My Fourth of July Post
On Juneteenth I mentioned that I teach my students to be positive on LinkedIn. However, if I am unwilling to use my platform to stand up against injustice in the workplace, I am no better than those creating injustices. My wife, Michelle Obenauer, agreed to move to Maine for my career because Northern Light Health portrayed itself as an organization that values DEI. Today, as many of us celebrate our freedom, I need to help her tell her story.
Employers play an important role in employees’ experiences of freedom. Employees often spend as much of their waking time at work as they do with their families, thus empowering people to have their voices heard is an important part of an employer’s duties to their employees and their employees’ perceptions of freedom. Yesterday, her hospital president, Mark Lukens, acknowledged this as he invited employees to share what freedom means to them on an internal site. His invitation specifically spoke to “the ability to express yourself freely” before advising employees to “remember that we all have a role to play in promoting and protecting freedom in its many forms.” Following Mark’s call to promote freedom, Michelle shared a story of injustice illustrating how women of color do not share the same freedoms as many of their colleagues. Her story was removed by the organization within two hours. To help her share her story, I’ve attached it to this post.
For context, Michelle was scheduled to transfer into a position where she would work primarily out of the Cutler Health Center at the University of Maine. She was told that her internal reference was “glowing, of course.” A recent evaluation said, “Michelle's clinical skills are excellent and her documentation is thorough.” She is a good provider who had a policy applied to her in a way that it is not applied to her White colleagues. This is what racial discrimination looks like in America and it is why many people still don’t feel free. We need to tell these stories because it is only by shining light on these issues that we can work together to fix them. For transparency, I have shared the Teams message that she was disciplined for and the ENTIRE results of Northern Light’s internal compliance investigation. You will see from the results that the Teams message was the only action she was disciplined for – there was no pattern of unprofessional behavior.
It’s embarrassing for Michelle to share this story publicly, but she has been faced with an impossible set of choices. She can share her story or she can let people fill in the gaps. It typically takes a lot for a provider to be disciplined, so letting people fill in the gaps is damaging to her reputation. She’s also cognizant of the fact that sharing her story is the only way to pave the way for those who come after her, much like others paved the way for her. If you’ve read this far, I thank you for empowering her to tell her story. Let’s work together to do better moving forward.
Michelle Obenauer’s “Freedom” post that was removed by the organization within two hours of posting:
“To me, freedom would mean freedom for all people. Many people don't realize this, but original drafts of the Declaration of Independence condemned slavery. These condemnations were stricken to appease powerful racists who refused to join the revolution if slavery was abolished. The result was that White Americans gained freedom from a government that taxed their tea while Black Americans remained in chains. In June… (1/5) we celebrated the freedom of Black Americans on Juneteenth, but Juneteenth was only the day we gained freedom from chains...we still don't have the freedom to express ourselves freely or live without fear as Mark mentioned in his email...we don't even have those freedoms in this organization. We certainly don't have the freedom to be imperfect.
A few weeks ago, I expressed my frustrations to colleagues in a Microsoft Teams message…(2/5) It was an imperfect moment, but it wasn't a policy violation. I didn't attack anyone, threaten anyone, swear, or call people names. I did ask people not to get "huffy and offended" or "go stomping around" if I did what needed to be done to take care of my patients (I will gladly share the message in its entirety to anyone who wants to read it)…(3/5)
Within 24 hours I was stripped of an upcoming transfer as punishment for a supposed violation of the Medical Staff Code of Conduct--I maintain that I did not violate that Code of Conduct as it refers to "persistent" behavior and Acadia's leadership could not even provide me with a second example of what they would call unprofessional behavior, even after a three-week investigation by our internal compliance vice president.
In the meeting in which I was disciplined…(4/5) J*** C*******, a White man in a leadership position used profanity, which is classified as unprofessional behavior according to that same Code of Conduct. He, however, did not experience a punishment. J*** C******* has the freedom to be imperfect. J*** C******* has the freedom to experience grace. As a Black woman at Acadia Hospital, I have neither. To me, freedom would be having the freedom to be imperfect that is granted to White men like J*** C*******. (5/5)”
