SLPs are under the pump, but it’s no excuse for disrespect

We have a respect deficit

Even before we were hit with waves of NDIS reforms and Thriving Kids, far too many allied health professionals suffered from presenteeism:

working while unwell, exhausted, and/or disengaged;
trapped in toxic workplaces, or within dysfunctional teams; and
working without proper clear supervision, or training and career opportunities.

As I interact with speech pathologists from all walks of life across the country, on Discovery Calls and in your responses to these newsletters, I hear worrying anecdotal evidence of increased:

workload, caseload and time pressures;
unprofessional workplace behaviours, like bullying;
leadership and governance problems, like inadequate communication, and absent line managers;
job insecurity;
critical gaps in supervision, training and development;
confusion about long-term career paths; and
burn out.

And here is the truth:

No one is coming to fix these problems for us. We must do it ourselves.

Specifically, we have to work together to support each other to build simple systems in practices and across the profession that deliver:

Stronger leadership
Proper supervision of every professional
Engaging training and development
Effective teamwork
Fair workload management
Safe workplaces
Mutual respect

Respect is free

Building – or rebuilding – respect for each other in our workplaces is our most immediate challenge. In many ways, it’s the foundation for everything else.

Respect is the hallmark of professionalism. It’s an infinite resource, built around three simple ideas:

Everyone is owed respect, without exception.
We should treat others in the same way we would like to be treated (the Golden Rule)
“Do not to others what you don’t want them to do to you” (the Silver Rule).

Respect deficits affect service quality. They increase workplace and client safety risks. They contribute to workforce churn and burnout. They weaken our advocacy for clients and families – and ourselves.

If we can’t establish and maintain respect for each other, the profession will fail – and deservedly so.

This week’s free resource is the first chapter from my book, “How to Supervise Speech Pathologists Properly in Private Practice”. In the book, I lay out the specific things I do (and avoid) to build a strong foundation of respect for each other, and for the profession I love.

Bottom Line

If we can’t treat each other with respect at work, we have no right to expect lawmakers, regulators, the media, clients or families to respect us as professionals. Good intentions aren’t enough. To build better workplaces, we need leaders, professionals, systems and workplaces cultures that can withstand the day-to-day pressures we all face in clinical practice.

This article also appears in a recent issue of Banter Booster, our free newsletter navigating problems for busy speech pathologists, one week at a time.