Well done, you made the correct decision.
In your reflective activity, you should have covered all of these points:
- You did the right thing when you told Tom the first time that the joke made you uncomfortable. But Tom has now told another racist joke, which shows that more needed to be done. You are now taking the correct action by telling your line manager and by asking to discuss it further during supervision.
- 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 know that jokes can cause harm to those who overhear them, even if the person telling the joke claims no offense was meant.
- It can feel uncomfortable to challenge someone directly on a joke that they believe is harmless. You successfully challenged Tom earlier so you have shown you have this important skill.
- 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 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. This promotes a safe workplace for residents, carers and visitors.
- 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. By challenging and reporting racist comments, you are helping to uphold this law.
- You now doing the right thing, but in future you should take more action sooner. By now reporting the incident you are meeting the standards expected of a social services worker. You should learn more about how to deal with and challenge discrimination. You should fully understand the legal and work setting requirements on equality, diversity, discrimination and rights. Your line manager can help you 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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