Bullying, overwork, personal dislike, resource starvation, dirty looks, overlooking, berating? Read this

Bullying in a residential care home

Case history #47

In 1998 I was a senior care officer in a residential care home. I had worked there for five years. The clients were elderly mentally infirm, but we had taken in a newer and far more demanding client group in the previous six months. They were young people with non accidental head injuries Failed suicide bids, drugs, alcohol, etc, Most of them came to us from hospital type institutions, yet we were only a residential home with non trained staff and no nurses or specialised equipment in the building. The reason for the intake of the different client group was purely financial as the rent they paid was far higher than the elderly residents paid. No extra staff were employed to deal with extra demands made by the new clientele.

My relationship with my manager had always been stressful, he had shown a marked personal dislike for me from the first week I was employed there. This was indicated by his general demeanour towards me, dirty looks, not replying to greetings, overlooking me for training, embarrassing me in front of other staff, colleagues and the residents. He made it clear that my opinions were not welcome at meetings, and he constantly monitored and criticised almost every action and decision I took. The reason I stayed there so long and tolerated it for so long was that I loved working with the elderly clients, I needed the salary, and somehow I thought I could improve myself to meet his (impossible) standards. In fact he was deeply envious of the rapport I had with the clients, because any time this rapport was in evidence was when he struck.

Things came to a head when I was on night duty (an extra shift I had been pressurised into doing). My 2 night shift staff failed to turn up for duty and I had to phone the manager at home, which was correct procedure, to inform that I now had a fire hazard as I could not evacuate 24 residents single-handedly. He verbally abused me for about 20 minutes, he went mad at me. Then, one of the younger clients fell very ill, needing extra care and an emergency doctor. Again I had to ring the manager, and this time he went berserk at me, and completely refused to help in any way. When the doctor arrived, he said there was no hospital bed for this patients needs, and I would have to look after him myself. By this time I had been on duty for 15 hours, and my neck was hurting from trying to position this client properly in bed to assist his breathing. I eventually got four hours sleep that night and I was back on duty at 7a.m.

When I finished my shift that day at 3.30p.m. I knew I could never face going into work again. I had a full stress breakdown two weeks after this, due to constant harassment to return to work, "just to do office work". I had started a grievance procedure 2 weeks before the night shift incident, but nothing had been done about my complaints. My GP has stated that I will never work again, full or part time, and my whole life has been ruined. I am constantly in and out of hospital and taking huge amounts of antidepressants. I have been awarded severe disability allowance by the government and my daughter is my main carer, to enable my husband to continue working.

I am trying to take action against my employers, but my solicitor says I have little chance of success as it is so difficult to prove. Where's the justice?

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