Scapegoating and the Black Magic of Work Creation

An imaginary tale…

Picture a high pressure environment.  Resources are stretched and the work keeps on coming. Jobs are routinely prioritised so that staff can focus on what is important.

That isn’t an uncommon scenario, maybe it is ringing bells, so let me make it a little more dramatic by upping the stakes. Imagine it was a casualty ward or a child protection office. A workplace where life and death hang in the balance.

Then something went wrong

Horribly wrong. A patient died whist sitting in a waiting room or a child was murdered who should have been taken into care…

There was a public outcry, the papers had a feeding frenzy and the senior managers knew that they had to be seen to act. They held an enquiry and found somebody to hold accountable. Then, to quieten the noise they denounced the wrong-doer and sacked them.

The reaction

The media hysteria abated. Crisis averted.

But staff within the organisation watched the drama unfold with horror.  They understood the situation with all its work pressures far more deeply than the reporters ever did.  Things were not as cut and dried as the papers had the public believe.

The murmurs of scapegoating started and staff members thanked the Lord that it wasn’t them who management had singled out as the cause of the problem.  They could so easily have done.

So, because they had families to feed, they acted:

• They covered their backs
• They checked more cases
• They wrote detailed notes
• And they insisted their managers approved everything

All to make sure that they weren’t the next scapegoat to be slaughtered.

The managers weren’t fooled.  They could see where all this paperwork was leading.  They knew who would end up carrying the can.

So, because they had families to feed, they acted:

• They covered their backs
• They developed risk reduction protocols
• They set up case review panels
• And they insisted their lawyers approved everything

They didn’t fancy becoming the next scapegoat either.

The legacy

The sacrifice “fixed the problem” beautifully.  Every future case was wrapped in a protective coating of paperwork and bureaucracy. But it didn’t make the situation any better.

All it succeeded in doing was making the work more onerous and cumbersome.  The staff spent more time battling bureaucracy and become less and less engaged. Nobody put their hands in their pockets to pay for all this extra work and the jobs piled up.

As for the people at risk, the children under threat, and the critically unwell?  They simply had to wait.

A work of fiction

Of course I made all that up.  Fortunately I don’t work in a life or death environment.  What on earth would I know? But was my tale really unrealistic?   It is easy to test.

Sacrifice a scapegoat or two and see what it does for your workloads.

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