Investigating own Grievance

Galaxy1987

Hi all

My colleague took a disgruntle to a statement made by another staff, she proceeded to ask all the staff who heard this statement their side of the story. She continued to do this writing it all down. She now wants to raise a formal grievance into the matter.

I tried to talk her out of it as I think she has tainted the 'evidence' by asking everyone their side of events. My colleague can be a bit of a bully and the member of staff who made the statement isnt well liked, so again i feel that any investigation is biased.

whats peoples view on this.

Thanks
G

Takeaway_Addict

Leave her to it, if the employer has any sense they will disregard her notes and go on what the actual complaint is and do an investigation themselves.

Galaxy1987

i plan on it but it got me wondering what the outcome would be. Could the person being aggrieved against have a case of tainted information if it goes formal.

Takeaway_Addict

Galaxy1987 wrote: »

i plan on it but it got me wondering what the outcome would be. Could the person being aggrieved against have a case of tainted information if it goes formal.

If the employer does their own investigation then no.

Snakey

If these other people have all been intimidated into lying then yes she would have a case, but she'd have to prove they were lying (standard of proof is balance of probabilities I think).

If it's just the case that they wouldn't have said anything had they not been put on the spot at the time - like, say, if asked a few days or weeks later and in private by HR they might have pretended that they couldn't remember or hadn't heard or it wasn't really that bad - then that's this other person's tough luck for getting on the wrong side of somebody who had the sense to take down written statements there and then which (while probably not being "evidence", I don't know the legal position) are going to be psychologically difficult for the people concerned to go back on.

Unfortunately, if one person in a dispute is well-liked and the other is not, it is going to colour the statements of witnesses. It might not be fair, but it's the way of the world. Unpopular people need to watch what they say and do far more than everybody else does. You can probably remember this from your school days.

RuthnJasper

Galaxy1987 wrote: »

Hi all

My colleague took a disgruntle to a statement made by another staff, she proceeded to ask all the staff who heard this statement their side of the story. She continued to do this writing it all down. She now wants to raise a formal grievance into the matter.

I tried to talk her out of it as I think she has tainted the 'evidence' by asking everyone their side of events. My colleague can be a bit of a bully and the member of staff who made the statement isnt well liked, so again i feel that any investigation is biased.

whats peoples view on this.

Thanks
G

Galaxy, I think you already have a sound take on this.

Obviously I know none of the parties and histories involved. You, however, do. From what you share in your first post, I would most certainly dissuade your colleague from the chosen course of action. As much as I can tell/guess/say from experience - no good can come of this.

Good luck Galaxy, you sound like a nice colleague to have. x