It was a strange six weeks, that’s how long
they suspended me for. I didn’t mind, I
was still on full pay so concentrated on my studies at Lancaster
University. I had contacted the professor
at Lancaster and explained my situation and asked if I could continue with the
course. As far as he was concerned the
company had paid for all of us, up front, so my place was secure and I was
welcome to continue. Surprisingly none
of the others from North West Community Services attended the course. It was interesting to discover that I was a
hot topic of gossip throughout Manchester’s social services world. Some people, as I expected, were pleased that
I might have the legs taken away from under me but many commiserated. I still found the whole situation confusing.
I had actually seen people, who Delia had
‘cared’ for, when she was a nurse at Calderstones hospital, pick up knives if
she walked in to the same room as them.
It was obvious that none of them liked her or had a good word to say
about her. She was a bully, as thick as
two short planks and even the deputy director of Manchester social services
told me that they knew they couldn’t trust her and that she was a liar but she
could do the job. How on earth she got
the position in the first place I shall never know. The course at Lancaster was fun and I was desperately
putting out feelers to see if there were any vacancies on the horizon. I know that I have often said that social
workers are useless but the boss of Manchester’s social services, responsible
for learning disabilities, and his deputy were two good fellows. I wouldn’t have minded working with them as
they got things done, unlike most social workers who spend most of their
careers on sick leave with stress.
On the day of my hearing I arrived at the
Liverpool offices and felt somewhat out of place, which I found strange as I
had been so familiar with the organisation.
Rather than wander my way around the various offices saying hello to people
and involving myself in idle banter, I was invited to take a seat in the
foyer. I sat myself down and waited. The odd individual came and went then Jo came
in, Joanne. This is the team leader I
had stood up for against Richard and Garry in the managers meeting. She asked if I was there for my hearing and I
explained that I was but she then asked who was my friend? I knew that everyone in the Liverpool office
had been warned not to get involved with my case as they would still have to
work with Delia afterwards and they wouldn’t want to sour that
relationship. I couldn’t even get any of
them to write a statement supporting me.
Jo stated that this wasn’t fair; I shouldn’t go in on my own, so she
immediately volunteered to accompany me.
I wasn’t sure if she was just being nosey or if she actually wanted to
give me some moral support so I agreed that she could accompany me.
We went in to the conference room and found
Chris, the Liverpool accounts director, at the head of a large table. Beside him the CEO’s secretary, with pencil
poised over pad. I realised that as
everything was to be recorded I would have to be careful that I spelled out my
case against Delia as good as I possibly could.
We sat down and the four of us swopped pleasantries. Chris was the sort of fellow you would call
in to and have a bit of craic with. He
was a nice enough fellow, pretty useless at his job but we had always got on, at
least that’s what I felt. He opened proceedings
by saying that in his opinion the seventeen charges were a bit much and that he
was willing to ignore fourteen of them and concentrate on the three main
charges against me. I refused. I said, and I made sure I spoke slowly enough
for the secretary to jot down every word, I said that it was my intention to
prove that Delia was not just a liar, but that she had falsified documents and
that her sole intention was to give her daughter my job.
As Chris had been the fellow who had telephoned
me and inquired about the change, or the addition, to my monthly assessment I
knew he was well aware of the situation.
My job now was to turn the whole situation on its head and get Delia in
to trouble. It took some time, I think
it was four and a half hours in all, but at the end of the session I was
satisfied that I had gone through every point sufficiently not only to prove my
innocence but to highlight Delia’s guilt.
Chris said that normally these hearings would take no more than half an
hour or forty minutes, after which he would make a decision. In this case he decided that I had raised
enough concerns to encourage him to continue investigating the situation and
therefore I was to remain on suspension on full pay. It wasn’t the outcome I wanted, which of
course would have been Delia hanging from a lamppost in the street, but at
least it wasn’t negative.
We were facing our final paper for the course
at Lancaster and I made sure that I was not connected to any of the North West
Community Services Crowd. I did have my
eyes open and knew that if I wanted to move any further up the career ladder I
would need to get myself a degree. This
of course didn’t mean that you would actually know something as most of the social
work cretins had a degree in social work which didn’t really mean
anything. I had decided that a
management qualification would help me, as would an accountancy qualification,
so I had signed up with the Open University and was completing a degree in management
and accountancy. The good news was that
the course at Lancaster would contribute to my overall degree. So even though I was a wizard with figures
and actually enjoyed complicated accounts I would now have some proof that I
could count and organise things officially.
I know that I went into the management
programme with a willingness to learn but could only describe the management
course as a sort of collection of Victorian parlour games. And even though the world was moving in in
leaps and bounds and some brilliant, all singing, all dancing flavoured
accountancy programmes were available we were told that we would have to start
with the basics and use handwritten methods before moving on to the new technology. It was a bit frustrating but I got through it
without shouting, too much, at anybody.
I have to admit that it was a very interesting experience as we had
conference calls some evenings for debates and discussion and I soon learned
very quickly how to take over and control these events. Even on the management exercise I would
immediately volunteer to be the team accountant as I knew most others would be
afraid of the numbers, but I wasn’t, and once you had control of the purse
strings you had control of the whole project.
I only wish I could have used similar techniques with my Delia
situation.
Of all the seventeen charges against me there
was only one that I couldn’t prove beyond a doubt that was not my fault. I had difficulties in one house and the team
leader had been fired. I had problems
finding a new manager for the house and asked one of the senior support workers
to step up and cover the position for me.
It was really more of a paperwork exercise as my statistics now would
please social services but I knew I needed a new team leader and was
desperately scouring the company to see if there were any suitable
candidates. One of the people in that
house had his medication changed by the local mental health nurse. I made a note of the day it was to be changed
and turned up at the house. I explained
to the acting team leader that I needed to check that the medication had been
properly changed and documented. He
assured me that the medication books had been changed. He told me that he was about to go to the pharmacist
and collect the new medication and then pointed to a bag on top of the kitchen
cupboards telling me that this was the old medication which he was about to
return to the pharmacist who would dispose of it.
As far as I was concerned it was just another
small routine problem out of the way.
Unfortunately I wasn’t aware that I was still on a huge learning curve
and that the acting team leader had lied through his back teeth to me. Ten days later the mental health nurse had turned
up and noticed that the medication had not been changed. Talk about brown stuff hitting the fan, the
acting team leader was now in Vietnam for six weeks with his girlfriend. How could I prove what I claimed was
true? After a further two weeks
suspension I got a letter informing me that I was to given a six month written
warning. This angered me as I wasn’t too
sure what it actually meant. I also
wondered how it would affect my search for a new job, but more importantly no
action was to be taken against Delia despite the case I had put up against
her. I asked Chris why no action had
been taken against Delia and he explained that the disciplinary procedure had
been against me, not Delia. I wasn’t
happy but then my spirits really did go through the floor as Chris explained I
was to resume my normal duties on the following Monday morning, back at
Manchester and back working as Delia’s deputy.
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