Suspended During Grievance

kelly_borntoshop

and i spoke to my mum who will cover the childminder holidays.

Sambucus_Nigra

kelly_borntoshop wrote: »

ok. i am going to go in with some humble pie. the manager wanted the meeting thursday gone but i said i was trying to get a union to come. that isn't going to happen i have tried quite a few.

so should i call and say that i have had time to think about the whole situation and that i am going to come in on my own, therefore i am happy for the meeting to come forward should he wish?

Are you actually in a union?

kelly_borntoshop

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Are you actually in a union?

no i am not

zzzLazyDaisy

Okay, that is why they won't help you. No union will help with a dispute that started before you join.

I thought the meeting was fixed for this week? If so, and you already have a date, just attend it. You don't need to fix everything, and you don't need to tell them what their job is, or how to run this meeting.

You need to let go, look after yourself, and prepare for the meeting.

They are perfectly capable of sorting out their end of things.

Dx

KiKi

Hi OP, firstly, well done on taking the tough love advice - it's not always easy when it's not what you want to hear (and many a person on here flounces off the board when they realise they don't like the answers ).

I agree with going in and eating humble pie and promising to work better with them. However...! Taking what you say at face value, I also don't think it's fair that you're recruited for admin, then doing a design job, designing websites, doing their marketing, costing products out etc. And I think you *have* to raise that, otherwise it won't get better.

So I'd go in and cover:
1. Thank you for meeting, you appreciate their time
2. Apologies for getting wound up the other week, you were frustrated with things at work, but recognise that the way you went about dealing with it was wrong
3. You really appreciate the opportunity to talk through the issues around your workload, because you really want to stay with the company and want to do well for them
4. Take your list of duties and explain how much you can realistically do in a week - and what is over and above what you can do
5. Remind them again that you would love all feedback in how this could be resolved between you and the managers so that you can do a really good job for them

That's the sort of way I'd be playing it right now. The main thing is: you have a job, you're being paid and you have childcare help - you are in a WAY better position in this job than out of it right now.

All the best - let us know how it goes. (And don't raise all the other issues or trying to be an armchair lawyer - it really won't work in your favour!!)

KiKi

meerustar

You never know, they might actually realise how much you do do now that you have not been there, and therefore they may even bend over backwards for you. Good luck.

kelly_borntoshop

i love the company. it has so much potential but its been stuck in the dark ages and passed by all of its competitors. there is light at the end of the tunnel via ecommerce i can see it, a gap in the market for this i think it would do well with the right marketing.

there are 4 managers/directors & around 50 Self Employed.

there are 2 women. me and the CD. she is in her 60's. She is making my life a misery. she attacks most of my ideas but has none of her own. when i feed the ideas to others in the company and they raise them she accepts them - therefore she has asked me not to talk to anyone about anything to do with the office. she says i have ideas above my station and didnt think i needed help on when to stuff an envelope. i guess thats me put in my place right?

i think she see's me as a threat and have been told as much. i love the job and i have helped it grow last year - but if i stay i face years of detrimental torment from this woman. but hey, thats up to them right ;-)

i am glad its the FM at the meeting. he is well aware that i have been struggling and he knows what i do and where i am most useful. perhaps he can communicate this to the CD as i cant seem to get anything in front of her without some sort of slap in the face.

miduck

When you say "endless", do you mean "open ended"?

Will it really take you four weeks solid to redesign the brochure?

bubblegum1985

I think it's great that you have this prepared but you need them to take the lead on the meeting and let them direct you on what to talk about. Have this list ready maybe as something for them to take away and consider.

zzzLazyDaisy

Firstly, is the Factory Manager your immediate supervisor , and does he have the authority to change your work load?

Secondly, if he is properly prepared, he will be the person conducting the meeting. That doesn't mean that you won't get a chance to speak, far from it, but he will dictate the way the meeting is run.

Going back to my first question. If he does not have the authority to resolve the issue of you having too much work to do for the hours you are working, then I would suggest that you approach this in a more general way - there is no point in him acting as a go-between if you are going to do this all again with one of the directors.

And even if he does have the authority to make significant changes to your workload and job, this meeting may not be the best time to go into that amount of detail.

If that appears to be the case, you might start with points 1 -3 of your notes above, and then say that you have come to this meeting prepared to discuss the details of your workload in detail, to see if you and he can agree some changes to make the role more manageable - and ask him if he wishes to discuss those matters now, or if he would prefer to schedule another meeting to talk about your role in more detail.

He might be happy to take away the list you have prepared, or he might choose to discuss these things with you at the meeting, but the point is that you have raised the issue of your workload as a factor contributing to what happened as you were very stressed trying to do everything and never having enough time.

Then let him run the meeting.

Hope this helps.

Dx