More than half of the employees of the municipality of Roosendaal have to deal with undesirable behavior and many were confronted with mental and physical complaints, lengthy outages or even left the organization. This is the conclusion of research conducted on behalf of the municipality, following the departure of two aldermen a year ago.
Earlier it turned out that there is a poisoned working atmosphere in the church. Main causes were a political battle between two local political parties and the actions of then mayor Han van Midden. The report also makes more clear about the working atmosphere and the mental and physical complaints that employees receive.
Bullying and sabotage
One in three employees (33 percent) had to deal with smaller comments. Employees also had to deal with sabotage or opposition (21 percent), bullying (17 percent) or intimidation (5 percent).
It is striking that employees saw this even more with others. For example, they saw that colleagues had to deal with smaller comments, bullying, exclusion, sabotage and opposition. Schelden and screaming were also mentioned several times.
Mental and physical complaints
“In several cases, this has led to mental and physical complaints, long -term failure and sometimes even the departure from the organization. The nature of experienced undesirable behavior differed per department and period. But the pattern of structural insecurity is unmistakably present within the municipality of Roosendaal,” the report says.
The researchers have also conducted a survey among employees. In addition, 55 percent of the participants indicated that they have experienced undesirable behavior. “Compared to other government organizations in the Netherlands, the figures in Roosendaal are remarkably high,” the researchers say.
Hardly reported
Employees find it difficult to report unsafe situations. Although there are formally help lines where employees can go with signals of undesirable behavior, they are in practice “not always found to be effective or visible and employees sometimes even experience it as unsafe,” the researchers write.
Several employees indicate that they have the feeling or experience that the reports are not taken seriously, nothing is being done with it or that they even suffer from it. For example, reputation damage or that they are excluded.
Responsibility
The researchers conclude that too little is being done to signal unsafe behavior or to set limits. Too little is done about reflection, feedback and coaching of behavior, “while it is necessary to dampen subcutaneous tensions. The result is a working environment in which social safety is under pressure, with risks for well -being, integrity and professionalism,” the researchers said.
The city council and the Mayor and Aldermen College did not want to respond to the report at a council meeting on Wednesday evening. Roosendaal politics will discuss the conclusions and how the working atmosphere and organizational culture can be improved at the beginning of September.