You just cannot make this stuff up, the very manager who blocked every safety initiative I attempted to implement including the safe removal of asbestos materials from the workplace. When I began writing this post he was off on long-term sick leave from mesothelioma. He has subsequently died. He ended up dying from the very disease I was trying to prevent in our workplace.

We had a highly fractured relationship, he hated me. He tried everything within his given managerial powers to undermine me. Interestingly, I was indifferent to him, I did not hate him just because he hated me. This becomes a challenge, if you want to hate me, let’s see how deep that hatred can run. The fact that he was mostly incompetent was not lost on me, you use this to your advantage. He surrounded himself with people at his competence level, this was also to my advantage. Watching these people fumbling around and mucking up, this was the fun part of watching failure up close.

Fortunately for me, he wasn’t a very clever operator so it was a pretty simple process to circumnavigate him. Whilst it was easy to make him look incompetent in front of the people he answered to, this was really not the objective I was seeking though, I was seeking actions. I attended one meeting with the General Manager, Executive Director and himself. I took a scribe with me as a witness as they have a tendency to deny discussions took place otherwise, they blatantly deny a complete discussion.

Ok, so what was I seeking? Well, actually it is pretty simple, I am seeking a safe working environment of the people whom we are responsible for, and the safety and wellbeing of our staff. This was my primary objective, I was very open about this. When I say wellbeing, I mean protection against prosecution for our staff. My role is to build quality outcomes through robust and through processes and controls.

So, where were we going wrong then? Well, we have a management structure running a protection racket, what they do is select people to be promoted into roles beyond their abilities. They want people who beholden to them, these people owe their roles to them, there is no disdain in the team, no one questions the manager’s decision, this is groupthink – this is a group of yes men.