Advice on co-worker taking drugs at work

[MassiveJim]

My other half works as a live-in careworker looking after children. It's a small company, heirarchy is
Owner>area manager>house managers.
In the particular house she works in the children are a little older and mature (15 and 16 iirc) but there should always be 2 members of staff on site with 2 children.


A fairly new member of staff has had some weird behaviour, work really sloppy, disappearing off at will to go and get himself a takeaway etc.
Constantly going for smoke breaks, eats a couple of mouthfuls of food at meal time then bins the rest. quite a few other bits as well but nothing significant.

Last night, my partner said she could smell weed on him, and he went out to his car for a smoke and when he came back in the smell was even stronger, his eyes were all bloodshot and he avoided conversation with her, he made his excuses, grabbed a drink and some snacks and went to bed for the night, but the smell was so strong that it remained in the kitchen for a while after he left.

She immediately contacted her manager (who was at home at the time), who in turn has contacted the area manager.
They have pretty much said that they aren't going to act on it because
- it will be her word against his
- a drug test wouldn't prove he was doing it on shift (WTF), he could have done it in his own time, he might have done it in his own time and the smell was in his car then when he sat in it on his break it then transferred to his clothes without him actually smoking it.
- he might turn it around as her being racist (again WTF)

I am now self employed but at my last place of work, they did random drugs tests, and regardless of when they were taken if you had drugs in your system it would be instant dismissal.
Further by their logic, he could have walked to work smoking a joint (or drinking etc) and stubbed it out before starting shift and that would be ok ??

I am shocked to see that company that is supposed to be caring for children doesn't take something like this extremely seriously.

She doesn't know what to do as it seems they are brushing this under the carpet now.

fwiw she gets on with her manager, their is no bad blood between them.

 

[MassiveJim]

Utterly shocking response by them! Surely this is a massive child safeguarding issue? It also doesn't matter if he's taking drugs outside of work time, if they're in his system during work time they could be affecting his performance.

This was pretty much my exact thoughts.
Although he blatently was taking them inside work, she isn't stupid.

Oh I just remembered something else that was said to my partner.
None of the senior's have smelt it.

I just feel like its weak/lazy management. The manager of the home was recently sacked (for various reasons) and the current manager is a stand-in (the deputy manager) who is in the process of applying for the manager job. She is very young though (I guess mid-late 20s)

 

[MassiveJim]

I would get the customer on side to uphold the complaint (so she has evidence) if she can but also inform the CQC anyway, but that will reflect on the company she works for.

Customer ?

Sadly these jobs don't always require the highest of skill barriers and attract cheap employees with a cheap mindset so it's very hit and miss. Also, every man and their dog seems to be smoking weed publicly these days, so it's not surprising but uncomfortable to be around.

They (like any car job) are woefully underfunded/paid.

She has been offered the senior role, it is 50p more per hour, so a ton more paperwork and responsibility for about £35 per month.
The deputy is on around 28k, and previous manager was on 38k, but current one being offered 32k.
once you go above senior, overtime is expected but as it is a salaried role there is no compensation for doing so, in actual fact they don't really earn more than the bottom level RCWs

 

[MassiveJim]

I assumed live-in akin to those who work at a family home not an actual care home, sorry.



Yeah, I've known a lot who have done this sort of work and it's been fairly brutal in terms of par/reward, which is sad really. Probably earn more working as an HCA in a hospital and more-or-less choose when she wants to work too!

The benefit of her job for us is that she does 38 hours in 2 days, (14 hour shift, paid 10 hour sleep, followed by another 14 hour shift) It isn't full on all the time currently either, the kids have to go to school during the day and as I said above they are older, there is another house she was placed at for a while and they have younger children, 1 of whom has at least 3/4 physical interventions a week, so that house is a lot more full on.
I have gone fully self employed so I can work my hours around her (we have 2 young children)




with regards to my OP, the only worry for my partner is that its a very female dominated environment and they can all turn on each other very quickly, one of the seniors is largely disliked by everyone because of her attitude, at the start of my partner's placement there she got on with this particular senior, then one small thing happened and now she makes my partner's life uncomfortable whilst on shift.
When the manager that was sacked was under investigation, everyone was backstabbing and covering thair own backsides, her worry is that if she goes above her manager it will make her "bad guy", she is currently quiet good friends with the manager and they get on, so she enjoys working there, but if everyone ended up being like the senior she would be miserable, so I think she is reluctant to go higher so as not to upset the apple cart too much.

 

[MassiveJim]

Quick little update to this hilariously bad company.

My Partner has been pressing her manager to complete her supervision so that she knows if she has passed her 6 month probation or not.
She has found out that her manager has refused to fill it out as instructed by the area manager, instead the area manager and the manager that should be in charge of her (the one that is in charge of another home that hasn't yet opened) have filled out her probation paperwork, the area manager has given her low marks in any area relating to teamwork, she wants to extend her probation by 2 months and have her travel 90 minutes each way to her home in Leicester for 2 months so that she can monitor her.
However, neither of these 2 managers have ever worked with my partner and several scores were either omitted or marked low, my partner had to go to the manager and point out that she had actually carried out the relevant tasks/training, and he said oh ok I'll change it and write it up again.


Needless to say she is now job hunting, and filling out application forms etc