Wise owl sought for employment problem!

silver_moon

Hello all,
Would like other peoples take on this to help me decide what to do (or not, as the case may be).
6 weeks ago I started a part-time office job.for a big organisation. Not something I really wanted to do in the ideal world, but like everyone, I need the money.
Since starting, I have tried my best to learn and get on with the job, but after the 2nd week I was accused by manager (who by the way does not work on the same floor) in an informal meeting that he had received an allegation that I was putting incorrect times on my flexi time sheet (totally untrue). I told him that this was not true as I am an honest person and wouldn't dream of trying to fiddle my time. He said he would not be taking the matter any further as he had no evidence, but reminded me to always put correct times on sheet. I was obviously mortified that someone had accused me of this, and had a sleepless night, but decided to let it drop and try to forget it. A week after that, I was called in for another informal chat when Manager said several allegations had been received that I was accessing the internet too much on matters not connected with work. Again, this wasn't true, and I told my manager so. A week later he called me in again, I was told he had obtained a printout from IT of all my access and he aaccused me amongst other things, of accessing hotmail, the met office, facebook and twitter in works time, none of which was true. I was obviously distressed as I knew I had not attempted to access these sites and couldn't understand that he had a printout showing this. He said that every entry was a click of the mouse on the site listed, and that he had checked his assertions with IT. He said he wouldn't take the matter any further, but reminded me never to access internet on non work matters. After further sleepless nights I determined to get to the bottom of this, and have discovered that what he said were 'clicks of the mouse' were actually 'live feeds' to sites I had legitimately looked at (there are previous threads about this) and I hadn't, as I stated, actually visited these sites at all.
I have suffered a great deal of upset over all of this, and now have no confidence in this manager who appears to like intimidation, and also no confidence in most of my colleagues, wondering who is friend or foe.
I am now looking for another job, (but easier said than done in current climate). I have tried to contact TU rep for advice but she is not available at present.
I would like advice as to whether:
I just look for another job and carry on until I do or
I take grievance action and make a complaint that these allegations were made and that the Manager misinterpreted the 'evidence'. I feel I am owed an apology, or at least an acknowledgement that he was wrong, but that is not as important as trying to prevent another employee in the future being faced with unjust allegations and/or/feeling intimidated. However I may well be on a hiding to nothing and be wasting my time and energy and may find it upsetting. They could almost certainly get rid of me before my probation period ends (I don't think they need a reason?), and I may not have found another job by then? But I am loathe to allow intimidation to continue.
Can a wise owl advise ?
(By the way, prior to starting this job, I have over 30 years unblemished employment history)
Many thanks, I will check any replies this evening.

jc808

whats the difference between a 'live feed' and you accessing particular siutes?

Denene

jc808 wrote: »

whats the difference between a 'live feed' and you accessing particular siutes?

Possibly a site the OP visited legitimately had a section which pulled from another site? Eg. my employer's home page has a section displaying their twitter feed, so when you visit it, it logs data being pulled from twitter, even though you didn't manually visit twitter.com.

LittleVoice

silver_moon wrote: »

Hello all,
Would like other peoples take on this to help me decide what to do (or not, as the case may be).
6 weeks ago I started a part-time office job.for a big organisation. Not something I really wanted to do in the ideal world, but like everyone, I need the money.
Since starting, I have tried my best to learn and get on with the job, but after the 2nd week I was accused by manager (who by the way does not work on the same floor) in an informal meeting that he had received an allegation that I was putting incorrect times on my flexi time sheet (totally untrue). I told him that this was not true as I am an honest person and wouldn't dream of trying to fiddle my time. He said he would not be taking the matter any further as he had no evidence, but reminded me to always put correct times on sheet. I was obviously mortified that someone had accused me of this, and had a sleepless night, but decided to let it drop and try to forget it. A week after that, I was called in for another informal chat when Manager said several allegations had been received that I was accessing the internet too much on matters not connected with work. Again, this wasn't true, and I told my manager so. A week later he called me in again, I was told he had obtained a printout from IT of all my access and he aaccused me amongst other things, of accessing hotmail, the met office, facebook and twitter in works time, none of which was true. I was obviously distressed as I knew I had not attempted to access these sites and couldn't understand that he had a printout showing this. He said that every entry was a click of the mouse on the site listed, and that he had checked his assertions with IT. He said he wouldn't take the matter any further, but reminded me never to access internet on non work matters. After further sleepless nights I determined to get to the bottom of this, and have discovered that what he said were 'clicks of the mouse' were actually 'live feeds' to sites I had legitimately looked at (there are previous threads about this) and I hadn't, as I stated, actually visited these sites at all.
I have suffered a great deal of upset over all of this, and now have no confidence in this manager who appears to like intimidation, and also no confidence in most of my colleagues, wondering who is friend or foe.
I am now looking for another job, (but easier said than done in current climate). I have tried to contact TU rep for advice but she is not available at present.
I would like advice as to whether:
I just look for another job and carry on until I do or
I take grievance action and make a complaint that these allegations were made and that the Manager misinterpreted the 'evidence'. I feel I am owed an apology, or at least an acknowledgement that he was wrong, but that is not as important as trying to prevent another employee in the future being faced with unjust allegations and/or/feeling intimidated. However I may well be on a hiding to nothing and be wasting my time and energy and may find it upsetting. They could almost certainly get rid of me before my probation period ends (I don't think they need a reason?), and I may not have found another job by then? But I am loathe to allow intimidation to continue.
Can a wise owl advise ?
(By the way, prior to starting this job, I have over 30 years unblemished employment history)
Many thanks, I will check any replies this evening.

One interpretation:
your manager likes operating this way - supposed "informal" chat, suggesting others have reported you, being "kind" that nothing more would be done about it but that you have to watch your step. "Divide and rule" as far as relationships between members of staff - each not being sure whether to trust the others.
If he had a list from IT, that could be because he asked them for it, not that they had picked up this themselves.

I wouldn't bother to raise a grievance myself.

I'd only move to another job if it was definitely going to be better than what you have (ignoring the current behaviour of your current manager).

Yes, you could be dismissed in your first two years without them having to state a reason.

theoretica

As it is a big organisation you have an HR department. I wonder if flagging this up to them might be helpful- 'My manager has pulled me up over the automatic feeds on the side of web pages, how can I avoid this problem in future?'

Gerson2k

silver_moon wrote: »

A week later he called me in again, I was told he had obtained a printout from IT of all my access and he aaccused me amongst other things, of accessing hotmail, the met office, facebook and twitter in works time, none of which was true.

If you're completely sure about the above sites I would ask the manager to back his claims by producing the evidence rather than just saying he had it; most organisations (and especially a big one) will use a proxy server to manage all their outbound internet traffic and a record of each transaction will be logged for each user.

an9i77

Be careful of raising a grievance very early on in your employment. If your principles matter more to you than being employed, do it, but if you ruffle too many feathers at this stage it would be very easy for them to find some other reason to end your employment before two years is up

silver_moon

Thanks for your replies. Food for thought. Just applied for another job so here's hoping! Think I will try to get hold of TU person again, it may be possible that there has been a similar problem with this manager in the past?
Thanks all.