To think this is workplace bullying?

[NotSayingImBatman]

I’m currently completing a one year social work course that involves a full-time placement at a local authority, with teaching time and assignments on top of that.

I started the course last September and had a practice supervisor who was great. We got along well, supervision and observations were positive. She was heavily pregnant and went on maternity leave a month or two after I started.

Her replacement came from another team and, from day one, she and I haven’t clicked. I don’t expect to be everyone’s mate but she seems to have a serious dislike of me. I thought this would be fine. It’s a year. Surely we could both be professional until August.

This woman has given me negative feedback from the start. She belittles me in team settings. Has shouted at me in front of the team manager and practice educator to the point I’ve been in tears and asking her to stop. I get excellent feedback from her on my written work — presumably because she can’t argue with the quality — but consistently negative feedback on things no one else can observe like observations of my practice.

I decided to just stop engaging with her outside of work related activities. I was polite. I answered questions. I did my work. I thought that would be enough.

I found out last week she’s instigated a Stage One Fitness to Practice investigation against me. Apparently, I’m unprofessional.

I’m 40 years old. I worked as a lawyer for 20 years before this course and never had my professionalism called into question once. Now I have to defend myself in front of people who’ve seen her reduce me to tears.

Has anyone had anything like this happen before? How worried should I be? My practice educator told me not to read beyond Stage One of the procedure but I’m worried I’ve left a solid career and now I’m going to be jobless with a black mark against me for unprofessional conduct.

You need to understand what about your conduct has been viewed as unprofessional. I don't think its fair or right for you to go blindly in so surely they have to tell you the exact issue?

Agreed. I’m waiting for a written agenda. When I asked what the reasoning was, I was told “your conduct during a meeting on the 2nd March.” This meeting involved the supervisor accusing me of failing to take accountability for not informing a colleague about work completed — my notes were complete and added to the system the same day I did the work. She said I should’ve called the social worker and verbally told her I’d completed the work. I did refuse to apologise which resulted in her shouting at me in front of our (shared) team manager and accusing me of saying the other social worker was unprofessional. I didn’t — the other social worker is lovely, it was just a genuine oversight on her part.

Sounds awful OP, I have worked with difficult people and bullies before, can definitely empathize.
Shouting at you and belittling you makes her look not only unkind, but unstable and unprofessional. Take this to your advantage though, that she's done it in front of witnesses. Find out who you can talk to in the organisation about this - ask to be assigned another supervisor and perhaps raise a formal grievance. As a student, have you got a union rep? I'd contact them asap if you do.

Re: the specific example you've given: is it possible that you didn't follow the procedure fully, that it did involve making a phone call to your colleague on top of your shared notes?
If you've done everything correctly, you have nothing to apologize for indeed, and surely she'd have no leg to stand on.

I spoke to the colleague as management in my team has a habit of triangulating to create division. She was lovely about it, and said when she’d spoken to the manager about it, she’d explicitly said it wasn’t my fault, she’d overlooked the case note.

I’m just concerned that multiple people have witnessed her shouting at me, including the practice educator, but I’m the one answering accusations of professional misconduct.

It sounds truly awful. Is it the Frontline Scheme? Could you complain to the organisers? It seems really unfair and crazy.

Shouting at someone in training, enough to make them cry, and doing so in front of others, is definitely unprofessional.
Sounds to me as if the wrong person is being accused.
If I was one of the people that witnessed it, I think I would be raising concerns about the manager.

Sorry, this sounds really horrible for you.

Often the perpetrator will frame themselves as the victim - which you don't need telling, as a student social worker! I have worked closely with social work managers for many years and in my experience, some of them are in the wrong job. Perhaps they started their careers with a genuine desire to help, yada yada, but then became jaded and unbearable to deal with. There could be many reasons for that - it's obviously a very emotionally demanding job.

I have recently worked with a SW manager who has the clearest case of insecurity I have ever seen in a manager. A desperation to be liked, main character syndrome - but she was so rude to everyone except for a select few. She would go into multiagency meetings and bite the heads off everyone and anyone - not just social workers but headteachers, police - admin staff. It was unbelievable. For me as a witness (and sometimes the unfortunate recipient) it stung the most when the social worker was on the receiving end. As managers, they have been where you are now.

I would expect that in your case, this manager may feel threatened by a very capable 40 year old who has had 20 years in a successful professional career and is obviously very capable (judging from your great relationship with your previous supervisor). It isn't ok that this behaviour happens in LA's - but unfortunately it does, if the culture goes unchecked by their managers.

Please stay strong and try not to worry. A FTP panel is a scary prospect but they are run by a panel of experienced professionals and they are accountable for the decisions they make. It might be that the Stage 1 meeting has to go ahead due to protocol but you will likely find that they will be utterly confused as to why you have been referred to them.

The main things for you to do are:

• Start a bundle which diarises every single event. Make sure you have a written record of every single occasion. Dates, times, who the witnesses were and what was said.
• If conversations have happened over teams (like where this social worker has said it wasn't your fault, etc) then use the snipping tool to copy and paste the relevant messages into that document. You were a lawyer and you obviously know how to put a bundle together!

As a PP has asked, is it through Frontline? Can you ask for a different supervisor? That seems like the bare minimum that you need when there is clearly an entirely avoidable conflict which this person has created.

You'll be absolutely fine here - and you'll be great in social work. It's sad to say but you will need to stay alert and watch out for the disingenuous people at all levels. I always say that if a person's smile doesn't reach their eyes then they don't mean it!

Good luck lovely and please keep us updated x

This is really reassuring, thank you.

I’ve been keeping a detailed timeline of incidents, what was said, who was there. I just never imagined it would be necessary to do something like this!

It’s baffling as I’m well-liked by team members, other students, families I work with, and the manager at my secondary placement. The only one to raise any concerns is this particular supervisor.

I know it's easier said than done but try not to worry. Sometimes people are just awful and there's no obvious explanation for it. It sounds like this woman sees a successful person with their shit together and wants to suck the joy out of it.

You'll be able to look back and see this as a lesson in carefully risk assessing who you can and can't trust at work!! If you want to PM me about anything you are more than welcome.

Don't forget that if you are in the SU then you can get a rep from them to sit in with you on any meetings, for moral support if nothing else xx

Has she actually ever managed anyone before?

Are you in a union? If not, join. Document everything, keep a diary. If you have emails etc from her get them all saved now. Prepare to take out a grievance.

The 'educator' shouldn't have allowed her to shout at you and bully you by the way.