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Hi there!
I have been having ongoing issues at work since October. A colleague has been harassing (non sexual) and intimidating me since then. This has been an issue with other colleagues in my department for lengths of time (all female) over the last 2 years. Since October, this behaviour has been towards myself and another colleague. In November we both spoke informally to our manager about the behaviour, and was assured it would be dealt with by a meeting between us all and speaking to the colleague about his behaviour. Nothing happened. At the start of December we wrote a formal grievance regarding his behaviour. I heard nothing. At the end of December, I was in the office with my manager in tears, due another incident on shift. I stated that I was unable to work with the colleague. I was assured action would be taken. A week later, I was in the office with the duty manager, as the behaviour at this point made me fear for my safety. She was appalled that nothing had been done since early November, when it was first raised. She chased this up.
At the start of January I had a grievance meeting with an investigating manager. I had no letter inviting me, and was not informed until in the meeting that I had the right to be accompanied. I was very stressed and didn’t want to postpone the meeting, so I agreed to be unacompanied. If I had been informed before of this right, I would certainly have had representation.
I heard nothing more and was left in a hostile environment which caused me a great deal of prolonged stress. By mid February I was informed by another colleague who knew nothing of the situation that the colleague in question had told them that they had a meeting because somebody had complained about him, and he would tell them all about it, once he had been in the meeting. This was the final straw that caused me to have a mental breakdown, and I have since been off work with depression.
I had a wellness meeting last week, where I stated that the ongoing situation was causing me stress, and made me uncomfortable of the thought of going back in to the workplace. My manager stated that it had all been sorted, and that there had been a letter on the side for several weeks with my name on. She went and got it, and said it looks like it has been opened and resealed (obviously opened and cellotaped up badly). It states that my meeting notes are contained from my January meeting. They are not. The grievance and investigation had not been conducted to ACAS guidelines or company policy, relevant witnesses were not interviewed, relevant CCTV had not been looked at. The result is that it was partly upheld, with a meeting arranged, which I said in my January meeting that I feared for my safety, and no longer felt comfortable with that approach. It states that my colleague was unaware of his actions upsetting people. This has been raised with him before because of other colleagues (and a customer) having the same complaint previously. This was raised with him by our manager in December. Since the investigation he has approached a colleague who was a witness in the investigation, and said that he knew she’d been up in the office talking about him. She is now receiving the same treatment as I have been having from him.
The date on the outcome letter says that I have two weeks to appeal, but it is dated from the middle of February. I am annoyed that this was not sent to me, as it has been detrimental to my mental health not knowing what was going on.
As it stands, I can see no way of going back to my place of work because of this situation. I am on SSP.
I am in the process of putting together my appeal, and was advised by ACAS to state my issues with procedure in my appeal, rather than raising it as a seperate grievance.
I have today lodged with ACAS, as I was worried about the 3 month deadline. Would I take this forward as a harrassment or duty of care issue? Also, very concerned about my data being held unsecure and because of that someone may have access to my confidential meeting notes.
If anyone has any advice on how I proceed with this, I would be very grateful!
I have been having ongoing issues at work since October. A colleague has been harassing (non sexual) and intimidating me since then. This has been an issue with other colleagues in my department for lengths of time (all female) over the last 2 years. Since October, this behaviour has been towards myself and another colleague. In November we both spoke informally to our manager about the behaviour, and was assured it would be dealt with by a meeting between us all and speaking to the colleague about his behaviour. Nothing happened. At the start of December we wrote a formal grievance regarding his behaviour. I heard nothing. At the end of December, I was in the office with my manager in tears, due another incident on shift. I stated that I was unable to work with the colleague. I was assured action would be taken. A week later, I was in the office with the duty manager, as the behaviour at this point made me fear for my safety. She was appalled that nothing had been done since early November, when it was first raised. She chased this up.
At the start of January I had a grievance meeting with an investigating manager. I had no letter inviting me, and was not informed until in the meeting that I had the right to be accompanied. I was very stressed and didn’t want to postpone the meeting, so I agreed to be unacompanied. If I had been informed before of this right, I would certainly have had representation.
I heard nothing more and was left in a hostile environment which caused me a great deal of prolonged stress. By mid February I was informed by another colleague who knew nothing of the situation that the colleague in question had told them that they had a meeting because somebody had complained about him, and he would tell them all about it, once he had been in the meeting. This was the final straw that caused me to have a mental breakdown, and I have since been off work with depression.
I had a wellness meeting last week, where I stated that the ongoing situation was causing me stress, and made me uncomfortable of the thought of going back in to the workplace. My manager stated that it had all been sorted, and that there had been a letter on the side for several weeks with my name on. She went and got it, and said it looks like it has been opened and resealed (obviously opened and cellotaped up badly). It states that my meeting notes are contained from my January meeting. They are not. The grievance and investigation had not been conducted to ACAS guidelines or company policy, relevant witnesses were not interviewed, relevant CCTV had not been looked at. The result is that it was partly upheld, with a meeting arranged, which I said in my January meeting that I feared for my safety, and no longer felt comfortable with that approach. It states that my colleague was unaware of his actions upsetting people. This has been raised with him before because of other colleagues (and a customer) having the same complaint previously. This was raised with him by our manager in December. Since the investigation he has approached a colleague who was a witness in the investigation, and said that he knew she’d been up in the office talking about him. She is now receiving the same treatment as I have been having from him.
The date on the outcome letter says that I have two weeks to appeal, but it is dated from the middle of February. I am annoyed that this was not sent to me, as it has been detrimental to my mental health not knowing what was going on.
As it stands, I can see no way of going back to my place of work because of this situation. I am on SSP.
I am in the process of putting together my appeal, and was advised by ACAS to state my issues with procedure in my appeal, rather than raising it as a seperate grievance.
I have today lodged with ACAS, as I was worried about the 3 month deadline. Would I take this forward as a harrassment or duty of care issue? Also, very concerned about my data being held unsecure and because of that someone may have access to my confidential meeting notes.
If anyone has any advice on how I proceed with this, I would be very grateful!
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