Internal Transfer at work

[slainte caragh]

Hi guys,
I need some help.

Firstly, let me explain that normally I am happy-go-lucky, don't care a fig and love everyone and everything (old friends will know this) but right now, I am so low that I am actually crying as I write this.

It's work. To put it bluntly, I hate it.

I work in a call centre, no biggie. I like the organisation I work for but its the unit. It's like working in a morgue! In fact I think people in a morgue have more fun!! The office itself smells of drains, the regime is T.I.N.Y (Tough it's now yours!), any incentives or "fun days" are finished by 2pm so us poor sods in the evening shift get nothing, if we complain they come to you mid call then b*tch that you have asked about it and don't accept it there and then!

There are other units crying out for staff and I have requested transfer 3 times so far to be told "we can't release you, we need cover!"

I am coming home with headaches, crying, not wanting to get out of bed the next morning and nothing but nothing is helping, and the worst part is.. they know!!

I am supposed to have equiptment at work as I cannot use a mouse without pain or a standard keyboard (laptops ok as I hold it sideways or on a slant) I was promised it in April 16 and im still waiting, every 1-2-1 i have I request it and I'm told oh yeh you need a risk assesment! Still havent had it!

What do i do guys? I don't want to be bullied out of a company that until last year I enjoyed working for. I am absolutely desperate for help, I feel like I'm sinking in to quicksand and can't get out.

sorry to be melodramatic, as I said my old friends will know this is so not me.

Thanks for letting me rant.


Callie <3

[mariefab]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

By 'evening shift' do you mean night shift?
If so, do you work at least 7 hours per shift and do at least 3 of these hours fall between midnight and 5am?

Has the request for, or the promise of, the equipment you need been documented at any time?
Is it possible that your pain-causing condition is a disability? See 6(1) below.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/6

FYI:
'substantial' means not trivial.
'long term' means has lasted or is likely to last for 12 months. It doesn't have to be constant as long as it could well happen that it'll recur.
'adverse effect' (e'g'pain) is assessed on what the effect would be if you took no medication or other measures to mitigate/correct it.

[slainte caragh]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

i work from 3pm to 8pm and I work 5 hours a day due to severe pain caused by hypermobility and suspected (not clear indications yet) rhumatiod arthritis. My hands point inwardly at almost 45 degree angles and I have requested and reminded them of the equiptment since April last year, at one point they suggested I buy my own via Amazon cos I was crying with pain.

I am so down that I have a few times actually asked my Team Manager what is the point of me being here?

I would say I have a normal pain score (1 lowest- 10 highest) of about 3-4 on a daily basis and have for about 3 years now and on a bad day this can be 8/9. My pinkie finger can seize totally and stick out like a snob at a cocktail party, my right hand is a good size larger than my left. If I move my wrists at all my left one "clunks" and my right one cracks like dry twigs, on a bad day it totally dislocates. My shoulders can do this as well.

They are taking me to a stage one meeting as I have had 3 instances of sickness in 12 months (one was a cyst on my right knee caused by my hypermobility) and are saying that if it goes on the internal systems this can block a transfer, if I don't get off that unit soon I will go nuts!

Sorry to take it out on you guys but if i don't "say" it my brain is going to explode!

[mariefab]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

It's likely that your condition qualifies as a disability.

Is any request for the equipment or any promise of theirs to provide it written down?

[slainte caragh]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

yes, on my inital application for the job, one every monthly 1-2-1 meeting with my team manager and I have what they call a DSE form in my records (DSE - Display Screen Equiptment).

Every 1-21 (monthly progress meeting with my Team Manager) I express my unhappiness and depression in the unit and request a transfer, and also remind them I am waiting on my risk assesment.

Every time I have that I get told she will ask my Ops Manager and get back to me about the transfer (never does) and will sort out the risk assesment.

This is going to sound so weird so please bear with me, I know that if I get my transfer the other units will get me the stuff I need as I have worked there before and got it within 3 months (sounds a long time but I need keyboard, mouse and screen raiser along with other misc crap that I can do without in the short term) it's more the depression and the feeling so low constantly that is upsetting me,

Without wishing to sound too much Lil Orphan Annie, I just want to be happy again, I love working on the phones and I'm bloody good at it (if i do say so myself) but I cannot go on much longer in a unit with zero morale, zero laughter and zero employee happiness.

Can I insist on a transfer due to this? I swear if I am there much longer I am going to go sick with depression. I can feel it when I walk through the doors, just this feeling of "I want to go home!"

[mariefab]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

I understated the likelihood that you have a disability in my last post because ultimately only a Judge can definitively confirm it.
I have rheumatoid arthritis myself, the effects are nowhere approaching as bad as your described condition (and there's nothing else wrong with me). However, a Judge has confirmed that it qualifies as a disability.

It's time to stop waiting for them to act.
You need to raise a formal grievance on the grounds of disability discrimination by failure of their duty to make reasonable adjustments. (for starters anyway, we may come up with further potential claims)

This may achieve: 1) the transfer, 2) the equipment, 3) the cancellation of the stage 1 meeting.

If you like I can help you to prepare the necessary paperwork.

[slainte caragh]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

you my love are a diamond!

I would do ANYTHING to get off that unit!

Just to add in to the mix, when I applied for a change of scenery shall we say (to go on to this horrible unit) I was given the option of 2. I was turned down by the 1st as they could not get the risk assesment done within 4 weeks of me going to them (and they were honest and said it there and then) so present unit have known I need this since before I walked through the doors.

we have a sort of internal union, I can go to their offices tomorrow if this will help I have no idea what to do as I have never raised a grievance before but I am desperate and depressed enough to try anything once!

[mariefab]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

If your 'internal union' are already aware of the things that you've described here and have done nothing they are useless.

Don't worry about how to go about raising the grievance. It's basically just a matter of putting everything on paper and handing it in.

If you would like me to prepare it for you I'm happy to do so.
I'll have to ask you a lot of questions and it might be best to keep a few off the thread (in case the answers were to your potential disadvantage), so would you mind if I asked those few by pm?

[slainte caragh]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

of course and I am so so grateful, this is like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders!

Literally I have been sitting here bawling that I could be stuck in that hell hole! I don't do depressed, I am the one that everyone comes to for snuggles and "Mammy hugs".

thank you from the bottom of my heart!

[mariefab]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

I assure you it will be my pleasure to help.

OK, bed's calling so I'll get started on this tomorrow.
Chin up, we're going to scare the crap out of them!

[slainte caragh]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

***UPDATE***

So, firstly my thanks to [MENTION=26290]mariefab[/MENTION] as last night was the first decent sleep I have had in 3 months!

I suppose I have been ashamed to admit just how bad things are! Woke this morning to my sister (who works on the unit I want to get on to) saying "Sandra's looking for you!"

Sandra is my old team manager who is now an Ops Manager, she wanted to know how to pull me back on to the unit! Thanks be to God for that one!!

I have told Sis everything, no holds barred and will go to the union today as I have not involved them previously but will honestly do anything to be happy again! Mariefab if you can help me with a grievance letter as my hands are throbbing like billy-o today I would be eternally grateful. So many (finally) happy tears that this torture might end soon!

Work shouldnt be torturous, ok no one wants to go to work, but no one should be in the situation where they have a sense of doom in the morning and sit staring out of the window speaking to no one all day! It's horrific.

thanks again!

Callie <3

[mariefab]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

That's great news.
Hopefully they'll see transferring you back to your former unit as their 'get out of jail free' response to your grievance.

So, let's do this in easy steps.
Firstly does your employer know that you have a disability?
For example, did you tick the relevant box on an application or health information form?

[mariefab]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

If the answer to that ^ is No; can you evidence that your employer has constructive knowledge of your disability? Meaning did they have enough information to have worked it out for themselves.

The sort of things we're looking for is (preferably written) evidence of the following:
1. Time off sick with doctor's notes stating JHS, hypermobility or describing symptoms that indicate an adverse effect on your ability to do everyday activities.
2. Requests for and promises of auxiliary aids and/or other adjustments.
3. Visible signs of a potential disability.

After typing that ^ I realise that the answer is almost certainly Yes they had constructive knowledge, but if you can confirm that you can either put your hands on any relevant documentary evidence, or remind your employer that they already have it, that would be great.

[slainte caragh]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

yes to all the above, they have my inital application with a basic risk assesment (plus sketch of the way my hands work) dated April 2016, they have details from 2014 saying that I had been off work for 6months due to my wrist "imploding" (REALLY nasty and gnarly, I can post photos if you want something to wibble over), they have requests for risk assesment and equiptment dating 2016 onwards, photos of my hands my immediate TM has got and reports from Occ Health that say I score a 6-7 on their "needs help" form.

Also I had to have a day off in March when my right leg developed a collegen cyst which ruptured and I was on crutches for nearly 7 weeks

[mariefab]

Re: Internal Transfer at work

Great.

1. Is the unit that wants you back one where you the equipment you need was provided?
2. Is the equipment likely to still be there?

3. Does the employer have a documented Absence Management Policy that you either have, or can get, a copy of.
4. Does your employer treat people with disabilities more favourably when applying the Absence policy, e.g. not counting disability-related absences?