Hostile Work Environment post-disciplinary Hearing

[Neila123]

I was recently falsely accused of racism (allegation was a racist comment towards an employee, who is the same race as my wife) on a night out, which resulted in the other employee reporting me to the police as a hate crime – this did not go anywhere and a disciplinary hearing which resulted in a no case to answer. There were 5 witnesses also present. The experience caused me a lot of stress and upset and I was off work for 5 months. I’ve recently returned to work, prior to which I raised concern about working with this employee again as I do believe they are targeting me for reasons I don’t know. This employee does not work in my department nor does he doe the same role as me, he can work from any work office around the city or even from home but chooses to work in the office next to mine or in my actual office despite not being part of my team. The other members of his team rarely come to this office, and if they do they'll attend their team meeting and head away. He doesn't come in everyday so i cannot anticipate or prepare myself. My role requires me to work from this specific office so I do not have a choice and so I can't avoid him. I raised my concerns to my employer about him asking that he not come work from my office, but on the first day I returned to work, he was there which made for an awful first day back. Since then, he’s worked from my office, he’s stared at me angrily and I’ve raised my concerns 3-4 times and nothing has been done. I cannot work in the same office as this individual as it’s causing me a lot of distress. All I can do is avoid him and that’s not easy as he keeps coming into my office to work. I do think there is malicious intent there and it’s unfair that I’m expected to work in a hostile work environment. Today, he was in my office again so I left and told my employer I will work from home today as I can’t work with this individual in the same room and my employer has not resolved the issue, my work is not affected by me working in the office or home. I’m unsure of my options, I get professionalism requires me to move past this but it’s recent and raw and I feel let down. I'm unsure how to navigate through this. Any advice is appreciated.

[ULA]

After such a long time on sickness absence did you have a return to work interview?
Where you signed off on the basis of the stress caused by the incident and would that have been evident to your employer from the Fitness to Work Certificate?

You say you have raised you concerns with your employer, was this done on an informal or formal basis?

[Neila123]

Thank you for your response

My fit notes stated - work related stress and low mood
I had detailed conversations with my manager the week before i returned to work around it and were made very aware that I don’t want to work with this person coming into my office as it’s a stress trigger for me, i was advised by my manager they would speak to his manager and yet the first day i returned ti work he was there.
i raised the issue again informally about my concerns but continued to work, i then raised it with my head of service who raised it with HR - the general view was that as the matter has been resolved both parties should continue to exercise professionalism which I have done but the support hasn’t been there.

Two days ago when the employee was sat in my actual office with my colleagues, informing my employer that I was leaving to work from home as he was there. I then sent a formal email explaining my concerns, the lack of support and actions as it’s now been 5 weeks, and despite the upset it’s caused me, I’ve still continued to work through it, I insisted that the matter be progressed via HR or I would be raising a grievance for lack of support. I insisted on a stress action plan in my email which should have been done from the moment I raised my concerns before I started.

My head of service advised that he had had communications with the employees manager and that he should t have been there.

I imagine if they fail to profess this over the next week I’ll raise a formal grievance for lack of support and exposing me to a hostile environment. I’m also concerned the employee is behaving in a way to provoke me and I run the risk of putting myself in a vulnerable position if he continues this behaviour which is something I also communicated to my employer. I do feel there’s malice there and I can’t talk around him let alone to him as anything said has been taken out of context in the past despite my responses being confirmed as normal and ordinary responses so this further places me in a vulnerable position.

Thank you

[Neila123]

In short my manager and head of service were aware of the incident, disciplinary, the issues I was concerned with since the week before I returned to work. Prior to that I was on a secondment in a different department and only returned to my permanent department Half way through the sickness.

thank you

[ULA]

I would suggest that if this continues then you will need to raise a formal grievance.