From 2006 through 2012, Smith worked for Mayo’s Cancer Clinical Research Office without complaint. Smith began as a Data Clerk in 2006, became a Risk Protocol Specialist in 2008, and then a Document Control Specialist. Throughout her employment she received satisfactory performance reviews. In mid-2012, Nicole Knutson informed Smith that her position was being eliminated and that she would have to start looking for a new job. When Smith contacted human resources at Mayo, however, she discovered that the termination of her position resulted in her automatic promotion to a new position. Smith remained in that position until her eventual termination. When Smith was promoted, she was initially supervised by Cindy Reed, a Senior Program Coordinator …show more content…
in the Cancer Office. Employees in Mayo’s non-clinical areas, including the Cancer Office, coordinated with their supervisors to establish a start time that accommodated the employee’s schedule. Those employees could also make use of a flex-time policy, such that an employee could adjust her start time as long as she worked forty hours in one week. On September 26, 2012, Mayo established a new time reporting system that tracked attendance on an annual rather than a quarterly basis. Prior tardies and absences were wiped clean. Employees manually entered their start and end times in Mayo’s time reporting system. The new policy gave supervisors discretionary authority to dispense occurrences to an employee when she was late or absent from work without prior permission. An employee could be deemed tardy if she arrived seven minutes or more after her scheduled start time. If an employee were tardy by less than an hour, her supervisor could dispense one-half of an occurrence; if she were more than an hour tardy, or absent entirely, her supervisor could dispense one full occurrence. The policy allows for termination of an employee on accrual of ten occurrences within a twelve-month period. In September 2012, Smith began to file reports of discrimination with Mayo’s human resources department. Those reports included allegations that Reed and Karen Hurtis made racially charged and disparaging comments. For example, Smith alleged that in mid-2012, Reed and Hurtis referred to Smith as “you people” and a “product of her environment.” Smith also alleged that, around the same time, Hurtis described President Obama as a “sock monkey” and said that Michelle Obama looked like a man. Smith claims that her supervisors retaliated against her for filing reports about them. Smith alleges that her supervisors were aware of her report and that they were explicit in their threats of retaliation. Smith had told Hurtis that she would be filing a report against Hurtis and Reed. After this statement and her September 2012 report, Smith was called into a meeting with Reed and Kelly Paulson on September 26, 2012. Smith says Reed and Paulson warned her that further reports would be held negative and anything that she reported about a supervisor would be reported negatively and negative actions would happen to her if she were to do that. Hurtis hung up a poster on her door depicting a kitten looking through the scope of a high-powered rifle, captioned, “The day the barking stopped.” Hurtis told Smith, “This is what we do to barking dogs in our neighborhood.” Smith perceived that this poster was designed to discourage her from making further reports against her supervisors and coworkers. Mayo has not denied Smith’s testimony regarding any of those statements. Before her September 2012 report, Smith had not been given any occurrences or been subject to any disciplinary corrective action. After that report, however, Smith alleges that Reed began to overload her with files to make it seem like Smith was underperforming. On October 1, 2012, Reed assigned Smith a recently departed coworker’s caseload. Smith’s trainer, Linda Hyberger, stated that “Smith’s workload was heavier than others.” Despite her elevated work level, Smith completed the files in a timely fashion. Knutson, Reed’s supervisor, could not point to a single instance where Smith ever failed to complete such files on time. On discovering that Smith had completed the files, Hurtis sent an email to Reed on October 28, 2012, stating that Hurtis “wanted to kill Smith.” Reed accidentally included the message in a department-wide email the next day. Despite the alleged threats by Reed and Paulson, Smith made another report to Mayo on receipt of the email. After Smith’s September 2012 report, Smith also alleges that Reed gave her occurrences in situations where other employees would have gone unpunished. Smith asserts that Reed would not give occurrences to employees who consistently showed up a half hour late or not at all. By contrast, on October 3 and October 4, Smith did not come to work and Reed dispensed two occurrences to her. The two consecutive absences, however, should only have counted as one occurrence, even according to Reed. On October 24 and 29, 2012, Reed gave Smith two one-half occurrences for being one minute late. Unlike Smith, a coworker also under Reed’s supervision would mark the same start time for each day regardless of whether the coworker was late or not, without ever receiving an occurrence from Reed. Smith entered her start times truthfully and suffered for it. Smith also alleges that others in Mayo told her that Reed, Hurtis, and Knutson were seeking Smith’s termination. During the course of Smith’s October 2012 report, Smith met with Ines Guevara from Mayo’s human resources department. Smith alleges that Guevara told her that Reed, Hurtis, and Knutson were “out to get” Smith. Guevara wanted to help Smith get a position in a different department, but was unsuccessful. After Smith’s September and October 2012 reports, Reed dispensed a number of occurrences to Smith in quick succession.
On October 30, November 1, November 5, and November 6, Reed gave Smith a one-half occurrence mark for being one to three minutes late. As a result of Smith’s October 2012 report and Reed’s subsequent string of occurrences to Smith, Knutson replaced Reed as Smith’s supervisor on November 13, 2012. Reed then withdrew Smith’s invitation to Mayo’s holiday party. Reed explained that only a certain number of employees could attend, but then invited Knutson to go in Smith’s place. After the change in supervisors, Smith’s previous five occurrences from Reed were supposed to be removed, but they were not. Rather, Knutson continued to give Smith occurrences that were added to Reed’s. Knutson gave Smith one-half occurrence marks for being less than an hour tardy on November 26, 2012, December 21, 2012, December 26, 2012, January 8, 2013, January 14, 2013, and January 22, 2013. Knutson gave Smith two occurrences for not being at work on April 29, 2013, and July 3, 2013. After July 3, 2013, Smith had accrued nine occurrences. Smith was subjected to multiple Corrective Action Conferences and a Performance Improvement Plan for those incidents. Smith’s disciplinary issues prevented her from getting a
raise.
There have been many factors that have led Coastal Medical Center to their current position, however, most of these problems stem from the former chief executive officer, Ron Henderson. During Mr. Henderson’s...
On numerous occasions, I left work transported the children and went back to work to remain into the night. On other occasions, I left work during the day to take Stephanie to doctor’s appointments or meetings with the worker’s compensation attorney we retained to pursue her injury as compensable injury. This too required that I work late or on weekends to carry my responsibilities at work. There is no doubt that I was not able to make up the short fall created by my extra parental responsibilities. In the attempt to keep up I worked tired and sick, late in the day and early in the morning. I worked on holidays that were scheduled to be days
The board's vision is to restore Weston's diminishing reputation and to hired Dr. Ball, a newcomer and the first woman president at Weston, who would achieve this goal (Bolman & Deal, 2013, p. 334). T...
Porterfield, Deborah. Top Careers in Two Years: Health Care, Medicine, and Science. New York, New York: Infobase Publishing, Inc., 2008. 1-8. Print.
In general, staff moves up the organization based on experience, seniority, education level and relevancy of skills. Employees are expected to support one another and follow the “Respectful Workplace Policies”. As for interaction with patients, since the new Chief Executive Officer was appointed, the organization has focused heavily on being patient-centred. Patients’ feedback is valued. They are encouraged to participate in the Patient Voices Network to share their experience and give feedback to site
It has been 6 months since the author was hired, and every day she feels more competent in her task, she is able do immunizations, draw blood, and assesses patients either by phone or in person with little or no help.
Reports from faculty have stated that there have been 10 incidents. These incidents span from
I had the opportunity to meet with Dee Laguerra for a few hours and learned so much about the Medical records side of our facility and its impact on healthcare organization. As Director of Health Information Management (HIM) she is responsible for many aspects of managing the medical record; which is a legal document. I did not realize how complex this department is and how vital this department is to the legal and financial position of the organization. Dee’s position as director is the responsibility for the collection, organizing, scanning, and completions of the medical records in a timely matter after the patient is discharged. The reason for the timeliness of scanning the medical records is for the preparation for the coders to review all the charts to code for insurance billing. The time requirement for th...
Paul Cronan was hired by New England Telephone (NET) in 1973 as a file clerk. In 1983 he was promoted to service technician. He worked in Needham, Massachusetts for 18 months before transferring to South Boston, Massachusetts. In 1985, Cronan suffered from medical symptoms due to AIDS-related complex (ARC), and missed work sporadically for 6 months. In June, 1985 Cronan requested a third leave of absence from work for a doctor’s appointment. Cronan’s supervisor, Charles O’Brian, demanded to know the nature of the illness, and assured him that the information would be kept confidential. Cronan informed O’Brian that the illness was AIDS-related, whereupon he received the work excuse to see his doctor. O’Brien informed his supervisor, Paul Cloran, of Cronan’s AIDS status, who in turn informed his own supervisor. The following day, in accordance with company policy, O’Brien mandated that Cronan see the company physician. After a 10 minute physical examination Cronan was sent home.
During my interview with Regina Martinez, BS RN and currently an Assistant Director of a home health agency, I discovered her leadership style matched the above quote. Martinez had extensive experience in management prior to joining the medical field. As a single working mother, she worked her way up from waitress to manger of a popular seafood restaurant. However, her dream had always been to become a nurse and she began her medical career as a certified nurse’s aide (CNA), while working through college. She graduated from nursing school with a Bachelor’s degree in Science and has been a Registered Nurse (RN) for more than two decades. She quickly earned the respect of doctors and fellow nurses, becoming a Charge Nurse on the floors she worked. She has worked as Medical Surgery nurse, emergency room, and as Director of Nursing for home health and long-term care facilities where she was responsible for over 150 employees.
An incident report states that the manager examined Richardson's printouts back to April and s...
Describe the claimant’s abilities and limitations in responding appropriately to supervisors and to coworkers in a work setting.
During more than three years of my partnership with the NH, I have developed a positive relationship with members of the nursing management team. The managers have a strong focus on person-centered care, to the extent that they work long hours to write grant proposals for implementing such programs as OMA and music on iPods and to search for innovative methods to educate staff on best practices for working with persons who have dementia (such as having nursing students plan and implement a mandatory in-service: free!). Indeed, they sacrifice family time to fulfill the roles of Director of Nursing (DON), who is on duty/call 24/7, and Unit Manager. Each expressed to me the commitment to the residents of this facility. Therefore, I felt surprised to learn that the DON resigned the
There is evidence to support that there were other employees in Cronan’s department. When his illness was revealed co-workers purportedly threatened to lynch him if he returned. Later it was reported that damaging graffiti had been written on the bathroom stalls. On his return to work after the legal settlement he was treated like a leper by fellow employees. That same day, several co-workers filed a grievance with the local union protesting his re-instatement. The next day the workers walked off the job to reduce their contact with Cronan. Later several employees spoke of their fear of the disease and discomfort with Cronan. These examples prove that there were other employees in the department and thus the supervisors had to see that their rights were upheld, also.
“Website.” 2002 Prentice Hall | a division of Pearson Education, plc. Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 29 Nov. 2013.Web. 29 Nov. 2013. http://www.prenhall.com/success/MajorExp/MEDmajors.html