SHAME ON YOU

8 AUGUST 2015 

You know what its like out there on the internet. Everyone is trying to snatch 5 seconds of fame or peddling dreams like snake oil salesmen back in the day. 

Then there's the press: 

'Michael Jackson's still alive. He's living next door to Elvis….' 

'Len Notaras signed an agreement to double aboriginal employment. He smiled like he meant it...'

Teflon Len Notaras is the king of such entreaties. We've never seen anything quite like it. What he can do to executive management would make you gasp. Change? Risk? Reorganisation? This man will steal your breath and has the charm to sell it back to you.

snake oil salesman Teflon Len Notaras

Which is why the mister men devised the independent northern territory department of health poll: its a unique and more importantly an independent survey of employee opinion in the health department.

In a minute, We'll tell you you what those questions are. And more importantly, what the responses were.




But, first, what have people been telling us? In addition to the mister men blog and the responses we publish, we get a steady stream of email traffic to bully@tutamail.com. We get a lot of what we call 'opinion pieces' giving views mainly on management performance. So before we go into the quantitative data, here are some reviews of a more qualitative sort.

Some are moving, such as this one from Trevor, a former northern territory department of health clinician employee;

'Ever since I returned from the territory I have wondered what it was that I did to deserve being treated so badly. All I did was to attempt to stand up for myself after a manager verbally abused me. I made a complaint following the correct pathway to human resources and from the moment of my first conversation with them, I knew nothing was going to change. In fact things got worse because the HR officer told the person I'd made the complaint about and my world such as it was came crashing down. I stuck around for a month waiting for the investigation from HR to start but whilst I waited things became intolerable, so I packed up my things and resigned.'

Trevor wasn't the only person taking a dim view of the incompetence of the management in the health department. Bernie, a Queensland based GP also got in touch. He told us,

'I worked for four years at XXXXX (remote community, top end). It was fine until XXXXX (a manager still employed at remote health) arrived. She slowly replaced the team with cronies and yes people and gradually isolated me. The new nurses stopped referrals from reaching me and as a result what I considered serious emergencies requiring medical input would be managed without my knowledge. When I complained she accused me of bullying her. The stress she put me under enormous. She knew exactly what she was doing. There was no support from my medical management so I resigned. After that I went to XXXX (remote community Queensland) but I only lasted a few weeks before I broke down with PTSD from the bullying I'd experienced in the NT. Once I recovered I opened a practice and worked alone. What she did to me was sophisticated and carefully planned strategic bullying. And I've no doubt she'd done it before.'

The awful thing is we know she has done it since. We'd go as far to say that she has a modus operandi. About a week after Bernie's email, we received this from Maureen, a nurse in the top end. It's about the same manager:

'I raised concerns with her about a nurse without knowing that it was one of her favoured nurses. That was it. Almost immediately she reneged on an agreement that had been made about my working hours due to my having young children. She stopped me from doing my own work and sabotaged me. I'm just glad I got out before the serious stuff happened. Things were escalating and I became scared for my registration. So I transferred as fast as I could.'

These set the tone for the responses we have received by email from our colleagues. You will have already read similar in the comments submitted along side our previous articles. 

HR; not worth the risk.

Q1
This set the scene and was of interest  as we were keen to obtain a broad spread of responses from clinicians from across the organisation.We think our independent survey achieved this aim. 

There was also room for comments (below).

Q2
The mister men were interested to get some feedback from readers. We are encouraged by the high marks afforded to us by respondents in the survey.

Q3
69 out of 80 respondents had dealings with HR. The survey reveals damning criticism. It reveals an organisation that has no concern for its staff. HR are scored and seen as a management tool; biased and lazy/disinterested in respect of resolving complaints.

Given the similarity of expressed concerns in the respondents written answers it is clear that there are deliberate ways in which HR manage complaints. In particular how they deal with complainants and protect management who are most often, as we will see, the perpetrators of bullying in the organisation reveals repeated tactics.

HR tactics include:

1. Delay. This is in anticipation that the complainant will go away,give up, become worn out by the slow process and eventually, drop the complaint.
2. Lack of support.
3. Ignoring complaints.
4. Tipping off the manager who is the subject of the complaint.
5. Taking sides with the manager subject of the complaint.
6. A culture of cover up.
7. Encouraging the complainant not to make a complaint.

These tactics have been successful in influencing the culture of the organisation. 

For example,

1. there is a belief that it is better to resign or transfer than to deal with the biased human resources department.
2. there is a genuine fear of reprisal action being taken against complainants.
3. honest and impartial inquiry does not take place.
4. it is better and safer to fly below the radar in respect of human resources.

One effect of these tactics is to reduce complaints and negatively influence accurate measurement of the extent of the problem via management controlled surveys. 

For example, the incompetent former health minister Lambley reported last year that there had been 25 bullying complaints. 

Yet, currently the mister men hold documentary evidence relating to 102 bullied clinicians and one bullied senior manager. 

How can it be that we know more about the problem than they say they do?

The results from our INDEPENDENT survey reveal a more accurate extent of the issues. More honest, we believe, than has ever been revealed and WILL EVER be revealed by the northern territory department of health. 

Our results reveal appalling HR conduct and practice. And we don't think they would be acting alone. 

We think this comes from the top and we think its about time Teflon Len started walking the walk.

The respondent comments are also extremely alarming;

And some more,,,

And some more,,,,

And again,,,,

Q4
There are two thins that a staff member must learn within the culture of the health depaertment in the NT. These are;

1. Never complain. 
2. Suggest improvement or change with great caution. 

These findings are suggestive of a top down culture which suppresses dissent, doesn't look after its workers and is not interested in any positive improvement unless it comes from above. 

Working in the northern territory department of health involves a model of performance that is indicative of oppressive regimes. 

It's head down and mouth shut with this lot. As a result good change never comes and the change dictated to from above doesn't line up in the real world of patient care. It suggests that managers don't want to know what that reality is for clinicians and will crush them if they don't toe the line.

Some attached comments from our survey;

 Q5
We have discussed the finding revealed here in a previous article last week. The readers comments are worth reading if you haven't already done so. 

Cronyism is a singularly destructive element within an organisation. It serves as a huge de motivator for committed workers when they see others rewarded on the basis of mateship or political affiliation. 

Last week we provided a list of health department bodies now contaminated at the very top by cronyism. 

The MERIT principle creates a framework for cronyism to occur. Staff who file a grievance about an unfair appointment into a position always have it quashed by the OCPE. Unfairness is supported right through the organisation. 

What interested us was that survey results indicate staff already know it is endemic within the organisation.

And even worse. The structures ostensibly in place to police cronyism, in fact, encourage and support it. 

And so does Teflon Len. 

Q6

Only one respondent had not been bullied. 98.75% of survey respondents had been bullied. 

The effects of bullying within the northern territory department of health are worrying to say the least. 

72% of targets suffered from sleep problems.
71% of targets sufferedfrom anxiety and/or stress.
A third of targets suffered from depression.
10% suffered from thoughts of self harm or suicidal ideation. 

The mister men were dismayed by the results. 

They reveal utter contempt toward clinicians who are targeted by bullying, which occurs mainly by the management. 

45% of targets resign or ask to be transferred. 

Clinicians who work in remote locations are more vulnerable to the negative effects of bullying. Far from home and support from family and friends networks, they can easily be targeted by an unscrupulous manager. This isolation would naturally and obviously lend itself to a target suffering more intensely from it.

It is extremely concerning that 10% of targets consider suicide or other forms of self harm. It gives a sense of the despair targets feel when it happens to them. 

The mister men have seen several emails sent by management about their bullied targets. They reveal no concern for the safety or health of bullied clinicians and frequently, a sneering, sarcastic derisory tone.

The survey responses are also indicative of the sense of despair clinicians who are bullied feel. 

Q7

More than 95% of respondents assessed the leadership of the northern territory department of health as 'poor' or 'terrible'.

Anywhere else this would lead to certain public inquiry. 

It is evidence of the effects and consequences of the corrupt structures within the northern territory department of health. 

 

                                                                                                                                     

Q8

81.25% of respondents have seen their colleagues bullied at work. 

Shocking, that bullying is so commonplace isn't it?

Q9

A third of survey respondents are being bullied right now. Many will consider suicide as a result of it.

Almost a half of those being bullied will resign or transfer. 

Any of them who complain will have their complaint or concerns ignored or not taken seriously by human resources.

Meanwhile management driven cronyism is rampant across the organisation.

Respondent comments (below) paint an ever more bleak picture of the northern territory department of health.

Q10

Classic management bullying behaviours are strongly highlighted in our survey. 

These include;

1. Being given little or no feedback.
2. Being lied to.
3. Being given unreasonable workloads.
4. Being accused of deliberately making an error.
5. Attempts to turn other employees against you.

Respondent comments below the graph again highlight the sense of despair felt by employees. 

Discussion

For any organisation to incur results such as these from its own workers is shameful.

For a health department to incur them is extremely disturbing. This is of course, information that the northern territory department of health would prefer clinicians not to have. They would prefer to pick individual targets off one by one. That way, targets are more likely to crawl away on the ir hands and knees. 

The mister men have been arguing many of these these points since we started this blog. We know we are not the only ones. We hear it every single day at work. Now we have the evidence to share to back it up with this independent survey. 

In future, we will add to this discussion, so please keep checking back. 

But in the meantime, we would welcome your comments. 

For the time being, thanks to the clinicians who responded to our request. We had planned for the survey to be open for three days, but as it was the response was over whelming. We reached our survey target in 24 hours. 

As we said, this is the ONLY INDEPENDENT SURVEY ever done. 

Now we all know why. These shameful results should serve as a catalyst for change. But we predict they won't. We say with confidence that this is the WORST health department in Australia.

Please share our blog address with your colleagues. It's ntbully.blogspot.com.au

Please support HPARA

Please support the great work at CARDFIGHTBACK

Please note our new email address - bully@tuta.io

thanks

the mister men