Wwyd

I work in a small satellite office and love the idea that we are a relatively self-sufficient and synergistic team. Unfortunately, it is little more than an idea. I am the newcomer to the team, but I have more education and experience than one of the team (Bob). Bob has been with the company on and off for a few years, and until I arrived, his lack of education was supervised by another team member. He had always been willing to receive feedback and implement feedback - till I came on the team. Since then, I have witnessed some very unethical behaviours. I can cope with some of his personality idiosyncrasies (such as habitual lying so you never know if he's lying or telling the truth), but there have been unethical issues that impact the company's image as well as our service to the clients.

Bob says he has education, but if he did, they would have taught him ethical behaviours, so I honestly don't trust that he has the education. He is not registered with a governing body, so I can't report him professionally. Our supervisor is registered with the college of her profession, and she has also witnessed this behaviour. We have talked about it numerous times, and she has talked with him privately about it as well. She said he used to accept their talks about it, but now he doesn't accept it and it's getting worse. Another colleague has also seen the unethical issues and has discussed it with the owner of the company.

He is a team member and I do not want to throw him under the bus. He has some good qualities, just not for this particular field of employment. Even though some of the clients recognize his quirks, at the end of the day, most come to appreciate what he does for them (which is usually us covering his hiney). I am becoming more and more uncomfortable with the image he gives our community of this agency, and I am very uncomfortable with his actions in front of the clients.

What would you do?

Inka! Is that you?? Hugs!

You're right....anyone else would have fired him by now. Part of the problem is that men are hard to come by in this field, and company policy is that we have a man in each office due to the nature of the clients we deal with. So they are hesitant to let him go because it would be hard to replace him.

We have equal rank, but he has been there for a long time. We are non-union, so seniority is not really applicable.

There are some personality things that I find irritating like his lack of control over his temperament and his lack of emotional / social intelligence. I can handle those things because it's not a matter of ethics. But when he loses control and comes out calling a client names, that affects everyone... including presenting a certain public image of the agency itself. There are other personality things that are unethical like when he says he has done his work and weeks later I find out it's not done and have to do it so the client gets proper services. My immediate super knows everything that goes on because it's a really small satellite office, and she knows how I struggle with the ethical parts of this.

There are no ways to prove or disprove his lies. He covers them up quite well. We know he's lying because he will tell me one thing and it's different than what he tells others, or it's just too far-fetched, or there is no proof and when we ask for some, he weasels his way out of it by saying "that's not what I said" even when it is.

He compromises confidentiality by having clients call or text to his personal cell phone, and that sort of thing. My super knows all this.

I'm not sure if the big boss will look for anyone to replace him unless we stop trying to support him in improving his professionalism. But then that can be seen as throwing him under the bus, so it becomes a really fine line between loyalty to teamwork and support to throwing him under the bus knowing he will likely get fired.

Lamb, I'm a social worker and my super is a counseling psychologist. The other one says he has an education in human services, but his lack of skills and professionalism in this area makes the rest of us question this claim.

I suppose there really isn't much I can do...although in my social work code of ethics, our primary obligation is to the client's best interest. Sometimes, this colleague is not in the client's best interest, so that's the part I struggle most with.