I changed workplaces within my hospital to a similar unit. I also tried applying to other units to see what's there but got rejected.
I quit my old unit because I didn't feel supported or respected by management there, but doctors and half of the nurses are people I can work with and are actually people that helped me become a better nurse. I'm going to miss working with most of them. I'm ready to work with them again.
Managers speak with each other, even if they publicly hate each other and 6 months ago I wasn't as good as I am today, something reflected in their internal memos. I'm on the introvert side and I'm quite sure I'm on the spectrum. I write this because a workplace is also a popularity contest and my old manager was an extrovert who always thought I didn't talk to her to spite her (I didn't talk to her because I wanted to work and she was a perpetual, boring nuisance). People forgive you if you're likable and for this manager I was not. Her favorites always got away doing less and were treated way less harshly than me.
On my last week three coworkers told me separately I'm a good nurse, which surprised me, one even suggested to go to ICU. Nobody told me that at my unit. Ever.
Shifts without management were a bliss: there was nobody there to bully or micromanage me. During these shifts I was more engaged, inquiring about medicines, diagnoses and explaining to patients what their vitals meant, what their medicines did or how they could help the patient to recover more rapidly. Most of the patients and families were not karens and were grateful. I also learned to make a quick exit with the karens.
I'm going into my new unit with this attitude: keep learning, keep asking, ignoring the nurses who try to mob or to ridicule me for asking questions, gray rocking the drama queens and gossips, always telling the charge if a nurse who's supposed to teach me lazies around and wastes my time, to establish boundaries, to stop being a doormat, to ask the doctors to keep learning.
I'm not doing this only for the money, but because I actually like knowing what medicines do, explaining patients what their EKGs mean and how the system works, even if it's broken.
I think, however, some managers will never consider me due to the internal memo this first manager wrote about me and while I have a job, the only way to access better paying positions or ICU is if a manager vouches for you and writes a better memo or even a recommendation.
That’s why I ask if managers see and value if an employee is engaged, even if he has a bad record, is an introvert, is a bit on the spectrum and doesn't want any stupid drama.
As @[email protected] said, how you are perceived and how you interact with others (as in, being a "team player" and becoming a leader) is important. Period.
But as to the general idea of second chances, a manager wouldn't agree to add you to their unit if they didn't think you had the potential to excel (unless the decision was made for them, in which case, there's no telling what the manager thinks). And once you are there, yes, you could start out pushing back against preconceptions. But I promise, your current actions speak louder than earlier memos. Managers are not stupid, they know people can grow and learn and change. If they don't work with you directly, they take cues from the most recent information they have, like what your current manager says. (Obviously all of this on managers is very generalized, individually is another story, but you don't do yourself any favors assuming everyone is opposed to you.)
You have the right attitude and that, along with your actions going forward, is all that's really within your control. Focus on what you can control.