Nothing But the Truth

Mary Larson was truly a detriment to the Manor. She had been abusing so many rules for 20 years. She failed to bill properly, which left the facility short of revenue. She had also excused people from their bill, which left them obligated to her. Like the Godfather. She was occupied with gossip. Prior to me, it was perpetuating a rumor started by her that the administrator and DON were having an affair, which got them both fired. It took nine months of whispering and gossiping among employees but in the end Mary got what she wanted. She also wrote letters to all county board members. I don’t know what the letters said. But after that the board members were cooler toward me. Then came that fateful day which turned out to be the beginning of the end for my tenure at the Manor. One day Mary came bursting into my office waving papers in my face clenched firmly in her fist. She was visibly upset. From her computer she had been able to access several of my personal emails to others wherein she was mentioned in a “negative’ light. She was so furious over this that she had made copies of my personal emails and then confronted me with them. “They are about me!” she exclaimed. What led to her termination was that I had asked the board, at a closed session, to support me if I disciplined her for reading my emails and her excessive overtime. They agreed they would support me. Prior to that closed session the agenda had noted that Mary would be discussed. It is customary for agendas and minutes to be accessible to the public. When we adjourned to go into closed session she was assuming she could come in. I stopped her at the door and said she could not come in. She became angry and tearful. She said again that you are going to talk about me! I said perhaps but it needed to be private. She was visibly angry. This was the first time I saw what she could do by assembling a posse including residents. After the session ended and the board reconvened to our usual agenda I noted Mary speaking to people, riling them up and crying. It was that she believed she was going to be fired. And tried to garner resident support. Later I was informed by department heads that were not in the closed session that Mary was whipping” up the crowd to defend her for her upcoming termination. Even later in the evening a resident refused to go to bed. She was so worked up about “what will become of us” if Mary goes she could not sleep but cried continuously. This is documented in the chart of the resident. This is emotional abuse and against the law according to regulations, and according to compassionate care giving. The residents are easily influenced by the staff. Taking advantage of this vulnerability is the work of abusive people.