State officials said they are working to improve how workplace bullying complaints from state employees are investigated. One area of focus is the length of time it takes to complete an investigation. File photo courtesy of the Governor’s Office.
State officials said they are working to restore faith in how workplace bullying complaints are tracked and investigated in state agencies, acknowledging that “pinch points” in the current system are causing delays.
“One reason it’s really problematic is that it causes the complainants to sort of lose faith in the process that’s happening, because they’re not getting feedback quickly,” said Catherine Hackman, acting executive director of the Office of Personnel Services and Benefits, in remarks Tuesday to the Joint Committee on Fair Practices and State Personnel Oversight.
Hackman outlined changes made this year, including a new electronic tracking system for cases. The new system came because of discussions with union officials over the last year, she said.
When Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Howard and Anne Arundel), a co-chair of the committee, asked for details on the average investigation time and the oldest outstanding complaint, Hackman said she could not immediately provide that information.
“I will tell you it is longer than 30 days. I absolutely know that to be a fact,” said Hackman.
“They are lagging. There is absolutely no doubt about it,” she said.
Hackman said anti-bullying training is required of all new employees at the time of hire, and employees must retake the training every two years. according to Hackman. Supervisors get additional training to identify “problematic” workplace behaviors, she said.
Lam brought up the case of two employees at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center who alleged bullying by the center’s director and sought restraining orders. Scott Moran agreed to stay away from the employees and was placed on leave from his job, according to reports in The Washington Post.
“In these instances where the bullier — the alleged person conducting the harassment — is agency leadership, where is such a person supposed to turn to report this?” Lam asked.
Hackman said the type of complaints Lam referred to “don’t come up that often.”
In some cases, she said, the complaints are reported to the Department of Budget and Management, which oversees personnel issues, or through the Office of the Governor, who would then determine who leads the investigation.
“So if it’s an agency head, now in the situation involving the Clifton T Perkins CEO that would have gone, I’m sure, to the Secretary of MDH (Maryland Department of Health), who, then I would assume, would have signed someone outside of Perkins to conduct the bullying investigation,” she said.
“I don’t know the facts of that particular situation, but that would be my guess, based on the structure and the way that the the bullying policy is written,” Hackman said.
State Budget Secretary Helene Grady said “it’s not infrequent that complainants come directly to” the budget department.
Between January and September, state employees filed 115 bullying complaints. Investigations sustained 17 of those complaints. Another two dozen remain open.
Delayed investigations also raise concerns that bullying is ongoing during a review. Additionally, there are concerns that delays run afoul of “very short turnaround times for imposing disciplinary action,” Hackman said.
Penalties for workplace bullying can range from retraining to suspension to termination.
Hackman said some agencies are not issuing written decisions as required. In other cases, the decisions “lack sufficient detail,” she said.
Hackman said there is a delicate balance between providing enough detail and protecting what is also a confidential personnel matter for those accused of bullying as well as some employees who are interviewed but do not want to be identified in a report.
“Those decisions are kind of difficult to write. I think agencies have not been doing really as good a job as they could be and should be doing,” Hackman said. “We are trying to work with them on that particular point.”