IOM DHSC & MANX CARE

[Two-lane]

4 minutes ago, offshoremanxman said:

Then add on top people claiming they’ve been hacked when they make embarrassing childish online posts

What is the legal standing of information given to this tribunal - is it given under oath (or whatever the phrase is)?

[Non-Believer]

The condition of chairs is a matter of significant importance in CS culture and careers. After all, sitting on them is where they spend most of their careers through to lucrative retirement....

Don't even start on the politics surrounding paperclips....

[Gladys]

6 minutes ago, Two-lane said:

What is the legal standing of information given to this tribunal - is it given under oath (or whatever the phrase is)?

Think it is under oath, and so is PAC, I think. 

[Boris Johnson]

This type of childish shit is all through the islands public sector.

Its a fucking embarrassment for an island that is supposed to be under self rule.

I would not let most of the CS I know run a tombola in a nursery.

 

[Gladys]

13 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

The condition of chairs is a matter of significant importance in CS culture and careers. After all, sitting on them is where they spend most of their careers through to lucrative retirement....

Don't even start on the politics surrounding paperclips....

But that view is symbolic of why these things never seem to result in an outcome that improves things.  Of course a chair is insignificant, but it is how it is dealt with by both sides that outlines where the issue is.

By dismissing it as insignificant you pass up the opportunity of critically examing the behaviours of both sides, so nothing changes. 

 

[Gladys]

1 minute ago, offshoremanxman said:

To be honest though it would be a total non event in the private sector. You wouldn’t have someone literally seething because they had a loose arm on their chair or whatever. Or someone getting off on making someone sit on a broken chair. That’s what most people won’t get about all of this because very rarely do people choose to act like total children to the workplace in the private sector. And if Hetty is that childish. I’d have waited until she went home and swapped my broken chair for hers and seen how long you could keep the game going for it that’s what really drives them. 

In the private sector, if it was interpreted by the hapless recipient as 'another' attempt to undermine or bully, then it would not be a non-event.  It would just be another in the long list of low level attempts to bully. 

What we don't know is how Dr R dealt with it.  Was it a quick call to office services to have it replaced to which either there was an apology and a new chair, or nothing was done, perhaps with a snigger?  Or did she just accept it was another thing to make her feel unwelcome and undermined. 

Have to say though, in my time in an office environment in the private sector, people do actually value their chair, backache, manoeuvrability and so on are all quite important. 

[buncha wankas]

48 minutes ago, Gladys said:

In the private sector, if it was interpreted by the hapless recipient as 'another' attempt to undermine or bully, then it would not be a non-event.  It would just be another in the long list of low level attempts to bully. 

What we don't know is how Dr R dealt with it.  Was it a quick call to office services to have it replaced to which either there was an apology and a new chair, or nothing was done, perhaps with a snigger?  Or did she just accept it was another thing to make her feel unwelcome and undermined. 

Have to say though, in my time in an office environment in the private sector, people do actually value their chair, backache, manoeuvrability and so on are all quite important. 

It wasn’t just the chair, she came into work to find she had her office emptied, moved away from management offices, no computer or phone and her PA assigned to someone else and no one told her it was happening.   Hardly trivial for a chief medical director for the NHS. 

[Two-lane]

5 minutes ago, buncha wankas said:

It wasn’t just the chair, she came into work to find she had her office emptied, moved away from management offices, no computer or phone and her PA assigned to someone else and no one told her it was happening.   Hardly trivial for a chief medical director for the NHS. 

Thanks - I suspected that the chair was just the token example of the greater problem that made it into the press statement.

I also doubt that these events are untypical of the DHSS or even the gov. in general. The only personal contact I have had with these kind of people is Malcolm Couch when he was head of DHSS. In polite terms I would describe him as the most pig-shit ignorant arsehole I have ever met. I assume he was selected for the job because of those qualities.

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, offshoremanxman said:

To be honest though it would be a total non event in the private sector. You wouldn’t have someone literally seething because they had a loose arm on their chair or whatever. Or someone getting off on making someone sit on a broken chair. 

On the contrary there's a long history in private as well as public dismissal claims where moving someone's office without consultation or giving them poor on insufficient resources to do the job[1] is seen very much as an example of 'constructive' dismissal.  It's not individual incidents that matter so much as the pattern of harassment.

Of course what they really demonstrate is the complete inability of management to manage their staff or run the organisation to any end except petty spitefulness.   Rather than trying to get the best out of their staff they are only interested in surrounding themselves with sycophants who will agree with everything and be the chums of the management.

 

[1]  Most of the arguments actually around administrative support being removed, to extent that at least one other manager attempted to supply one of their own staff to do the work.

[asitis]

2 hours ago, Manx Bean said:

All I can say is…Jesus…what a fucking snake pit to work in!!

Yes, makes recruitment easy doesn't it ?!

[Banker]

51 minutes ago, Two-lane said:

Thanks - I suspected that the chair was just the token example of the greater problem that made it into the press statement.

I also doubt that these events are untypical of the DHSS or even the gov. in general. The only personal contact I have had with these kind of people is Malcolm Couch when he was head of DHSS. In polite terms I would describe him as the most pig-shit ignorant arsehole I have ever met. I assume he was selected for the job because of those qualities.

Well Couch had come from treasury who are not noted for their personalities!

[joebean]

My experience of public sector management is a culture that is extremely criticism or risk averse and where more effort is put into covering the back of the Minister than being transparent and actually learning from things that go wrong. In addition, the management of the principle asset - staff, is not given a high enough priority. People get promoted because they have been ok at managing stuff rather than managing people and leadership is often non-existent or not regarded as being important. Most of the staff grievance issues that are dealt with via formal grievance procedures and/or are taken up by the unions, arise from a simple failure to follow written staff management procedures and become interpreted, often with good reason, as bullying or harassment. Actual poor performance is often overlooked. Of course, none of these issues are restricted to the public sector only. 

I always regard formal appraisal processes with a degree of suspicion. The CS here puts a lot of emphasis on performance appraisal and the system has a fairly rigid process attached to it. Such systems can be a guide towards good staff management practice, but often they become a once, twice, quarterly of whatever tick box exercise which substitutes for effective people management. If a manager needs a formal quarterly interview to let a member of staff know how they are valued and how they are performing, something is wrong. Submitting a set of completed appraisals on time does not necessarily mean a manager is managing well. Failing to do so does not mean a manager is necessarily managing staff badly. People management is not a rigid and bureaucratic process; it is a culture.

I read these tribunal reports with a feeling of deja vu and frustration. The  tribunal will reach its own conclusions from the evidence but whatever the outcome it appears the claimant was treated shoddily and the management of her was immature and prejudicial. When you consider the salaries that those involved were drawing, better should be expected. By the way, if I was a senior figure managing an unprecedented pandemic situation where lives were in danger and emergency measures impacting the entire population were being implemented, receiving a call at 2145 would not be unexpected or unjustified. The least that could be expected would be a noting of the concern and some judgement about whether the issue could be deferred until the following day, or not. Blocking the caller and pretending you don't know who the caller is, if that is what happened, is the action of someone junior in position and judgement, not a Director.

[The Voice of Reason]

3 hours ago, Banker said:

Here’s MR report 

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/information-blockage-in-dhsc-during-early-stages-of-pandemic/

At least David Ashford had the balls to stand up to all the bullshit from Dr Glover, even though he was pilloried for it.

[Gladys]

3 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

At least David Ashford had the balls to stand up to all the bullshit from Dr Glover, even though he was pilloried for it.

That is the first time I have seen 'balls' and 'David Ashford in the same sentence without 'has no'. 

More seriously, may there be a bit of a chicken and egg issue, possibly?

[buncha wankas]

1 hour ago, Roger Mexico said:

On the contrary there's a long history in private as well as public dismissal claims where moving someone's office without consultation or giving them poor on insufficient resources to do the job[1] is seen very much as an example of 'constructive' dismissal.  It's not individual incidents that matter so much as the pattern of harassment.

Of course what they really demonstrate is the complete inability of management to manage their staff or run the organisation to any end except petty spitefulness.   Rather than trying to get the best out of their staff they are only interested in surrounding themselves with sycophants who will agree with everything and be the chums of the management.

 

[1]  Most of the arguments actually around administrative support being removed, to extent that at least one other manager attempted to supply one of their own staff to do the work.

All a good insight to the entrenched toxic management style, old guard training the new into expected behaviour, I hope the MD wins her case and everyone who facilitated such an environment is fired.