Case Study 1: Prasad moves to Australia
Prasad recently joined SupportKids, taking on the role of the team leader.
Prasad has recently moved to Australia from India. He was very pleased that his experience with children in need in India has been recognised and he could get employment in a team leader’s role.
Prasad had been employed in India for over 15 years, during which time he had campaigned for children’s rights and had made many inroads into the care and protection of children across the country. Prasad was known to be a skilled and dedicated social worker.
After settling into his new role, Prasad noticed some of his team members making quiet jokes when he was around the office. Some would giggle or quietly laugh when he would speak and do silent movements ridiculing his natural gestures.
During lunch times, Prasad overhead some of the team mention his name and put on an Indian accent during their conversation. This happened more obviously when Prasad was giving the team updates during their weekly catch ups.
Furthermore, one of the team members, Ben, would send regular emails to the rest of the team with jokes and comical images about the Indian culture. When Prasad attempted to ignore these jokes about him, he also noticed the responsiveness of his team decline. They were not supportive of his requests and lacked the team cooperation and loyalty that he needed to get tasks done.
Prasad began to lose his confidence with his new role and team leadership. He felt humiliated because of his culture and ethnic background, and he could not understand why his team were
not as welcoming as he expected. They did not make him comfortable in his position as their team leader.
Eventually Prasad withdrew his interaction with the team over time, cancelling meetings and confining his communication to emails rather than face-to-face discussion.
The jokes about Prasad failed to cease and became targeted at his withdrawn behaviour. He became agitated and depressed until he completely withdrew himself from the workplace and ceased working due to increasing stress.
Prasad was also homesick, as all of his family and friends resided back in India.
Case Study 2: Kelly and Thomas on night shift
Kelly has just completed her Certificate IV in Community Services and is very pleased to be given a job working as a youth residential care worker.
Kelly enjoys the work and finds the house supervisor to be very helpful in teaching her the ropes.
After a few months, the house supervisor advises Kelly that he will be placing her on night shift with the other night worker – Thomas.
Kelly is a bit uncomfortable about working with Thomas, especially during the night, but she appreciates the responsibility of working nights. The shift penalties also mean more money in her pay.
When Kelly starts working with Thomas, he casually questions her about her personal life. He asks her questions about whether she has a boyfriend and about her first time sexual encounter.
Kelly finds this intrusive as she has never been asked these type of questions by anyone else in a workplace. But she thought this might just be Thomas trying to be friendly and make an effort to get to know her better.
Kelly has a strong commitment to her job and a loyalty to do her best for her young clients.
Thomas begins to give Kelly compliments on how she dresses and presents herself, most especially when she wears a skirt. He makes comments like, ‘If I wasn’t already married and I was your age I would be all over you by now!’
Kelly’s discomfort around Thomas grows when he starts to read sexually explicit content in magazines that they confiscate from their clients. He also shows her pornography on the Internet, saying that he has caught the clients accessing it.
One night when all the clients were in bed asleep, Thomas asks her to have sex with him.
Kelly calls the on-call manager, saying she is sick and needs to leave her shift immediately.
She never returns to work
Case Study 3: Helping out a friend
Thomas is suspended from work and a disciplinary investigation process is in progress.
Thomas calls, Ben, who works in the HR department.
Ben is a friend of his from years ago. They used to play football together and often go out for drinks on Thomas’s nights off. They arrange to meet at the pub that night.
Thomas buys Ben a beer and fills him in on what has happened – he has been wrongfully suspended from work! According to Thomas, Kelly has thrown herself at him during night shift and when he threatened to report her, she got in first and said it was him who assaulted her!
Ben had heard something about the suspension and was very glad to hear that his friend was not in the wrong.
Thomas asks Ben if he could get the disciplinary file out of the HR Manager’s office and photocopy it for him so he knows what is happening in the investigation. This will help him as he will be able to see Kelly’s statement and what the investigator has said in the report.
He needs the information before he goes in front of the investigation committee next week.
If Ben can get the report, Thomas promises that he will never tell anyone.
Ben feels sorry for his friend and the next day he works back late. He finds the HR Manager’s office key and ‘borrows’ the file. He makes a copy.
On his way home he drops in at the pub and gives Thomas the photocopies. Ben can’t believe the lies that Kelly has told about Thomas in her statement – he feels really sorry for his friend as it looks like it will just be Kelly’s word against his, and everyone knows that the female is always believed over the male in a sexual assault case!
Thomas buys Ben another drink. ‘Cheers,’ Thomas says as they clink bottles. Thomas grins widely.
Case Study 4: Revising the procedure
Jenny works in the local neighbourhood centre in the administration department. Jenny’s department is responsible for ordering and storing stationery for the entire centre.
The procedure for receiving orders of stationery the centre reads as follows:
SAFE WORK PROCEDURE – DELIVERIES AND STORAGE OF STATIONERY
The administration staff will be responsible for accepting and storing stationary orders.
Procedure:
When stationery orders are delivered, check the content of the delivery to ensure it matches the delivery docket.
Sign the delivery company’s documentation.
Immediately move stationery received into the storeroom.If the box is too heavy, ask another worker to assist with moving the box.
Unpack the stationery and store it as follows:
-Small items for everyday use – store on low and middle shelves.
-One box of photocopy paper to be split into individual reams and stored on easy to reach shelf.
-Remainder of boxes of photocopy paper to be stored (in boxes) on top shelf.
- Staff must use the ladder provided to lift the boxes onto the top shelf.
Yesterday Jenny received a large order of stationery.She was busy with other work so she asked Martin to help her so she could get through it faster.
One of the boxes was very heavy, so Martin said he would move it to the storeroom. Jenny offered to help, but he said he was fine. Unfortunately Martin tripped over his own feet when he was moving the box and fell down the small step that led into the storeroom.
He had to be taken to hospital – he had fractured his wrist.
After all the drama of Martin’s accident died down, Jenny decided to put all the stationery away herself.
She had almost got everything done, but the last items were six boxes of photocopy paper.Jenny used the ladder as instructed by the procedures to put the boxes on the top shelf.By the time she got to the fourth box she was exhausted – it was hard work lifting boxes up a ladder!
Just was she was about to put the box on the shelf, her foot slipped on the ladder step. She fell onto the floor – thankfully the box did not hit her! However, Jenny still ended up with cuts on her leg from the metal ladder, and lots of bruises and a very sore ankle and arm.
Naomi is the new manager of the neighbourhood centre. She has been on the job for not even two weeks. She is horrified that two accidents could occur on the same day, and in the same place.
Naomi investigates the incident and when she reads the procedure she is shocked at the manual handling processes that staff are being advised to carry out.She is surprised there hasn’t been more serious accidents.
She knows the procedure must be fixed immediately!