Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

[cg1206]

Hi.

I have worked for my employer on a 20hr contract for over 6 years. I work with people with both physical and mental disabilities and usually work in a team of 2 people (a driver and me).
2 weeks ago on a Friday while working with the driver I usually work with (who had been experiencing high levels of stress all week regarding a contract issue) a situation occurred where the driver wasn't securing a wheelchair in the bus correctly and when I pointed this out to him he physically pushed me back. This really shook me up, I tried to put it to the back of my mind and carry on for the sake of the service users. I then went to the back of the bus to use the lift, when the driver came to the back of the bus and snatched the lift control from my hands. This all got too much for me and I phoned my supervisor to inform him of the situation and to be honest he didn't seem bothered. I no longer felt safe on the bus and decided to get off after I had dropped all of my service users off at their homes, this only seemed to provoke the driver further who verbally abused me and is now denying any of this happened.

I had to phone my husband at work to come and collect me, some 18 miles from home. I tried to stay calm over the weekend and was extremely anxious about returning to work on the Monday, needless to to say I gritted my teeth and returned to work. The driver from the Friday wasn't working with me on the Monday and I thought I would be fine. But going through the routine, through the same route as I always take seemed to get the better of me and I broke down in a full blown panic attack. I couldn't breathe, was physically shaking, couldn't concentrate and the staff at work took me to the doctors where my husband met me again. I was diagnosed with a severe case of general anxiety disorder (which is causing severe panic attacks, severe anxiety and sometimes even regression and could lead to a mental breakdown) and my doctor has put me forward for counselling and placed me on lots of medication and have been off work since. My employer has made no effort to contact me to see if I am ok, or to follow up the incident that occurred on the Friday.

I have spoken to my union rep who has arranged for that driver never to work with me on that run again (although this hasn't been confirmed by my employer), but I feel that this is letting the driver get away with what he has done to me. The Union rep seemed reluctant for me to make a complaint against the driver as it would be my word against his. I cant even go out at the moment, I am scared of people looking at me, scared of getting hurt again, scared of letting people see me this way. He has taken away my main right in life, my freedom.

What are my rights with regards to making a complaint to my employer ( I work for my local council )?
Should my employer be taking responsibility for what happened on that Friday?
Should I be receiving sick pay from work as I feel that if it wasn't for the incident at work I wouldn't be off sick?
Should my employers be helping me in my recovery and return to work?
What should I do next with regard to my employers lack of acknowledgement to both my illness and the incident?

[Hurricane Puffrose]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

BUIMPED... and highlighted.

[Eloise01]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

1) What are my rights with regards to making a complaint to my employer ( I work for my local council )?
2) Should my employer be taking responsibility for what happened on that Friday?
3) Should I be receiving sick pay from work as I feel that if it wasn't for the incident at work I wouldn't be off sick?
4) Should my employers be helping me in my recovery and return to work?
5) What should I do next with regard to my employers lack of acknowledgement to both my illness and the incident?

1) You are entitled by law to submit a grievance if you wish to do so - you simply have to submit a written letter of complaint describing what you are complaining about. If you are unsure as to the procedure, you can ask your manager or HR for a copy of their grievance procedure. However, you should be aware that your union has a point which you should consider very carefully. Unless there are independant witnesses who can verify the entire incident, it will be your word against his, and what you say happened will not simply be accepted as the only or true version of events. Grievance procedures are not without their own stress, particularly in such circumstances, and you must decide whether you are capable of handling such additional stress - that is something only you can decide.

2) It depends on what you mean. The employer is not responsible for what you allege happened to you - they did not do this and nor did they instruct someone to do it. It is not something they could or should have foreseen or could have prevented. So no, they are not responsible for what you allege happened. They should take responsibility for investigating what happened if you submit a grievance, yes. But that does not mean that they will find in your favour - they will investigate and if they find a case for what you have said they will take whatever action they deem appropriate.

3) Sick pay is determined solely on your contractual rights. You will either get the appropriate level of occupational sick pay because you are off sick (and for no other reason than that) or SSP if that is your only entitlement (which is unlikely - most council staff get occupational sick pay). You are not entitled to sick pay because it was an alleged incident at work - you will get it because you are sick and no other reason.

4) At this stage, highly unlikely. You are still in the short term sickness stage, and most councils leave such matters to the GP. If this becomes long-term sickness - usually between 4 and 8 weeks - then there will probably be a referral to Occupational Health and meetings with your manager(s) to see what might be done to support you in returning to work. But you need to be clear that this also has consequences. The policies under which managing sickness absence operate are intended to get you back to work, to reduce and/or elimate further periods of sickness - and if not to follow a fair (in law) process which may ultimately lead to your dismissal. No matter what nice words it is dressed up in, the end result of such procedures is to get back to work or dismiss. Do not lose sight of that fact - the employer will not.

5) There is nothing to acknowledge. You reported it and as far as they are concerned, whatever happened has been dealt with. They have made sure that you do not have to work with this driver again - but from what you say without attributing blame either to him or to you. You have taken the matter no further, so there is nothing that they can be expected to do. In relation to your illness, their only view is that you are ill.


I sense, although you have not said as much, that you may be entertaining the prospect of a possible claim for personal injury or damages. Such a claim is highly unlikely to succeed against the employer. There is nothing here to indicate that the employer is in any way liable for what happened. If such a claim were possible, it would be more likely to be against the individual concerned, but there would be a burden of proof to demonstrate that the individual actually directly caused and was solely responsible for the damage to your mental health - that there was and could be no other cause, and that there were no other factors at play here, including previous mental health issues. Such claims are tenuous at best - and you would also still need to show the facts of the incident are exactly as you describe them, so it still comes down to your word against his that what you say happened actually did happen, or happened as you describe it.

[labman]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

cg1206 - If you do the sort of job I'm thinking of where you act as an escort taking the people to and from a place of education, or perhaps a Day Centre, there are normally a lot of other people around as you are collecting and dropping off. I realise I'm making huge assumptions about your work, but was there anyone else who actually witnessed this - perhaps even one of the people on the bus with mental capacity?

If there was anyone, it would eliminate the your word against theirs element, and strengthen your case somewhat.

Have you ever suffered with Mental Health or anxiety problems in the past?

[Eloise01]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

If there was anyone, it would eliminate the your word against theirs element, and strengthen your case somewhat.

I agree. But the OP needs to be clear about one thing - a case of what? If absolutely everything the OP has said is 100% accurate (and I am not saying the OP is lying - just that there are two sides to every story) the employer has still done nothing wrong, and has already dealt with the situation by separating the two people involved. At most a service user saw part of this incident, because part of it allegedly happened after everyone had been dropped off.

I realise that it may be an unpalatable truth, but peoples interpretations of things that happen do vary, and that is not just because they are lying - what they perceive as going on simply isn't what someone else thinks is happening. The OP says the driver wasn't securing the wheelchair properly - or interfered with someone who knew what they were doing before they had finished doing it? And how did they say it; what tone did they use - was it deemed inapproprate or critical? The driver pushed her back - what was she doing that close? Did he feel she was hanging over him or in his space? What does "pushed back" mean - an assault, or a small push out of his space? He "snatched" the lift controls - or took them off her? Was she "doing his job" and he took this to be a further criticism of him? She phoned the suprevisor to complain about him - in front of him? How about the interpretation that "I was just doing my job, and I don't know what came over cg1206 that day. She was in my face saying I wasn't doing my job properly when I was, she was flouncing around doing things that are my job like I don't know what I am doing, then out of nowhere she's phoning the supervisor to complain about me. So she insists on getting out of the bus in the middle of nowhere and I tried to convince her she was being silly but she wouldn't listen so I had no choice but to leave her as she said to - what was I supposed to do, throw her in the van and drag her back?" Sounds credible? That is what I meant by grievances being stressful. There is never just one side of a story and very often both sides are credible. What if the employer decides that they think the drivers version is the most credible - the OP did not suffer anxiety etc as a result of the incident, but a pre-existing condition was likely the cause of the incident. She says he was stressed - what if she was too?

My best guess is that a grievance is going to get very messy and be intensely stressful, and that there will never be any resolution that satisfies the OP - and that, to the contrary, the outcome may be that an already messy situation gets messier and more difficult. It obviously has to be the OP's decision, but I wouldn't want to be advising her to go down that route without her being very aware that there may be consequences that make a bad situation worse, and which won't get her any kind of "case". But may further upset and distress her, and make her health worse.

But even if the employer believes every single word of what the OP says, they have already taken action to separate the two parties so that they do not have to work together. I think it is unlikely that they would take any further action based on this incident, but if they did, it is only likely to amount to a warning - and possibly to both parties. That is a risk you take when you open a can of worms - that the employer will not deem you the innocent, or totally innocent party. And whatever happens, the employer will not have done anything wrong, and will still not be liable for the consequences of an argument between two employees.

I realise that this is very unpleasant to hear, but sometimes the best advice is to concentrate on getting well and put things like this behind you. The OP won't have to work with this person again, so it isn't going to happen again. And my personal opinion is that it isn't worth risking further distress and damage to health for nothing.

[labman]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

I agree. But the OP needs to be clear about one thing - a case of what?

With witnesses, any case would not be against the council, it would be against the individual. Snatching a ramp control is unlikely to be worth pursuing, but being pushed in front of the 'clients' could be, if the push was severe enough. Proving a direct link between this and a possibly underlying anxiety issue could be difficult to prove anyway.

As far as the incident itself goes, if my assumption about the work she does is correct, most councils operate a points system now, where once a certain number of points have been scored they lose the contract. If it was witnessed by other people, specifically staff from the school, centre etc... and incident like this could potentially cost the employer quite dearly. It would, of course, be for them to take action against the driver in this situation, not the OP.

[bluebottle]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

Unfortunately, there is a culture of bullying in some workplaces which is often dismissed as "dynamic management" or "effective management", which is just an excuse or smokescreen for out-and-out bullying. I have even come across cases where Employment Law has been used as a means of justifying the bullying of an employee.

Bullying can be very "in your face" or very subtle. What cannot be disputed is the psychological damage it does to people. Take the Michalak case, as an example. Dr Michalak was so badly affected by the bullying, she will never work again. A similar case involved an employee of Deutschebank.

Employers who turn a blind to bullying or engage in it themselves should not be surprised if it turns round and bites them on the face. Don't discount the Court of appeal ruling in the Majrowski case.

[Eloise01]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

There is, on the face of it, not a shred of evidence of bullying. It is a single alleged incident at least half of which was entirely unwitnessed, and with two entirely different versions of events, but which management dealt with in an appropriate manner. That neither infers bullying, nor poor management. Or are you suggesting that based on a similar story the police would have swept in and arrested the driver for assault and harassment and had the CPS bang him into court. The impact of whatever happened has had serious enough consequences without trying to turn it into something it isn't.

[Eloise01]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

With witnesses, any case would not be against the council, it would be against the individual. Snatching a ramp control is unlikely to be worth pursuing, but being pushed in front of the 'clients' could be, if the push was severe enough. Proving a direct link between this and a possibly underlying anxiety issue could be difficult to prove anyway.

As far as the incident itself goes, if my assumption about the work she does is correct, most councils operate a points system now, where once a certain number of points have been scored they lose the contract. If it was witnessed by other people, specifically staff from the school, centre etc... and incident like this could potentially cost the employer quite dearly. It would, of course, be for them to take action against the driver in this situation, not the OP.

You raise an interesting point - I could have sworn that I read somewhere in the post that the OP works for the Council, but I now cannot find it anywhere and my mind may have made it up! Or possibly that was something mentioned in whatever the OP edited. In which case there may well be only SSP and not contractual sick pay, although that doesn't change the advice I gave on entitlement. I had assumed council employment for some reason, but if this is a contracted out service, which they now often are, the employer may not be the council.

[wales01man]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

I cant put it into words like ELOISE can but without witnesses this becomes a he said she said situation what we dont know is the other sides story and the work history between the 2 of them as a mere layman i cannot see how the employer can be responsible is this turning to case to claim some compo.Bullying cannot be tolerated but there is always 2 sides to a story how can anyone make a judgement without the other person stating their side and if any witnesses them speaking up?

[Eloise01]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

I cant put it into words like ELOISE can but without witnesses this becomes a he said she said situation what we dont know is the other sides story and the work history between the 2 of them as a mere layman i cannot see how the employer can be responsible is this turning to case to claim some compo.Bullying cannot be tolerated but there is always 2 sides to a story how can anyone make a judgement without the other person stating their side and if any witnesses them speaking up?

You managed it in less words than I took and pretty much said it all.

The thing is that we don't need to know the other side of the story - the fact is that there just always is another side and the employer can take action (as they did) but they can't take sides without something far more substantial than two sides of a story - and at this moment, no complaint either! And even if they could verify the story - despite what seem to be tragic consequences for the OP, it really does, even from their version, come across as a one-off spat between two employees. Certainly never justified, but a bit of pushing and snatching, and words exchanged - it's not very likely that this amounts to a dismissable offence unless there were a record of such incidents involving this person. It is really sad that this has had such a traumatic impact on the OP, but there is nothing to indicate that the incident itself was sufficiently serious for anyone to foresee such a reaction.As I said, it doesn't make it excusable, but it is the sort of dispute that goes on in workplaces every day, and generally results in a few cross words and a couple of people not talking to each other for a week. You can't legislate for the fact that sometimes people fall out over things.

[labman]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

You raise an interesting point - I could have sworn that I read somewhere in the post that the OP works for the Council

Five lines up from the bottom at the end of the first question, she says she works for the council. :beagle:

[wales01man]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

thanks Eloise,i always try to look at the situation from both sides its the only way any situation can be judged its to easy to read one story and decide that would be to easy.

[Eloise01]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

Five lines up from the bottom at the end of the first question, she says she works for the council. :beagle:

Gosh well done - I re-read it three times and missed that every time! Just like putting something down on the coffee table, it disappearing and spending three hours searching for it to find it on the coffee table (done that before now!).

[MissFM]

Re: Incident at work resulting in diagnosis of General Anxiety Disorder.

Gosh well done - I re-read it three times and missed that every time! Just like putting something down on the coffee table, it disappearing and spending three hours searching for it to find it on the coffee table (done that before now!).

In the most ancient regions of Tlön, the duplication of lost objects is not infrequent.
Two persons look for a pencil;the first finds it and says nothing; the second finds a second pencil, no less real, but closer to its expectations.
These secondary objects are called hrönir and are, though awkward in form, somewhat longer........................
…..................................
Stranger and more pure than any hrön is, at times, the ur: the object produced through suggestion, educed by hope.
Things become duplicated in Tlön; they also tend to become effaced and lose their details when they are forgotten.
A classic example is the doorway which survived so long as it was visited by a beggar and disappeared at his death.
At times some birds, a horse, have saved the ruins of an amphitheater.
Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges