Problems At Work

[scarletrose]

Well i think you all know me,

However since September I have Been having problems at work intimidation by senior management which i like to think of as bullying.

So much has happened but like an idiot i didnt write it all down at the time, can still remember most of it however not times and dates, I do however have colleagues one in particular that has witnessed most of it.

I am in the process at the moment of collecting my thoughts and events and going to start to write down a few events that have happened, because I want to resign on Monday having spoke to a few people I have been told this is not perhaps the most sensible thing to do, so i think I may have to swallow my pride and take on an official route. It has been an icredibly hard and stressful couple of months and basically I am being put in a bad light because I was honest and didnt fudge the truth like i was supposed to have to a third party which was asking me questions about the ? I work with progress and what happens in a day to day setting etc.

Due to the senior managements lack of duty I have been working above and beyond the call of duty and would do so willingly for the sake of ? however i have not only done this persons job for them and witnessed things i shouldnt have I was supposed to lie to stop the organisation looking bad however if i would have lied this would have had a direct consequence on ?, i personally feel very intimidated bullied deeply upset and used, my contract does not say that i should be doing what i do which a large amount is done in my own time and using my own resoursces which comes out of a very very low wage. I did this because i love my job and the 2 ?'s that i work with.

The problems were resolved well i say resolved what i mean is the cracks were papered over for a while and they are better than they were but she still treats us ( me and ?'s ) badly and i dont see why i should lie for this person.

I know a lot of this probably dont make sense however i am trying to get my head aroud things and put thoughts into words which i can post later.

I am at my wits end I only have to work with this person until september however the support i should be getting from my other manager isnt there and now i am the one in the doghouse because i was honest.

unfortunately because of my job and my identification a lot of the info could land me in trouble if i post on here.

ideas anyone???????????

hugs kisses
a very upset scarletxxxxx

[enaid]

Re: Problems At Work

Aww scarlet afraid I have no answers for you, I'm not clued up on this at all.
Bitingback has had a similar problem, well his OH did have a read of that and see if you can pick anything up from there.
Just will add I hope you come out of this ok, keep your chin up and you know people on here will pull out all the stops to help you Enaid x

[scarletrose]

Re: Problems At Work

Oh Enaid thanx hunny in an ideal world this person needs to retire and I need to stay with ?

scarletxxxxx

[Amy]

Re: Problems At Work

Good start Scarlet, well done xx

[TANZARELLI]

Re: Problems At Work

HI Scarlet,

Not knowing to much about the company/org you work for it is hard to comment, however you have touched already on something which you need to do more of and that is to record/evidence the incidences of bullying that are taking place in the workplace. If your friend is happy to be a witness all the better as if it goes to any sort of tribunal this will be needed to back up your case.

Does the palce you work at have an internal complaints procedure? Or is there any sort of external support you are able to access?

It is not a nice situation to be in and you should not be made to put up with it. Remember you are the victim here.

Have a read of this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7191309.stm

Also here are a few useful links that may help:

http://www.workplacebullying.co.uk/

http://www.andreaadamstrust.org/

http://www.tuc.org.uk/tuc/rights_bullyatwork.cfm

I hope things improve but remember if they continue to stay the same without being challenged it will not only damage your health it will also say to them you condone them doing it to you.

Take care.

Tanz

[Xena]

Re: Problems At Work

Sorry to hear about this Scar,

xx

[Bitingback]

Re: Problems At Work

G'day Cara Mia,

Sorry to say itsounds familiar, it is a horrible and stressful situation you are going through and you will have to decide how best to address it.

You employer has a duty to ensure your working situation is safe and healthy and if you are suffering bullying (sadly there is no legal definition of this) or harrassment, they have a duty of care to stop this from happenng.

Check out the links TANZ provided and also have a look (or better yet talk to)

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=454

Tools put me on to them for my OH situation.

It is important to remember that the organisation has a process in place to protect you from this situation though it is up to you to initiate it. Thats the biggest mind shift, the thought of officially complaining about your superior (?), but hey you did it to the banks and won .

This is a purely personal opinion, but if you walk away nothng will change there and the person who is causing you stress will have freedom to use your name to coverup any failings within your work area.

If you do decide to leave, ensure it is on your terms and that your empoyer has to deal with (or compensate you for) the situation that has led to this result.

Also (I sound like I'm lecturing now sorry) bear in mind they will be providing references to other potential employers.

I'm happy to help so keep us posted.

BB

[Tools]

Re: Problems At Work

Check out the links TANZ provided and also have a look (or better yet talk to)

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=454

Tools put me on to them for my OH situation. BB

Nice to see your OH got a postive outcome BB :okay: and yes Scar , excellent links from Tanz and BB

I cannot stress enough that you should read the following Scarlet Acas - Advice leaflet - Bullying and harassment at work: guidance for employees


You also say that

You employer has a duty to ensure your working situation is safe and healthy and if you are suffering bullying (sadly there is no legal definition of this) or harrassment, they have a duty of care to stop this from happenng.

Although not a `legal` definition the following may give you an idea what is widely accepted as bullying sourced from the British Medical Assosiation

Defining workplace bullying and harassment
One of the acknowledged difficulties in approaching the problem of workplace bullying and harassment is that it is often difficult to recognise and its effects may often be attributed to something else. There is no simple definition of workplace bullying and harassment, because it can take different forms, occur in a variety of situations and crosses gender, age, race and religion and can involve one or a number of individuals. According to Quine [go to note 13], a central difficulty is that there is no real consensus on what constitutes bullying and harassment behaviour. A useful definition of bullying and harassment is as follows:

‘bullying is persistent behaviour against an individual that is intimidating, degrading, offensive or malicious and undermines the confidence and self-esteem of the recipient. Harassment is unwanted behaviour that may be related to age, sex, race, disability, religion, sexuality or any personal characteristic of the individual. It may be persistent or an isolated incident’ [go to note 14].

A further definition is provided by the Andrea Adams Trust, a charity committed to preventing workplace bullying. It defines bullying and harassment behaviour as follows [go to note 15]:

• unwarranted or humiliating offensive behaviour towards an individual or groups of individuals;
• such persistently negative malicious attacks on personal or professional performance are typically unpredictable, unfair, irrational and often unseen;
• an abuse of power or position that can cause such anxiety that people gradually lose all belief in themselves, suffering physical ill health and mental distress as a direct result;
• the use of power or position to coerce others by fear, persecution or to oppress them by force or threat;
• workplace bullying and harassment can range from extreme forms such as violence and intimidation to less obvious actions such as deliberately ignoring someone at work.

Hope this helps you Scar :kiss:

[scarletrose]

Re: Problems At Work

Thanx so much to everyone for there support on this matter and for the fab advice and links from Tanz, BB and Tools.

I had a chat with my line manager(who is also a member of LB) on Msn last night and she says she will support me and told me a few of the procedures I need to go through, firstly I need to make an appointment to see The person above her and tell her what is going on, even though this person is the one who isnt happy about my honesty however i shall go thru the correct channels but will read all those links first so i have a clearer knowledge to my rights.

The person that I am working with who is the one at the centre of all this is notorious for her behaviour and sadly i am not the only one who is treated badly by her, however i do seem to be getting the sharp end of the stick so to speak, I willl be doing a lot of reading today, and getting my facts together.

Thanx again guys so much for the support

Hugs kisses xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Scarlet

[Solowka]

Re: Problems At Work

Just make sure you approach this professionally so there is no come back and make notes of new times and events (if they continue to happen).

Good luck babes
xxx

[scarletrose]

Re: Problems At Work

RIght i have just read through the acas thingy it has an * next to the bit about unfair treatment why?

am i being dim again?

hugs scarletxxxxx

[scarletrose]

Re: Problems At Work

AWWW SOL thanx my hunny xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[TANZARELLI]

Re: Problems At Work

Here's another useful link Scarlet: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employme...rk/DG_10026670

Bullying in the workplace

Regards

Tanz

[WendyB]

Re: Problems At Work

Sorry to hear of this Scarlet, you may know I've had a bit of this recently myself, following a row with a director the other day. I'm just waiting to see if everything goes back to normal, otherwise I'll be going down the same route as you.

Main thing is, I know its scary but you have to instigate it, otherwise the bully has won again. Our company sacked one of our directors from being a director last year, then demoted him to being an engineer. Everything they did was legal and allowed, but they did it all deliberateley to make things awkward so that he would leave. Which he did in the end, and took them to Tribunal. In the end it never got as far as tribunal, comapny settled beforehand, he got about half of what he wanted. i saw it all from the inside, and to be honest i think the he deserved to be sacked as a director, and didn't really deserve a penny cos he'd bought it all on himself with his actions. But my point is, they fought dirty, although it was all legal and above board, they knew what they were doing would get rid of him. They just didn't bargain for him going for constructive dismissal.

At least I know exactly what happened, and would be in a strong position if they ever tried it on me.

You've taken the first step, and reported it to your line manager. She should be supportive of you.

You do not deserve this treatment, be brave-we'll be here to hold your hand if you need it.

Wendy xx

[scarletrose]

Re: Problems At Work

Okay well i went in today fully prepared to start a formal procedure

However there has been a small but significance change, plus a friendly greeting from ?? which was slightly unnerving. my other manager the one with the honesty problem was unfriendly but informed me i would be having a meeting with ?? at the end of the morning, something that should have been happening on a weekly basis for a long time..

We had the meeting regarding the 2 children i work with and it went well very friendly and she was as pleased as I was to have a proper sit down and discuss planning for them.

I began to wonder if maybe the workload thing is due to a lack of communication and chance to discuss things. This however does not excuse it, because as senior management they should ensure it happens.

It also does not excuse the countless other things that have happened, like talking about me to my co-worker in a less than flattering way, for which she has no grounds.

I have decided to give this new meeting thing a try and see if now there is more communication things should improve.

I will now be keeping a diary and this for one minute does not mean I am simply giving in, I just think that it will be better for it to be resolved in a less formal way if it can be.

If anything else happens I will have more ammunition and will know all other attempts by myself to do my job in a healthy and safe way not physically but emotionally, have failed and i will resume what i have already started putting together.

so thoughts please am i doing the right thing ?

ps thanx Wendy and Tanz xxxxx