Homework assignment for Residential Administrator Certificate Difficult Person : Resident Service Director, R.N.
Problem Behavior : Needs to be like rather than be respected as a supervisor Avoids Conflict at all cost Soft on discipline, ignores behaviors of subordinate or waits for things to change on their own. I thought I would never say this about anybody , but she is to nice. Muriel Solomon, author of Working with Difficult People , wrote that surprisingly enough, discourteous attitude of employees is sometimes triggered by a supervisor who are too good to be true . Supervisors who go out of their way to be nice and considerate. Supervisors who are careful to let their subordinates solve their own problems.
Workers who are looking for more direction from above and not getting it , may constantly feel they are in a state of crisis.They need clear division of whos doing what steps in the operation. When their bosses are so nice subordinates have a hard time complaining to them, their frustration may manifest itself by workers being snippy, or defiant or needling. This is happening at Washington Manor. We have staff meeting after staff meeting on how staff are to talk to each other without lasting change , I have personally experienced the downside of this person trying to be so nice. I feel I do not get honest feedback from this person when I am asking her to be honest.
In her attempt to be so nice , she has undermined my attempts to discipline employees . As Resident Service Director, she does all phases of her job professionally and competently except the supervision of Direct Care Staff . By avoiding conflict and agreeing with or go along with all employees who come to her , she has managed to undermine her authority. She often tells employees what she thinks they want to hear . This behavior has caused conflict among the staff. She has said one thing to one employee and something clearly opposite to another .
This has caused a rift between staff and they think that her words can not be trusted. Her behavior has effected me in a different way . I had taken disciplinary action towards our evening supervisor. I discussed this with her , we were in agreement and she supported this action.
Until the evening supervisor went to her complaining of this action .She came to my office with him to present his feelings of being singled out. ( He was the only one who was exhibiting the behavior that needed disciplinary action , so I guess he was singled out?!?) I thought I was being ganged up on and unsupported by her . I looked like the bad guy. She tells me she is playing good cop , bad cop .
Unfortunately, this kind of behavior on her part has caused employees to know how to get the answer they want. Its like if I dont like what Dad said Ill go to Mom .This has happened on more than one occasion . The staff know that if they do not like what I say , they will go to her for the answer they wanted . Sometimes they have gone to her instead of me because they knew what my answer would be , ( policy ) and knew they could get a different answer from her .
The cost to our program is lack of consistency . Staff members are frustrated and fighting .With soft discipline or no discipline at all , an unpleasant environment to work in has been created . Some staff members think that it doesnt matter , they see their coworkers not doing their jobs and getting away with it . They think , why am I working so hard , nobody cares anyway . The morale is low .
At the worst ,we are losing some of our best employees, at the least , our good employees are developing unproductive attitudes . This will have a grave effect on the quality of care we provide .` In order to change / work on this , we will get together to discuss this problem . We need to go through policies and procedures so there is no misunderstandings , and we will be consistent with each other . We will discuss following steps to our disciplinary action policies and how difficult it can be to reprimand problem employees particularly when there is a need to be seen as the good guy .
You can be respectful and kind without being wishy - washy . I will offer my assistance if she needs, to help her with any disciplinary actions she may need to make . After coming up with ideas and agree on what or how things will be done , we will set a date for a follow up meeting to discuss progress / problems in following out the plan .
