Wednesday 20 September 2017

Dysfunctional NHS managers with narcissistic or psychopathic personality disorders

A contact recently sent me an article about people with narcissistic personality disorders.  If you enter those words into your search engine, several articles will appear giving the same information.  Most of it is copyright.  It was new information to me. 

There is some work on the difference between psychopaths and narcissists on line too.  One writer says not to worry about the label, just avoid becoming a victim.  That is all very well in personal relationships if you can get away from them, but very different if you have to work with them. 

Signs of serious problems will be the number of staff who leave.  Another sign is the number of staff who are being suspended, a very effective way of destroying an innocent person who dares to complain.  My strong advice in those situations is to leave.  If you read the stories on the www.suspension-nhs.org  website and see what power and harm these people can do, you will understand why I write that.

Why do organisations fail to recognise this obvious sign and continue to support the perpetrator, unless of course the whole culture is one of bullying by the management team including the person at the helm, the chief executive?

If you are or have suffered at the hands of a malfunctioning manager/team leader/ work colleague, who is unbelievably bullying and manipulative the information is very relevant.  The signs of these disorders are very clear by the way they behave.  For example, they never apologise and never take responsibility for their actions.  It will be yours or someone else’s fault.  

They lack empathy.  They really don’t care.  For narcissists, the theory is that the person is deeply hurt from childhood and cannot face dealing with the hurt.  For the psychopath, there is no obvious reason why they lack emotional intelligence. 

I feel sad for these people.  Treatment is not easy or obvious and if they don’t realise they have a problem, then the future looks bleak.

I feel alarm for their victims because the perpetrators are so powerful within the structures of the NHS due to the absence of accountability, the anonymity of the people working in the organisations and the perpetual culture of blame that encourages this type of behaviour. And the Department of Health has too many problems to deal with this one even if it wanted to it seems inspite of the huge costs.  How will it ever change?

If you have any ideas please email me at enquiries@suspension-nhs.org Thank you
Julie  

9 comments:

  1. my soon to be ex wife has been this way with me for 10yrs and is currently destroying my only chance of fatherhood with my 2 young girls. she has worked fulltime in nhs since their birth while i spent my wkends holding the babies. which i actually enjoyed on reflection. now im the evil 1 and things from the past are being dug up to dis credit my husbandry and fathering, all the while she has hooked up with the local gangster whome she once despised. im awaiting her reply from solicitors letter regarding the stabilty of my girls and why she uses them to up set me. its creepy how she behaves nowadays, and only hope her act will be seen through and not believed.

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  2. I worked in senior management in the NHS and its worth noting that NPD are more evident among Drs and consultants. Someone with a personality disorder likes money, power and status. Consultants are paid more than most managers and get more status. They also love the shroud of respectability it gives them. Shipley managed to become the biggest serial killer ever in Europe, and the narcisstic NHS culture (where people close ranks) protected him. It was a privately owned funeral parlour that raised the alarm. Jimmy Savil also parked his caravan at an NHS trust and willing NHS staff would stand guard on the door whilst he met kids alone.

    This narcissistic way of closing shop ensures no one need apologise and hence nothing needs to change. The NHS still insists on using fax machines, as they are shared and hence there’s no accountability. Also the Consultants were so demanding and difficult about giving internet access to patients to they can see their own records, that many millions were wasted before it became apparent, Drs wouldn’t even allow that. Reason being, is if a mistake happens, they like to re-write records or just lose them. a NPD will avoid accountability at all cost, consider Trump and his attitude to facts and evidence.

    On a positive, a psychopath has no empathy or fear. Hence this makes them excellent surgeons, with their steady hands. Also people with a personality disorder tend to be hard working and as they have no empathy, don’t burn out in the same way. Handy if you work in A&E but not good for bed side manner (important with mental health). The NHS is well aware of all this hence why in the 70’s Lord Sainsbury’s report brought in Army managers to deal with these difficult psychopaths and NPD. Plenty of people with the warrior gene in the Army, only the NHS consultants are highly intelligent and ran circles around these new managers, and all managers since then. If you can’t sack them and they are paid more and have the world biggest union behind them (1.2 work in the NHS), how do you get a consultant who perceives themselves to be god like and above all, to do as they are told? Foundation Hospitals were absolutely the way, give people the option to reward and discipline based on someone’s performance, but guess what, the consultants went hell for leather to stop that. NHS managers are just there (on lower salaries) to take the blame, a NPD needs someone else to project blame onto. I much prefer management outside the NHS, easier and pays more and most importantly, you get rewarded and penalised for the work you do. The good managers and nurses move to private industry eventually for the aforementioned reasons. Shit floats in the NHS. Support Foundation Hospitals.

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  3. Why cant the Nhs scum who work there be kicked out? Its so difficult. You have to have solid evidence or you havent a chance in hell. So many hoops to get through. What pisses me off is HR and the Union are best pals with management.

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  4. Wow all I can say is I wish I had never left my previous job and joined the NHS! BIGGEST MISTAKE. MANAGERS ARE SOULD DESTROYING! Pure micromanagment of our department making staff feel undermined and unworthy. On my third day I witnessed serious bullying from the "manager" to another colleague it made me feel so uneasy. The department I'm in has a vast staff turnaround due to the office culture and overbearing management style. I honestly cannot work out what our managers duties are other than trying to control the whole teams every movement and complain for the most petty things that do not affect your work at all! Not one person in my team has anything good to say about our manager and people have filed complaints before but nothing has been done. It's pretty obvious managers/HR STICK TOGETHER!!! hostile working environment, it's such a shame because the job itself and other colleagues are fantastic! But management will make your life miserable and strip you off all your self esteem! Looking myself to get OUT ASAP! Corruption in management needs to end as it's pushing good hard working people out!!

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    Replies
    1. Such absolute truth. Managers/Directors and HR will stick together regardless of truth.

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  5. All still so true in 2021. I'm a Team Leader being beaten to a pulp as part of my weakly supervision routine. My manager will say black is white - we are at that point. There is nothing I can do about it.

    He will lie in front of other staff and no one will raise the issue further because there is no support further up in the trust to deal with him. Even with witnesses we have no support outside of our dept.

    We are in a working hell.

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  7. After 10 years in NHS administration, I have done nothing but witness these narcisisstic types, honestly they might as well put 'apathy' in the person specification. I could write an entire book! I have only been able to move from band 3 -4 and it only happened because the manager at the time actually listened and cared and was able to put his fragility and insecurities aside. Unfortunately he's been the only one i've had, he left london in the end, a classic example of good workers leaving due to instititutional discrimination and predjudice and bullying culture of the NHS management.

    Now imagine that I had direct proof of my bullying in line of the very soul-destroying experiences this article mentions: gaslighting, omittance, goal post moving, glass/concrete ceiling just to gain some skills as this post was de-skilling me. This was recorded during my appraisal which I thought appropriate as it is personally and professionally about my role and gives opportunity to address and manage expectations and goals I managed to record this and showed the evidence privately to a deputy chief nurse (my senior manager), you know what he did? He specified that I'm not allowed to record conversations, its in the work policy and therefore I cannot provide as proof. When I asked him where this was, there was no direct answer. I asked him how am I supposed to provide proof of bullying if the organisation doesn't allow it at all!? He has now left to go back home to his country in the midst of the pandemic. I find those that have managed to stay in management the longest in the NHS inherently display narcissistic/psychopathic tendencies and I've noticed they seem to be from a certain generation above mine. I have been trained in psychotherapy to recognise what is being presented: personality disorders and stifling attitude towards progessive and diversive attitudes.

    Moving around in the NHS is impossible if you do not know anyone with hirinig power. Since my degree of psychotherapy in 2019, I've tried to transition from admin role to another sector role such as mental health practiioner or health and wellbeing advisor, instead I've ended up with panic attacks, burnout, disabled with no NHS Career progession to show for it. It's one of hardest things to do in NHS, especially if you are a woman of colour, they do not want you to move at all. My degree combines with my work experience in an IAPT service and they did nothing to support me, i had to beg for a year in order to drop my hours. You have to do the courses they choose, join the accreditors of whomever management is bias towards (credentialism) otehrwise they do not support you. You have to do it all on your own unless you know someone with hiring power. In the NHS you only get a career dependant on who you know and what race you belong to. The NHS high level management spaces are predominately occupied by employers of white and asian background whether british or non british, mostly men of course and just about women.

    I've decided I no longer want to be a victim after 10 years have gotten me nowhere, it's time to leave the NHS and go where my skills, character, heritage and background can be appreciated and not tolerated only because no one else wanted the job. I will not miss the micromanagement, the constant power struggle where I am not even thinking of power just what's fair and just. I will not miss the consistent lack of accountability and most of all lack of empathy towards black employers. I will not miss management abusing their power demonstrating their spending power and difference in salaries, where their greatest stresses in life amount to where they are going on holiday for the 2nd time this year. I just can't with the NHS anymore, fed up of being overskilled and underused.

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