Should I take the time off

mingus2003

Sorry for long post - need some advise here.

I have been unhappy at work since October last year. I had an argument with a colleague which resulted in me raising a greivance.

I stated I was fed up being used as a scape goat, office banter around racism, mum jokes & disability jokes (school playground stuff which I was not subject to). It was starting to offend me. I also stated I wanted to change my hours and go flexi time due to my commute I was getting in the office 1.5 hours early some days.

An email went round basically admitting they had a banter & racism problem and it had to stop. They address my flexi time request, pulled out my contract said I signed this in July 2014 when i joined them and that I said i have no problem with the hours, ok fine but circumstances change they still declined my request.

Since this time I have been going to my doctors and battling stress.

Following this several times I was deliberately was pulled up for things, my directors public blasting at the smallest of things and making my life really unconfortable. This continued until around Feb time when we someone we worked with passed away suddenly and another went on long term sick.

During the time we were 2 people down it took its toll on me. It came up again in June when staff levels back to where they were. For a few days in June the public blastings started again, culminating 1 day I said I need to take time out of work. My Manager said to me let me know when. The next day I walked out of the office because I couldnt take it from the Director any more. I did return an hour later when convinced to by my Manager.

2 days later I saw my doctor who then recommended that I need to take 2-4 weeks out of work and offered to sign me off - which I declined thought I be an adult about it and talk to work and come to an arrangement. Bad move.

I spoke to my Manager when back from the docs advised him what doc says and within 5 minutes I was called in to the office and was told I couldnt cope with my work. If I took unpaid leave (i have 4 days holiday left to book and have 2 weeks booked in December) this wasnt allowed. If I went sick it would be difficult for me to come back. Basically trying to talk me out of it.

Anyway I decided to try and work it through because whatever I do my work will still be there when I come back and probably be just as bad. I did have to cancel a doctors appointment because I had to train a new person on the day of this appointment.

Last week I took 1 day sick and made to feel this was bad decision but I was sick. I am now at breaking point, its affecting me at home and feel I need to take my doctors advise (made another appointment) and that is the only way round this but now feel because of the past that my employers will make my life hell for doing so but at the same time I need to put myself first.

I also feel I need to maybe get Acas involved. What should I do?

Savvy_Sue

1. Take your doctor's advice, and go sick.

2. Start job hunting.

paddyrg

There's no future where you are from your description, so look for something new. Make compromises for less well paid roles with better environments if needs be. Being happy at work is that important, as it's almost all of your waking daylight hours.

getmore4less

How long have you worked there?

Where is this director in the pecking order.
top boss/owner or some title for a head of department type director?

These situations often never end well when the problem stems from high up, so unless there are higher ups that will support stamping out abuse/bullying then I agree with the others probably best to start planning an exit.

There are techniques to counter bullying but they are not always easy for people to deal with as it can be quite stressful and trying to keep calm and composed dealing with an incident is not easy.

I think there is another core issue which is not helping, the commute.
If this place will/can not allow some flexibility to help with optimizing the timings with adjusting start end time then a key feature of any job search is better location with flexible as a back up.

I would take the offer from the Dr and get signed off for 4 weeks.
use this time to de stress, prepare for other work and maybe research some approaches to bullying.

Just to clarify, between Feb and June did the bullying go down/stop and it was the workload that was a new problem, this is what you imply?

Ozzuk

Depending on how your place treats sickness being off 1 day could be classed the same as 2-4 weeks (i.e. one instance) so I'd be careful taking the 'odd day'.

In your position I'd be putting all my effort into finding a new job, taking the sick leave if necessary (though I'd probably avoid that, but thats just me). As you've described it, you don't have a future there.

sangie595

mingus2003 wrote: »

I also feel I need to maybe get Acas involved. What should I do?

This isn't what ACAS do, and they won't get involved in individual disputes like this. That is for you and your union (if you have one) to resolve.

Overall, I would agree with the others here - really, the only solution is to get another job. Cultures seldom change.

That said.... Would I be correct in guessing you are somewhere in the public sector? It isn't necessarily the case, but the way you describe job titles and the workplace suggests it may be. Some strategies can work better in some public sector organisations than they do in the private sector. None of these would be mutually exclusive - you could ask for more than one thing.

You could submit another grievance, but you would need to submit it to HR asking for it to be dealt with by someone independent of this service since it involves the Director.

You could ask for redeployment to another service or department, assuming the employer is large enough.

You could ask for an independent mediator to try to resolve the problem. This may simply be someone from HR or another department with sufficient experience to manage the process.

You could offer to resign for a settlement agreement - which would need to include an agreed reference, which is more important than cash.

On the other side of the equation, what you need to understand is:
Whilst "public blastings" are not the way to deal with anything, it appears that you are accepting that, for whatever reason, you appear to be doing some things wrong. This will provide evidence of a capability issue which management can use to support a case against you. Which they have clearly suggested may be their view of things.

They are right in that unpaid time off is not something they have to agree to.

Whilst anyone can submit a request for flexible working, if they have fixed office hours (which you seem to suggest) then they do not have to agree to it, and your problems with arriving early will be viewed as your problem.

They are correct - if you are off sick it will be difficult to go back. For a start off, nothing will change, so you are not doing anything except prolonging the current situation. If you are going to go off sick, you should do something! Otherwise you will return to the same situation and feel just as bad. Also, sickness will probably put you in some form of capacity process for excessive sick leave. And long term sickness never goes down well with potential new employers. Many of whom will ask about rates of sickness.


Simply going off sick will give you a little breathing space, but it won't do more than that; and it will land you right back where you started out, but with four weeks sickness leave on your record. You therefore need to use this breathing space to do something.

mingus2003

getmore4less wrote: »

How long have you worked there?

Where is this director in the pecking order.
top boss/owner or some title for a head of department type director?

These situations often never end well when the problem stems from high up, so unless there are higher ups that will support stamping out abuse/bullying then I agree with the others probably best to start planning an exit.

There are techniques to counter bullying but they are not always easy for people to deal with as it can be quite stressful and trying to keep calm and composed dealing with an incident is not easy.

I think there is another core issue which is not helping, the commute.
If this place will/can not allow some flexibility to help with optimizing the timings with adjusting start end time then a key feature of any job search is better location with flexible as a back up.

I would take the offer from the Dr and get signed off for 4 weeks.
use this time to de stress, prepare for other work and maybe research some approaches to bullying.

Just to clarify, between Feb and June did the bullying go down/stop and it was the workload that was a new problem, this is what you imply?

Ive just completed 2 years.

The director is the owner of the company

Feb/June we had staff issues so it was all hands on deck now its settled down staff wise the bullying hasnt started up again.

mingus2003

Thank you to those that replied.

I work in the private sector (Insurance Broker). It is a small company with no HR. To the point we have an accountant that pays people by instant transfer not BACS.

Anyway. Things have got worse today I have been told my duties are now restricted to only talking to clients only im not allowed to talk to underwriters/claims teams to resolve my clients problems.

Im not allowed to deliver any reports or any other queries.

This is fine I thank them for reducing my work load but going as far that I can only talk to clients nothing else is now restricting what I can do. More to the point to resolve a clients issue I need to talk to various departments. To which I will continue to do so.

I was going to be petty and go sick now (after todays episode) but we dont have cover to do my job (whats left of it) due to Holiday and waiting for my colleague to come back from Holiday next week do a hand over and then go sick 2-4 weeks.

As you say during this time do something with the time off.

Do I need to take some sort of legal advice to take this further? Just dont know what else to do!

getmore4less

if the top boss is part of the problem that limits options

have you talked to them about the issues?

are the callouts for getting stuff wrong or not?

Something does not add up.

They could have fired you if you were not delivering so why have the kept you this long?

What are you doing right?

elsien

mingus2003 wrote: »

I was going to be petty and go sick now (after todays episode) but we dont have cover to do my job (whats left of it) due to Holiday and waiting for my colleague to come back from Holiday next week do a hand over and then go sick 2-4 weeks.
!

This I don't understand. If you're genuinely not well enough to work then going off sick isn't petty, it's necessary. Planning your sickness around holiday cover is sending out all sorts of mixed messages about how unwell you really are. If you need to be off then be off. Sorting out holiday and sickness cover is the employer's problem, not yours.

mingus2003

getmore4less wrote: »

if the top boss is part of the problem that limits options

have you talked to them about the issues? Ive attempted to but only get told - you cant cope and get knocked back down

are the callouts for getting stuff wrong or not? Sometimes

Something does not add up.

They could have fired you if you were not delivering so why have the kept you this long? They dont have an HR department and from what Ive seen they wont dismiss anyone unless they really need to. So far I havent given them the reason for this as of yet.

What are you doing right? Being able to get my work done and not behind - thats my opinion

From what I have heard and seen they will make your life as hard as possible to get what they want. They make you think you cannot do you job and forever doubting yourself.

Re-reading the email I got to day it sounds like they are trying to manage me out and get a reaction but all I can do is laugh in their face. I have even gone as far to think well.... i cant sort the problems and they will get the reaction they want but i'm not like that!