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Posted By Stuart Haysman
A tricky one this, slightly tongue in cheek and maybe one for the psychologists / behaviourists! I'm sure most people have had something similar to some degree.
How would you deal with a serial H&S complainer who is never satisfied? This chap sends numerous letters to the MD and other board members on an almost weekly basis, and basically ties up everyones time through researching responses, holding meetings with him and sending letters, plus dealing with the frequent grievances he raises when he doesn't get the response he wants etc.
We always respond professionally to his concerns - so far we've used the 'calm professional' approach, the 'send him to the occ health counsellor' approach, the 'distance him' approach, the 'get him involved in safety management' approach, but all to no avail - he won't let up and raises similar issues repeatedly. The conclusion most of us have drawn (including the counsellor) is that he simply enjoys doing it and has very little else to occupy his time (unfortunately, the rest of us do!).
I'd be interested to know what would you do if this chap was soaking up an inappropriate amount of your time?
Cheers
Stu
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Posted By seanc
Stu,
Be careful one day he might actually bring up a major issue that will be ignored because he reported it, then he will have won!
surely he will have to report any H&S problems to his immediate manager, and if he is complaining that much, who's time is he doing it in?
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Posted By Crim
Is he a safety rep? Is he a representative of the employees elected by them?
I agree he could one day report a real issue, "the boy who cried wolf"?
Why not put him on a NEBOSH course and use him as your ally?
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Posted By Phil Rose
Stuart - I don't envy you this one, as 'we' as an organisation having been dealing with a not entirely dissimilar situation for many many years, although the 'complainant' is not an employee but a member of the public that has for years made innumerable complaints, grievances etc against us (yes we are a LA), complaints to the LG Ombudsman (none of which were upheld) etc etc. This individual has tied up 1000's of hours of officer time, cost the tax payer umpteen £1000's which could have been better spent somewhere else for the 'good' of many people. We really have tried numerous methods to try and satiate this persons appetite and get to the bottom of his reasoning etc but all to no avail.
I did have a bit of a similar situation to yours although not on the same scale as you describe, with a ping pong of e mails between me and a member of staff that was complaining about a number of relatively minor things that were of low risk in the grand scheme of all of the other risks that I had to deal with. In the end, I explained to this person that I felt that their approach was perverse as I was tying up my time dealing with their rather frivolous complaints, which was preventing me from dealing with far greater risks and that their continued complaints was actually putting the health and safety of their colleagues at genuine risk. She did eventually seem to accept this.
It is a difficult one and I wish I could offer you some better advice. Sometimes you do have to balance it out; if the complaints are in the main of low risk issues, frivolous or considered vexatious and this person is distracting you from carrying out other important health and safety work then I wonder if you may have to consider disciplinary proceedings. I am sure that will provoke some debate!
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Posted By Peter F.
I think we have all at some time have dealt with a person/persons you describe but it does feel that this is extreme.
Have you done everything you can regarding his concerns, i.e. training, instruction, information, R/A's, SSOW etc. Then I would point this out to the person, I would keep all his complaints, response and minutes from meetings and only deal with the new things he raises.
I would refer him back to risk assessments.
You can not always hunour him/her.
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Posted By Raymond Rapp
I am currently dealing with a similar problem. Worse still, he is a prominent member of our project team. Can't seem to reason with him and at the end of his rhetoric...but if there is an accident.
Some people do black and white. In my world there are many grey areas. We can never guarantee absolute safety. More frustrating is that when it suits he is willing to turn a 'blind eye' but always has a plausible (at least to him) excuse. God I'm gonna go mad soon...
Ray
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Posted By Phizzle
I hate cheerios.
Sorry, it is Friday.
Had one of these in the past. We dealt with them by inviting them onto the saftey committee. Most of the issues raised were directly bounced back to him and given for him to take action. As a result, minor issues were dealt with instead of being moaned about, and we still had the benefit of major issues being spotted and reported in the correct manner.
(WORD OF WARNING THOUGH: If you are inviting such people onto a committee make sure an agenda is pre-agreed otherwise you'll spend all day going round in circles achieving nothing)
It's all too easy for some people to complain rather than be proactive and take action.
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Posted By martinw
I am with Phil regarding his final point. If the serial complainer is simply being as Phil says vexatious, and is unwilling to accept your reasonings and responses despite everyone else being happy about them, the person has to realise that you and the other departments within the organisation do not solely exist to answer his questions.
It does come to a stage where you have to say enough is enough. If then the person complains externally to another organisation eg HSE, you will already have all of the information from previous responses to show them that this person is being difficult for his own ends, whatever they may be.
I think disciplinary action is a potential. If anyone else in the organisation disrupted the normal running of the business in another manner would it be acceptable? I think definitely not. Certainly if you have done everything which is required and everyone else is happy with what you have done in terms of the safety of the site etc, then this one person should not be allowed to be such a gremlin. He is stopping you doing your job and therefore potentially putting others at risk by doing that.
Run the possibility past him that he is talking his way into trouble by actively disrupting the running of the organisation without good reason and also, if the person is a union member, run it past them too if they do not already know about it. It may well be that they do not want this person to rope them into a battle which they can see they will not win, and might advise him to work with you rather than against you. You never know.
If this raises a few hackles I apologise, but complaining about nothing is a waste of everyone's valuable time.
Martin
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