Many of the headaches the Canberra Hospital has caused Katy Gallagher in her capacity as Health Minister (in the Stanhope government and her own) have been recurrent ones – none more concerning than workplace bullying. In 2010, the government ordered two external reviews of the hospital's obstetrics and gynaecology units amid allegations of workplace bullying and harassment. When Ms Gallagher refused to release the findings of one of those inquiries (for privacy reasons) she was accused by the ACT Liberals of trying to orchestrate a cover-up. Four years on, and Ms Gallagher is again defending her handling of bullying claims at the hospital (and in the very same units) after a review by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists alleged that a toxic culture was contributing to poor patient outcomes. Quizzed on the matter during a public accounts hearing at the ACT Assembly, Ms Gallagher declined to go into specifics, but said managing poor performance and inappropriate behaviour in a hospital workplace was difficult – a view with which few will disagree.
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Some of the behavioural issues referred to in the RANZCOG review appear to stem from the unrealistic work demands placed on registrars and the long hours they're expected to spend on wards, an issue of such long standing (and common) practice throughout Australia as to invite serious question as to why it is allowed to continue. Unequivocal links between fatigue and impaired judgment appear not to trouble a profession whose implied faith in the precept of trial by fire brooks no concessions whatever.
Extreme fatigue coupled with anxiety or feelings of being unable to cope in a high-pressure environment are not conducive to harmonious workplace relations. It's hardly surprising therefore that staff at a busy training hospital such as Canberra might exhibit some testiness from time to time. However, allegations of bullying, harassment and mismanagement are a ubiquitous feature of other ACT public service workplaces too. Indeed, workplace insurer Comcare gave evidence to Senate Estimate hearings last month that ACT government bureaucrats logged 3.6 mental health claims per 1000 workers in 2013-14, nearly double the 1.9 claims per 1000 workers in the federal bureaucracy. In the same period, private sector workers lodged just 0.4 claims per 1000 workers.
Why workers' compensation claims should be so high, comparatively speaking, in the ACT Public Service must concern senior bureaucrats as much as it does Comcare, which is struggling to contain mounting compensation costs. Bullying of one sort has been a long-standing feature of many workplaces. But it may be that the spike in claims has been driven not by an actual increase in the incidence of harassment but by increased awareness of the problem and the range of remedies now available. Cynics might observe that the mushrooming of legal firms specialising in compensation and personal injury has also have been a factor in the increase in bullying claims.
It follows that government departments and businesses workplaces should have policies and procedures in place to prevent bullying in the first place, and to review them regularly. On the evidence available, many senior managers – perhaps of the old-school, authoritarian type – have been slow to act. That said, bullying is not always understood for the nasty phenomenon that it is, and it can be difficult to identify and weed out perpetrators, particularly of the "kiss-up, kick-down" kind.
Bullying in the workplace is nearly always a signal of a weakness, whether of attitude, training, technique or experience, for which there should be no tolerance whatever. But just as bullies can disrupt a workplace and induce a collective anxiety, so poor performers can hobble team performance and erode morale. Trying to manage such people, particularly those who work in the public sector, is frequently to invite them to lodge a complaint or a grievance notice. As such, a zero tolerance approach towards bullying should not interfere unduly with the ability of managers to deal appropriately with poor performers. More than anyone, tribunal members adjudicating bullying claims need to be mindful of this.
