Congruence Between JCAHO Suggested Actions and
Current Work Doctor® Services
Restore Affected Work Teams, Rehabilitate Offenders
The Joint Commission's #9 suggested action:
Conduct interventions given a commitment to the health and well-being of all staff with adequate resources to support individuals whose behavior is caused or influenced by physical or mental health pathologies.
The Joint Commission's #8 suggested action:
Interventions should be non-adversarial with the focus on building trust, placing accountability on and rehabilitating the offending individual and protecting patient safety.
Work Doctor consultants share the establishing principles of the Workplace Bullying Institute, to foster the national dialogue about abusive work environments and their impact on employee health. Contained in our definition of the phenomenon is the criterion that the inappropriate behavior be "health-harming." The scientific literature exploring the relationship between abusive supervisors and more generally abusive work environments is conclusive. Abusive mistreatment causes significant emotional damage to targeted individuals -- anxiety, depression, PTSD. A workplace culture where workers' sense of security and safety is threatened is potentially traumatizing. And witnessing co-workers can suffer vicarious trauma. This is the toxic culture addressed by The Joint Commission's leadership standard mandating a "culture of safety."
Work Doctor consultants are experts at understanding the short- and long-term effects on work teams subjected to bullying.
Restorative Intervention for Affected Work Teams
The Work Doctor, post-bullying healing and rebuilding 2-day process with affected team
members combines: (a) Discovery through private, confidential interviews of the level of
harm, (b) Identification of unresolved issues, (c) Communication tools to bolster individuals'
ability to prevent future abuse, (d) Sessions to educate the Group and to facilitate shared
experiences for healing, (e) Refocusing of Group efforts to improve and protect their
workplace, (f) Referrals to appropriate health professionals when warranted.
The person(s) targeted by the bully deserves special support and restoration. Prepaid
confidential telephone consultations with Work Doctor professionals is available. Or in-person
consultations can be coordinated with other on-site services.
The Work Doctor Respectful Conduct Clinic™ - An Intervention for Confirmed or Alleged Offenders
Often we are called in to ameliorate a crisis. An over-the-top aggressive individual has gutted
the organization's productivity and morale. Sometimes, a short-term fix is what is required.
The individual must be dealt with quickly, in advance of creating a policy. That is what the
Respectful Conduct Clinic does.
For some Clients, the Respectful Conduct Clinic intervention is requested after the new anti-
bullying Policy is in place and individuals are confirmed violators. The Namie Blueprint to
Correct and Prevent Workplace Bullying is not a zero-tolerance program. Violators deserve a
chance to comply with the new Policy. In the Clinic, typically run off-site for confidentiality and
efficacy, offenders are re-focused to subordinate, and thereby align, their personal agendas
to the needs of the organization. They are made aware of the negative consequences of their
actions.
The unique Intervention consists of: Diagnostic instrument scoring; Feedback based on
interviews with affected people and self-report data; Coaching of specific skills and
consequences; Change-Contingent Behavioral Contracting.
This is an intensive, 2-day corrective intervention by the experts, not vacation or
"communications training." Requests for this service should ideally come from an
executive authorized to compel compliance with the redirection mandate.