Advocacy.. Changing what is into what should be.
If you ever have been told that if you have any problems you can always go to Human Resources. They even encourage it in fact. Most of the time even tell you that you can state your case as an anonymous. Any of us who have been around awhile know that it’s all a crock. Wouldn’t it be nice to work for an organization you know has your back?
I worked with a girl who was at the end of her rope. She worked her butt off to carry the workload for two because she worked side by side with another female who took advantage of her doing this by disappearing for a bit of time or could be seen in her work area surfing the web. My friend was even forced to stay past her scheduled time in order to get the work finished on several occasions. Daily she watched as her coworker would go on continuous smoke breaks, take longer lunches and to make matters worse took her time ( I mean REALLY took her time) with the patients she did do. Now when I say “took her time” I’m talking well over an hour and then “took her time” cleaning the room. My friend had gone to the manager to complain of this situation on several different occasions and time after time no discipline was given and the behavior continued.
Watching this from an outside perspective I felt bad for my friend as I continued to witness the same behavior from her colleague. She had gone to her immediate manager on a few different occasions to discuss situations but no discipline had taken place. Things started to get uncomfortable and exhausting for my friend as she continued to carry the workload for two people. All the while doing this in the back of her mind she was thinking things were going to change because she had spoke up. But she was not getting the outcome she had hoped for. When my friend came to me for advice I suggested she call the Human Resources department and request a private meeting to discuss things. In hindsight, I’m sorry she did, because not only did the lady in HR call my friend’s manager telling her of the requested meeting but HR also suggested that it would be a good idea if they all sat down together to discuss the situation. Not hearing her side first, not even asking if she would be OK with this.
As it turned out the meeting kept getting postponed and then eventually forgotten about so it never happened.
Everyone is in need of some advocacy, from management to the front line. However, advocacy is like a plant if you don’t feed it and water it everyday it will die. So I ask, where does the advocacy lie for employee’s? Human Resources? Not in this case, not in many others either. At least not a this particular facility, how about in yours?
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