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Dealing with incompetent and unprofessional professional: do I risk complaining and getting her sacked?

35 replies

sickofincompetenceandbullshit2 · 06/02/2013 19:56

Confused

I am dealing with a professional who has decided to bury her head in the sand when dealing with something that should have been straightforward to resolve. She is supposed to be resolving a complaint about something that is easy to rectify and instead has sat on it for months and come back to me with a load of lies and a refusal to sort it. We're talking about a legal duty that was not carried out for years and she is massively underplaying it.

So, I'm pretty cross. Then I Google her email address one day (as I didn't have my contacts on my new email thing) and one of her social networking pages comes up. She spends all day at work on it and comments on the people, including me, that she is supposed to be (at worst) neutrally investigating on behalf of and (at best) representing. One comment about me was basically along the lines of people should find better things to do!

In my job, such behaviour would get us the sack. I imagine she'd get in a lot of trouble for what she's done. But do I take it to the lengths of ruining her life by making a formal complaint and sending her boss screen shots? I don't want to ruin her life and have her out on the streets BUT I'm pretty angry that my tax pays for her to sit on her arse on the internet slagging me and others off and not doing her job!

WWYD?!

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Bluebirdonmyshoulder · 06/02/2013 20:01

Personally, I would ruin her life. That is totally, completely unacceptable, unethical and probably illegal.

Take lots screen shots and make a formal complaint first thing tomorrow.

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sickofincompetenceandbullshit2 · 06/02/2013 20:03

But...she'll know my address. I know this sounds totally dramatic, but what if she comes and sets my house on fire?!

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sickofincompetenceandbullshit2 · 06/02/2013 20:05

And what if she and her family lose their house?


I know that you are right, about how unethical it is and I was SEETHING initially, but have started calmly collecting screenshots now, while thinking what if this starts a horrible set of consequences?

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Bluebirdonmyshoulder · 06/02/2013 20:08

Will she know it's you who's complained?

If so, I'd inform the manager that you doubt the integrity of this person so much that you're going to inform the local police station about the situation and say you have grounds to fear some sort of retribution and could they note this.

Presumably her behaviour is impacting on your DC? I wouldn't feel the slightest bit of guilt.

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inappropriatelyemployed · 06/02/2013 20:21

I understand your trepidation. I have to say my experience of complaining about anything is that it comes back to bite you.

However, this is really unprofessional. Can you not send the link anonymously to her boss?

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SENhelp · 06/02/2013 20:24

Can you do it anonymously? Copy the screenshots and send them to her manager from 'an angry parent' or something like that. At least they can investigate without you being involved as anyone could have seen that info really.

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sickofincompetenceandbullshit2 · 06/02/2013 20:24

I think, knowing the set-up she works in, she would find out that it was me. I think her manager would have to be transparent about it plus their admin person would deal with the initial communication and would probably tell her.

But...my boyfriend says I need to complain to stop her from screwing other people over. Which is probably true. But you are right and I could pre-empt any comeback by saying I've logged the details with someone, maybe even the police.

Thank you :)
I know you're right really.

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SENhelp · 06/02/2013 20:25

X-post with IE

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sickofincompetenceandbullshit2 · 06/02/2013 20:25

sorry, x-posts with IA and SEN!

The only problem with doing it anon is that I want to use it as part of my reason for getting someone else to re-open the investigation, and so if I do it anon then my case is gone for good.

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sickofincompetenceandbullshit2 · 06/02/2013 20:26

We're x-post crazy!

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sickofincompetenceandbullshit2 · 06/02/2013 20:27

Anyone CAN see the info as it's so public. That's partly why I'm so cross. It's like standing in the street and slagging off people she's supposed to be helping.

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WilsonFrickett · 06/02/2013 20:27

I think there are the complaints that come back to bite us on the bum and the complaints that are actually so nuclear that no LA in its right mind could fail to act on them. This is one of the second ones. She has put your name on a social networking site, with no anonymity and she hasn't even had the sense to put her privacy settings up? FFS! That's just not on sickof. That's child protection issues, safeguarding, all sorts right there.

You have to report. And if she does lose her house (unlikely, I suspect she'll be 'retrained') then you didn't take it from her, her incredibly stupid actions did. [anger]

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WilsonFrickett · 06/02/2013 20:29

Emoticon fail and Xpost-tastic!

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sickofincompetenceandbullshit2 · 06/02/2013 20:31

Ah, no, not named, but posted on the exact day that I'd sent an email and she'd emailed back and within the exact hour with enough details that I knew. She also did put the name of another complainant's child with a sarky comment about her name along the lines of, what do you expect of a family who names a child that?

So the safeguarding and data protection concerns are valid.

She got promoted this week Angry and I've been sitting on it for a month. This promotion has made me furious!

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SENhelp · 06/02/2013 20:31

Well, I might be inclined to send screen shots to a local newspaper to investigate. Sounds like the kind of story a local rag would love.

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sickofincompetenceandbullshit2 · 06/02/2013 20:32

Hmmm, that would then get me round the anon thing. I could say I'd seen it and want the case re-opening.

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sickofincompetenceandbullshit2 · 06/02/2013 20:33

Thinking that might be a good solution. Good plan, Batman!

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inappropriatelyemployed · 06/02/2013 20:37

That is a good idea!

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glimmer · 06/02/2013 20:40

Hi - this is totally unacceptable. I would make sure to gather lots of valid evidence. If you want to play it nice, you could send the evidence to her and ask her to remedy your issues right away? Maybe she needs a wake up call and will immediately pull it? - I am not saying it's what I would do, but maybe thinking about this route will help you figure out what's the right avenue for you?

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SENhelp · 06/02/2013 20:41

Smile
I have a bit of a confidentiality issue myself that I could do with some advice on. Something happened with ds at school that had to have been kept confidential. I now find that staff spoke to other pupils about it (various children have said this) and a pupil repeated the claims on a social networking site even naming the staff that had talked about it! Have complained to the Gov's about the serious breach of confidentiality but expect them to deny that the staff said such a thing. Any suggestions on what else I can do? A child with a disability was left severely distressed by the disclosure of the information Sad

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auntevil · 06/02/2013 21:05

The above confidentiality issue is slightly less clear cut unless you have direct evidence and not third party evidence.
School will be tight as a drum on this. Unless one of the children who was spoken to is happy to confirm that the member of staff spoke directly to them, there are too many variations to more than ruffle feathers.
I overheard a conversation at school today, and it truly worried me so I spoke to a member of the management team. They were concerned, but I have little doubt that if she passes this information on that anything will be done. It will all be a case of 'mis-interpretation' and 'not in context' etc.

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SENhelp · 06/02/2013 21:15

Thanks Auntevil. I thought that may be the case. They have previously refuted that any inappropriate comments have been made by any of the staff there even though I know full well things have been said. I do have some written evidence now of really sarcastic,nasty comments from staff but I expect they'll still twist things around .

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starlightmckenzie · 07/02/2013 01:14

Shock

Good grief!

I understand why you hesitate about 'ruining her life', but you need to consider how many children's lives SHE is ruining by her attitude and inaction.

I doubt her life will come anywhere near mine in terms of grief btw, and my life isn't ruined.

Besides, her boss will probably promote her out of her current client facing position into a decision-making one.

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lougle · 07/02/2013 06:53

I would go as far as to say you have a duty to report her. She is failing not only you, a savvy, articulate, assertive and knowledgeable parent, but also all the parents who don't have support, don't know the SEN CoP, the policies and procedures, etc.

It doesn't have to get personal. Contact the boss, ask to meet regarding a sensitive and serious matter -state that there has been a breach of the DPA. Take copies of the email exchanges and social networking pages. Make it clear that this is not going away, let him do the rest.

She isn't going to come to your house and set fire to it. She's unprofessional and incompetent, but that's a big leap.

It's because people keep quiet that this practice continues.

I complained officially about DD1's old SALT. I presented the evidence of no follow ups, terrible interaction, poor reports, illogical conclusions. The meeting between her and the manager with me, was excruciatingly uncomfortable. However, the manager thanked me for raising it because she could then do something to change it.

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starlightmckenzie · 07/02/2013 07:20

OMG Lougle You've just reminded me of a meeting I had with ds' SALT plus a number of managers.

They were insisting that ds was receiving a certain number of hours worth of SALT, once driving/meeting/report writing was taking into account. It was a very poor service indeed.

I presented them with a document of how ds' needs would be better met with differently organised time Shock, breaking down their time and demonstrating that 80% of their allocated time appeared to be for 'planning', 10% for travelling. Can't believe I had the gall to do that. Must have been very frustrated.

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