Case Study - Beatrice
As Station Commander in a fire service.
Beatrice, a black woman, Station Commander knocks on your door three months after the incident with her colleague. She asks, “Can I have a word Guv?” You invite her to have a seat and she says, “Guv, I don’t think it’s working for me here, and I’m thinking about a transfer”. She goes on to explain that since the investigation into the incident, and though her colleague involved had been disciplined and moved to another Station because of the investigation, she has been made to feel even more uncomfortable with the team and has not managed ‘to get a footing’. She is the only black woman in a white male team. She’s found that her colleagues largely ignore her or are especially careful around her. One morning after a shift, when they thought she had gone, she overheard comments in the Mess referring to her as that ‘Black Bitch, they should have got rid of her arse, not his!’ Another day she came to work with her hair in long plaits, and a white male member of the team said, “That’s an interesting hairstyle Guv. It looks a bit like worms!” And he walked off laughing. She found that members of staff have ignored her instructions and will go above her. She has tried to laugh it off and find different ways of working with the team, to join in with the banter, to be clear and assertive about what she requires of them, and to be helpful day to day, but whatever she is trying is not working. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg, and she says, “It’s been wearing me down”. She is finding that she is dreading coming into work and is constantly second-guessing herself and thinking over the shift – what happened and how she can protect herself against the hostility constantly coming towards her.
- What is your analysis of the situation – including what are the issues here in respect of discrimination?
- What are the issues that need to be addressed?
- What is your role and responsibility?
- What initial steps would you take to resolve this?
- What are the outcomes that you require and how will you ensure that these are achieved?
How you might respond to this?
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Case Study: Candy
The Situation
Candy is an African-Caribbean black woman in her early forties and newly promoted Deputy Head of a primary school in an inner-city school in London. She has been in the teaching profession for seven years. She has worked in two schools; this is her second.
Candy is a divorced mother of three children, one adult and two younger ones still in school. She is a well-presented woman with a warm and empathetic disposition and is well-liked by her peers. She loves working with children and fostering fresh and creative ways to bring the best out of the pupils and her staff.
She has been delighted to have recently been appointed as Deputy Head and feels that she has the backing of her colleagues many of whom have become friends over the years and continue to be supportive.
She is deputy to a newly appointed head who was previously deputy to the head who has recently retired. The school is due to be assessed by the local authority, which carries out assessments before Ofsted. The assessment is due in four months’ time and Ofsted in six months. Consequently, there has been a push from the new head to review practice and position the school in the most positive light. The workload has been punishing from the outset of Candy’s appointment. She is beginning to feel that the new headteacher is struggling with a strategic perspective and has unrealistic expectations of what the school can change by the time of the Ofsted inspection.
Candy has been wary of voicing her misgivings and wants to demonstrate that she is on top of her new role. She realises that she won’t yet be the type of deputy the current head was, but she’s also excited about this new phase in the school’s life and what they can achieve together as a team.
In the last month, Candy has plucked up the courage to have a conversation with the headteacher, asking her to prioritise what she needs and focus on those elements with the highest impact. The response from the headteacher is that she recognises the demands, but she wants it all.
A month later the Assessor from the local authority comes into the school, and in the assessment interview with Candy, she intimates that Candy is not delivering for the school at the level needed because she has failed to address the critical issues. Candy is devastated and more so, because the interim verbal report from the assessor offers a deeper criticism of the areas only under her jurisdiction. She is even more upset because she had pushed for the head teacher to prioritise and allow her to focus on these critical areas. She also noted that the head teacher is silent and offers no challenge to this one-sided perspective. To her horror, she realises that the head teacher is going to ‘throw her under the bus’ and let her be the scapegoat for the school. The suggestion from the assessor is that if they were to demote or remove Candy from the deputy leadership role, the school would receive a more favourable rating.
Candy is outraged and is deeply upset at the unfairness of this, deeply surprised she doesn’t have the backing of the headteacher or the governors. Even though she saw herself there for many years and enjoyed her colleagues, she decided to leave. Three months later, she learns the headteacher has been asked to leave.
What you do
- Why you do it
- The skills you need
- The underpinning perspective – See the various theoretical perspectives above.
How you might respond to this?
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Advice from our panel - of Specialist Advisors: psychologist, Strategic senior leaders, policy developer, unions, legal advisor, specialists’