16 Hours Duty

I ended up working for 16 hours straight duty last night due to a colleague going on leave of absence. I was supposed to go to work on pm duty, 3pm-11pm. The funny thing about this was we were not supposed to go on LOA because we will be charged of AWOL (absence without leave). How is this so?

April 9 is “Araw ng Kagitingan Day,” a holiday celebrated every year in my country, the Philippines. It is a non-working holiday for most people, but since I am a nurse, I went on duty and followed my scheduled duty hours. As I entered my ward, my co-worker told me that I will be going on 16 hours duty because my reliever, the 11pm-7am shift staff, will not go to work. I already knew beforehand that I will be going on straight 16 hours duty because that certain co-staff informed me that she will be absent the next day. Since I am not really in good terms with this person, I did not even look at her or replied to her statement. And so she assumed it was all right for me to go on duty on her behalf.

We have a policy that when we go on LOA on a holiday we will be charged of AWOL especially if the reasons are petty. But when the supervisor did her rounds, I asked her if that would be the case this time. To my surprise, my co-staff will not be charged of AWOL. The supervisor said that AWOL will only be charged to a staff depending on the reason of absence. This person I am pertaining to is my head nurse. I guess if you really are a head nurse in my hospital, you can really get away with anything even if it means defying the policy. Well that was really an example to look up to. Hahaha. J The upside to this story is I will be getting more money on my next pay day.