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G'day all,
As alluded to before Christmas, some fun and games in the Biting household so I would appreciate any assistance and input on this if possible.
(It will I fear be a long post, so apologies in advance)
Mrs Biting has been employed by her current company since May of last year.
Over this period ahe has had difficulties with her line manager (bullying & harassment), which Mrs. B raised with HR, at that stage there was no formal grievance procedure initiated.
After a number of issues (which the letter posted at the end of this I hope will highlight) Mrs B was advised that she was to attend a disciplinary hearing to assess her future with the company.
Having been signed of for Work related Stress, Mrs B wrote the following letter to initiate the formal grievance procedure.
This all went on just before Christmas, we have been away till Monday 7th Jan and when we got home found a letter form the Company calling a meeting to go through the Grievance letter the following morning at 09:00.
This has been postponed till tomorrow at 08:30, however the company are still going through the Disciplinary meeting at 10:00 on the same day.
Mrs B is fed up with the whole thing and only wants to get out with dignity and reputation intact.
Questions to you all are:-
While there is a grieviance procedure being conducted can the company continue the disciplinary procedure that was initiated by the individual that Mrs B raised the complaint about? (I think That makes sence)
If Mrs B was to resign and give the company her contracted notice period would they be obliged to honour this and would it "kill" the disciplinary.
And now sorry folks here is THE LETTER
As alluded to before Christmas, some fun and games in the Biting household so I would appreciate any assistance and input on this if possible.
(It will I fear be a long post, so apologies in advance)
Mrs Biting has been employed by her current company since May of last year.
Over this period ahe has had difficulties with her line manager (bullying & harassment), which Mrs. B raised with HR, at that stage there was no formal grievance procedure initiated.
After a number of issues (which the letter posted at the end of this I hope will highlight) Mrs B was advised that she was to attend a disciplinary hearing to assess her future with the company.
Having been signed of for Work related Stress, Mrs B wrote the following letter to initiate the formal grievance procedure.
This all went on just before Christmas, we have been away till Monday 7th Jan and when we got home found a letter form the Company calling a meeting to go through the Grievance letter the following morning at 09:00.
This has been postponed till tomorrow at 08:30, however the company are still going through the Disciplinary meeting at 10:00 on the same day.
Mrs B is fed up with the whole thing and only wants to get out with dignity and reputation intact.
Questions to you all are:-
While there is a grieviance procedure being conducted can the company continue the disciplinary procedure that was initiated by the individual that Mrs B raised the complaint about? (I think That makes sence)
If Mrs B was to resign and give the company her contracted notice period would they be obliged to honour this and would it "kill" the disciplinary.
And now sorry folks here is THE LETTER
Mr Xxxxxx Xxxx
C.E.O.
@@@@ Ltd.
@@@@@@@@@@
@@@@@@ @@@ @@@
Dear Xxxxxx,
I wish to bring to your attention the unfair way I have been treated by my line manager, Nnnnnn Nnnnnn, Merchandise Manager for @@@@, over the course of my employment there.
Under the guidelines listed in the Employee Handbook on Codes of Conduct, I feel these have not been adhered to and I have been subject to harassment and bullying by her.
I list the following incidents where Nnnnnn has treated me unfairly:
C.E.O.
@@@@ Ltd.
@@@@@@@@@@
@@@@@@ @@@ @@@
Dear Xxxxxx,
I wish to bring to your attention the unfair way I have been treated by my line manager, Nnnnnn Nnnnnn, Merchandise Manager for @@@@, over the course of my employment there.
Under the guidelines listed in the Employee Handbook on Codes of Conduct, I feel these have not been adhered to and I have been subject to harassment and bullying by her.
I list the following incidents where Nnnnnn has treated me unfairly:
- In June 2007, one day when you came round to our desks to ask us how the daily sales were for the previous day, Nnnnnn answered, and at a suitable break in the conversation I interjected with sales figures for certain stores. Immediately after you left our desks, Nnnnnn called me to an office, there she inaccurately and aggressively accused me of talking over her to you, she berated me for speaking over her and warned me not to speak to you again if she was talking to you. I was quite upset at this as I would not and had no intention of talking over her, I did not think my comments were unwanted. I went away feeling upset and dejected, and also feeling that if I ever talked to you again while Nnnnnn was there, I would suffer serious repercussions.
- As part of the AW07 (Autumn/Winter 2007) Wave 3 Sign Off Meeting on 6th July (scheduled for 9am), I was told to just update the key stats document, which I did, with correct figures, and I printed the packs the day before, ready for the meeting. I was also duly informed by Nnnnnn that this was “her season” and that I was not allowed to make any comments or ask any questions in the meeting. As I was told I had no involvement in the meeting, I arrived at 8.45am on that day. To my astonishment I discovered that the meeting had started at 8am, I had not been told about the time change. I then discovered that Nnnnnn had left a message on my mobile phone earlier that morning (circa 06:30) which said, “I can't remember if I told you that the meeting time had changed to 8am.” This was upsetting as the casual nature of the message did not seem to place much weight in my attending the meeting. There was also another message a few minutes later asking where the file was as she wanted to make some changes. I was quite upset and I went to see Molly to ask her what to do as I did not feel it was professional to turn up for a meeting one hour late although I did not know it had been brought forward. I feel Nnnnnn was instrumental in undermining any authority or gravitas I could have in the eyes of the management team.
- In reference to the same AW07 meeting, Nnnnnn, a few days later, angrily told me off stating that I had put the incorrect figures on the key stats document. I was sure I did not, so I arranged a meeting with her to go over these alleged incorrect figures, I believe the date was 19th July at 3pm. The figure she said I had input incorrectly was the AW06 seasonal sales – I had input £13.002m for this season, Nnnnnn said that figure was wrong and that it should have been £13.598m. I showed her that the correct figure for AW06 season sales was in fact £13.002m for that time period (as quoted on the WSSI (weekly sales stock and intake) report and that the figure of £13.598m she had input and presented to the management team was incorrect. As a result I immediately realised that Nnnnnn had misquoted the forecast growth – it was in fact 13% and not 8% as she had presented in the sign off meeting. I was quite alarmed by this and knew we were going to have a problem achieving such a high sales growth, this level of growth was not planned or highlighted to the management team and any additional stock bought to this inflated figure would be risk. Nnnnnn, at the moment I highlighted this to her, realised she had made a grave error, but decided to blame the previous merchandiser Sonia Readman for inputting the incorrect figures. This I know is not possible as Nnnnnn herself changed the figures back to the incorrect one. The same day I spoke to Sssss Sssssssssss, the merchandiser on Jewellery and Accessories and asked her what I should do and she advised me that I should not say anything as Nnnnnn was my line manager.
- At the end of July (I believe the date was the 27th), I was told by Nnnnnn that I would be managing the intake process and that my current objectives were no longer relevant as “the needs of the business had changed”. I was also told by Nnnnnn that I was to make this my priority task, and that all my other tasks would take second place. Nnnnnn was away the following week, but the business had recruited Jjjjj Jjjjjjjj to update the critical path every morning for me. This did not happen. Jjjjj as you well know decided the job was not for him and continued to work in the warehouse. In the meantime, I started to email suppliers informing them that I would be managing the intake process. At this point, Aaaa Aaaaaaaa, (Buying Director) informed me that I was merely looking after the intake process while Kkkkk Kkkk (Head of Production) was on holiday and I should advise the suppliers as such. When Nnnnnn returned from holiday, she called me into an office and blamed me for not managing the intake process, told me she was disappointed in my performance and was quite abrupt without even asking me what happened. I told her what Aaaa told me, Nnnnnn then informed me that she was my line manager and I should be listening to her. I then informed her that Aaaa, being a director of the company was senior to her and it would be inappropriate of me to disregard her instruction. To summarise, I felt very upset and let down by Nnnnnn, she dropped a bombshell on me by telling me I was taking over intake, however no-one else appeared to be aware of this, I was given no training on CIMS or the critical path to assist me. In short, she manipulated me into a situation where success was impossible and then accused me of not doing my job properly. The manner in which Nnnnnn handled this situation was unfair towards me, and I was treated with no respect and given no support.
- Two days after my 3 month review, Nnnnnn called me into an office and informed me that the Management board were not happy with me and that there was a question mark over my future at @@@@. I then asked her since when were they not happy to which she replied “ since I had started”. I then asked her if this was a verbal warning, to which she replied, “no”. None of this was made aware to me prior to this, and certainly not in my 3 month review 2 days earlier. She also would not elaborate on her statement and tell me exactly what was said about me. I felt very threatened over my employment at @@@@, victimised and harassed and this affected my confidence. I felt that Nnnnnn threatened me regarding my job security over 3 months ago, and I have had to work under undue stress and pressure, and with a threat of losing my job, but with no details to substantiate this threat, I regard this as threatening behaviour from my line manager.
- Within a few days of my starting work at @@@@, I realised that the majority of our management reports the merchandising team produce are Excel based, and that there was a vast difference in the team's knowledge and experience of Excel spreadsheet work. So I consulted each member of the team about their level of expertise, and I concluded that it would be to the team's benefit if they had an advanced Excel training workshop, so that we would all be on the same level. I approached HR Hrrr (HR advisor), who supported my idea. I then passed on my idea to Nnnnnn, who almost immediately dismissed the idea saying there was no money and we would just have to get on with it ourselves. I do not have an extensive knowledge of Excel and felt it would be to the advantage of the business if I could be trained up as well as my team. This was not to be and I felt that my idea fell on deaf ears. Some months later, due to lack of training I still feel I am not making the best and most efficient use of Excel. This was highlighted recently, when I was preparing data on a spreadsheet for the recent AW07 lessons learnt meeting, Nnnnnn saw me using a long-winded way of summing data, she condescendingly called out from her desk (within earshot of the rest of the team) that “we will have to teach you the SUMIF function”. Having (early in my tenure at @@@@) being denied the training I had identified and presented to her as beneficial to the business, I was disappointed to subsequently be taunted publicly by her on an area this training would have addressed. I found this attitude patronizing and seemed to further demean my standing within the organisation.
- A couple of weeks prior to Amersham opening, our first store for a number of years, I advised Nnnnnn that we should reserve stock of the current best sellers, (in particular the boiled wool jackets and cashmere blend knitwear). In the presence of the allocators, she said that there was no need as the store was getting 9 units of a style. I asked her again, highlighting the fact that we would run out of warehouse stock of the best sellers over the weekend run, but once again she said that it was not necessary as Amersham had been allocated 9 units of each, and they had plenty of stock. Within a few days of Amersham opening they did run out of sizes of many company best sellers. By this time, and because Nnnnnn had instructed us not to reserve stock, we had no warehouse stock left. We looked unprofessional, as if we did not know how to manage the expectation and sales of a new store. What surprised me most was when you left a message for Nnnnnn regarding the lack of back up stock, Nnnnnn told me to reply to you, which I would regard as “passing the buck” and making me take the blame for her mismanagement of the situation. Had stock of these best sellers been reserved we would have had far fewer 'stock-out' issues, instead of this we were frantically trying to move stock from other stores. Nnnnnn's flawed strategy meant we lost sales in Amersham. Since Nnnnnn passed the role of spokesperson for this situation to me I feel she was attempting to present me as being responsible for the issues associated with the opening of this store. I was not involved with the development of the store package and in fact raised concerns over the quality of the planned stock/restocking strategy.
- I did not receive a review at one month or 1 week.
- I did not receive a job description or personal development plan in the first 3 months
- I have never had any positive feedback from Nnnnnn, nor have I been praised, in-fact the only feedback I have had from her has been negative and threatening leaving me feeling insecure within my role.
As an employee of @@@@ it is incumbent upon me to raise further issues. In view of maintaining the good reputation and integrity of the company I must draw your attention to comments and decisions made by Nnnnnn that could be construed as ageist.
- While we were trying to recruit for an allocator position on the clothing department, a candidate called Ccccccc Cccc was interviewed. Both Mmmmmm Mmmmmm (my Assistant Merchandiser) and I found her to be a very strong candidate with both an excellent aptitude and numerical skills suitable for the role, strong branch merchandising experience and excellent Excel knowledge. I felt she would be an asset to the team and since Excel training was not made available to the team, Ccccccc would have been a valuable resource for us as she had an in-depth knowledge of this and her skills would have benefited everyone on the team. On feeding this back to Nnnnnn, I showed her Ccccccc's C.V. and advised her that I would like to offer her the position. Nnnnnn read her C.V. and categorically said “no” as she felt she would be too old for the team, and then advised me to keep looking. I was surprised at this decision as Ccccccc was very suitable for the role. Eventually, after very little success in finding alternative candidates I approached Nnnnnn again with Ccccccc's details. She reluctantly told me to arrange a second interview with her. Mmmmmm and I were to interview her again and then Nnnnnn would meet her for the last 15 minutes to make the final decision. Nnnnnn repeated her concern over Ccccccc's age. Even after the interview Nnnnnn could not fault Ccccccc's skills or experience but said she was still concerned about her age and whether Ccccccc would be able to cope with someone younger than her supervising her.
- During a recent department trading meeting, Nnnnnn announced to the merchandising team that we were getting a new Trading Manager, and then proceeded to tell us that he was “quite old”. Realising what she had said, she tried to correct herself and re-phrased it to “older”. Her comments did not go unnoticed by the team and considering my previous experience (reference to Ccccccc Cccc), I was quite shocked at what she said. At the very l@@@@ she was not being supportive or respectful to a new member of staff, and at the worst she was continuing to display her ageist attitude. Her remarks I felt were unnecessary and discriminatory.
On another matter, I must bring to your attention a worrying discrepancy on the AW07 key stats reports which I have mentioned earlier.
- After the meeting on 6th July (referred to earlier) I identified that Nnnnnn had input AW06 seasonal sales figure incorrectly, she had quoted it as £13.598m, however the correct figure was in-fact £13.002m (as quoted on the clothing WSSI (weekly sales stock and intake) report. This meant that the business had been told that the sales growth would be 8% on the year (on Autumn/Winter coded sales), in-fact she had misled the management team and the correct growth quoted should have been 13%. As I said previously, when I highlighted this to her she blamed Sonia Readman for the mistake, but I know Nnnnnn had actually input the incorrect figure.
- Nnnnnn also quoted on the keystats document presented that day that the budget was increased by £1.135m, and out of this figure £455k would be from new stores. She also quoted that the LFL (Like for Like) sales were planned at -1% (pre-budget increase) due to reduced transitional range. She has based this figure on AW06 sales of £13.598k when infact the AW06 sales were £13.002m, therefore the LFL planned growth (pre-budget increase) was in-fact 4% and not -1% as she had quoted.
- Nnnnnn also quoted that the remainder of the budget increase (£680k) would increase the LFL growth from -1% to 5%. The actual LFL growth was in-fact +9% and not 5%, again she had compared the sales to the wrong historical figures. I would like to know how Nnnnnn arrived at her figures as they do not agree with mine. We have both used the same source for the data so I would like to know where the inconsistency lies.
- Prior to presenting the results of the lessons learnt exercise, Nnnnnn was insistent that I should focus solely on product for finding sales failure and not to be concerned with the AW07 strategy. As an experienced merchandiser, when doing a lessons learnt exercise, one cannot solely focus on one area or department, the overall strategy must be reviewed and current performance has to be measured against the original objectives set and agreed. I felt that Nnnnnn tried to prevent me from doing this. I feel that Nnnnnn tried to apportion blame to other departments for the sales failure and refused to take accountability for any of the planning errors and shortfalls. She had told me early on in my tenure that AW07 was her season and she had planned it.
- Nnnnnn insisted on a pre lessons learnt meeting (not normal practice) as Nnnnnn and Aaaa Aaaaaaaa both wanted to see what I had written, seemingly to approve my findings before they were presented to the business. Nnnnnn did not accept or acknowledge any inconsistency in the key stats she submitted and challenged my ability and the integrity of my analysis. To receive a disciplinary letter threatening me with termination of employment shortly after raising concerns would appear to be retaliation for my identifying serious flaws in the planning of AW07.
I believe that I have been harassed, victimised and unfairly treated, as a result my GP, who is concerned for my well-being, has signed me off on medical sick leave due to stress. This has also affected my family as well as working life. I would like to continue to do my job without harassment and request a meeting with you as I feel I cannot return to work under these conditions.
This has not been an easy document to prepare and the statements in it are not made lightly. I trust you will appreciate the challenge I have faced in finding the courage to submit this and hope you will regard these matters with the gravity they warrant.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Bitingback
Merchandiser – Clothing
@@@@ Ltd.
This has not been an easy document to prepare and the statements in it are not made lightly. I trust you will appreciate the challenge I have faced in finding the courage to submit this and hope you will regard these matters with the gravity they warrant.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Bitingback
Merchandiser – Clothing
@@@@ Ltd.
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