Sorry its a long one about 7 months ago my manager asked me to provide managerial cover for another manager who was on long term sick leave. I work for a housing organisation providing supported living for the elderly. I covered the role for 4 months until the permanent manager informed us she wouldn't be returning to work my line manager was then asked to recruit for the position I had been covering. I had received a lot of thanks and recognition from tenants and my line manager for my performance in the role, She even nominated me for a thank you reward from head office which I was awarded. I decided to apply for the now advertised position and informed my line manager. However her reaction was anything but encouraging and her attitude immediately changed towards me. I even toyed with the idea of withdrawing my application due to her obvious negative attitude towatds me and because I knew she would be doing the interviews. But my collegues seemed to think it was more than likely I would get the job I convinced myself I was being paranoid. I know that I interviewed well. It centered around knowledge of the schem which I now knew intimately. However when she called me 2 days later it was to tell me I had not been succesful, when I asked for some feedback she told me the successful candidate had more experience. Disapointed I put it down to experience. When it was anounced internally who had been succesful my fellow managers were shocked to learn that she had appointed her best friend to the role, and although she was an internal candidate she had never worked in that type of role.
I was shocked. But was immediately approached by a senior manager and asked to apply for another position that had just become available. The only problem was that it was still part time and I really needed a full time role. I applied anyway and was succesful. But as if to add insult to injury the line manager who had selected her best friend asked if I could continue to cover while she trained up the new recruit...I felt used but needed the money so I did it. 2 weeks later I started my shift after being away covering my own scheme and the weekend to be confronted with one of my tenants telling me she had found her son dead in our guest room she described how she had gone to the guest room to look for her son as his son had not been able to get an answer on his father's mobile. She had found the door open and her son dead on the floor. We provide an in house alarm system with hospital type pull cords so that our tenants can call for emergency assistance 24/7 the tenant described how she had attepted to get help but that the pull cord in the guest room wasn't working
I offered as much comfort as I could to this 84 year old lady ensured she was safe arranged for her gp to visit. Then opened up my emails to find an email from the new recruit which showed that she had known this pull cord wasn't working for 4 day before this mans death. We will never know if the gentleman had attempted to get help using the pull cord.
His old mum had packed up his belongings and cleaned the room. I went to the guest room asking the cleaner to accompany me to test the cord for myself and sure enough the room was clear of all personal belongings. All managers are aware that we have no right of entry when the room is occupied and to avoid inadvertent entry when the guest room is booked out we have a strict 4 point alert system to let evetyone know the room is occupied, everything from office diary entries , a guest room booking form, signage at the entrance to the scheme and on the guest room door and daily email alerts. Yet the new recruit missed all of these and entered the room to carry out the quaterly pull cord test instead of immediately leaving the room as the man wasnt in but all his belongings were she carried out the test anyway when it failed she had a dilema to follow protocol and call in a 4 hour emergency engineer would mean alerting people to the fact she had entered without permission. She called her best friend and line manager who advised her to lock up and just place a non emergency call out attendance within 20 days.
4 days later the guest suffered a coronary and died and his old mum couldnt get help without leaving him and searching for another pull cord. There was an investigation and the new recruit was suspended tgen reinstated as it was found that her manager had not trained her and had advised what action to take. However the line manager argued and won that our policy only states we should immediately raise a works order but didnt actually state 4 hrs.
I was still covering the scheme and so was there when the police arrived 2 weeks after the death and said the family of the deceased had not found the £2000 that he had told them on his mobile he had won at the races a couple of days before his death. The police asked if anyone had accessed the room and the line manager said ...no other than engineers and myself after all belongings had been removed by the family and the guest room keys returned. But this was a lie we know that her friend entered the room alone while all the mans things were there.
I left and although tried to reach out to senior managers I gave in to fear that my job woukd become untenable if local managers involved got to know I was speaking to head office. I put my faith in the coroners office investigation, the family (son a city lawyer ) and the internal investigation.
A month later nothing happened other than the inclution of ' 4hr call out' appearing on pull cord policy doc.
But today while working at another scheme I was asked by a manager from a totally different area if my suspension would affect me getting a full time scheme. When I asked why she thought I had ever been suspended she told me my line manager gad openly told a number of managers it was the 'cover ' who had unauthorised entered the guest room and failed to raise the alert.
I'm horrified please help how do i clear my name without loosing my job ?
I was shocked. But was immediately approached by a senior manager and asked to apply for another position that had just become available. The only problem was that it was still part time and I really needed a full time role. I applied anyway and was succesful. But as if to add insult to injury the line manager who had selected her best friend asked if I could continue to cover while she trained up the new recruit...I felt used but needed the money so I did it. 2 weeks later I started my shift after being away covering my own scheme and the weekend to be confronted with one of my tenants telling me she had found her son dead in our guest room she described how she had gone to the guest room to look for her son as his son had not been able to get an answer on his father's mobile. She had found the door open and her son dead on the floor. We provide an in house alarm system with hospital type pull cords so that our tenants can call for emergency assistance 24/7 the tenant described how she had attepted to get help but that the pull cord in the guest room wasn't working
I offered as much comfort as I could to this 84 year old lady ensured she was safe arranged for her gp to visit. Then opened up my emails to find an email from the new recruit which showed that she had known this pull cord wasn't working for 4 day before this mans death. We will never know if the gentleman had attempted to get help using the pull cord.
His old mum had packed up his belongings and cleaned the room. I went to the guest room asking the cleaner to accompany me to test the cord for myself and sure enough the room was clear of all personal belongings. All managers are aware that we have no right of entry when the room is occupied and to avoid inadvertent entry when the guest room is booked out we have a strict 4 point alert system to let evetyone know the room is occupied, everything from office diary entries , a guest room booking form, signage at the entrance to the scheme and on the guest room door and daily email alerts. Yet the new recruit missed all of these and entered the room to carry out the quaterly pull cord test instead of immediately leaving the room as the man wasnt in but all his belongings were she carried out the test anyway when it failed she had a dilema to follow protocol and call in a 4 hour emergency engineer would mean alerting people to the fact she had entered without permission. She called her best friend and line manager who advised her to lock up and just place a non emergency call out attendance within 20 days.
4 days later the guest suffered a coronary and died and his old mum couldnt get help without leaving him and searching for another pull cord. There was an investigation and the new recruit was suspended tgen reinstated as it was found that her manager had not trained her and had advised what action to take. However the line manager argued and won that our policy only states we should immediately raise a works order but didnt actually state 4 hrs.
I was still covering the scheme and so was there when the police arrived 2 weeks after the death and said the family of the deceased had not found the £2000 that he had told them on his mobile he had won at the races a couple of days before his death. The police asked if anyone had accessed the room and the line manager said ...no other than engineers and myself after all belongings had been removed by the family and the guest room keys returned. But this was a lie we know that her friend entered the room alone while all the mans things were there.
I left and although tried to reach out to senior managers I gave in to fear that my job woukd become untenable if local managers involved got to know I was speaking to head office. I put my faith in the coroners office investigation, the family (son a city lawyer ) and the internal investigation.
A month later nothing happened other than the inclution of ' 4hr call out' appearing on pull cord policy doc.
But today while working at another scheme I was asked by a manager from a totally different area if my suspension would affect me getting a full time scheme. When I asked why she thought I had ever been suspended she told me my line manager gad openly told a number of managers it was the 'cover ' who had unauthorised entered the guest room and failed to raise the alert.
I'm horrified please help how do i clear my name without loosing my job ?
Comment