

My takeaways in (rough) reverse order of importance:

You're not getting your phone back. If you can disable the login remotely, you should do that. Though you phone is probably at the bottom of a river by now.

Don't worry about Facebook Sometimes with social media we can look for patterns that are simply not there. This could be happening now.

You didn't have real friends if they are going to not talk to you now, they were never your friends. It's good that you know the truth now, as much as it hurts. Try to talk to a few of your coworkers, the ones you think you can trust the most. One-on-one is best. Talk about how you're feeling. If they don't care, they are not your friends.

You helped your coworkers You whistle-blowed on your boss, and your boss was doing the wrong thing. You saved many of your co-workers from having to deal with this, and the administrator will have to be more professional in the future.

You protected the patients health There are reasons why there are multiple staff working the hospital at night. Should something happen to you, maybe fatigue causes you to make a mistake, be inattentive, miss something, there is no check and balance in place to protect the patient health.

You protected the hospital. A follow on from the previous point, should something have happened to a patient, the family sued and in court it showed that a person entrusted with their care was sleeping or not even present, the hospital would probably be looking at a large payout. This is especially true if the person not being present meant that the hospital was not meeting minimum legal standards.

You have an ally which is Corporate. You should get in touch with them to see if they can find you placement elsewhere. You can explain the situation to them, and let them know you were the whistleblower. You can let them know you think that they figured out it is you. You should also speak to the fact that you did the work of two people on many nights, and are a hard worker, but cannot work in this environment. Explain that you are hoping to get another chance elsewhere.

What's done is done. You will debate with yourself what you should have done, but what's done is done. You acted with courage, and you are paying a price. It's not fair. But you have integrity.

You're under extreme stress but not all is lost. I know at times it feels like everything is a mess. The administrator doesn't like you, but she can't find a reason to get rid of you. This must mean you're a great worker.

Eat. Even if you don't feel hungry, force yourself to. Now is not the time to get sick. Don't make your body suffer, just because you mind is suffering.

It's time to work elsewhere There is nothing left for you there. You have a lot of good qualities, work ethic and empathy towards those doing you wrong to name a few. Even if Corporate can't help you, you need to look elsewhere.

At this point, you need to go to HR again, and claim your boss is retaliating against you for pointing out your co-worker was sleeping or not at work.

Be sure to use the word retaliation as in the U.S. (and several other countries) laws protect whistle blowers from reporting unsafe working conditions. What you are experiencing is retaliation and any half-decent HR department will perk up the moment they hear that word.

Begin looking for a new job now!

Even if HR is on your side, there is a good chance your old manager will have connections, and will keep you from getting raises and promotions - and this is one of the better outcomes.

In many cases HR is already in the managers pocket, and they'll make your life terrible so you'll quit on your own, or fire you if that doesn't work. Going to HR usually gives you some breathing room, so use that.

EDIT

Having your phone stolen is retaliation. This is now in the revision history.

More EDITS

This is certainly a whistle-blower case. While I would bet money that either the boss or the fired employee stole the phone, it's hard to prove. Either way, go to HR to get as much protection as possible during your job search.

The reaction from staff is pretty common - no one likes to be called out on bad behavior.

If this had not been a hospital (or other situation where people's health and lives were on the line), then the OP could have just not done the other person's job and let the higher-ups deal with it. In this case letting patients suffer due to an absent nurse would have been unethical.

In the original "wall of text" version of this post, you reported that someone stole your phone (presumably the coworker you caught sleeping). Do not hesitate to report this to the police. Stealing your phone is a CRIME. Additionally, ask the police to use any resource your phone company or smartphone builder has to help you locate where it is or where it had been.

A nurse who steals phones is also a nurse who steals wallets. When you're in the hospital, the last thing you need is to have to replace all your credit cards and ID's; it may be simply impossible to do so. They ask me for ID everytime they ask to see my insurance card; if both those had been stolen I would not be able to get the care I needed to get well enough to reach the DMV and get a replacement license. So this isn't merely about stealing the $100 in the wallet, it's about denying care.

You might hit the jackpot and geolocate it to your boss's desk, because if a police officer fishes it out of his desk, then the hospital would be in Very Big Trouble because their staffer aided a crime and cover-up in a whistleblowing situation and that makes them responsible for it. You could build a case against the hospital which may allow you to "cash in"; you might lose that litigation but they'd definitely lose in legal fees alone. HR would not want to take the risk of that, so they'd be inclined to be very accommodating in terms of placing you in a workable position.

The whistleblowing itself is very serious business, and most states have powerful laws to protect whistleblowers. Your boss doesn't owe you any friendship, so you have no standing to complain if he's merely cold. But if his reactions to you are interfering with your ability to do your job, that is retaliation, and state laws are especially harsh on retaliation to whistleblowing.

There is a type of thing called "constructive termination" where a person is made to feel so uncomfortable in their job that they can't stand it and quit. That is commonly seen in response to whistleblowing, and it is basically a textbook case of retaliation. The courts are very familiar with it. (As is the unemployment office, so if you quit because of constructive termination, you have a good shot at unemployment benefits and a small legal victory).

The original version of this question mentions that you are a nurse who works night shifts. I have a lot of experience with family members who work as nurses and I know exactly where you are coming from. Nursing is an industry full of people who care a lot about other people more than they care about themselves. Nurses accept poor working conditions so that their patients don't suffer. They won't strike because then the patients will suffer. I completely understand where you're coming from and why you did what you did.

As for the core of the question that is left:

There's a phrase that "nurses eat their young". Almost every nurse I know has worked in a hostile environment at sometime. Some of them worked in hostile environments for years at a time. There's never been a fix for the hostile environment apart from moving to another ward, or if it's a small hospital, moving to another hospital. Nursing is full of systemic issues that are unlikely to change any time soon.

I don't know if your nurses are unionised or if you're a member of a nurses union, but if you are in this situation the union might be your friend. Nurses unions are (in my experience) not tolerant of your former co-workers behaviour and although the situation could have been handled differently, they should be on your side.

In short:

• Talk to your union


• Move to another ward