What do we do in this instance?

Gettingtherequickly

I work for a small company with about 25 employees, 3 1/2 including owner office based.

Issues have arisen between my full time colleague and the owner and things came to a head on Friday. Now, I have got to state that the owner can be very short tempered, but I simply ignore it as not only is he bearing responsibilty for ensuring that there is work for us all in this time of recession, but he is also very generous and at the end of the momth, I get paid. At the same time, my colleague can be very stubborn, so it is not the best mix and I am sick of being piggy in the middle.

My colleague would not be in this role if it had not been for our employer, she was actually our cleaner but we could see that she the potential to better herself, but lacked the confidence as English is not her first language. With encouragement, working in the office for 2 days a week and private lessons paid for by employer personally, she successfully passed her English exam.

As the work load increased, we were able to offer a full time position which she accepted and things went along happily. She expressed an interest in learning more about an aspect of the business, so having spoken to the company which carries out that aspect for us, it was agreed that she would go there one day a week for the experience, at our cost. As she was benefitting from it, my boss asked if she would consider studying it, which she agreed to and after some "bullying" on our part, she finally submitted her application. I say "bullying" as she literally left it to the final minutes to submit the application, eventually started her degree, which the company is paying for last October.

Thing started to go downhill after that. She seems to think that after a couple of months part time study ( and it feels as if she is not dedicating any of her own time to it, as stress level goes through the roof when it is coming up to exam and she just gets sent home to study as it is creating too much stress in the office) she knows more than the owner who has successfully run the company for 30 years. Things improved when she got a payrise to reflect her new experience.

Things blew up on Friday with her eventually saying she was ill and being told if you are, you may as well go home. Not seen her since, car & office keys left behind on Friday. She is in the other office today, but we are not sure what our position is.

notanewuser

Whoever is her manager needs to grow some balls and tackle these issues. She's running rings around you all. Is there a formal arrangement in place re the studying - eg we'll pay but study is in own time or whatever. What agreements have been made and what has been broken? Is the company actually getting anything from this employee? How long has she been employed?

Gettingtherequickly

notanewuser wrote: »

Whoever is her manager needs to grow some balls and tackle these issues. She's running rings around you all. Is there a formal arrangement in place re the studying - eg we'll pay but study is in own time or whatever. What agreements have been made and what has been broken? Is the company actually getting anything from this employee? How long has she been employed?

I agree, if I were her manager, we would never have been in this situation! She has been told that she has to study in her own time, still hasn't grasped the concept that her time includes evening and weekend, in addition to having some study leave. However, as the exams seem to be pretty spread out and only a single paper at a time, there, in theory, should not be the need for that much study leave.

She has been employed for 3 years, so entitled to all rights. She is contributing, albeit slowly due to inexperience, but at the same time she refuses to accept the benefit of experience from owner and will only do things if the other office suggests as an idea, rather than weighing up the options. She has no (or refuses to have)comprehension of time scale and as some of the work has time constraints, this creates issues.

I think alot of the problem is the fact that she is in the country alone and does not get on with her own family, so our boss has taken a paternal, but professional role - not a good move as she seems to be now viewing him as having an ulterior motive. This was never the intention, but because of her cavalier attitude to time scales, he feels that she needs protecting at times. She was leaving where she was living, but didn't look for a new place until 4 days before the end of the tenancy :eek: As one side of the company has rental properties and a tenant was vacating at the same time, boss said she could have that place free of charge for a month (it would probably take us that length to find a replacement) while she found a new place - she decided that it was because he wanted to control her! Ignoring the fact she would be homeless.

He will be meeting and employment lawyer and probably come to a CA, but when does he start that route?

Funky_Bold_Ribena

Is your boss sweet on her/trying to bed her? It looks like it from here.

Don't get involved, leave him to sort this unholy mess out. And no way should he be considering a compromise agreement. He needs to MANAGE her up or out.

notanewuser

Funky_Bold_Ribena wrote: »

Is your boss sweet on her/trying to bed her? It looks like it from here.

Don't get involved, leave him to sort this unholy mess out. And no way should he be considering a compromise agreement. He needs to MANAGE her up or out.

Absolutely agree. 3 YEARS of this !!!!?!

ValHaller

It really is not your problem. No good for you can come from you involving yourself. Let them sort themselves out,

phill99

I wouldn't worry about it. It's got nothing to do with you. You aren't her line manager etc. let your boss deal with it. That's what he gets paid for.