Sexual Harassment

In her late 30’s, Alecia’s life was going pretty well. Happily married, with three small children and only months off realising her lifelong dream of qualifying as a specialist, she was working in a busy regional hospital in NSW. While her high standard of work was acknowledged by her peers and senior colleagues, she had experienced a number of incidents of harassment and bullying from her older, male supervisor (who had been associated with the hospital for many years). As the harassment and bullying continued, she found it difficult to work. With the encouragement of a colleague, she made a formal complaint to the hospital’s HR department.

An investigation followed and her assertions were upheld.

However, to her surprise, the supervisor remained in his position with very little consequence. Her request to report to an alternative supervisor was not approved and subsequently he alleged she was underperforming. Only three months out from qualifying, Alecia became fearful for her future career prospects. Being the primary income earner, Alecia and her husband decided to move the family to Sydney to seek alternative employment.

And then COVID-19 hit.

Gaining employment in a pandemic, just three months out from qualifying, proved to be more difficult than Alecia had anticipated. Each prospective employer required a reference from her last supervisor. Having exhausted all the family savings in the move to the city, the family were now in financial distress.

A colleague suggested she contact MBA.

“To be honest, I approached MBA without much hope. At the time, I had lost my employment, my harassment complaint wasn’t taken seriously… It seemed like the end of the world for me. It was just a ‘last try’. However, after speaking with MBA, I perked up… the warmth in your social worker’s voice generated some energy and hope.”

With Alecia’s consent, MBA successfully advocated to her prospective employer to consider job references from other senior colleagues. This worked and she received a job offer. At Alecia’s request MBA provided information from the HR investigation to the professional registration body to protect Alecia from any reports made by her former supervisor regarding her capability to practice. We also provided short term financial assistance to meet the basic family needs whilst she was not working. MBA also encouraged her to seek financial counselling to set up her finances to be more robust for the longer term.

Our journey with Alecia has taken 15 months. In that time our social worker gave her a safe space to share her feelings and explore alternative options. In March, we were delighted to receive an email from her thanking us for our assistance.

“Advocacy from MBA was totally unexpected. It changed the trajectory of my career… It is my endeavour to be the best doctor I can and to return the services and level of care that I received from MBA … I love to wake up every morning just to go to work. Thank you for being on this journey with me.”

Bullying in the healthcare sector is an under-recognised and pervasive problem. Statistics indicate at least 34% of people have experienced bullying and 16% have experienced harassment.