We have a member of Staff who seems to get away with murder?

Question

I work with adults with severe learning and physical disabilities, we have had a 35 year old woman working with us for a number of years who says she has dyslexia and dyspraxia. Her work is very poor and she is plainly incompetent, we have to support our two service users in very part of their lives and the remaining staff have to correct or finish her work behind her most of the time, she can't put a duvet cover on properly, the duvet is sometimes put in sideways (single), she often puts remedial boots/callipers on the wrong service user so it creates a hazard for them, her cooking is truly appalling and she has had to be stopped from giving nearly raw potatoes recently and she has no concept of a nice meal. She is untidy and disorganised, and extremely tunnel visioned so she will suddenly think of something she wants to do and drop everything and go when it could wait. She has many times disappeared in works time for up two 2 hours, leaving the other member of staff caring for her client, this was reported but the manager merely had a word with her, she continues to do this occasionally but for up to half an hour only.

She puts 2 small items in the washing machine and sets it off, the service users pay for their own shopping and utility bills, they are on benefits She is constantly moaning about the other staff and the way the place is run, interferes with other staff's diaries and makes appointments when it is not her place to, despite being asked to leave floor washing till after all work there is done she continues to leave very wet mop trails (she doesn't do a complete job) to be walked on and be a potential hazard for staff. Basically, she does nothing properly, she takes SUs out in freezing weather without adequate clothing and spontaneously spends their money on frivolous things without discussion, despite being told not to. She only works 3 shifts over 2 days at weekends but is having a dire effect on staff. If you tackle her she has a major tantrum and reports it in floods of tears, so the other member of staff is blamed for upsetting her, she tells lies too. There have been a number of complaints about her but the company seem to feel that as she has special needs they can do nothing, but it is her colleagues that are suffering and making good wherever she fails.

The above is merely the tip of an iceberg. What I want to know is isn't this carrying equality in the work place too far? In order to allow her incompetence the 'normal' staff are being discriminated against as we are not allowed the same tolerance. Is there any procedure I can follow to ensure my company takes this seriously and judges her on her quality of care rather than her problems?

Answer 1

The workplace is supposed to provide adequate accommodations to support a staff member who has declared they have a disability. But they have to ensure they are doing the work required of them, in a safe manner according to Occupational Health & Safety and work place policies guidelines.



While the dyslexia 'may' affect her ability to complete paper work adequately, she should be doing minimum paper work, and certainly not have other staff complete & correct her work, that is double handling and is grossly unfair.



Document as much as you can, dates, times, witness's (if any), state the facts as you or other see it, any thing that you feel is inappropriate or against policies & procedures, and include any safety concerns, such as the water from the mop, which potentially cause a serious slip hazard to clients and staff.



It might be worth speaking to the manager/supervisor and raise the concerns you have about her, see if they can clarify what her role/duty is, if she is not to make appointments or touch clients paper work, then they need to ensure she knows this, so she does not do it.





My daughter and I are dyslexic, my daughter also has ADHD & ODD, we also suspect she has dyspraxia. We are both qualified disability support workers, and we DON'T let others do our work. And when it comes to paper work our employer is aware of the dyslexia, and makes allowances for spelling to some degree (we both use a dictionary or ask a colleague if we need too), but the paper work still has to be done & filled in correctly. I have rarely hear anything about my daughters ability to do her job, if anything she is like me and has tendency to be a little pedantic in how we do things.



Sadly I have worked with people who have not done their work adequately, or done things which are inappropriate or dangerous, so I have had to fill in incident forms etc. Which is never nice, but it has to be done to protect the clients, my colleagues and myself.

Answer 2

This seems to be a choice of your company, not any rule set by government.

It has nothing at all to do with equality in the work place, but neither is it discrimination against the more normal people. I've worked in a good many places where normal behavior is pretty poor too, with the incompetent leaving chaos in their wake, in some cases it was the owners.

You can have a serious discussion with your superior, and ask her to double check this woman, but if the company is using the woman to beef up its otherwise scrawny numbers of equality hiring, it might just be better to make up your minds to work as though she weren't there.

Answer 3

Your description makes your colleague sound more like a client than an employee.

Is your organization self-staffed as some are here in the U.S.A.?

If so, then there isn't much that you can do about it other than to go behind her and correct her errors.

Answer 4

Sorry there is nothing you can do. More than likely, she is on intermittent FMLA which allows her to basically be dysfunctional at her. It would take an act of management to go out on a limb then risk a lawsuit to get rid of her.

Answer 5

Sounds like your staff member should run for President of the United States; either Party would be glad to have her.

Answer 6

Employers do have to make reasonable allowances and adjustments for people with disabilities. Maybe they think that is what they're doing?