Advice needed: handling employee complaints

kayern · Sep 29, 2013

I just viewed a webinar about changing the culture on a unit. The one point that made an impression was not holding staff 100% accountable, but holding them 200% accountable..........100% for themselves and 100% for their co-workers because if not everyone is working to 100% the unit will not function. The staff has to understand that they are there for one reason and one reason only.......the PATIENTS, everything else is fluff. Try explaining that the "bossiness" is not true bossiness just the colleague holding her accountable.

Laurie52 · Sep 29, 2013

I just viewed a webinar about changing the culture on a unit. The one point that made an impression was not holding staff 100% accountable but holding them 200% accountable..........100% for themselves and 100% for their co-workers because if not everyone is working to 100% the unit will not function. The staff has to understand that they are there for one reason and one reason only.......the PATIENTS, everything else is fluff. Try explaining that the "bossiness" is not true bossiness just the colleague holding her accountable.[/quote']
How can you hold staff accountable for other staff? I don't hire, fire or discipline anyone. The are not accountable to me for their practice. Isn't this what management is supposed to do?

Carolina Southpaw · Oct 3, 2013

Response:

To Laurie52, I understand your concern. I would ask that you consider that managers are not there all the time in every part of the unit. It has to be everyone's job to hold each other accountable for the standards and culture of the unit. We all must say something when we see something is not being done whether it is ignoring a monitor alarm, dressing out to go into an isolation room, or telling a fellow employee that their tone of voice was not appropriate. We are all adults. Managers should only be getting involved when these behaviors are trending and someone needs discipline or if the teammate is being abusive. Now, managers also need to help mediate because although we are all grown-ups, many people detest confrontation and have had no training in how to have those "crucial conversations". By each teammate holding each other accountable for the culture and standards, we can consistently provide better quality patient care and create a healthy workplace environment. When we allow ourselves to become inactive bystanders, we become part of the problem.

To lostNneuro, I am curious how you know this person is coming to complain about the bossiness. I am also wondering what you did when you actually witnessed the behaviors. It sounds like you made some generalized comments to everyone about expectations, but did you have a conversation with this person saying, "hey I noticed that while such and such was going on that you were on the phone (or whatever she was doing). Can you explain those choices to me?" Listen to what she has to say. Is it that she asked for help and never got it and now when the other one is drowning she isn't going to help her? Is this other person that is being "bossy" perhaps correct in content, but wrong in delivery? Also wondering where your charge nurse is? Charge nurses should also be held accountable for managing this sort of thing when you are not on the floor and you need to follow-up with your charge nurses to find out what is working and what is not working. If the person who is being "bossy" has already come to you about this issue and you have told her to hold her teammates accountable and now she is coming off bossy, then I hate to say it, but you missed a critical step. You need to make sure that effective communication between the teammates occurs. You may need to mediate this. You also need to establish clear hierarchy on your unit. "Directives" should be given by those in charge, gentle reminders can be given by co-workers. If you have weak hierarchy, you will have those that will step into that vacuum of leadership need. This creates much angst. If your "bossy" nurse is not in charge, you need to consider that she is feeling the stress of having to say these things because "no one in charge is doing anything about it". By empowering your charge nurses and holding them accountable to deal with these issues in real time, you are fixing it so that your staff don't have to correct each other. This will help your team to be more cohesive. Hope this helps. Good luck.

lostNneuro · Oct 6, 2013

Update on how this situation unfolded .... The complainer never come to me. I overheard them talking it out between themselves. I try not to micro-manage too much. My nurses in general work hard and are professionals. I try to treat them as such. I found many times they work it out just as grown professionals should :)

@ [COLOR=#003366]Carolina Southpaw, This is going in my back pocket. I love this ... "hey I noticed that while such and such was going on that you were on the phone (or whatever she was doing). Can you explain those choices to me?" Listen to what she has to say.

Thank you all for your advice. ...

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · Oct 10, 2013

I just viewed a webinar about changing the culture on a unit. The one point that made an impression was not holding staff 100% accountable, but holding them 200% accountable..........100% for themselves and 100% for their co-workers because if not everyone is working to 100% the unit will not function. The staff has to understand that they are there for one reason and one reason only.......the PATIENTS, everything else is fluff. Try explaining that the "bossiness" is not true bossiness just the colleague holding her accountable.

IMO this is useless advice. Line employees cannot be held responsible for the production of other line employees. While the point about everyone pulling their weight is well taken, it isn't up to peers to make that happen. That is why you have supervisors and managers. If you want to see an absolute free-for-all out on the floor, have peers trying to put each other in line. Recipe for total disaster, IMO.

Getting back to the original situation as stated by the OP:

Given the situation as stated, I would have taken a more direct approach in addressing it. While changing work assignments is fine, and it may eventually be necessary anyway, assuming that this alone might take care of the situation is a passive approach with little chance of success. The central issues need to be addressed directly. I would have called the two employees in individually and discussed my observations with them, and spelled out my expectations. I would have told them why assignments were being changed if that is what I decided to do.

The employee who is doing the bulk of the work is not completely off the hook. You say that the employee is sometimes "bossy", which means that he/she is trying to assume a supervisory role when that is not appropriate. It sounds as if this employee is trying to rectify the situation alone rather than going through the chain of command to address it.

TatiannaBSN · Oct 23, 2013

LostNneuro,

As you can see, there are so many types and styles of Management. Each one will offer an experience or solution that may work towards your problem.

As a manager I have found that up front, real time, honest communication has to take place between you and all of your staff members. If you deal with things in real time there is much less grief going foward and things are solved before growing bigger. Do your self a favor and save your worries for other things....deal with things as they approach!

MatrixRn · Nov 3, 2013

One of the biggest things that a manager can do is lay out expectations of behavior. Being bossy is a behavior. Not working to a 100% of optimal is a behavior. If a nurse feels she needs to be bossy to support another employee, that information should be pushed forward. The 'bossy' person is out of line, and the other nurse in question needs support. Either way it is a management \ training issue that needs to be resolved.