One, who has worked at Victim Support for several years, told RNZ they earlier reported being \u201cbullied and picked on\u201d by their direct line manager as well as the district manager.<\/p>\n
They said they went through the recommended internal channels, but said it did not help.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt actually made it worse \u2026 they didn\u2019t take me seriously whatsoever,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt made me feel like there was just no point in trying to change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
They had witnessed a coworker being brought to tears multiple times before they quit and was aware of several other support workers who were having problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just isolated to me \u2026 it\u2019s kind of like there\u2019s just no point in speaking out, because it\u2019s not going to go anywhere. So either put up with it or leave,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
McCulloch emailed staff after RNZ approached Victim Support for comment last week.<\/p>\n
In the email, seen by RNZ, he said the agency had received a \u201crather surprising media request suggesting that the culture, practice, values, leadership and wellbeing here had not actually changed or improved in recent years, and that all the challenges back in 2021\/22 were still very much an issue\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are taking this very seriously and will strongly refute this. We are an organisation that delivers exceptional outcomes for victims through a focused purpose and practice, and a wellbeing first, award-winning staff culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cI personally feel that any suggestion that this is not the case is disrespectful and offensive to all our incredible team and the victims that we support.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Please believe us\u2019<\/p>\n
The current staff member told RNZ they were \u201cbewildered\u201d when they read McCulloch\u2019s email. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe just completely dismissed it \u2026 If he\u2019d said \u2018I take this really seriously, that staff wellbeing is really important to me, I\u2019ll begin the process of an investigation or something\u2019, that would have gone a long way.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut to just say no, it\u2019s not happening, and it\u2019s offensive \u2013 that\u2019s actually offensive to us, the ones who are actually experiencing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her message to McCulloch was \u201cplease believe us\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen victims go to police to report a crime there is always a concern that they might not be believed, but I had never thought that within my workplace, especially a support agency, it would be happening to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another staff member told RNZ they were \u201chorrified\u201d when they read McCulloch\u2019s email last week and disagreed with his comments that suggesting there was a problem was being \u201cdisrespectful and offensive\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not disrespectful. It\u2019s people out of desperation saying how they feel because they haven\u2019t got anywhere else to turn.\u201d<\/p>\n
They said while the culture on the working front was \u201camazing\u201d, there were issues with the senior leadership team and the HR team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know people that will not contact HR because they said it\u2019s just too hard on them personally, so they wouldn\u2019t bother.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Victim Support does have a problem with a toxic and bullying culture.<\/p>\n
One of the staff spoken to said there needed to be an external investigation into the workplace.<\/p>\n
They said every support worker they had spoken to loved their job.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can see the change that we\u2019re making in people \u2026 but I know people that have left because it\u2019s not worth the toll that it\u2019s taking,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still work here as I love helping people in whatever capacity I can, and I\u2019m so passionate about supporting victims and making a difference. For me, the good outweighs the bad, and if I just put my head down and do my job then life is easier, which sucks but it is the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
RNZ approached Victim Support for comment on the responses from staff.<\/p>\n
McCulloch said it was \u201cupsetting to hear that anyone at Victim Support feels this way\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one in our organisation should feel unheard, disbelieved, or worried that raising a concern will make things harder for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always welcome the opportunity to speak directly with any staff member who feels this way, if they\u2019re willing to do so, so that I can listen, understand what\u2019s happened, and work out what comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said a lot of the \u201cpositive change\u201d that had been made at the agency had come from people \u201craising hard things with me directly\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI value that immensely, even when it\u2019s difficult to hear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stand by the People & Wellbeing team, who care deeply about our people. We also know that if any of our people feel unable to go through the usual channels, we want to understand why and take the right steps.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCulloch said the agency was aware that care for victims and staff was \u201cconnected\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf any of our people are feeling unsupported, that matters deeply to us.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy message to our staff has always been simple: please reach out to me directly. I will listen. And we will act.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier investigation<\/p>\n
In 2021, the agency hired an independent investigator to look into allegations of bullying, bad training and delivery failure.<\/p>\n
The full report was not released. However, RNZ earlier reported that a summary said while the inquiry did not find widespread bullying there were regions where reports of bullying and unreasonable behaviour by a direct or senior manager were \u201cvery high\u201d.<\/p>\n
McCulloch earlier told RNZ that Victim Support today was a \u201cfundamentally different organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne that has implemented significant changes to strengthen its culture, practice and focus on victims. Victims deserve \u2013 and rightly expect \u2013 high levels of professionalism, care and boundaries from our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCulloch said that after the independent review in 2022, Victim Support accepted the recommendations and made a number of changes.<\/p>\n
He said the changes had resulted in a \u201cmore victim-centric service\u201d.<\/p>\n
The most recent independent survey of staff found that 86% of employees agreed that the agency genuinely supported and prioritised employee wellbeing, McCulloch said.<\/p>\n
\u201cStaff turnover has also more than halved, from 41% in 2023 to 17% today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One, who has worked at Victim Support for several years, told RNZ they earlier reported being \u201cbullied and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3595,64375,10709,2396,37772,111,139,69,5034,15768,544,213,1516,1886,61,1337,17708],"class_list":["post-509210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-by","tag-ceos","tag-concerns","tag-culture","tag-horrified","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-response","tag-sherwood","tag-some","tag-sports","tag-staff","tag-support","tag-to","tag-victim","tag-workplace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}