EDC takes corrective action regarding bullied workers
After a scathing report came out about how employees in El Dorado County feel about their workplace, the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted May 13 to direct staff to implement a plan to turn things around.
The survey revealed significant concerns regarding “bullying, harassment, and retaliation.”
Customer service training is planned for county leadership and staff, along with more robust new supervisor orientations and orientations for the seven other elected department head positions, along with building internal awareness regarding policies and procedures, counseling/coaching, and enhancing employee communication.
An Executive Management Advisory Committee will review existing policies, practices, leadership challenges and recommend changes. Leadership criticisms will be addressed and where appropriate misconduct will be investigated, according to the county. The goal is departments that received low satisfaction levels from employees will receive immediate intervention.
There will also be a management audit of the Human Resources and Auditor-Controller’s offices.
Employees will be able to submit specific complaints, using a new Respectful Workplace Form 111.
Tuesday’s vote allocated up to $250,000 to be spent implementing the plan, including hiring neutral third party consultants to conduct investigations, provide training, coaching and internal support.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
The state of California is a joke too.
Good – that is an important first-step. And if any disrespectful behavior from management/supervisors continues after this, those folks should be shown the door.
County employees work in a culture of regular harassment and fear. While bloggers on this site regularly bemoan this and that about public agencies in the basin, you’re sitting by and letting the County waste hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars due to fear, retaliation, lost time at work, workers comp claims, the revolving door of employees at all levels who leave as the only method of resolving work place harassment.
The County has spent 100s of thousands on lost wages, employees calling in sick to avoid work, not getting work done to avoid dealing with electeds who are harassing, cost of rehires, surveys, consultants, and now they are putting $250,000 aside to provide counselors basically “watchers” for employees to call if they feel harassed. County administrator admits at yesterday’s board meeting she failed to protect the employees, electeds haven’t done much claiming there isn’t anything they can do about an elected who harasses.
Mike Applegarth, county public employee, stood up for all the employees recently and spoke up since the CAO wouldn’t do it.
This video of Mike speaking to the Board of Sups http://www.inedc.com/1-8586 calls Mike a “Brave act of public service” . It shouldn’t have to be “brave” for an employee to speak up.
Where is the leadership? Someone should have protected these employees and now you can bet the County is going to be settling more claims , more waste of tax payer dollars, because someone didn’t protect employees and demand basic respect in the work place? Someone ought to look into how many workers comp claims for harassment have been paid out to EDC employees in the last 10 years
I’m glad to hear El Dorado county is addressing this problem of harrassment and retaliation in the workplace. I was on the receiving end of that for many years, and believe me, it can really take a toll on you mentally as well as physicaly.
It’s all too common nowadays and has been, going to way back when.
If you find yourself working for someone in the private or public sector that is making your life miserable, and if you can’t find a way to resolve the harassment and or working in unsafe working conditions, find another job. I know jobs are scarce, but putting up with being abused everyday is no way to live. Trust me on that!
Right on, El Dorado County! (right on? did I just really say that?, man, I’m showin’ my age!). Well, aging hippie slogans aside, it’s good to hear EDC is working on it. Take care, OLS
Scott, that was very eloquently put. I never considered the financial end, lossed productivity, lossed work days, workers comp payments. That’s the type of stuff that doesn’t immediately show up in a normal report but often just as “the cost of doing business.” Which is sad. Not only on my part but on the administration that allowed such actions to continue. Thank you for pointing that out.
It’s great that county workers get finally some attention (again). I have no doubt these situations exist and that is wrong but I would be very cautious with this story. In fact, I don’t trust the news and I have come to understand that any news published follows a hidden agenda that often has nothing to do with the arguments. In this case, I question If it is appropriate to allocate such a budget to improve the life of county workers when I believe we have more serious matters to solve. I even go further and call this is a scheme! We all have a lot to say and often disagree on how the county works out the budget.
Is that program absolutely necessary?
What other programs need funding?
What programs needs to be cut to allow this expenditure?
Will it really fix the problem?
What is the percentage of workers affected by harassment?
Does this percentage requires the implementation of special programs?
If yes, how come the administration is such a mess?
why would anybody accept to work in those conditions?
and finally, what is the real motivation behind all this?
Laws sanctioning harrassment and abuse in the workplace are in effect for any employee whether they are working in the public sector or not. What more is to be investigated? what consultant? what coaching? Are you kidding me? The labor board or the PD have everything we need to address those matters. Why county workers deserve again more attention at our expense? Why the Public Employee Union or the CSEA are not the ones picking up the bill?
I call this move total horse manure! Unfortunately, I’m certain this plan will lead nowhere and is just an excuse to implement more politician shenanigan schemes.
John Melgard, Well said! While I’m glad the county is looking into this problem it will have a slim chance of actually fixing said problem. After I had complained about this to the other owners of the company, nothing was done so I went to the “Health and Human Services” dept.
Me and a few other supervisors , at least the ones that bothered to show up, were given a presentation by a lawyer who deals with this sort of a thing all the time thru law suits. The guilty party, as it were, turned his chair around so he wasn’t facing the table where the talk about work place harrassment was being explained. Nice, huh? The presentation? It worked for about a year , no more yelling, cussing me out, driving by my house wnen I was off work, spreading rumors…well, lets just say things improved for awhile. After about a year it all came back and with a vengance, worse than before!
Eventually I was given an ultimatum, take a HUGE cut in pay and go back to my starting position or …? I ended up taking early retirement as I really had no other option.
So, yes John, I’m glad EL Dorado is trying to fix the problem, but from own experience it probably won’t do a damn thing! Good luck county workers, you’re gonna need it! OLS
Off topic but, for the folks that love Tahoe, type in “Give me back my Tahome”. A 4 minute video with some old photos mixed in with the new and pretty good music to! You’ll be glad you did! Thanks Ken for calling and telling me about this. I really enjoyed it! G’night, OLS