Our staff are expected to treat individuals with
courtesy, respect and fairness. Similarly, we expect our staff to be treated in
the same way. We have a duty to protect the welfare and safety of staff. Where
individuals behave unacceptably or unreasonably, we will refer to this policy.
Unacceptable
behaviour
We understand that people may act out of character
in times of distress or due to frustration. However if that frustration becomes
aggression or abuse towards our staff, we won’t accept that.
Our staff have the right to undertake their work
free from aggression or abuse and we expect them to be treated with courtesy
and respect. Aggressive or abusive behavior may include:
- threats
of physical harm or actual physical harm
- behaviour
or language (verbal or written) that may cause staff to feel offended, afraid,
threatened or abused
- insulting
or degrading language
- personal
grudges toward certain staff
- making
serious allegations against staff without any evidence
We may also decide that comments aimed not at us
but at third parties are unacceptable because of the effect that listening to
or reading them may have on our staff.
Examples of unacceptable behaviour
- threats, verbal abuse, shouting, obscene / derogatory remarks
and rudeness
- racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, disablist comments,
or other harassment based on personal characteristics
- repeatedly demanding disciplinary action be taken against
staff
- recording meetings or telephone conversations without consent
Unreasonable demands
A demand may be unreasonable if handling it could
take up an excessive amount of staff time. As a publicly funded organisation,
with limited resource to respond, this could stop other complaints from being
handled in time.
We may decide a demand is unreasonable if, for
example, you:
- demand
responses within an unreasonable timescale
- insist
on seeing or speaking to someone more senior or a particular member of
staff when that is not possible
- keep
changing what your complaint is about
- keep
raising new or unrelated concerns
Examples of unreasonable demands
- demanding a response from the CEO or a senior manager and
refusing to speak to anyone more junior
- demanding that nobody who is male / female deals with your
complaint
- demanding to speak to someone on the same day when that person
isn’t available
- demanding an immediate call back from a manager
Unreasonable frequency or duration of contact
The number of times you contact us, or the duration
of each contact, can cause problems for our staff.
The level of contact may become unacceptable when the
amount of time spent talking to an individual on the telephone, or responding
to, reviewing and filing emails or written correspondence, means we struggle to
deal with that complaint, or with other people’s complaints.
Examples of unreasonable levels of contact
- making a lot of calls in one day
- frequent emails about the same issue or repeatedly sending us
emails with large amounts of information attached that is not needed when
a matter is closed
- sending in new complaints before we have had an opportunity to
address earlier complaints
- repeatedly asking us to look at the same issue when we have
already addressed it through this process or another
- repeatedly making very long calls to us
How we manage unacceptable and unreasonable behaviour
If we feel behaviour is unacceptable or
unreasonable, we may take any of the following actions:
- restrict
or end contact on the matter
- restrict
contact on all matters
- ask
that all future contact is made through a third party advocate
- end
contact entirely for a period of time
- report
incidents to the police (for example, if violence has been threatened)
- take
any other action that we consider appropriate (in extreme cases, this may
include blocking calls and returning correspondence)
Where staff are considering the above or have had
to take immediate action (for example, end a phone call), they should discuss
this with their manager and / or Corporate Law and Governance. Corporate Law
and Governance will then consider with staff which action is appropriate (if
any). We will let the individual know about the action we are taking and the
reason for it. This may include how long restrictions will be in place.
In making our decision, we may consider:
- how
it affects our staff
- how
it affects the individual (including their personal circumstances and any
reasonable adjustments)
- the
extent to which we are able to engage or assist
- the
extent to which the process or subject matter has been exhausted
This process may be reconsidered by us if the
individual commits to behaving with courtesy, respect and fairness and:
- some
time has passed
- there
is a more suitable alternative available
- we
receive evidence that there were exceptional reasons for the behaviour