What Is Splitting Behaviour? A Guide for Support Teams

Two workers, same house, same person. One of them could do no wrong, endless warmth, constant praise, always asked for by name. The other got criticised for the exact same call the first one had made the week before. It took the team a while to realise the pattern wasn't really about either worker's competence. It showed up because the two of them, without meaning to, had drifted into answering the same requests differently. Once they lined up their responses and started comparing notes properly, most of the tension went with it.

That's the shape splitting usually takes in real support work. Less dramatic than the term suggests, and much more fixable than it feels in the moment.

What does splitting actually look like on shift?

A few patterns tend to repeat. One worker gets idealised, endlessly praised, treated as the only one who "really gets it." Another gets consistently criticised or blamed, sometimes for things that were never their doing. The person might share different, even contradictory, versions of the same event with different team members, so that no single worker ever has the whole picture. Or they'll ask the same question of several workers in turn, hoping a different answer turns up somewhere along the way.

Why does it happen?

It's tempting to read this as manipulation, and sometimes it does look calculated. More often it isn't. A team that genuinely answers the same request differently, one worker says yes to something another says no to, creates a real incentive to ask around, and that's a consistency problem before it's anything else. For some people, this pattern also connects to a history where relationships and care were unpredictable, and testing whether this relationship will hold up under pressure is an understandable, if difficult, response to that history. Treating it as deliberate bad behaviour first tends to make a worker defensive rather than curious, and curious is what actually helps here.

How does it affect a team if it's left unaddressed?

Left alone, it tends to breed real rivalry. Workers start competing, consciously or not, to be the "favourite," while resentment builds toward whoever's been cast as the difficult one. Support becomes less consistent exactly when consistency matters most, and communication between workers can quietly break down because nobody wants to be the one who "gets it wrong" in front of the others. In the worst version, it erodes the basic trust between colleagues that good support depends on.

How do you respond well as an individual worker?

Take neither the flattery nor the criticism entirely at face value. If you're told something surprising about how a colleague handled a situation, check in with that colleague or the team rather than assuming you've heard the whole story. Hold to what the plan or your organisation's policy actually says, regardless of who's asking or how the request is framed. And notice, honestly, whether you've started enjoying being the favourite. That's a natural pull, and it's worth being aware of rather than quietly feeding it.

How does a team build consistency to reduce it?

Regular, honest handovers matter more here than almost anywhere else in the job. Shared documentation that everyone actually reads closes the information gaps that let splitting take hold. A team leader who names the pattern openly, without blaming the person supported or any one worker, and works through what a consistent response looks like across the whole team, usually sees the pattern settle within a few weeks. Where it's significant or ongoing, it's worth raising with the person's broader support team too, since a genuinely shared, agreed picture across everyone involved is the strongest defence there is.

How CORA's course fits into this

CORA's course Splitting Behaviours: Practical Support Strategies, part of the Behaviour Support & Crisis stream in the course library, works through realistic team scenarios and asks workers to practise holding consistency without becoming punitive or rigid. It builds understanding and judgement. It doesn't replace a behaviour support practitioner's clinical input where that's warranted, and CORA doesn't certify or sign off a worker's competence, that call sits with your organisation.

If you're mapping what your whole team needs across this and the rest of the Behaviour Support stream, the Pathway Builder is a free tool that does it for you, no sign-up required. Or request a demo if you'd rather talk it through.

Sources and further reading

• NDIS Practice Standards, NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
• Trauma-informed care training for support workers, CORA Workforce

This page is general information for support workers and providers, not clinical or diagnostic advice. Always follow the individual's current support plan and your organisation's policies, and involve a behaviour support practitioner where a pattern is significant or ongoing.