WORKING WITH A SOCIAL WORKER
WHO DISPLAYS CHANGE RESISTANT
UNPROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Jo Parkinson – Senior Social Worker
St John of God Hospital
Bunbury, Western Australia
City Hospital
• Behaviour
• Organisational concept of professional behaviour
• Conflict resolution
• Approach to personal challenges
• Structure of supervision
• Style of supervision
• Substance of supervision
• Modelling
• Learning / Outcome
Is the social worker resistant
to change
OR
resistant to
the supervisor’s approach?
What do we model?
“I found one day in school a boy of
medium size ill-treating a smaller
boy. I expostulated, but he replied:
‘The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies;
that’s fair.’”
Bertrand Russell - Education and the School Order
SJOG Bunbury Hospital
• Behaviour
• Organisational concept of professional behaviour
• Conflict resolution
• Approach to personal challenges
• Structure of supervision
• Style of supervision
• Substance of supervision
• Modelling
• Learning / Outcome
Professional approach to conflict
• Patience - ‘anger and fear will not work, be mindful and
•
•
•
•
•
patient and a solution will arise’
Tolerance - ‘see the positive traits alongside the difficult
traits in each person’
Confidentiality - ‘universality and impartiality - fair and
even-handed’
Non-aggressive confrontation
Openness to criticism
Curiousity
As taught and modelled by Karen
“If we all threw our
problems in a pile and saw
everyone else’s,
we’d grab ours back”
Regina Brett
Yes, but we can’t tell your clients that.
• Stay home / Take leave
• Go to work with measures in place
• Learn how to work professionally
despite personal stressors
• Do whatever else it takes
Supervision with Deb
• Assessed my baseline
• Jointly set goals
• Assessed my learning style
• Personal Practice Model
• Personal Mission Statement
• Journalling
“you can reflect and
reflect until the cows
come home, but what we
need is behavioural
change!”
MVB Tool
• Record the interaction
• Attach a colour to the interaction
• If the colour is not yellow, stop
• Ascertain how to return to yellow
• Devise strategies
• THINK
• Do I have all the information?
• If not, adopt a curious stance
• If I do, think and plan prior to taking action
Lisa - Psychologist
• A feeling I don’t know what to do with
turns into an action that is unhelpful
• Lack of trust in other professionals
• Black and white thinking
• Willingness to change
Learning / Outcomes
• Find patterns in behaviour / situations
• Risk factors
• Conflict resolution
• Language
• Pre-empting consequences of actions
• Creating space to think
• Micro-macro levels
• Re-framing
• Compassion fatigue / Burnout / Vicarious trauma
• Identify issues, seek support, develop a plan
• Clearer boundaries
• Clearer identity
WORKING WITH A SOCIAL WORKER WHO DISPLAYS
CHANGE RESISTANT UNPROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Jo Parkinson
I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, and elders past and present
of the Bunurong people whose land we stand on.
This is not an academic presentation, in the sense that I have not come up with
a hypothesis, collected data, analysed it and written it up. I should also
mention that in my abstract I said I would approach this task in an
auto-ethnographic way. I’m not sure whether I have achieved that. Truth
be told, I am your regular garden variety social worker with a story to tell about
supervision. I work hard, am passionate about my profession and committed
to providing a quality service to clients. I occasionally display unprofessional
behaviours and have recently discovered people who have provided excellent
quality supervision that facilitated behavioural change.
My intention is that some of this presentation will help you and/or those you
supervise to address challenging behaviours in appropriate, ethical and useful
ways. I hope that you are already doing this well, in which case, this
presentation will reinforce your work. If you recognise aspects of your own
approach when I speak about my idea of ‘poor’ supervision, I encourage you to
read, to utilise your own supervision and find good mentors.
Prior to graduating from university, I spent over 10 years working in a large
government department. Supervision centred on an annual performance
appraisal and being told off when we were naughty. It was a large
organisation, so every few years when I didn’t like my job, colleagues or
manager, I just moved to a different office. It was a relief to leave that job
and begin my first social work position as a medical social worker at a large City
hospital in 2004. I worked at this hospital for 5 years.
I was eager to learn, yet felt anxiety around being in a new job, new career and
worried I would be ‘incompetent’. I felt as though there was a neon sign on
my head that said; ‘she doesn’t have a clue what she’s doing’, so I largely
overcompensated by pretending that I did. I was searching for a professional
social work identity that would fit me and seeking support to this end. Some
of the senior social workers that I worked with provided excellent lessons in
how NOT to supervise a social worker.
July 2013. Jo Parkinson, Senior Social Worker, St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia
Behaviour
My behaviour was good most of the time, occasionally though, it was lacking.
Sometimes I spoke rudely to others, behaved in a bossy way, said things that
were inappropriate and sometimes I bullied others. These behaviours were
normally evident in interactions with colleagues when I was feeling anxious,
stressed, threatened or overwhelmed. I had a few supervisors, some were
great, others less so.
Organisational concept of professional behaviour
In my opinion, much of the professional behaviour expected in this workplace
centred on the Social Work Department’s maintenance of its reputation and
standing in the hierarchical structure of the hospital. Professional behaviour
was often conveyed by an unwritten ‘do as I say, not as I do’ policy.
Micromanaging was rampant and fear was a normal response. Letters that
were to be sent outside the department might be checked 6 to 8 times to
ensure they were acceptable before they were posted.
Conflict resolution
Conflict was often addressed according to the ‘culture’ of the department and
the personality of the supervisor, rather than according to the principles of
natural justice or with reference to the AASW Code of Ethics. There appeared
to be a lack of trust in junior staff, until they had proven themselves capable of
‘fitting the mould‘. There was little confidentiality in conflict resolution, senior
staff were believed to share details with one another and the department head
about staff short-comings. Decision-making was not often transparent and
could be at the whim of the decision-maker. Staff did not always have
confidence that decisions and processes were fair and equitable.
Approach to personal challenges
Some staff shared with colleagues and senior staff when they had challenges in
their personal lives, but others were afraid of the possible consequences of
honesty. At one point, I remember realising that I knew about 8 staff
members with mental health diagnosis. 5 of those shared with me that they
did not share this information with their manager, as they feared discrimination
and felt their career and reputation would be negatively affected. There were
fears that health issues and personal circumstances at the time of recruitment
could impact the outcome of a selection process. There seemed to be lack of
trust by some staff that their personal information would remain confidential.
Structure of supervision
I don’t recall much agenda setting. Minutes, if written, were often written by
the supervisor. I challenged this once with a supervisor and for a while we
took turns writing the minutes, the other party checking it for accuracy.
Supervision content could be a surprise, until a topic was raised for discussion.
Generally supervision would commence with areas for development as decided
by the supervisor. There appeared to be little preparation. It was
supervision ’on’ rather than ’with’ me.
July 2013. Jo Parkinson, Senior Social Worker, St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia
Style of supervision
I recall this as a ‘deficits-based’ style of supervision focused on individual flaws.
I often felt like a naughty child. I felt threatened and under attack. I
consistently held a defensive position and used different tactics to endeavor to
weasel my way out of getting into trouble. I rarely was praised for what I was
doing well. The supervisor didn’t appear to have a commitment to provision of
quality supervision. She didn’t often suggest solutions or encourage me in a
particular direction.
Substance of supervision
My recollection of supervision was that it was rarely linked to theory or best
practice. There was less of a big picture concept and more of a focus on me
as an individual. I was appraised out of context from the system or structures
I was working in. At the worst moment, without warning or permission, my
senior social worker requested about 20 of my colleagues to comment in
writing on my performance. She called it a ‘performance appraisal’. It was
the most demeaning experience. I was completely humiliated. The head of
department, also a social worker, validated her right to behave in this way. I
called my Union Rep. I took a week sick leave. Within 6 months I resigned.
Modelling
My supervisor wasn’t capable of modelling what I believed was ‘a good social
worker’. I’m not sure that her supervisor was modelling excellent social work
practice either. I wanted to change, but I didn’t know how and she didn’t
appear to know how to teach me. She seemed consistently frustrated with
me. What my senior and the department head did achieve was to model
exactly how I could damage another young social worker. Unfortunately, I
did. We most often supervise as we have been supervised.
Learning / Outcome
Tim Muirhead speaks about the concept of ‘Spirit’ in his community
development work. He stresses the vital importance of nurturing Spirit and
the tragedy of breaking Spirit. I really connect with that concept. My Spirit
felt broken. I don’t think I learned much except that I was useless. I felt as
though I had been labelled ‘too hard to supervise’ or ‘change-resistant’.
While I have been critical of staff at my previous workplace, my experience and
view is not the whole story. My view of my experience is biased and my
memory is selective.
I was very hard to supervise because of my
well-developed defense mechanisms against personal criticism. There were
social workers, seniors, managers and subordinates who had and still have
supportive, nurturing relationships at that workplace. But, today, I’ve got the
microphone! This is my story and I will tell it as I saw it.
In August 2009 after I resigned, I moved to Busselton, 2 ½ hours south of
Perth by the ocean. I picked up a maternity leave contract as a school
counsellor before being employed in April 2010 as a senior social worker at St
John of God Hospital in Bunbury. This is where my journey of healing and the
development of a professional self I could be more proud of began. It’s not
finished, but I really feel as though I’m headed in the right direction.
July 2013. Jo Parkinson, Senior Social Worker, St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia
My New Team
Firstly - I want you to meet Karen - the Nurse
Secondly - I’ll introduce Deb - the Social Worker &
Thirdly - I will tell you about Lisa - the Psychologist
Karen: Director of Nursing, St John of God, Bunbury. My Line Manager.
Karen is an exceptional manager and my role model in terms of how I want to
conduct myself as a professional. She has great boundaries. Her thinking,
particularly with complex cases, is thoughtful and clear. She remains calm in
every storm. She demonstrates fairness, transparency and accountability.
She trusts her employees to do their jobs and wouldn’t know micromanaging if
it slapped her in the face. Karen models excellent self-care and has an open
door policy. Karen has integrity.
Deb: External Social Work Supervisor.
As I don’t have a social work supervisor in the workplace, my employer
provides me with a supervisor. Deb is a Social Work Academic / Practitioner.
She sees the big picture. She’s clever at things like policy and writing
university courses. She is intelligent and has a different thinking style to me.
Deb can see structural and political issues. She’s always got some journal
article up her sleeve and prepares for our supervision sessions thoughtfully and
reflects on them afterward. Deb is utterly ethical and boundaried. She is
committed in everything she does. Deb has strength of character.
Lisa: Counselling Psychologist.
I met Lisa when she provided de-briefing sessions to a team at work. Later, I
saw her individually when she provided services to me under the hospital’s
Employee Assistance Program. Lisa really hears me. She challenges my
beliefs about a situation in the strongest but gentlest of ways. She knows just
when to pull out a ‘tool’ or ‘theory’. I’ve had some incredible ‘light bulb’
moments in Lisa’s office. Lisa has helped me immensely to separate my
personal and professional identities.
July 2013. Jo Parkinson, Senior Social Worker, St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia
Behaviour
In my new job, issues with my professional behaviour started cropping up very
occasionally, then in a cluster of 3 complaints about 12 months into the role.
The issues were almost identical to my previous workplace. I was speaking to
people in rude and bossy ways. It wasn’t all the time, these behaviours could
be absent completely for 6 months. Again, they were most evident in
interactions when I was feeling anxious, stressed, threatened or overwhelmed.
With




my supervisors, we identified themes:
Lack of professional confidence
Identity crisis. What does a good social worker look like?
Lack of trust in other professionals
Allowing personal issues to affect my professional behaviour
We also acknowledged my strengths:
 Ability to reflect
 Commitment to professional development
 Openness to criticism
My manager’s response to the behaviour was:
 mmediate
 Trusting (of me & other professionals)
 Serious
 Kind & respectful
 Clear ‘I understand how this could have happened, but it can’t happen
again.’
 Ongoing (checking back in with me and creating safety)
July 2013. Jo Parkinson, Senior Social Worker, St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia
Organisational concept of professional behaviour
Senior staff at St John of God, Bunbury are expected to model the behaviour
they wanted to see in their staff. Professional behaviour is intrinsically linked
to the mission and values of the organisation: Hospitality, Compassion,
Respect, Justice, Excellence. Professional behaviour centres on the right way
to treat people according to the organisation’s values. The mission and values
embedded in the organisation are similar to and complement the AASW code of
ethics.
Conflict resolution
Karen taught and modelled appropriate professional conflict resolution to me.
She also wrote some semi-formal notes in 2010, for managers, on managing
‘difficult’ behaviour in the workplace:
 Patience - ‘anger and fear will not work, be mindful and patient and a
solution will arise’
 Tolerance - ‘see the positive traits alongside the difficult traits in each
person’
 Confidentiality - ‘universality and impartiality - fair and even-handed’
 Non-aggressive confrontation
 Openness to criticism
One of Karen’s favourite words is curiousity. She encouraged me each time I
was involved in a challenging, important or unusual interaction to ‘develop a
curious stance’.
Approach to personal challenges
Challenges in our personal lives happen to everyone and I‘ve had some huge
ones over the last few years. I like this quote by Regina Brett:
“If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s,
we’d grab ours back”
July 2013. Jo Parkinson, Senior Social Worker, St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia
Another HUGE light-bulb moment I had with Karen was about how my personal
issues affected interactions with clients. Karen and I discussed a complaint
from a client’s family member about the way I spoke to them on the phone. I
stated, ‘but in February this traumatic event occurred and then in March, this
other awful thing happened in my life.’ They were very significant and Karen
had been supportive. In the most respectful way, Karen said:
“Yes, but we can’t tell your clients that”
All of a sudden it was clear. I acknowledged and accepted responsibility to
protect my clients and colleagues from being affected by my personal dramas.
I chose some strategies for when life spills over into work. I utilised some
journalling and supervision and came up with some options.
1) Stay home
2) Go to work, but with measures in place
3) Learn how to work professionally despite personal events - this is the one
that I want to gain more skills in. I think it’s linked to emotional intelligence.
AND
4) Do whatever else it takes - see a GP, counsellor, go to bed at 8pm every
night, take a holiday, self-care, self-care, self-care.
Structure of supervision
Supervision was both formal and informal. Formal supervision sessions with
Deb included shared agreement of an agenda. The agenda would normally
carry over items still current and include new areas to discuss or explore. We
would arrange it via email prior to the session. Deb also kept minutes, which
enabled us to keep track, identify issues and patterns, as well as keep us
accountable. We were both absolutely committed to the work of supervision.
Supervision was work for us. My organisation was paying Deb and we used our
time well. Deb came prepared. Often she provided me with reading / journal
articles. Deb is committed to her own professional development and tries to
keep abreast of literature. She researched things she thought were relevant to
me.
July 2013. Jo Parkinson, Senior Social Worker, St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia
Style of supervision
The foundations for the way I would be supervised were laid from day one.
Karen and Deb display attributes which make them easy to trust and respect.
They consistently demonstrate kindness and empathy. They have experience
in supervision with more than one strategy. They consistently model
appropriate professional behaviour. They control their emotions. Karen had
an open-door approach to supervision combined with monthly formal sessions.
The first year, I approached Karen for advice regularly. Not once was I made
to feel like a nuisance. I felt valued. Karen would always check in with how I
was feeling, how was my weekend? Deb would also check in with me. How
am I doing? They were nurturing my Spirit and helping me to heal.
Substance of supervision
Deb and I met monthly, 2 monthly or as required. We also kept in contact by
email. In the first year of external supervision, Deb and I:
 Assessed my baseline. We agreed that I lacked professional confidence.
I struggled with my professional identity.
 Jointly set goals. We re-visited, reviewed and adjusted them.
 Assessed my learning style. It is important to know how the person you
are supervising learns best, especially when there is a crisis.
 Personal Practice Model (PPM). I was new to the concept of a PPM, and
would be interested to continue to develop this throughout my career in
some form.
 Personal Mission Statement. I had expressed an interest in the area of
burnout and compassion fatigue. Deb then sourced and had me
complete my personal mission statement which comes out of this area.
 Journalling.
July 2013. Jo Parkinson, Senior Social Worker, St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia
Modelling
Deb, Karen and Lisa all consistently modelled outstanding professional
behaviour which gave credibility and substance to their words. It also
provided me with direction. It will be easier to continually work towards my
ideal professional identity when I have observed it in others.
MVB - Mood Voice Behaviour
When I contacted Deb to tell her about the complaints, she didn’t let on how
concerned she was. There was no way, on her watch, that someone she was
supervising would lose their job. She conveyed urgency and a commitment to
help. She drew on all the work we had already done, Personal Practice Model,
Goals, Learning Style, Personal Mission Statement. At this point, as I reflected
on events Deb said:
“You can reflect and reflect until the cows come home…
but what we need is behavioural change!”
That really resonated with me. OF COURSE! Reflection is great – but can
you please help me to change my behaviour? I felt some fear about whether I
was up to the task. I made a commitment to try. The conditions were
perfect, if it was ever going to happen, I was ready.
The MVB tool
Deb brought me some coloured pencils and paper. She had ascertained that I
was a visual learner. She told me to draw a diagram, a sphere, on one page
that was to become my ‘tool’. Deb wanted me to incorporate the ideas I’d
been looking into around Burnout and Compassion Fatigue. In the centre, she
wanted me to show what excellent professional practice looked like. We had
identified that my mood, tone of voice and behaviour were my main issues.
Deb explained this tool would help me locate when my mood, voice and
behaviour were changing. The intention was that a tool could monitor small
changes. Deb named it the MVB tool. I kept wanting to change the name to
something sexier, but it stuck.
I am a traveller and citizen of the world, so I drew a map of the world. I
labelled the equator ‘appropriate professional behaviour’ and coloured it in
Yellow. I created the North Pole as a hot place, with hot words and it was
Red. Between the Equator and North Pole was the ‘Tropic of Over
involvement’ and colour Orange. South of the Equator were colder colours of
Purple and Blue heading through the ‘Tropic of Compassion Fatigue’ to the
South Pole? Around the diagram, I wrote words that described some of my
feelings and behaviours. It was totally personal, and I think each person
would have to design their own tool for it to have meaning and be effective.
I recorded every interaction with a client or colleague in 15 minute increments.
I allocated a colour to every 15 minute block immediately afterward to reflect
my mood, voice, behaviour during the interaction.
I reflected in writing how the process was going, what I noticed, whether I
could identify any risk factors associated with a shift out of yellow. I paid
attention to anything that helped move me back into yellow. Something that
July 2013. Jo Parkinson, Senior Social Worker, St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia
was confidence boosting was the visual realisation that most of the time; I was
working in the appropriate professional ‘yellow’ zone. It was good to have
that affirmed and helped with how I viewed my identity.
To further explore the kinds of mood, voice and behaviour linked to less than
professional behaviour, I searched for different words that could describe my
mood, my voice and behaviour when I was Yellow, Red and Blue.
I wrote it up for Karen in the format of ‘Learning Goals, Objectives & Strategies’
so I could demonstrate exactly what I was doing about the issues and how.
She could have confidence that I was committed and see what I was working
towards.
I used a journal to reflect on the process of using the MVB tool.
insights from using a journal.
I gained many
I had developed a way of using the tool.
1. Record the interaction
2. Attach a colour to the interaction
3. If the colour is not yellow - STOP
4. Ascertain what I could do to return to Yellow prior to seeing another
client, attending the next meeting or talking to a colleague
5. Devised strategies to create space to return to Yellow
6. THINK - do I have all the information? If not, adopt a curious stance.
If I do, think and plan prior to taking action.
July 2013. Jo Parkinson, Senior Social Worker, St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia
Lisa, the Counselling Psychologist
I saw Lisa fairly regularly. We worked on the emotions linked to poorer
interactions with others. With some work, we identified that a feeling that I
don’t know what to do with turns into an action that is unhelpful. I
was to address the feeling first … helplessness, frustration, anxiety, concern,
overwhelmed… to try to prevent an unhelpful action.
Lisa was effective in taking me out of the space that said ‘an interaction went
badly because I’m a hopeless social worker’ into a space that was kinder to me
and more accurate. For example, ‘I’m feeling anxiety because I’m really
worried about this client’. ‘As I don’t know what to do with my anxiety - it
turns into frustration directed at another person’. There was a huge shift in
my language and beliefs about my motivations.
Lisa and I were also exploring the issue Karen and Deb had identified around a
lack of trust in other professionals. We identified that it was a defensive
position I was taking, and the reasons behind that. We worked on checking
into what comes before the defensiveness, checking into that feeling and
working with it before it was able to manifest as a lack of trust in others.
We also worked on black and white thinking and explored the shades of
grey in clients, colleagues and myself. My view was that I was either a good
social worker or a bad social worker. I could view colleagues as either
competent or incompetent. Clients I was gentler with, but it was interesting to
work on this concept in respect to clients with deplorable behaviours and
difficult personalities. Discovering that people are multi-faceted and exploring
that in some depth has assisted my development.
Lisa and I looked at some other areas and I had some real light bulb moments
with her. On one occasion, I realised I had been holding a grudge against a
colleague for about a year. I said that I was ready to move on from this and
asked for support. Lisa had me complete a ‘Willingness to Change’ form and I
decided what I needed to do. I chose an ‘act of service’ as a symbol of peace
and goodwill. It helped immensely.
July 2013. Jo Parkinson, Senior Social Worker, St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia
Learning / Outcomes
 Look for patterns in behaviour / situations
 Risk factors
 Conflict resolution
 Language
 Pre-empting consequences of actions
 Creating space to think
 Micro - macro levels
 Re-framing / different angles i.e. best practice, not personal
 Compassion Fatigue vs. Burnout vs. Vicarious Trauma
 Identifying issues, seeking support, developing a plan
 Clearer boundaries
 Improved emotional intelligence
 Clearer identity
 Looked at anxiety as an issue
The learning that I gained is slowly being played out in practice. At the start
of this year, on a few occasions I modelled to others the ways of working that
Karen, Deb and Lisa have modelled to me. Not consistently yet, but it is
obvious that in some areas I am moving from student toward trainee teacher.
I recognise that many social workers do not have the luxury of the best team.
Or any team. Or any supervision. So what can you do? Find mentors
wherever they may be. Read anything that might help you. Journal.
Research best practice. Be vigilant with your self-care and boundaries. Fight
for quality supervision.
My team has recently evaporated. Lisa is on maternity leave and Karen has
moved back to Perth. I have resigned and in 3 weeks start a new job where
Deb will no longer be my supervisor. However, what an honour, at this point
in my career as a social worker, to have had such incredibly strong, beautiful
women of integrity to teach me how to fly with my own wings.
July 2013. Jo Parkinson, Senior Social Worker, St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia
Special thanks to those who have read, commented, contributed to and edited
this presentation. Bruce Maguire and Deb for your help with the abstract.
Deb, Karen, Kirsty Armstrong, Michael Berry, Julie Pascall - anyone else I’ve
forgotten - for your feedback and support with the paper.
Thank you to St John of God Healthcare, Bunbury for practicing what you
preach. For providing the environment and context that has been loving,
nurturing and supportive of my development as a person and a professional.
Most especially, from the bottom of my heart, thanks to Karen Gullick, Deborah
O’Sullivan and Lisa Palmer for your guidance, kindness and support over the
past 3 years. When I grow up, I hope to be more like you.
July 2013. Jo Parkinson, Senior Social Worker, St John of God Hospital, Bunbury, Western Australia