Working Women's Centre SA Inc.

Beverley's Story

When Beverley first contacted the Working Women's Centre she was hopeful of being able to address the bullying she was experiencing from another worker, even though it had been going on for 2 years. Beverley was a 55-year-old woman who had worked hard in her position. She did not belong to a union. Everything was fine in her position under the previous CEO. Now there was a new CEO who had brought his own assistant, Cheryl who is 27 years old, with him. To accommodate Cheryl, Beverley's pay was downgraded but she was still expected to perform the same amount of work. Cheryl began to exert a lot of control over Beverley's work, chastising her over trivial things that had previously never been identified as problems in the organisation.

Beverley regularly began work early to set up for the day's activities. There was no provision for overtime but workers could accumulate TOIL. She had accumulated a lot of TOIL but always met resentment when she asked to take some of it. Last year Beverley had over 80 TOIL hours removed because she was not allowed to take them.

Cheryl constantly made negative comments to the CEO about Beverley. After a couple of months the CEO took the best parts of Beverley's job, gave them to Cheryl and made Beverley report to Cheryl who was now her line Manager. Beverley was required to have a meeting with Cheryl every week. Other staff were supportive and appalled at the treatment Beverley was receiving. They had helped her to document what was happening and one staff member was prepared to speak on her behalf as a witness.

Beverley felt it was too late to try to raise issues with Cheryl directly. Beverley had attempted to raise them with the CEO on a number of occasions but his response was, "She's 27, you're 55, you need to deal with it better, Cheryl is second in command and you report to her not to me".

Beverley was experiencing impacts on her health. She was having difficulty sleeping, had constant headaches and felt anxious and tearful a lot of the time. She constantly felt like she was under a microscope. Her Doctor had prescribed anti-depressants and had suggested she needed to think about lodging a WorkCover claim.

Although Cheryl would regularly flirt with the Chair of the Board, most of the Board, including the Chair, were familiar with Beverley's work and respected her. Beverley felt that there was a chance of addressing her issues with them. The WWC assisted Beverley to write a formal letter to the Board. She was also advised to look around for other work opportunities and was given more information about lodging a WorkCover claim. Beverley was concerned that at her age, this would impact on her chances to get further work.

After approaching some Board members for assistance it was clear that they did not want to get involved in the day-to-day operations of the office. They were reasonably sympathetic but would not approach the CEO on Beverley's behalf about a range of issues she raised with them in her letter.

When Beverley phoned the Centre again she'd had enough of the poor treatment and was not well enough to go to work. She had gone ahead and lodged a WorkCover claim. All she wanted was some reprieve from the constant nitpicking and some acknowledgement of her work. Her contract was coming up for renewal in 3 months time but Beverley didn't believe she would be able to continue working until the end of the contract nor did she wish to return to the position if she was offered a new contract unless there was an improvement in her situation. She was referred to the Employee Advocate Unit at WorkCover.

When Beverley next phoned the Centre she had received some career counseling and was undertaking a short study course to enable her to have a career change to something she had always wanted to do. Beverley's health was improving and although she still experienced grief about her old job which she loved, she was happy to be out of the environment. Two other staff had also left when their contracts expired.

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