JewishCare’s major unaddressed issues
‘Lean organisations’ can very easily become ‘mean’ ones, writes former academic
As a concerned member of the community, I feel the article by JewishCare CEO Gary Groves (AJN 8/12) raised some major unaddressed issues for me and I would suggest for others as well.
Being the child of Holocaust survivors and a former academic with a PhD on refugee settlement in Sydney, I am acutely aware of the vital need for compassionate and generous services for vulnerable members of the community. In particular, the Jewish community, both in Israel and the Diaspora, are facing unprecedented antisemitic attacks. Therefore, it is unfathomable at such a time that a key Jewish welfare service decides to contract rather than expand its services.
I feel there were some further questions that need to be answered by Mr Groves. Despite some reference to increased operational costs, more stringent regulatory environment et cetera, how does this account for a sudden $2.48 million shortfall? As a former university economics lecturer, I am afraid I sense either some human or system failure.
Obviously, far greater transparency is required here. What happened and who is responsible? This deficit did not suddenly appear on the balance sheet without notice?
Also, I take exception to your describing “offering redundancies to several office staff members”. Since when are double digit redundancies defined as “several” and since when are long-term, established case workers alluded to as “office workers”?
How do you define Frontline staff since you wrote none would be affected by these redundancies? You have retrenched individuals who have developed long-standing relationships with the most vulnerable in the community. If they are not Frontline staff, then who is? Also, you degrade each and every one of those retrenched in claiming “we anticipate no impact on service levels or quality for our clients even if we see increase demand for services”. This is incomprehensible; are you implying that those who have been made redundant and even those remaining were not fully productive?
Finally, if I may lend a word of caution to the Board – beware of applying a stringent (ruthless?) business model to human services. While no one can deny the need for any organisation to have economic sustainability, don’t lose sight of what truly counts in any organisation, which is how you value and support your staff, especially through challenging times.
“Lean organisations” can very easily become “mean” ones, which I fear is happening to JewishCare.
Peter Waxman is a former academic and a member of the Sydney Jewish community.
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