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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Critical hospital report isn’t surprising

Reports of disparaged social relations at NRGH should not come as too much of a shock
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To submit a letter to the editor, please e-mail editor@nanaimobulletin.com. Include your address (it won’t be published) and a first name or two initials, and a surname. (The News Bulletin)

To the editor,

Re: Report finds NRGH failing as workplace, Nov. 14.

Reports of disparaged social relations and subtle forms of mistreatment at NRGH should not come as too much of a shock. After all, NRGH is not the only organization one might find a deep-seated fear of workplace ostracism and claims of harassment, cronyism and other egoistic goings-on.

Trumpism, Brexit and Panama Papers all provide recent examples of how our current economic paradigm is magnificent in its depth of financial, ethical and moral disingenuity. As a result we find ourselves stuck in a culture of antagonistic leadership that seems to take behavioural cues from post-watershed drama on cable TV. Moreover, if we think attrition is going to solve the problem, don’t count on it. The cognitive superheroes emerging as tomorrow’s leader come with a remarkable talent for parroting TED Talks without much experiential context in which to apply the stuff.

What’s being lost to organizations like NRGH is an extraordinary amount of social capital, which is going to need some serious and effortful action to halt its further decline. Accountable leadership is about ‘being there’ and in return, these leaders need to know that their own vulnerabilities can be entrusted to and held by those they are accountable for.

Mark Busby, Nanaimo