As has been reported, an NHS manager was reecently awarded thousands of pounds in compensation after bullying at the hospital where she worked led her to suffer a nervous breakdown.
Briefly, Nanette Bowen alleged she had been harassed over a three-year period at Llanelli’s Princess of Wales Hospital.
Earlier this year a civil case at Swansea County Court decided her employers were to blame for her health problems.
She will be awarded £150,000 in compensation.
The 55-year-old, from Llanelli, had been employed at the Carmarthenshire hospital for 28 years. She worked her way up the ranks from porter to information manager, reporting directly to the chief executive.
She said her working conditions began to deteriorate in 2000 when Llanelli and Dinefwr Trusts merged to become Carmarthenshire NHS. It is now part of the Hwyel Dda Local Health Board.
She claimed a male official made sexual innuendos towards her and was regularly aggressive when challenged about his behaviour.
Ms Bowen added that over the next three years her responsibility for hiring staff was removed, she was not allowed to pass on information to staff without his consent and had to fill in a daily form for him to monitor her work.
This is a sad moment for the employer, alleged bully and employee.
All the parties have lost.
There is a dramatic impact on all the parties.
From Ms. Bowen's point of view she has lost her careeer and her confidence.Like any victim of bullying there is bound to be an impact elsewhere with her relations with family and friends under stress.
The impact may stay with her for the rest of her life.
For any would be bully it is possible his or her reputation will be shattered. The most damaging aspect is any bully does not get to learn the means by which to positively interact with parties.
The employer suffers. It has to make a pay out which it does not necessarily see as its fault. Beyond the pay out and the legal costs, how much time and cost has been spent by the employer?
What a waste, but it is not necessarily the case that all the parties will learn the lessons from the tragedy of bullying.
As lawyer and mediator when I deal with such disputes, some of the questions which I ask the parties include.
1 What precisely happened to you? In my experience many victims of bullying do not know what precisely happened. Often bullying is subtle by using such methods such as manipulation of holiday schedules, expenses to shatter the self confidence of the victim. Many victims repress what has been done to them.
2 Is the 1st time this has happened? Some/many(?) victims of bullying have been bullied before. By encouraging would be victims to see if their is pattern in this behaviour it encourages them to see if they can change their behaviour to see if they can fight more effectively.
3 What did you do? I ask this of say, any alleged bully. The purpose is to start encouraging an alleged bully to put their behaviour in the spotlight. many bullies have such self aggrandisement they have never overly shown self reflection.
4 How does the victim make you feel? Again, we are looking into the mentality of the bully.
5 What has the organisation done? We are questoning the stance of the firm. Does the environment support tacitly the bully or not?
The key is to get the intervention by the mediator sooner rather than later otherwise the employee has no way back into the organisation and then the best case scenario is Compromise Agreement.
Justin Patten, Employment Solicitor