Help I Don't Know What To Do

[defeated]

I currently work for a Owner/ MD business and have been employed for the past 5 years within a senior role.

However over the last 2 years things have become more and more difficult as I start to find out about numerous things that have gone on and the way that he has treated me personally and also others that I am responsible for from a line management perspective. This got to the stage where I had to sign myself off with stress recently due to high blood pressure.*

Firstly on my return to work from being signed off he has in my absence chosen to announce on two occasions the medical reasons why I was off to most of the staff members. I have come back absolutely mortified, upset and humiliated that everyone knows about something that I had thought should be confidential. This however hasn't come as a huge surprise as i have had to speak to him twice before about sharing confidential information with other staff members and that he is putting his own business at risk of doing so.*

Beyond this over the last two years, I have been subjected to constant micro management, with no trust and being called into the office in what feels like "trying to catch me out" meetings, where there is no agenda set, yet he always has all the information to hand. he has also called me a Gayboy and Pufter previously and has made numerous racial, prejudice and sexist comments and passes it off as banter and that I take things too personally when challenging him. He has done all this in front of team members that I am meant to line manage. He has also shared other personal information about me to staff members that should have remained confidential. He breaks every rule in his own staff handbook but how do you complain when the only person to complain to is the very person who owns the business and is the problem.

Around 9 months ago, he started a redundancy process and at the time I agreed to take a 10% pay reduction, however within weeks of him doing this he handed out pay rises to three other staff members, even though he claimed to me that the business could't financially afford to keep me on the rate i was being paid, which is below industry standards due to the area I live in.*

Beyond this he has committed business rate fraud, tax fraud, cash in hand to employees, putting personal holidays through the accounts, not registering for VAT in the relevant countries when he should. All of which are causing me a huge amount of stress.*

My performance is constantly under questions even though as a business we are out performing the majority of our industry but what I think this really boils down to is the fact he doesn't like paying my salary as although a LTD company sees everything as his own money.*

i don't even know why I am writing on this, maybe a cry for help, maybe some advice about what to do or what the right thing to do would be. My head is all over the place and after being told my health is at risk if the way i feel continues and the doctor saying that your boss is a bully, I know I can't stay with the status quo but also feel an overwhelming responsibility for the people that work here.*

I would appreciate any advice as feel so trapped at the moment.*

[ULA]

I am sorry to hear that work is causing you such stress. I think what you have to consider is do you want to try and work on in the environment being created by the Owner/MD, who I am presuming that you report, if there is the likelihood nothing will change even if you try to raise the issues with him or on a practical level do you have to start thinking about moving elsewhere.

There are obviously some regulatory, legal issues as to how he runs his company would you want to whistle-blow?
Can you build a case for leaving on the basis of constructive dismissal but you would need to prove the case, have it well documented and ideally have gone through a grievance procedure.*

You also need to think about your health in all of this which is clearly suffering and you need to ensure you look after yourself.

I have just thrown some thoughts out there but happy to answer any questions these create for you.*

[defeated]

So I guess I need to break it down a little more.

I have documented over 200 meetings that I have had with him dating back over a three year period, of those 200 meetings there is probably about 60 of those where he has demonstrated intimidating and bullying behaviour and also said thing derogatory about other team members in the business or made comments which are not appropriate. Just today he has once again undermined me and my role by copying in a third party supplier and berating me for doing something that is within my remit of my role, which has created even further stress. I have no doubt that if I wanted to take this further then I could, its just it would mean the end of working in the business as there is no way of working this out. I would also be able to gather witness statements from current and previous staff with regards to his behaviour and evidence of that behaviour.

My initial question would be, how do I start a grievance process and how much information in terms of the grievance would I need to include and can you point me in the direction of any examples / templates.

The next question is that it has got to the stage where for my health I can't stay in the business, so I am at the point of handing my notice in which I think is what he was hoping to happen so that he doesn't have to pay redundancy but also think hes trying to build his own case against me as he has been on my computer at work looking for evidence of which there is none as I have always been extremely committed to my role but he will try to use examples that don't amount to anything as this is what he does when hes had me in one to one meetings previously and unless you admit that your wrong and he is right he doesn't let you leave the meeting and becomes very aggressive about it.

With regards to the questions about whistle blowing, I already have done this for one element, business rates and I think he could be aware that it was me who did this and hence why more recently he has really ramped up the intimidation and bullying behaviour.

The last question is that the doctors wanted to sign me off for longer than a week but as he is out of the business this week I wanted to come back, mainly for the rest of the team that work there, but with how this week has gone I am realising this was the wrong decision, which means that I will take the advice of the doctors and sign myself off again. I guess what I am asking is what is the best way to deal with this. Can I hand my notice in if I am going to sign myself off. Can I still raise a grievance if I have handed my notice in. The problem is that I really don't feel for my own health that being in a closed door meeting is going to be productive and I am worried that if I raise a grievance then its going to create issues, however I don't want him to get away with this as there are other staff members who he has a duty of care to and if I leave then I fear that he could go back to his old ways before I joined the business and there is venerable young team members.

Sorry just to add to this. I am really not happy that he has announced to basically most of the staff members why I was off, which he gave detailed information that I gave him out of courtesy and did not expect that to be announced within 10 minutes of everyone arriving for work. I would like to send him a letter about this, could you advise on this as well.

Any advice and help would be much appreciated.

[ULA]

Thank you for the further information and sorry for delay in responding. I will try and lay out the various options for you.

1. To raise a grievance, you would need to do this formally in writing. In that grievance you would need to succinctly state what your grievances are and illustrate with recent dates, times and if appropriate locations, where the issue you are complaining of have happened. Detailing things that happened three years ago is not going to be productive in your grievance it must be the most recent issues you have had. Do not make it a shopping list but concentrate on the issues that have caused you the most difficulty.
Going back to one of the points you raised about him telling staff the confidential information of why you were off sick, this should be one of the things that you include.

If you need help and want me to review any letter you draft, then happy to do so.

Given that he is the owner/MD is there any other manager in the business? If there is not and considering that the grievance will be about the owner/MD it may be worth making it clear that you would expect any grievance to he heard by a neutral third party. Not doing so would mean that the grievance meeting is compromised before it even takes place.

2. Handing in your notice without another job to go to is always difficult. Have you prepared your CV and started looking for anything else yet?
One thought, would be to consider whether there is a case for constructive dismissal, which is where you resign because of the behaviour of your employer which amounts to a serious breach of your contract. For this you would initially make a claim for early conciliation via ACAS prior to making an Employment Tribunal claim. Be aware though, It is not an easy route to go down as the onus would be on you to prove that the conduct and serious breaches by your employer left you no option but to resign. However, the one thing that Tribunal like to see in these types of cases *is that the individual has exhausted the internal process first i.e. raised a grievance to try and resolve the situation.

3. Even if you go off sick you can raise a grievance but you will need to be prepared to attend any grievance meeting, since it cannot be put off indefinitely until you return to work, particularly as you have instigated the action.

4. If you are off sick and just decide you have had enough then again you can hand in your notice.

[defeated]

Hi*

Thank you for your extensive response, its very much appreciated.*

After much thought on this and various conversations with my wife and family I have decided that the best thing to do is hand my notice in which I am going to do on Monday. As part of that resignation letter I will be detaining out the reasons including disclosing private and confidential medical information to other staff members and state that I feel I have no other choice but to resign. I don't want to have the hassle and more importantly stress of taking him down a tribunal route, however my notice period is 3 months and I do want something on record, hence putting the reasons within my resignation in case he decides to make the last 3 months of my employment difficult. I am going to be drafting my resignation letter this evening and happy to send this across but would prefer not to put it on here as it would become obvious what the business is. I will be sending this to him Monday evening as I have a doctors appointment which I know I am going to get signed off for a couple of weeks as a minimum.*


Thank you for all your advice its been very much appreciated.*

*

[ULA]

I am glad you have come to a decision, which must have been hard but may in some way be a relief given what you have been going through at work. Since you have a 3 month notice period it will give you a little bit more time to try and find an alternative position.

If you did want me to look at your resignation letter, you can always PM it to me