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

[sickofincompetenceandbullshit2]

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?!

[lougle]

star - you take assertive to a whole new level I thought I was being assertive by saying 'I'm not sure how you think she's doing x when my experience is y.....'

I'm surprised by now people don't just say 'mmm...starlightmckenzie. She's probably right, let's just sort it out now and we can have 5 more cups of coffee in the time we spent justifying our position only to cave in....'

I admire you greatly!

[eatyourveg]

Straight to the head, with a letter outlining your concerns and a print off of the pages concerned.

[tasmaniandevilchaser]

I'm absolutely shocked sick. I'd have zero qualms about reporting it, it's not 'ruining her life', she's better off out of that job if that's how she behaves. She really can't be very happy, I bet her colleagues are fed up with her but feel unable to do or say much. (Speaking from bitter experience here but it wasn't even half as bad as your situation). But agree with starlight she'll probably end up promoted

[chocjunkie]

omg!! i would not hesitate at all to put a complain in. that is just shocking.

do you happen to know the family of the child with the unusual name you mentioned? maybe worth alerting them and getting them to complain as well?

[vjg13]

Please do complain. It is wrong that this person can behave in this way and appalling for you and others.

[sickofhypocrisyandbullshit]

Hi, sorry, I seem to have lost my password! Thanks for all the responses. I know I have a responsibility to do something about her; it seems I just need to decide about newspaper route or (and I could go that route and them not be interested) open complaint.

SENhelp , there would be an investigation and a warning given in my workplace if such a thing happened. It sort of depends how far you push and, as others have said, if children will verify that staff said it. But the child put it on FB, so evidence there! Shocking - and poor when if affects a child like that :(

[SENhelp]

Well,whatever you decide she needs to be taken to task for her actions. There's certainly enough evidence to stop her trying to wriggle her way out of anything. Keep us updated if you can.
I am waiting to hear from school about my complaint but don't expect a lot to be honest.

[sickofhypocrisyandbullshit]

Good luck and I will keep you updated.

Thanks to all for the advice!

[feelthelies]

Hi, I'm back (NC). Well...I did send the very detailed complaint and I know it was the right thing to do even though I did feel crap about it .

I posted it and then kept worrying/ wondering so had a look at the (still public!) social networking page. It seems, from the cryptic messages, that her boss is actually doing something. I do feel very bad as she is obviously in a lot of trouble, but it only takes looking at the screenshots in my complaint again to get very cross. You know, in amonst the piss-taking about all the people complaining, there is not one similar piss-take about the public body being complained about, revealing such a clear bias.

Thanks to all for the advice at the time :)

[SENhelp]

Well, I'm glad that your complaint was taken seriously. Professionals do need to be held accountable for their actions. Too many of them, in my opinion, are getting away with treating children and their families badly and then considering themselves untouchable.Good for you.