hard work, but without the work (Bullying at Work)

Member Name: Joe1976

Product:	Bullying at Work
Date:	13/06/08 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: not one

Disadvantages: too many to list

For some reason, bullying in places where people are looked upon by society as being their helpers, has an astonishing degree of bullying going on.
One instance was a workplace I was at, where the full/part time staff, looked on volunteers as objects of humiliation, the workplace, out of interest, was a day centre for "OLD PEOPLE", some of the service users, whose faces didn't fit or weren't really fitting in, in general, had also endured bullying of one kind or another, this in turn led them to crying, being resentful towards the good 'uns and often wary of those of us who saw what was happening as they thought it was going unheeded.

I've always been a bit of an advocate, so when I saw a colleague "wind up", as he later called it, one of our clients, I immediately asked him into an ante room for a chat, asking him what the hell was going on, he replied as innocently as you like "having a laugh with the clients", no, I said, "humiliating someone in front of 20 odd people is not having a laugh with the clients, its bringing one down for the amusement of others"

As with all workplaces, this scenario was speedily gossiped around the building that I was a "Kill-joy" or better yet "jobs worth", I love a bit of banter as much as anyone, this was my first real lesson of bullying in the workplace and certainly wasn't, or dare I say it, my last.

After another monthly meeting had just about wrapped up, I spoke of this incident, at length, to my manager, OK, it was "let's pretend time", No-one knew about it!?, directly asking another staff member who saw the incident yet who said nothing, I asked, "you saw how Mrs A* reacted to her treatment at the hands of him, didn't you", not so much a question, but a statement, I reminded her how "Mrs.A was upset on such and such a day, after being humiliated ?", och, "she's always moaning about something", looking for and finding back up from other people at the meet, they mumbled "aye, never happy"-I wonder why.

I wasn't to know I had started a domino effect with "my" people coming out the woodwork, saying that "the treatment of some of the volunteers and especially the clients was starting to get out of hand", I was thoroughly surprised to see people who would do anything for a quiet life, finally blow apart and name names, times, instances of what happened and a painful re-enactment of how one particular woman was treated after falling from the step of the ageing minibus, this incident had Mrs.B** in A&E for 5 hours, while all the time the escort and driver thought of nothing more than wanting home, the accident was then logged as is protocol with such things.

Our manager knew about this, she was shrewd and a great business woman, the rare breed that speaks her mind, she wasn't stupid, someone was keeping her filled in with every account off everything they saw, and they saw a lot, I was once again, on the "same day", pleasantly surprised about a good member of staff reporting bad practice to her, this however, was a million miles away from what anyone there had in mind.

Along with Mrs A*, some clients were getting ill with harassment and rightly so, family members wanted answers.

Our 5ft manager, small in stature, but demanding a great deal of respect, took her own course of action, for a period of an entire month, she went round every one of the service users (P.C for clients) houses, sheltered homes and families with whom cared for them.
She spoke to them about anything that was bothering them, and out of some 25-30 people, 90% were telling her of what they saw as them being treated unkindly, keeping in mind most of our older clients had some form of dementia, but they all remembered the "bad things" that happened, don't we all?

The meeting ended with a drained atmosphere, being told we'd be having an A.O.C.B meeting (Any Other Considered Business) after the weekend, as the time to go over the subject would eat into school finishing times for parents with kids to get home to, so it was put off, a lot of people got into their various cars looking either worried at what had been said, or worse yet, worried what had not been said, and the shrewdness of this woman, meant those who knew they were bang to rights, had a long weekend ahead of them, and a sleepless Sunday night.

The Monday morning started as usual with the, "what did you do at the weekend?" and clichéd "where did you go?" type conversations, some looked tired, while most of us took breakfasts to the tables for our clients to enjoy, some of the others decided to lay low, fair dinkum, it was Monday.

The day was long and those of us who had been niggling about this, were wishing a day away.

As the last client boarded the minibus, dishes were washed, dropped pieces of food and spilled drinks were mopped up and the papers of that day were put in the recycling baskets, menial chores were milked out to last longer than usual, washing a cup became more like washing a car, my manager was getting on and had earlier that year, decided to minimize the amount of days she would work, and Monday was one of them, although arriving around 2.45pm, it was around 3.30pm when the driver and escort came back for the AOCB, one and a half hours later, the typical run was only about one hours drive time, and that was on a busy day.

Asked about the length of time the bus journey took, both driver and escort hadn't thought out an alibi for this as their thoughts and topic would most definitely had been about this meeting, both men looked at each other for an explanation, the escort didn't drive, so the question was directed at the driver, "we were caught in every set of traffic lights".
It was no surprise neither wanted to come, it got the stage I didn't want to go, though my head said no, my heart muttered "yes", and so we went in. The meeting was very "to the point" and directed at those who were seen and named as being accused of blatant bullying.

I thought this would go on forever, but out of the 12 staff, 4 immediately admitted being somewhat ill mannered to both young and old, these 4 were on the telephone straight after the previous Friday meeting to find out who knew what, all 4 had decided to say, "okay, I may have had a part to play in this, but it was only meant as a joke", the other 8 of us KNEW these 4 were at it, I didn't want to see them publicly humiliated, as this could have been blown out of proportion and end up on Donal McIntyre's Undercover Investigator programme or the like.

With both written and verbal warnings in private dished out, I went on to work their for 1 more month before heading off for pastures new. This furore I was caught up in made me sick of the place, the double tongued back biting was too much, after all, I was seen as the one who started the ball rolling, the truth was it was rolling long before I had gotten too it.

I know the young, disillusioned, wannabe carers also found voluntary work in other areas and clubs, not mentioning them would have turned this "opinion" into a tome, so forgive me for not doing so, but as with any workplace bullying, it is almost the same anywhere.

This was a quarter of the workforce that had taken part in running ageing people down, I dread to think what goes on their now, and similar places, this op does not in anyway, reflect my feeling towards other care homes and care centres, as the job is tough and can be stressful, my hat is firmly tipped to you.



*As a firm believer in policies concerning confidence, I named these people as Mrs.A & B respectively as I have no right naming them without prior authorisation.

Summary: what goes round comes around