why are they picking on my filipino staff?

[katie37pinayuk]

how can my line manager say ' i must not let them feel i'm one them'? i am on my second year now managing the residential-dementia unit of a nursing and residential centre owned by the second largest healthcare company in the country. i will be on my fourth year in the UK on a working visa. at first i was the only filipina staff and i am the head of the unit. my line manager recruited more filipina to work with me...yes some of them i know but i keep my distance when we are at work. i have a care coordinator who takes charge of the unit in my absence...who has been working in the home for 6 years now. the home has hired another senior, a filipina and was known to me professionally. she was good but had a conflict with the care coordinator and the incident happened while i was on holiday back in the Philippines on Sept '08. i let it go as this filipina senior had a problem with her interpersonal skills and we'll be better off if we are not working together as we became friends. i carried on working with staff who needs continuous coaching and training. time came when i asked my line manager to give me staff with common sense and is good in documentation so will be a big hep to me and to the unit. she recruited and recommended 2 new filipina. so i started training them...once again problem arise with the care coordinator while i was away. my line manager called me in the office telling me she is disappointed with the filipino staff in general! how could she say that??? the home had an adequate rating prior to my posting!!! got a good rating on my 1st year and i am aiming as i am working hard towards an excellent rating. i tried my best to be professional in working with people of my own nationality and how could she advised me 'not to let them feel i am one of them'. i am now questioning my effectiveness...i am affected as she is doing staff changeover to my unit but only to my filipino staff. i want to protest but the staff concerned again is a filipino and i might be accused of favouring the person as she is a filipina. i have a multi-cultural staffing but the best ones are filipino!!!

[Mrs Daddy]

huh! thats hard situation.am glad am not experiencing that only because am the only filipina working in our care home but hey why not tell them to have an open forum in that way you could voice out what each other feels.

[Arthur Little]

First, how dare your line manager criticise your Filipina colleagues!! Hasn't she heard that Filipinos - especially nursing staff - have consistently held the record worldwide for being amongst the most diligent, caring and hard-working people anywhere.

Secondly, before you took up your appointment, the unit had an 'adequate' rating for its standards of care. Now, thanks to YOUR efforts [within the relatively short period of one year since your arrival] its reputation has been greatly enhanced.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like the care co-ordinator is the one with the problem here. Perhaps it boils down to professional jealousy.

Whatever, always be proud of your nationality - which, in my humble opinion, is second to none! - and more power to your elbow in achieving 'Excellent' status.

[somebody]

Always worth trying to step back and look at the bigger picture.

Do the Phills tend to chat to one another in Tagalog?

Is it a them and us situation?

Im not saying anyone is doing anything on purpose. But worth trying to take a neutral view point before making your conculsions.

If managment think people are better/worse than others then legal issues could arise.

If a manger is picking on people due to nationality then that is ilegal.
As Mrs Daddy says best to try a clear the air meeting. Could just be some misunderstandings from all or some of the parties involved.

Hope things work out well for all concerned.

[cheesewiz]

i think the best way is to have a meeting with your manager and the filipino involve in that way you know what's the main issue/problem was.

like you i am trying to distance my self with my co-filipino in terms of work i am working with a filipino on the same shift every other night which is better than every night. i agree with you that filipino carers are the best.

my unit manager is the best for me, she is strict but she is always on our side if problem arises. she is always there to depend us specially to our horrible matron. well, i'd been to a few troubles at work (wrong accusation or being pick) but i know how to depend myself specially if i didn't do anything wrong at all. some of my colleagues think i am a fighter but sometimes you have to be bec if they think you're weak they'll just pick on you.

hope things will okay. good luck

[MarBell379]

It can be tough being a manager, and although Iive never experienced it, managing a group of people with a different culture and first language to where they currently work must be even harder.
My advice would be to not react immediately, but to take a step back and ask for specifics about what the challenges are perceived to be. It may simply be a communication issue or something relatively easy to fix.
Don't panic, and don't take it personally. I'm sure things will work out if you deal withthem logically.

[Arthur Little]

Whilst I would agree [up to a point] with some of the opinions expressed by other respondents, Katie, I still maintain the root of the problem seems to be the attitude of the Care Co-ordinator. Every employee [regardless of nationality] ought to be given the right to defend himself/herself and, at the end of the day, the buck rests with senior management to suss out the cause of the rift between the aggrieved party and his/her superior officer in the presence of both.

[Piamed]

I firstly think that it is very possible to work with friends, even when one is senior to them in the organisation. I'm speaking from experience. As the board director of a pharmaceutical company based at one of the manufacturing sites, I made great friends with people in the labs, the site cleaners, my fellow directors, etc. At least every couple of months I had a dinner party and had a wide mix of them come.

I think professional security and an individual humility are highly important traits all staff should have. I think your line manager, based on what you have said, needs to undertake some management development training. I also think that categorising all people from a certain background together is exceptionally ignorant. Arthur is right, if the staff in conflict do not have the maturity or ability to resolve their issue on their own the manger should get them together to do it.

In terms of putting Filipinos down, my former bosses wife reviews care home standards in Berkshire and she told me that the Filipino staff are the best. I also have a friend who is a Head Nurse at Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital - she told me she would swap 2 of her English nurses for a single Filipino one any day. I also agree with Arthur that Filipino workers are now 'officially' the most sort after employees from a particular country globally.

[katie37pinayuk]

Whilst I would agree [up to a point] with some of the opinions expressed by other respondents, Katie, I still maintain the root of the problem seems to be the attitude of the Care Co-ordinator. Every employee [regardless of nationality] ought to be given the right to defend himself/herself and, at the end of the day, the buck rests with senior management to suss out the cause of the rift between the aggrieved party and his/her superior officer in the presence of both.

i know you are right with regards to the care coordinator. as for me. i stick to the rules. but there are some people who are really good liars and can get away with it....without proof and evidence that's why it was easy. she had maintained the fact that she gets along well with some filipino staff - however they are working on bank and not interested on senior posts as they have their fulltime job somewhere.

i am sure my manager thought of filipino workers as committed and knowledgeable. but each time i am away, i come back with all sorts of problem with my filipino staff and the care coordinator. im coming back to work on monday. i agree with some of you to step back and look at the bigger picture and i would talk to the manager about the changeover as i am not happy about it...not because the person concerned is a filipino but cos it is the second time that im losing a good staff and im not letting it go now without due process and good cause

[somebody]

Well if every time you come back there is a issue between the phill staff and the care co ordinator. You really do need to get to the route of the problem.

Without casting aspersations do you know for sure that the filipinas are not at least partly to blame either slack of when your not there or keep to themselves etc?

I have noticed Filpinas in genral do seem to take things very personally in a way many Brits dont. My Wife and her Phill friends always seem to have far more issues at work than other friends and family (of various races and religions)

I have had good staff taken away from me in various roles and at first it used to really annoy me until I sussed that they were doing it becuase I was good at helping people devlop skills.

With out knowing the situation you sure its not a case of. OK we have another good worker here we need a good worker there to increase performance.

The amount of times the Wife and her Fillipina friends at work thought they were being picked on by being split up and given certain roles when really the floor manager actually knew they were needed in them areas.

My Wife was told once in her job that she was needed to just sell tickets for a special event her store was holding. She was annoyed when she rang up saying my mangers all ways make me do this.
When i asked a few questions, he turned out of all the staff only my wife out of a large number had managed to sell more than a couple. In fact she was streets ahead.

Later that day the store manager came down and thanked her for getting so many sold and gave her a special gift box.

The picking on was in that case and many others becuase she was seen by management as good in her role. So utlised her she also managed three pay rises in a year

This also happened in her two previous jobs where she was picked on to cash up, train others when others more experienced because she was performing better than them. At first again she thought her managers picking on her

Whatever the issue I hope it gets sorted.

Dont rely on particulalry junior managment as being of any use most are if anything learning on the job. So dont be surprised being blessed with a Phills often superior social skills to many Brits you notice an issue before they do.

[katie37pinayuk]

Without casting aspersations do you know for sure that the filipinas are not at least partly to blame either slack of when your not there or keep to themselves etc?

I have noticed Filpinas in genral do seem to take things very personally in a way many Brits dont. My Wife and her Phill friends always seem to have far more issues at work than other friends and family (of various races and religion)

With out knowing the situation you sure its not a case of. OK we have another good worker here we need a good worker there to increase performance.

The amount of times the Wife and her Fillipina friends at work thought they were being picked on by being split up and given certain roles when really the floor manager actually knew they were needed in them areas.

thanks very much. i always try to be as objective as possible. admittedly, i was taking it personally as like other filipina in general, as it seemed that my line manager was questioning my effectivenesss or my impartiality.