I'm sorry, you've made the wrong decision.
Here are some points that you need to consider. You should have included these in your reflective activity.
- You are not doing the right thing by simply moving Chelsea. Moving her does not address the cause of the problem and it looks like you are protecting Brenda. It is important to meet Chelsea and her union representative to address her concerns and investigate further.
- Asking Brenda to formally address Chelsea’s absence was not the right thing to do. As Chelsea had already made a complaint about Brenda’s behaviour this decision was inappropriate and the situation appears to have worsened as a result.
- You made a mistake when you did not treat Chelsea’s original complaint seriously. By not doing the right thing you put Chelsea’s wellbeing at risk.
- The SSSC Code of Practice for Social Service Workers says you must make it clear bullying is not acceptable. It is your duty to take action to deal with such behaviour. When you did not treat Chelsea’s complaints seriously you were not meeting the standards expected of a social service manager.
- You need a better understanding of procedures that enable workers to report bullying behaviour. You also need to know how to promote these more actively. In future you must deal with reports promptly, effectively and openly
- Not doing the right thing promptly could undermine confidence in your organisation’s capacity to promote rights. It also led to the situation getting worse. You need to demonstrate through your actions that you are trustworthy, reliable and dependable.
- You need to do some more learning to develop a better understanding of how power relationships can be used and abused. You also need to learn about the impact of stress and conflict on organisational performance and retention of staff.
- You need to strengthen your commitment to communicating with your team openly and to promoting the wellbeing of all workers. Your employer can help you to identify your training needs and to meet them.
When Chelsea reported her complaint the right thing to do was to treat it seriously, make enquiries to establish the facts and if appropriate support Chelsea to make a formal complaint in line with your organisation’s complaints procedures. Find out why this was the right thing to do here.
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