A NURSERY manager has been struck off after forcing colleagues to cancel cancer screening appointments.
Anna Harrower, from Falkirk, ordered two staff members to cancel their smear tests a total of seven times.
The 36-year-old also told a co-worker that she “didn’t want to look at her face anymore” and arranged for her desk to be moved from the office.
Mrs Harrower, who was in charge at the Babes in the Wood nursery in Falkirk, faced a total of 18 charges with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) in Dundee last month.
All charges, which occurred between 2007 and 2012, were found proven by the watchdog.
One charge states that Mrs Harrower “forced her colleagues FF and DD to cancel smear test appointments on at least five and two occasions respectively”.
She also “made a negative remark about her colleague BB’s weight when ordering new staff uniforms, in that she said “you’ll be needing a large” or words to that effect”.
She said to the same worker “you are the sickest person I ever met in my life”, which caused her to become upset.
It was also found proven that she “ripped pages which included children’s work out of her colleague CC’s floor book in front of the children” and “excluded CC from a staff night out”.
Mrs Harrower also “shouted at AA that she “didn’t want to look at her face anymore” or words to that effect, and arranged for AA’s desk to be removed from the office”.
On another occasion, she “asked AA a question about a smell, causing AA to feel embarrassed and humiliated”.
It was found proven that she “refused to allow her colleague GG time off to take her husband to hospital following him suffering from a blackout”.
She also “refused to allow EE to go home despite being told she was suffering from sickness and diarrhoea”, and “forced EE to come in to work when she phoned in sick”.
Mrs Harrower also took unauthorised absences from work and regularly told her colleagues to lie by telling callers she was in a meeting or on the phone.
The social services watchdog ruled that the ex-manager was “regularly abusive and offensive to colleagues” and “not a reliable and dependable worker”.
Notes from the hearing show that the panel concluded Mrs Harrower “engaged in a sustained pattern of bullying and harassing junior members of staff and there was clear evidence that her actions distressed and upset her colleagues”.
They added that she “placed her colleagues at risk of emotional harm”, “exploited junior colleagues” and that her actions were “targeted, personal and often offensive and intimidating”.
They removed her from the register due to her “lack of insight and her lack of regret” regarding her actions.
The nursery, which is now believed to have closed, provided childcare for 45 families in the area. It was run by Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a UK-wide childcare company.
During the time period of the allegations, Mrs Harrower married her husband, Scott, at the 3-star Park Hotel in Callendar, Falkirk.
Mrs Harrower declined to comment on the case when approached at home in April this year at the time of the hearing.
