A third of social workers are being bullied by their current manager, according to a straw poll by Community Care this week. We asked more than 780 readers, “Is your current manager a bully?” and around 250 answered, “Yes”. Are you being bullied? Have your say below or email me directly at kirsty.mcgregor@rbi.co.uk (please let me know if you wish to remain anonymous).
This is very sad. I'm pleased to be part of the majority who answered that their boss is not a bully, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to feel undermined or unfairly treated by someone who is in a position of authority. Does anyone have any advice or tips on how to deal with this?
Hi,
I am not bullied by my manager but am subject to very covert bullying by someone else in the team!!!
Yes I have a very dominering manager; she empowers herself by disempowering others. i spoke about this with the Unison rep who advised this manager had been known to bully others.
I was bullied by the team manager in a previous post. It was all quite subtle. He would treat me completely differently to the rest of the team and make demands upon me that he didn’t make upon others, he would also scrutinise everything I did and while saying he did the same to everyone else, my colleagues confirmed that this was not the case. At one point I confronted him and told him I would seek advice from the union and he physically threatened me. When he saw I wasn’t that easy to intimidate he appealed to my better nature and gave me a heartbreaking tale of the sadness he was enduring in his personal life. Things improved, briefly but then it all started again.
I had two choices really, fight him (not physically, obviously) or give up and move on. I gave up and moved on, leaving behind a job that suited my personal circumstances very well and which I enjoyed. But I just didn't have the energy take him on and I believed that the power imbalance between us was too great to make it a fair fight
Ironically, when I moved to my new post it quickly became clear that my manager was being bullied by his manager, and it wasn't long before he left for pastures new.
I have colleagues who complain that our present manager is a bully, in the sense that she has a habit of publicly humiliating staff that she is not pleased with (and there is always someone she is not pleased with) I say there are 3 options, record it all and take out a grievance, put up with it or leave, and, inevitably, putting up with it is the easier option.
It's very sad that so many of us (including me) are so cowardly. We would not allow our service users to be treated in ways which we tolerate ourselves. I have heard anecdotes from people in other teams and departments about bullying behaviour by managers and senior mangers too, so either the profession attracts power crazed egoists or the job brings out the worst in people.
I wouldn't necessarily blame the individuals, as social service departments do not seem to place any premium at all on training managers how to manage. Perhaps if they were better trained, it wouldn't be so much of an issue.
Based on solely anecdotal opinions from my colleagues, the prevailing experience is that most social care managers are promoted way beyond their capabilities or have no understanding of, let alone a track record in, social care. It is not surprising therefore if they behave in ways that at best leave staff confused and upset. The experiences recounted here are horrible and indefensible. Although I am surprised that a third of our colleagues report that they have been maltreated, discriminated against and been personally hounded, I have witnessed and on occasions have been subjected to inarticulate rants and incoherent displays of anger from previous managers. Perhaps the obsession with ensuring that the right forms with the right ticks are in the right part of the data systems explains why they have lost sight of what managing in a social care environment should be about.
I find this an interesting issue. I've no doubt at all that there are many cases of bullying in the work place, on various levels, across all industries. I've been a social work manager for many years, in both voluntary and public sectors. Over the years I've been accused of being a bully on more than one occasion. I've never knowingly bullied anyone, and when it has been raised I've been keen to listen to why someone has thought that this is the case and have tried to take it on board, if the feedback has been reasonable. The few times it occurred I've found that talking it through has resolved the matter, and have been very happy to apologise for anything that might have felt like I was being a bully. We are all human and usually working in a hugely pressurised environment and sometimes we get it wrong.
I think it's important to note that there are minority of individuals who simply don't like being managed, might be prejudiced towards their manager (for any reason under the sun), disagree with an instruction or who are malicious. I was once accused of being a bully by a member of staff that I had referred to occupational health, following standard HR procedures in a transparent manner. Another time I was accused of being a bully for reminding someone that they must complete the online diary, so that (from a health and safety point of view) I would be able to carry out my duty of care as line manager - and also they had to evidence what they were doing with their time. That particular case ended in a very expensive and time consuming investigation by an independent person who produced a 12 page report which totally vindicated my actions as being reasonable.
So while I believe that bullying must always be taken seriously, investigated properly and appropriate consequences for people who really are bullies, we need to also remember that just because someone claims bullying, it ain't necessarily so.
As a manager I can confidently say that I've experienced bullying "upwards". Yes it can happen that way around too!
I have written elsewhere in these forums about my contempt for the qualities it takes to acheive power over colleagues in the SW service. It follows that we get this particular topic for discussion.
Looking backwards at a long career I conclude it inevitable that some managers (not all) see the whip as the way to the top and they learn to view caring as a weakness.
I think the answer, to counteract their learned behaviour, is to develop coping strategies to survive the lower reaches of the service. This would be a personal thing that helps the individual cope. I did and survived.
Will start people off by saying, do not run from charging dogs as the more you run the more you have to. Challenge, Confront, and if you cannot you do this,
What are doing in the service?
Pete: I was bullied by the team manager in a previous post. It was all quite subtle. He would treat me completely differently to the rest of the team and make demands upon me that he didn’t make upon others, he would also scrutinise everything I did and while saying he did the same to everyone else, my colleagues confirmed that this was not the case. At one point I confronted him and told him I would seek advice from the union and he physically threatened me. When he saw I wasn’t that easy to intimidate he appealed to my better nature and gave me a heartbreaking tale of the sadness he was enduring in his personal life. Things improved, briefly but then it all started again. I had two choices really, fight him (not physically, obviously) or give up and move on. I gave up and moved on, leaving behind a job that suited my personal circumstances very well and which I enjoyed. But I just didn't have the energy take him on and I believed that the power imbalance between us was too great to make it a fair fight Ironically, when I moved to my new post it quickly became clear that my manager was being bullied by his manager, and it wasn't long before he left for pastures new. I have colleagues who complain that our present manager is a bully, in the sense that she has a habit of publicly humiliating staff that she is not pleased with (and there is always someone she is not pleased with) I say there are 3 options, record it all and take out a grievance, put up with it or leave, and, inevitably, putting up with it is the easier option. It's very sad that so many of us (including me) are so cowardly. We would not allow our service users to be treated in ways which we tolerate ourselves. I have heard anecdotes from people in other teams and departments about bullying behaviour by managers and senior mangers too, so either the profession attracts power crazed egoists or the job brings out the worst in people. I wouldn't necessarily blame the individuals, as social service departments do not seem to place any premium at all on training managers how to manage. Perhaps if they were better trained, it wouldn't be so much of an issue.
great post!! I have seen my colleagues being bullied by the manager and they had 3 choices
1. to take it further (which some did and a quite word was had, things improved for a few weeks, and then the manager very quickly reverted back to old ways, plus making life extra difficult for the worker daring to complain about her)
2. go on sick leave through depression
3. move on
Neither of these options resolves the issue and it saddened me to see this happening in a profession that is supposed to be caring
"either the profession attracts power crazed egoists or the job brings out the worst in people"
I'm inlcined to go with the first option, however I have seen perfectly reasonable people promoted to managerial level and then change into power crazed baffoons
"I wouldn't necessarily blame the individuals, as social service departments do not seem to place any premium at all on training managers how to manage. Perhaps if they were better trained, it wouldn't be so much of an issue"
hit the nail on the head there
I was bullied by my practice teacher whilst on placement as a student, I complained to the university and to the team manager, and guess what, not a thing was done about it, even though the team manager stated that they would be having no more students until this was addressed, they still carried on having students and the bullying still carried on! I didn't ask for a move as I was vulnerable as a student, being threatened with 'you wont pass your course if you move placements (because they couldn't/wouldn't carry the days that i'd already done over) so I was given the advice of 'keep your head down and get on with it'
I too am one of those who recorded that I am not being bullied by my present manager. However, that is because I have moved on in the last year, following several months of bullying by a senior manager.
What began as an absolute refusal (by the manager) to be flexible over a relatively innocuous matter, escalated into verbal intimidation, and eventually physically threatening behaviour. It seems that I simply made an enemy, without even realising it at first.
I sought support from the union and was informed that I was not the first (or second, third, fourth...) to experience this from that particular manager, and that there was no point in pursuing a grievance because they rarely result in a successful outcome and serve only to add to the feelings of stress.
I chose to move on and have never looked back.
My advice to those in a similar position is to look after number one. When the procedures available are ineffective, the best solution is to retain your sanity and go where you are wanted. While we all want to ensure public services are delivered effectively, and no-one wants to let down their clients, sometimes we have to accept that we simply cannot change things by staying. Eventually, if enough experienced workers leave, the statistics will speak for themselves, because (sadly) we are in a period in which statistics are the top priority and the main motivation for change, rather than the wellbeing of the staff.
I think that you have hit the nail of on head when you say that Social Services managers need to be trained in dealing with the reason why some are prone to bullying and also how they deal with staff who bully others.
Going to the Union, as you say, also does not help matters as they really do not have the power to change things. Everyone, comes across as being completely powerless to cope with bullying situations. This needs to be changed, there needs to be an arena in every borough where bullying can be properly challenged and wiped out. It is a very serious situation when people are physically threatened as I was by a female colleague and this situation was completely ignored because the manager seemed to be completely unable to deal with her continuing regime of bullying and intimidation.
I'm in the process of moving to a new team in Child Protection and sadly I have had to consider the possblility of a bullying culture being in existence - as we know this is a problem in many SW teams. I have decided that I will not take no s*** and stand up for myself - If I do not enjoy the work - I will leave, end of. Before I went into social work, I was a manager in a highly stressful business where bullying was non-existent - I think its discusting and totally foolish that social work attracts this culture.
what do you say when you're being interviewed for another job about the reasons for leaving your old one? do you tell them that you've been bullied?
Well jelly_tot04; at this rate you will be able to tell them anything you want, as the mere act of applying for a job will guarantee success. It will be an overwhelmingly sellers market.
What does that do for the continuing quality of the workforce? Authorites that don,t take bullying seriously will end up with staff that need to be bullied to get them off their backsides, never mind loyalty and integrity.