Sarah was very committed to her job, always determined to do the best she could in the circumstances. She didn’t like wasting time and was always keen to press on and get things done. She felt she did well in her work and enjoyed good working relationships with colleagues within her own office and with the other professionals she worked with. She was therefore very surprised when she was told by her manager, Jo, that a complaint had been made against her following a recent multidisciplinary meeting. She sat down with Jo to go through the details of the complaint and could hardly believe her ears. A number of colleagues had described her as ‘pushy’ and difficult to deal with, claiming that she did not take account of their point of view.

As it was an informal complaint at this stage, Jo was able to speak directly to the people concerned to get more information about their concerns and to feed them back to Sarah so she had a clearer picture of why people had been unhappy with her. What emerged from these discussions was a range of concerns about Sarah being single-minded about what she wanted and not really taking on board other people’s views and perspectives. Jo knew Sarah well enough to be aware that she was very committed to doing what was right by her client, but what was beginning to emerge was a concern that perhaps she was not taking a broad enough perspective on this and was therefore alienating fellow professionals by failing to take on board their views and their issues. It was as if Sarah’s enthusiasm to do a good job was preventing her from seeing the overall picture more clearly. Jo was confident, though, that she would be able to help Sarah make the necessary changes in her approach.