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Apologies for the long report but its all relevant
If its too long to get advice please say.
In July 2015 I responded to a job advertisement requiring a security officer to work on a site in South Wales. I had the interview at the site with the security manager. At the interview I learned that we were contracted to the site and despite the security company having multiple contracts all over Britain, I would be based at this site in particular. After being offered the job I started work a few days before the end of July 2015.
From the outset, a couple of my “colleagues” made it clear that they weren’t overly excited about having a female guard joining them. But with my history of working in male dominated environments I brushed this off.
Approximately 2 – 3 weeks into my employment when I came into work one morning, I was a bit tired due to lack of sleep from night before due to problems with my neighbours. In conversation with my boss I mentioned this and he actually invited me to move in with him. Finding this a bit inappropriate (good intentions or not) I politely declined and promised myself that I would steer clear of any future inappropriateness and exercise caution. It’s always been a rule of mine to never mix work and personal life. At the same time I noticed that the guard I was paired up with was starting to show his true colours, he was very rude, childish and disgusting in behaviour and his topics of conversation were very crude. He wouldn’t let me do much other than patrols. He wouldn’t let me do any of the computer work or signing in guests and visitors. I mentioned this to my site security manager and he brushed it off that it was just my colleagues way he liked to work.
2 weeks later, that particular colleague left after 5 years’ service with the company. To this day I am not sure if it was coincidental he happened to be leaving or the fact that he didn’t like being paired with me. Anyway, After only 6 weeks I ended up being the Shift Senior Guard and was paired up with a new recruit. We got on great and we admittedly impressed and surprised a lot of people (including Client and boss) to how well we got the job done considering we were the new newest recruits.
Shortly after my new partner started work for the company, we were on a day shift with our manager. The conversation came up about friendships outside of work where my boss made it clear that I upset him when I told him a few weeks earlier (After the invite to move in with him) that I do not make friends with my bosses. He actually became quite bitter about that. I didn’t say it in a nasty way I emphasised why I wasn’t interested in going to the pub to watch a rugby match with him and other contractors from the site. Because of that he constantly went on about he considered me a mate and i didn’t feel the same way.
A few weeks after the same conversation came up how I don’t have that many friends that I socialise with, my manager brought up the topic about how I refused his friendship and talking about how much I hurt him. This made me uncomfortable as I hardly know the bloke.
Anyway, as weeks passed, I started to learn about my Managers abuse of power on the site, he has a lot of history with other staff on site (Client staff) whether it’s a case that he once dated them, or has angered them through his security work, the one thing in common is that he has quite a record of either trying to have them disciplined over trivial issues or have them removed off site. This became more apparent when around early October time, My manager tricked myself and shift partner into writing statements against another contractor on site over some comments he made about my manager once being caught shoplifting. My partner and I were not aware we were required to write statements however our manager reported said contractor to the Client on site then when he returned to the security office we were asked to go see the client individually to give statements. Myself and my partner were told that the other guards also be giving statements, However, within an hour us giving statements (which were written for us by the client), The client came to the security office to sign them and turns out that our two statements were all he wanted to discipline this contractor. This made things difficult between myself and the contractor in question on site ever since.
During my 6 months at this job, I come to realise how much my manager uses people to get things he wants and when I realised he was doing the same to me, I decided that I was no longer going to be used by him as he has asked me to buy things him using my eBay and amazon accounts so he could pay me the cash as his debt problems meant he had restrictions on his bank accounts. Because I put my foot down, The Manager has misconstrued this as me being nasty and un-cooperative. However I decided I just wanted to come to work, do my shifts with no stress.
November, the manager received confirmation of an in-patient appointment at hospital for surgery on his knee, Because I was a a Senior guard, The manager asked if I wanted to fill in for his role for a few weeks through December whilst my role will be filled by a temporary guard. Hoping to prove myself I agreed and the weeks leading to this his surgery he told me on numerous occasions that I was to be paid his rate. I wasn’t working for his last shift before surgery but he insisted he would be popping back onto site to do a handover. He never showed and never did a handover to me for the Christmas period so for the first couple of days I had to rely on guidance from other long term guards and Client staff.
During the three week period I had to deal with multiple problems from Staff not showing up, to emergency situations such as medical emergency and site wide evacuations. (The site I work is a manufacturing site with a lot of chemicals and gasses). I handled these incidents without any problems and nothing but praise from the client staff.
During my time at this site I had started to get to know quite a few members of staff and would often engage in conversation with them. They would tell me about problems they had with my manager and how his work isn’t the best. A few days before my managers return I was having a conversation with a member of staff which led to me mentioning how I was a bit concerned about my boss’s return as his behaviour was getting to me and bringing me down. I have lost sleep over the reluctance to returning to work and when you work a 12 shift with no sleep, depression starts to sink in to the point that in conversation I mistakenly mentioned that my tiredness at one point caused me to accidently overdose on sleeping tablets at home (Forgetting I already took some)
When my manager returned to work New Year’s Day, It seemed like he had an attitude with me and so admittedly in return I had one with him. During an argument that erupted between us the following week, I commented on how he didn’t seem appreciative for the work I did, and even tried to dispute some of the tasks I accomplished. I told him how I didn’t appreciate being dropped in the s**t, being forced to cover-up for him to the client as he hadn’t explained a lot of the procedures. I told him how I managed to run a site evacuation without incident and how myself and my partner dealt with on site medical emergencies It turned out he was angry with me because during the three weeks he was off, I never phoned him to ask how he was.
It also turned out I was not paid his rate for doing his job, it was something he said to get me to agree to do the job.
Over the last 3 months, I constantly reported to my manager about the abuse and mistreatment I was getting from certain shifts of staff on site. He never took my complaints seriously, told me I was being paranoid. Then there was one incident with a constant speeder on site in which his antics led to a complaint being made to the Client’s HR Department as he was rude and aggressive to me and my partner after we repeatedly asked him to keep his speed down. This in return led to further hostility from the night shift staff eventually leading to a rather abusive encounter with a member of staff threatening me, shouting at me and intimidating me. Again this man was also reported to the client HR department who actually allowed him to get away with it.
There was another incident where I was shouted at and intimidated by a member of staff on a Saturday day shift after I reported his speeding to the client, Shortly after , knowing I was in the guard house by myself he came in shouting at me demanding why I was reporting him and that I was a liar. He then told me he was going to be having a word with the client about me, I myself put a report in to the client and again nothing was done about his conduct.
The truth is that over the last 6 months, being based at this site has caused my depression to return. I have never been late for one shift. I have always worked the entire 12 hour shift unless I had a doctor’s appointment. I have quite often stayed longer than my 12 hour shift to help cover for incidents and late staff. I have had to listen to my manager talk about his personal problems from home despite my belief that the problems should be left at home, Same with a few of the other guards talking about their home life problems, Yet when I express that I am suffering with depression it all of a sudden becomes a problem.
20th January, the regional manager for my security company made a visit to site to meet with my manager and the client. These meetings happen regularly to discuss problems, to request certain jobs be done etc and to settle the security bill. After they had the meeting, the regional manager returned to the security office and told me “Bad news, the client has requested that you be removed from site so you are now suspended” When I asked on what grounds all I was told was that there was an accusation of harassment made against me. Shocked I was watched as I packed my bag, and as I was leaving I asked what am I going to do for money. The regional manager said he had already discussed with head office I would be paid til the end of the week. So I left site. Fortunately I think he realised his mistake about the pay for a week as last week I was paid in full for the month and hopefully that is still ongoing as its now 4 weeks later and I have still not had any answers. I have had no phone calls, no letters or no emails explaining what the hell is going on. I myself however have sent emails and tried making calls , even texts but no answer to any of this. I have kept records of all my attempts to contact them but I really do not know what to do. I am uncertain whether I am still being paid. Obviously I can’t afford to be out of work at all and citizens advice were no help and ACAS have only sent me links to advice pages about harassment at work and workplace bullying which are of no use at the moment. Can you help??
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