Lyndoch marks National Anti-Bullying Day with…bullying?

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Today is National Anti-Bullying Day and Lyndoch Living has marked the occasion with a petition to shore up support for its CEO…who has been accused of bullying, intimidation and manipulation.

Having read last night’s Terrier piece which revealed the explosive bullying claims against the CEO, Lyndoch staff arrived at work this morning to find a petition being circulated from the CEO’s inner circle.

The petition didn’t encourage staff to demand action on the claims, but, instead, pledge allegiance to the CEO and ask the Lyndoch board to publicly acknowledge the staff’s fear love and isolation support.

Well of course! Pass the pen!

The poor staff – many of whom have already spilled their guts in the anonymous staff survey – didn’t know what to do.

Should they sign it – and declare a false allegiance – or shouldn’t they, and face being the next pinball to be metaphorically bounced off the walls until their head hurts?

If this is not bullying, then I have lost my judgment. I doubt this is even legal, but it is most definitely desperate.

Very desperate. 

Speaking of legal, if anyone within Lyndoch was gathering material for a compensation claim against bullying and harassment, I suspect they would have photocopied this petition and added it straight to their file.

Because the Lyndoch staff have already spoken up against bullying as best they can.

More than 140 staff filled out an anonymous staff survey that was ordered via Lyndoch’s very expensive lawyers, K&L Gates, and compiled by a Melbourne consultancy called ‘Working Together’. (Ka-ching! $$ Ka-ching!)

The damning survey results were sent to the Lyndoch CEO in January and given to the Lyndoch board in February: they have read them, and done nothing.

As I wrote last night, 15 people in that survey said that:

“the CEO’s culture of intimidation, manipulation and bullying greatly impacted their safety, health and wellbeing. They said they witnessed her bullying others and making decisions in regard to her own self-interests and not the organisation as a whole.”

 

That is mind-blowing, but there is more.

Here is another snippet:

“Two thirds of (the 147) respondents said that in their opinion, Lyndoch’s values are not upheld within the organisation.

…there were issues in regard to the CEO specifically not upholding Lyndoch’s values, with a couple of respondents stating they have been directed by the CEO to ignore behaviour that is inconsistent to the values and for employees to just ‘deal with it’.”

 

So the CEO allegedly doesn’t uphold the values of Lyndoch and says the staff should ‘deal with it’.

Okaaay….

And here is another:

“Just under a quarter of respondents said that Corporate staff were not welcoming, that some Corporate staff would not help unless it benefited them and there was an ‘us and them’ mentality that impacted on all of Lyndoch’s values…This was seen to be behaviours from the CEO that filtered down.”

 

So the corporate staff have to “kiss up and kick down”. (thankyou, JD, for that line)

And one more:

“Comments were made in regard to people who were beneficial to the organisation being ‘pushed out’ due to the mismanagement of bullying behaviour they had either witnessed or endured. A few employees stated that there was a culture where individuals who reported bullying were ostracised and created a target on their back with upper management”.

 

All cheery stuff. Pass me the petition!

You get the picture and maybe one day the inner sanctum of Lyndoch Living might release the whole document so you can get the whole picture, but I doubt it.

They have more important things to do, like draw up petitions and hire a consultant to soak-rinse-wash-bleach-and-spin all of the bad news into good news, leaving the Lyndoch power base sparkly clean and stain free.

(A favoured consultant from out of town was seen leaving the Lyndoch building again today. I wonder why they were there?)

When there is a steady flow of the same allegations, things inevitably start to stick and it all, eventually, comes unstuck.

Now that powerful people are taking note, including MPs Roma Britnell and Dan Tehan, many people feel that day is fast approaching and, for the sake of our wonderful Lyndoch, I hope they’re right.

Happy National Anti-Bullying Day.

#nomorebullying #standup #speakout #staystrong

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Shifting sands on racehorse access to coastal reserve

The area of Long Dune, Tarerer coast/Spooky’s Beach, Belfast Coastal Reserve that will be opened up to large-scale racehorse training. Image:Chris Farrell Photography.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Cracks in the resolve:
 
Following on from last night’s post, I can tell you that at least two W’bool City councillors have changed their minds about dozens of racehorses training at Spooky’s Beach in the Tarerer coast/Belfast Coastal Reserve.
 
The fallout from the Weir/McLean saga is starting to bite.
 
Cr Peter Hulin is no longer in support of up to 40 racehorses a day using a long dune known as “Hoon Hill”.
 
(Doesn’t that disgraceful name speak volumes about how this area has been treated over the years? I am going to start calling it Long Dune.)
 
And Cr Michael Neoh now believes Lady Bay should be enough, given an average of only 22 racehorses a day are now using the main beach.
 
Here is part of what Cr Hulin said via email:
 
“In light of recent uncovered abuse of racehorses, I have changed my thoughts of the horses being ridden up “Hoon Hill”.
 
“Not only could this type of training be detrimental to the horse, but also the environment due to the erosion of the dune system. I cannot see how this could be avoided.
 
“Access to the beach may be also problematic.”
 
Cr Hulin made clear he was still a strong supporter of the local racing industry and believed horse training could still happen along the Spooky’s foreshore, provided all the rules and safeguards were followed.
 
Cr David Owen has always been dead against the idea of allowing 160 horses a day into a coastal reserve, so where does this leave Crs Kylie Gaston, Robert Anderson, Tony Herbert and Sue Cassidy?
 
Do they still think it is a good idea?
 
Does it still fit with the focus of a council that has declared a climate change emergency, or was that just more rhetoric?
 
Aren’t we supposed to be aiming for clean and green and looking after our coastal environment?
 
I don’t know what the other Crs think, as none of them responded. (#itsjustablip)
 
I do know, however, that it is getting harder and harder to justify why the racehorses need to be there. Weir has gone. McLean has gone. The Warrnambool Racing Club this year made a record profit….
 
I hope Crs Neoh, Hulin and Owen can convince the council to revisit this issue now, not after the damage is done to Long Dune and that precious wild beach that makes Warrnambool such a special place.
 

Thankyou to the Walkley Foundation for funding part of my investigative work with this on-going story.

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Trainer banned as WCC cracks down on Lady Bay breaches

Photographer Steve Hynes captured this jockey in clear breach of the training rules at Lady Bay in March this year, working two horses at once, no high-vis gear and no identifying saddle cloth.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Well blow me down. The Warrnambool City Council is finally taking action against multiple breaches of the rules around racehorse training at Lady Bay.

Apparently, after quite a lengthy process, one trainer has had their permit cancelled, another has been suspended and another has received a warning.

I don’t have any names but if one of them is Jarrod McLean, then I would say it is the least of his worries right now.

This is the first time any serious action has been taken by the WCC against tall of the complaints that have been reported by the public over the past three years. #notalltrainers

Why now? I can only wonder if it’s connected to the Warrnambool Racing Club continuing with its plans to soon move into Spooky’s Beach, near Levy’s Beach, where up to 120 racehorses a day will be able to train, five days a week.

Another 40 a day will be able to train on the long ‘Hoon Hill’ dune.

Things have gone very quiet on this lately, but I can assure you that all of the work is still very much going on behind the scenes to get the beach ready before Lady Bay is cut off to trainers on December 1.

Perhaps the WCC wants to reassure the public that they will be enforcing the rules around having mass racehorse training in a coastal reserve.

I still find the whole Levy’s/Spooky’s plan unjustifiable.

As it happens, thanks to the Walkley Foundation, I have been doing some Freedom of Information applications into the whole Lady Bay and Levy’s situation.

I will save those stories for another day.

In the meantime, thankyou to photographer Steve Hynes for this image of one such breach (two horses, no id, no high vis gear etc), taken at Lady Bay in March this year.

Thankyou to the Walkley Foundation for funding part of my investigative work with this on-going story.

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Lyndoch Living rolls out masterplan…and cuts nursing staff

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

I am interrupting our running story on credit cards to say there are angry stirrings at Lyndoch Living aged care which is rolling out its $100 million masterplan – and cutting nursing staff.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation has taken up the fight against plans by Lyndoch to blend its two highest acute care units, the 45-bed Audrey Prider Centre unit and the 39-bed Lake Lodge unit, even though they will remain physically separated by a room.

The union says the move will see just one full-time nurse unit manager in charge of the clinical care of 89 residents.

On top of this, the union says, there will be less associate unit managers – 7.5 full-time positions instead of 10 – that will oversee the unit when the nurse unit manager is not rostered on.

Staffing issues have been swirling around Lyndoch for months now, with many of the hard-working staff fearful of whether they will still have jobs.

 

There are also mounting reports of stress from the staff shortages that already exist. Unfortunately, with all the goings on at the W’bool City Council, I just haven’t had a moment to dig into it all.

I emailed Lyndoch CEO Doreen Power last Friday for a comment on the union statement, but I have had no response.

In the meantime, the first stage of the $100 million project will see the Warrnambool Medical Centre move on to the Hopkins Road site and new carpark up and running within two years.

I sense there will be much more to come on this story.