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Workplace public criticism

Glass_Nail

Hi,

Sorry, this is a bit long but I need to explain the context of my role. 

I'm an older man who works as a nurse for a private company. I don't work directly with patients in clinical settings any more, instead I help NHS clinicians understand the service the company provides, carry out training, deal with difficult patient issues amongst other things.

My reputation with the NHS is extremely good as I'm very honest with them in a way the company isn't. I know this from verbal feedback I get from the NHS staff.

  • I was at a meeting this week with two of my bosses, one of them the CEO, and about 16 professionals from the NHS to whom we supply our service for their patients
  • I knew the company had done a survey (for no apparent reason, it's not a contractual requirement nor did the NHS ask for it to be carried out) about my role and how I perform 
  • The presentation turned into a public cricism session because out of the tiny number of survey respondents (34) several (between 1 and 7) depending on the question, gave some negative feedback
  • The feedback was from random clinicians in my region (I'm responsible for all of Yorkshire and Humberside) and I know from the verbal feedback the key important teams in the NHS think highly or very highly of me because they tell me so, but the survey went out to other teams as well
  • I suddenly found myself sitting in front of all these people with my 'failings' in graph form on a large screen 
  •  
  • The presentation turned into a public cricism session because of the tiny number of respondents and a small number of negative responses
  • I had not been shown the slides in advance
  • I had not been told in advance there was any negative feedback in the survey
  • I had not been told my team's working practice would be changed as a result until I saw it on the presentation slides 

It was like having a work appraisal with a large audience, it was all sudden and shocking to me. They had done the same to a colleague of mine during a similar meeting via MS Teams which was bad enough but mine was a face to face meeting. He was very angry too. 

I've been engraged and deeply upset since this happened 3 days ago. I can't stop thinking about it. I feel publicly humiliated. Because of perseveration it's playing on a loop inside of my head, round and round, the humiliation and anger won't stop. I feel like a child, my emotions battering me. 

I feel that what they did was deeply unprofessional and any 'faults' with my performance should have been brought to me in private and done professionally, not as a sudden reveal in front of fellow nurses from the NHS.

Can anyone help me with the following;

Has anybody had a similar experience of employers blindsiding them in public with criticism?

Does the equality act apply here?

Does it cross the threshold of my protected traits?

Thanks 

  • Well it doesn't sound profesional.

    The issue from an equality act point of view is whether it's also discrimination. The difrent types os discrimination are set out between sections 13-27:

    • 13-14 - direct discrimination
    • 15 - Discrimination arising from disability
    • 16 - Gender reassignment discrimination: cases of absence from work
    • 17 - 18 Pregnancy and maternity discrimination
    • 19 - Indirect discrimination
    • 20 - 22 Duty to make adjustments
    • 26 Harasment
    • 27 Victimisation

    Doing a quick process of elimination 16-18 I assume are unlikely to apply. 27 is unlikely because you've not complained of it yet.

    13-14 would only apply if you had been singeled out for poor treatment directly because of a protected charicteristic.

    15 would only apply if their negative treatment of you was caused in some indirect way by your disability ... for instance if the negative feedback you recived was caused by your disability. This also requirse the people mistreating you to have prior knowledge of your disability

    19 applies to situation where there is a rule or polocy that applies people in general but that disadvantages a group with a protected charicteristic. So I guess you would have to argue that it is harder for autistic people than non autistic people to get feedback this way. Also they have a chance to justify it as nessicery (but the test for nessicery is rather strict).

    20-22 This is the go to for most work place issue with disability and works quite similarly to 19 but the tests are a bit difrent. Basicly if they have a polocy or practice that puts you at a disadvantage compared to a non disabeled person they are requred to take resonable steps to avoid the disadvantage ... resonable is based on the courts opinion. Some lawyers seem to feel the resonableness test is tougher on employers than the justifiability test but really that's case by case. They also have a 'we didn't know they were disabeled' defence.

    26 Harasment is when they 'violate your dignity', or 'creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for you.' And the act in question has to be unwanted and related to a relevant protected characteristic. The definition of 'related to' can be a little murky. For example was the critacism of you basicly them critacising your autistic trates? And if so was this resonable because there is a resonableness defence open to them.

    You might want to check out this website https://www.stammeringlaw.org.uk or the official EHRC guide https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/2021/employment-code-of-practice.docx And remember this is not legal advice. I'm just a dude on the internet directing you to resorces.

  • It does sound like your bosses performed poorly when giving you this feedback - are they officially aware of your autism? If not, you have no case but if you are then you have a stick to beat them with if you feel this will help.

    Personally I would try to reframe the experience as a "lessons learned" and be open to your management about how to improve - ask for their advice (they love that approach typically) on how you can improve now you are aware of this.

    It does sound like you were used as a sacreficial lamb here to pass all the companys blame onto so they can keep clean, but I think it worth giving them the feedback that you felt publically humiliated at not being made aware of this in advance and it has triggered your autistic anxiety and caused you immense personal distress.

    Now they should realise that they have a potential discrimination case on their hands if they are officially aware of your diagnosis to it is time to build on this.

    1 - tell them you need to understand if the criticisms are within the norms of the market and ask for a statistical breakdown of other regions and their results to the same questions. If they have not done the same questions to anywhere else then there is no baseline for what is normal so using it to judge you will have no real standing, especially if the negatives are statistically insignificant as you suggest.

    2 - ask them to explain why you were not consulted in advance before exposing this to the clients as it has harmed your professional reputation with them and made it harded to do your job.

    3 - start keeping copies of all these communications at home (eg printed) in case you need to sue them and they cut off your access to emails and files.

    4 - ask to see how you stack up against your peers for the same survey. If you are the only one being reviewed than make them know you know it was targetted as I this is another brick in the wall of your case.

    The next bit will be a bit blunt but it is important to say as it represents a big part of what the business is thinking. It is not a personal attack but a way to help you put this in the ND context that I suspect it was intended.

    You are a service provider and you had feedback that you had failings. You need to accept this, learn from it, improve and be grateful for the chance to improve. Stop making it about you and make it about the service provided as this is the companys life blood.

    It may help to work with a therapist to help shift the way you think about this sort of thing as it is going to happen in the workplace where service provision is the business.

    If there is not a rapid apology and meeting to see how THEY can improve from your bosses then I would start looking for another job as it sounds like they want you out. Keep up with building your case as it could provide a very helpful severence when you do decide to hit them with it and go to another job.

  • in reply to Bunny

    Thank you both, and thank you Bunny for the link, I'll look at that now. Knowing people out there care and understand really helps.

  • I am sorry that you had this experience. Nobody should be humiliated like that. If you were in the United States, you could file an EEOC complaint. The EEOC is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. They're basically the enforcement arm of the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

    I agree th at sharing your personal information seems highly unprofessional. 

  • I'm sorry to hear that. It sounds to me like it could amount to (potentially unintentional) workplace bullying (just my personal opinion).

    The NAS explains that forms of direct bullying include "humiliating you in front of other colleagues". 

    They further explain (along with also discussing the Equality Act):

    "However, it's important to remember that you could be bullied for reasons other than your disability; for example, because of your race or sex, or just because someone doesn't like you.

    The employer's duty of care means taking action to deal with the problem if there is bullying at work. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 employers have a duty to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees and if they do not keep to this they are in breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act."

    More information:

    NAS - Support at work - a guide for autistic people