That was always the excuse but was the past about to catch up with him? You know the type their motto better to ask forgiveness than permission. Innovative and creative when it came to finding ways round the recruitment policies and financial procedures. Commanding great loyalty from their team, suspicion from their colleagues and grudging tolerance from senior management.
Even so it was a bit of a surprise to find him drawn into an investigation of serious abuse.
It started with a fall down stairs. The stairs were in a hostel for older homeless men. The man who felt was an elderly alcoholic and he subsequently died of his injuries. The question was did he fall or was he pushed? The police arrested the manager but no charges were brought. However an internal enquiry was launched revealing a long history of falls down these same stairs many resulting in hospital admissions for broken bones , cuts and bruises. All during the many years that the same manager was in post. Long serving staff would not hear a word against him pointing out that the residents were some times violent and often aggressive and that the manager had away with them that made the staff feel supported and safe. They said he was totally dedicated to his work and was often to be found on the premises on days off and rarely took any holidays. However there were those who came forward who had taken a post in the hostel only to leave after a few weeks or in some cases days and they spoke of a very strict authoritarian culture in which residents and staff lived in fear of the manager. The manager did not return from suspension and following the internal investigation the hostile was closed and staff redeployed or took voluntary redundancy.
But that was not an end to the matter questions were asked as to how much senior management knew or suspected and why hospital admissions had not rung alarm bells
and staff leaving after only a few shifts hadn’t warranted follow up. It was a classic case of senior managers being only to glad that someone was prepared to take difficult individuals no one else would have. As such the place was left alone. The rumours were ignored. Senior managers did visit but only by prearrangement and were give a guided tour by a very plausible manager. It was also the case that successive reorganisation resulted in this unit regularly having a new line manager and coming under a different senior manager. When interviewed these senior managers, non of whom were there long before moving on and up, spoke of an uneasy feeling about the place but never anything concrete to support the rumours.
The lessons for organisations, just because someone gets results does not mean you shouldn’t enquire too deeply about their methods. If the rumours persist maybe there is some substance to them.
Blair Mcpherson former director author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
