Work moan, Redundancy and then Employment Tribunal Respondent Lying. Why am I still surprised?

UKPCNumpty

I sadly had the misfortune of working for a company whose ethics and conduct was far from exemplary. Lying and cheating were par for the course for them. As such, I recorded everything I did to make sure I could never be accused of anything untoward as they have gone through more than 32 employees in the last 6 years. After 23 months of accusations or poor performance and alleged claims of using company vehicles for personal use, or just general demeaning passive-aggressive behaviour. They even hired a housekeeper to spy on us and report back anything they felt we were doing wrong, even though they did not do any work themselves, this housekeeper spent most of her time arguing with other members of staff and disrupting our workday in an attempt to make us angry. I ended up recording her rants and false accusations and gaslighting for months.
My wife would dread me coming home as there was always something new they would do to wind me up on a daily basis.
They finally used Covid as an excuse to terminate my employment in the middle of a workday and week without any prior notice and via email. Whilst I had an idea it was building up to this I was still shocked at how they did it typically just before my two years of service.
Long story short, I made a claim to the tribunal and named loads of respondents in it. A few months went by and I got a tribunal preliminary hearing date set for the 17th of November 2020. I heard nothing from my ET1 claim from my work but had a notification from the tribunal that they had included all but one of the respondents I named stating I had not used an ET1a form. What the hell is an ET1a form?
In the ET1 for I named everyone from my company would be classed as a direct line manager and or employer or who was involved in my employment. I was given case numbers for these people and I included them in my ET1. There was no mention on the ET1 I needed an ET1a.
On the day before the 28-day time limit for the respondents to dispute my claim, I received a ET3 form from a Solicitor claiming I had no basis for a claim against his clients and that my chances of success were less than zero and I was being vague and vexatious. I thought I was quite detailed and succinct with my ET1 form even though I had no clue how to fill it out yet I started to doubt myself as the respondent's solicitor seemed so emphatic and resolute.
They claimed they were going to get my claim stuck out and claim £20,000 for each respondent as none of them were allegedly my employer and my alleged claim had no merit they gave me a 7 days deadline to make my decision on what to do.
Having written to the HMRC, MP, and others for help, I told the respondents solicitor I was still waiting for confirmation on certain details and suggested I needed some time to gather this information, they shot back with more claims and that I was being unreasonable. I had not slept since February 2020 and with this claim pending I was not sleeping at all, so stressed and worried with no information or help and not wanting to seem unreasonable I decided to withdraw my claim.
Typically the next day, a solicitor called after 2 months of me waiting for them to call me to say they could spare a few minutes to help me with my claim, Acas finally called me to discuss my claim and HMRC sent me details that all of the respondents I named were in fact, my employers.
It only dawned on me that the respondent's solicitor misrepresented the truth by categorically stating that the respondents were not my employers and threatening me with potential fines. They also lied about certain information and claiming deadlines were out of time so my evidence could not be submitted.
One of which was a video I took at a company Christmas party whereby my direct line manager gives out little silver cups for employees he does not like or in his view had poor performance issues. 
As you can probably tell I am way out of my depth legally and did not know that it is usual practice for the respondents or their solicitors to lie.
I am a bit slow to catch up but now I am livid I canceled my claim as it is quite clear they would do anything to win, why am I surprised this happened. Because I trust people to do the right thing and am totally naive.
Is it even worth trying to reopen this claim or is there a way I can put this all behind me so I can get a good night's sleep?

Diamandis

Sorry, I don't understand why you were taking them to tribunal in the first place? If you worked there for under 2 years and they let you go, unless it's due to a protected characteristic, you have no claim to make. If they've given covid as a reason it doesn't seem like that is the case. 

tacpot12

I think you are out of time to reopen the case. I think the thing to do now is to move on.  You should focus on what you have learned from working for them, and what you learned in attempting to run the case yourself. This is all valuable knowledge, and while you may not be able to use the knowledge immediately, you don't know when it will come in handy.

There are some things you can and should say to yourself: 
1 This is what they did wrong (and list the specific things they did that were abhorrent to you)
2 This is what I did right (and list the things that you are proud about in how you handled the situation, e.g. being strong enough to try to take them to an ET) 
3 It's only a job. Neither it nor they define my value to any other employer or to my family. 
4 I can succeed in any job where I have the right skills.

Ultimately your value in the world of work is down to your skills, so focus on building the right skill set with your current and next employer and you will be ok. 

If you find you can't sleep because your head is buzzing with thoughts, keep a pad of paper and a pen by your bed, and when you can't sleep, make a note of each thought so that you can let that thought go for 8 hrs while your sleep. It will be there in the morning for you to think about if you need to. 

Undervalued

UKPCNumpty said:

I sadly had the misfortune of working for a company whose ethics and conduct was far from exemplary. Lying and cheating were par for the course for them. As such, I recorded everything I did to make sure I could never be accused of anything untoward as they have gone through more than 32 employees in the last 6 years. After 23 months of accusations or poor performance and alleged claims of using company vehicles for personal use, or just general demeaning passive-aggressive behaviour. They even hired a housekeeper to spy on us and report back anything they felt we were doing wrong, even though they did not do any work themselves, this housekeeper spent most of her time arguing with other members of staff and disrupting our workday in an attempt to make us angry. I ended up recording her rants and false accusations and gaslighting for months.
My wife would dread me coming home as there was always something new they would do to wind me up on a daily basis.
They finally used Covid as an excuse to terminate my employment in the middle of a workday and week without any prior notice and via email. Whilst I had an idea it was building up to this I was still shocked at how they did it typically just before my two years of service.
Long story short, I made a claim to the tribunal and named loads of respondents in it. A few months went by and I got a tribunal preliminary hearing date set for the 17th of November 2020. I heard nothing from my ET1 claim from my work but had a notification from the tribunal that they had included all but one of the respondents I named stating I had not used an ET1a form. What the hell is an ET1a form?
In the ET1 for I named everyone from my company would be classed as a direct line manager and or employer or who was involved in my employment. I was given case numbers for these people and I included them in my ET1. There was no mention on the ET1 I needed an ET1a.
On the day before the 28-day time limit for the respondents to dispute my claim, I received a ET3 form from a Solicitor claiming I had no basis for a claim against his clients and that my chances of success were less than zero and I was being vague and vexatious. I thought I was quite detailed and succinct with my ET1 form even though I had no clue how to fill it out yet I started to doubt myself as the respondent's solicitor seemed so emphatic and resolute.
They claimed they were going to get my claim stuck out and claim £20,000 for each respondent as none of them were allegedly my employer and my alleged claim had no merit they gave me a 7 days deadline to make my decision on what to do.
Having written to the HMRC, MP, and others for help, I told the respondents solicitor I was still waiting for confirmation on certain details and suggested I needed some time to gather this information, they shot back with more claims and that I was being unreasonable. I had not slept since February 2020 and with this claim pending I was not sleeping at all, so stressed and worried with no information or help and not wanting to seem unreasonable I decided to withdraw my claim.
Typically the next day, a solicitor called after 2 months of me waiting for them to call me to say they could spare a few minutes to help me with my claim, Acas finally called me to discuss my claim and HMRC sent me details that all of the respondents I named were in fact, my employers.
It only dawned on me that the respondent's solicitor misrepresented the truth by categorically stating that the respondents were not my employers and threatening me with potential fines. They also lied about certain information and claiming deadlines were out of time so my evidence could not be submitted.
One of which was a video I took at a company Christmas party whereby my direct line manager gives out little silver cups for employees he does not like or in his view had poor performance issues. 
As you can probably tell I am way out of my depth legally and did not know that it is usual practice for the respondents or their solicitors to lie.
I am a bit slow to catch up but now I am livid I canceled my claim as it is quite clear they would do anything to win, why am I surprised this happened. Because I trust people to do the right thing and am totally naive.
Is it even worth trying to reopen this claim or is there a way I can put this all behind me so I can get a good night's sleep?

I very much doubt the respondent's solicitor did "lie". Putting forwarded their client's case is not "lying". The case may or may not have merit or the client may be giving the solicitor false information, that is another matter. Equally, saying that they will "seek" costs doesn't mean that they would be successful in actually getting costs awarded. It is actually unlikely that they would succeed but it can occasionally happen if a claim is so weak that it had no reasonable prospect of success.

Sadly you are, as you say, "way out of my depth legally", particularly as with less than two years service it is hard to see that you have a case at all. There are a few exceptions to the "two year rule" but nothing you have posted here suggest that any of them apply to your situation.

lincroft1710

UKPCNumpty said:

.
One of which was a video I took at a company Christmas party whereby my direct line manager gives out little silver cups for employees he does not like or in his view had poor performance issues. 

I cannot see the relevance of this in an ET claim.

But more importantly, as others have said, put this behind you and try to forget about it. Toxic environments tend to taint non toxic people, so you are well out of it.

74jax

UKPCNumpty said:

I sadly had the misfortune of working for a company whose ethics and conduct was far from exemplary. Lying and cheating were par for the course for them. As such, I recorded everything I did to make sure I could never be accused of anything untoward as they have gone through more than 32 employees in the last 6 years. After 23 months of accusations or poor performance and alleged claims of using company vehicles for personal use, or just general demeaning passive-aggressive behaviour. They even hired a housekeeper to spy on us and report back anything they felt we were doing wrong, even though they did not do any work themselves, this housekeeper spent most of her time arguing with other members of staff and disrupting our workday in an attempt to make us angry. I ended up recording her rants and false accusations and gaslighting for months.

They finally used Covid as an excuse to terminate my employment in the middle of a workday and week without any prior notice and via email. Whilst I had an idea it was building up to this I was still shocked at how they did it typically just before my two years of service.

One of which was a video I took at a company Christmas party whereby my direct line manager gives out little silver cups for employees he does not like or in his view had poor performance issues. 

I am a little bit lost here.  So you were recording your employers and your employers were recording you/having people watch you?  
And you stayed for 23 months?
I'm not sure what you mean about using COVID as an excuse to fire you.  Were you terminated due to your sickness record, or terminated because you had COVID?  either way, to be fair it doesn't matter.  
You didn't like working there, they didn't like you working there, so are now no longer working there.
I don't have a clue what the Christmas video is about sorry.

AndrewXII

I sympathise with you for your experience. Though I think the posts above covered it well. After all we need to move forward. It would be good to close the past chapter with justice. Yet even not, we all still learn from it. Have some reflection on what you think went wrong and what went well. How to avoid the wrong in the future and use the termination as an opportunity to bring something better. It maybe easily said than done, but you will be stronger and better once you are out of it. Take care. 

macman

OP states that they were made redundant: at least that's what their header says.

Undervalued

macman said:

OP states that they were made redundant: at least that's what their header says.

Maybe but with only 23 months service that is almost a moot point. At best that would give them one week's pay.

Barny1979

Housekeeper???

UKPCNumpty

Barny1979 said:

Housekeeper???

Revisiting this after so much time away. It was a private estate and they had a housekeeper whom they asked to spy on us, along with the Gamekeeper and the gamekeepers wife. The housekeeper was sacked not long after I left and she told me about this and everything else they got up to to try to get rid of me. The company secretary, company accountant, has also been sacked, as has the gardener and his three successors. 

What I learned from this is, the company I worked for is toxic, the people still working for them now are toxic, and the new people are being converted to being toxic and/or are corrupted due to their financial situation. I feel sorry for them. I am so much better off for leaving them. It took a while, no matter how much it hurt at the time, as I had done nothing wrong, it's hurtful to be rejected for no reason other than doing your job properly.

The other thing I have learned is never pick a fight with a billionaire. They have much more resources and a lot of time to do what ever they want for as long as they want.

The Christmas story was, each year the company had a Christmas party, the estate manager would stand up and roast any member of staff he did not like, he would give a silver cup for poor performance to the member of staff he hated the most.
This was some sort of weird tradition he created with the blessing of the owners. His complaints about people he did not like nearly always took place behind closed doors, i.e. he would spend time stabbing them in the back for as long as possible to make himself look good, and he would sabotage anyone who got in his way. Not a very nice person.

So glad to be away from them, though having only moved a mile away I do get to hear from so many disgruntled residents what they are doing wrong and how horrible they are. It's now amusing to know they are universally disliked and it was not just me.