I'm sorry, you've made the wrong decision.
In your reflective activity, you should have covered all of these points:
- Denying you spoke to the resident’s daughter is not the right thing to do. When the resident’s daughter made a complaint it was your duty to accurately report it as soon as possible. You must speak honestly to your line manager and tell her what has happened.
- When Tom first make the racist joke you should have told him that it was not appropriate and reported it. Your line manager needs to know what happened so that she can record it. There might have been other incidents like this. Telling her means that she can take action to address Tom’s behaviour and to improve awareness of equality and respect at work.
- You should learn how to deal with situations like this. A climate of respect in a care setting begins with the staff. When staff tell racist jokes it sends a message to residents that this is acceptable and may lead to further racist comments or jokes.
- You should appreciate that jokes can cause harm to those they are directed at, or who overhear them, even if the person telling the joke claims no offense was meant. Racist jokes usually rely on stereotypes. Stereotypes not only cause offense, they lead to people being treated unfairly. It can feel humiliating, intimidating, or hostile when the joke is about your own community or people you care about.
- You should learn more about the standards expected of social service workers and about the law on equality. The SSSC Code of Practice for Social Service Workers says that social service workers are expected to promote equal opportunities for people who use services and carers. You are expected to respect diversity and different cultures.
- The Equality Act (2010) is the law that protects people from unwanted behaviour that is directed at them because of their race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, age and so on. This law covers all workplaces. Challenging and reporting racist comments helps to uphold this law.
- You should do some further learning to make sure that you meet the standards expected of a social services worker. You should learn how to recognise, deal with and challenge discrimination. You should understand the legal and work setting requirements on equality, diversity, discrimination and rights. Your line manager can help with this.
When you heard Tom telling the racist joke the right thing to do was to find an opportunity to tell him that it was inappropriate. You should then have told your line manager what happened. You can find out why this was the right thing to do here.
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