It's accountability o'clock

A management referral to Occupational Health has more or less the same objectives.

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& in this case, the context was the usual;

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Management referral over concerns about health.

The employee acted in a timeframe other than the one the process required, clicked and... action. A few seconds after the action, he realized his click took place about a minute before he should have done so.

Recall. Luckily enough, the action could be recalled. Yet the near-miss was recorded and witnessed.

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In some work environments, teamwork means team communication, team bond, a chain of actions, and trackable actions. Simply put in robustly functioning work environments this is called “who does what and when”.

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Some milliseconds after fixing the near-miss the employee got to sweat, and became anxious, but remained in his post to complete the rest of the tasks. All these were under the vigilant eyes of his manager who, along with the rest of the team, eye- or /and online- witnessed the near-miss.

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Easily predictable action of the manager, right after the near-miss: the manager approached the employee and asked if everything was ok as the employee had an exceptional performance record. Defending himself, the employee told to the manager that he was confused. Next action of the manager: full real-time workplace risk assessment, completed without detecting work-related stressors. Next step: To carry out the duty of care the manager said: “I will refer you to occupational health to offer you the best support.” The employee agreed.

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The referral was sent through straight away, the appointment was booked within one week’s waiting time. In the meantime, the employee was working. In fact, he was performing, as usual.

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One day prior to his OH appointment the employee emailed our team informing us that he wanted to attend the consultation accompanied by his manager; the manager was cc-ed in the email; a staff representative as well. Both we & the manager accepted. No further accommodations were requested (As OH we always ask whether there are specific needs/circumstances that may exist or have come up and need to be addressed and we put in place the fit-for-purpose adjustments for every appointment).

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At the appointment: Welcome -completed, Introductions- completed, Explanation of the referral- completed, Process of consultation -completed. As always, after this introductory part, the floor belongs entirely to the employee.

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“ Thank you both for arranging this consultation. And thank you for coming with me K (his line manager).

Health-wise there is nothing to declare. Both my mental & physical health are in good shape. Or at least this is what I believe. I have nothing to hide; you can ask my GP. He can reassure you about this. I can sign the relevant consent form whenever; even now.

The incident occurred, and it is entirely my fault; I was spontaneously distracted. I was looking at my phone while I was working.”

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Pause for 2-3 seconds.

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K(his manager) I am a manager as well of 52 employees. I am reporting to you for the past 3 years. We deal together, the three of us- you, me and OH- in complex case management, long-term absences, short-term ones, frequent absentees, conflicts, performance, near-misses and...misses etc! ?What I am sick of, is the trend and tendency of medicalizing these instead of taking ownership. Some of these cases may stem from a medical condition, indeed. Most do not. And when I realized what I had done, I knew immediately how the story would evolve step by step; & here we are. The perfect example of taking ownership of our actions without providing hilarious excuses”

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Another pause; 5 seconds approximately.

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The manager: I understand all these, thanks for explaining, you will deal with the CMO regarding the final medical outcome of this; one question from me, if I may...: why did you cc the staff rep in your email?

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The employee: “This staff rep is a known noise pollution maker. He is just causing fuss rather than helping substantially the employees whenever the human factor is evidenced and obvious. Why should we normalize medicalizing mistakes, conflicts, and underperformance instead of taking ownership of our bit? The business and OH are here for support if and whenever needed. What better means of delivering the message to the employees, the business, and the culture?”

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Throughout the whole scene, I was keeping notes, listened, and observed in a totally silent and expressionless mode.

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Other than the authenticity of the actual incident per se, the way that the employee handled his bit, was a phenomenal leadership tutorial and far beyond that. A culture challenge. I got the impression that the manager was also amazed.

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After making sure that they both had finished their short conversation, I just looked at them, triggering their nod so that I could start talking. Addressing my question to the employee: Would you like to continue our consultation with or without your manager being here with us?

No surprise; he opted for his manager to choose although he would prefer his manager to stay until the very end of the consultation.

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No matter the presence of the manager, the usual process was followed, the report was drafted in front of the employee, the report was read in front of the employee, his comments and confirmation of the facts stated in it were sought and afterwards, the employee was given the tablet to fill in the consent form.

As expected, the employee opted for seeing/receiving the report at the same time as the manager. Predictably enough, the employee asked if we could print two copies of the report; he gave one of them to the manager within seconds.

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Whether you believe it or not, this case belongs to the minority. Have a look around you. For some reason, people prefer excuses and the role of the victim and/or unfairly treated rather than taking ownership of their actions.

The employee, a manager in his contractual role, chose the pathway of exposure on purpose.

Leading by example, he took ownership of his mistake, he followed the process all the way, he brought the facts to the table- and, yes, actually there was footage in cameras showing him looking at his mobile at the same time when he was supposed to focus on his computer screen and then in the same footage fixing the mistake. No drama, no excuses, no pointing fingers, no sickness absence on grounds of work-related stress, no silly excuses about lack of support & undelivered duty of care.

As simple as that.

This chap is medically fit (mentally & physically) to move on further on the hierarchy. I leave the rest to him and the administration to discuss and agree on the way forward.

?( It went without saying that he accepted short-term adjustments these being, working supervised for a period of a month, weekly risk assessments, OH review in a month's time. )?

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