Employment Law Advice

Angeleyes1

Hi,

Looking for some advice on best way forward with a employment issue 

I’ve been in my current place of employment for more than 2 years (nearly double figures!).

My preference would have been to remain in the job role but, I feel that we may have gone past this point and I’m now unsure of what may be the best route forward as it is likely that the business will place me onto a PIP, which I find absolutely astounding as my line manager previously denied this and it has really affected me, given the amount of hours, weekends, days off and evenings I’ve worked.

It’s also worth flagging that - I flagged a complaint (off the record) in 2023 to HR about the treatment I was receiving by a select few in the team which I feel created an even more hostile environment, which didn’t help and contributed to the business systematically trying to manage me out.  

A quick summary of the situation endured to date is below.

1. Harassment & Exclusion – I have been subjected to derogatory comments since returning from Mat Leave culminating recently in receiving them whilst I was on AL and countless other times with regards to my role, accounts, from members of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).  Regularly excluded or, not even considered or, invited to mandatory company events which included an Inclusion event and as someone with protected characteristics, I found it astounding that they didn’t make allowances for me to attend along with the rest of the company when asked was denied.
2. Unreasonable Workload & Role Misalignment – Since my return from maternity, I have been continuously moved, assigned additional responsibilities outside my role’s scope, which required to work weekends, evenings, and non-working days without appropriate support or recognition, not echoed elsewhere within the business. The team significantly reduced, leaving me with an unsustainable workload. I have not observed similar expectations placed upon my colleagues elsewhere in the company other than those that are in my team.
3. Undermining & Hostile Conduct from Senior Leadership –harassing emails from senior leadership, who have repeatedly undermined my position and credibility in front of junior team members via email correspondence.
4. Unjust Performance Review – Despite achieving the highest year-on-year increase in billings without a fully resourced team, I recently discovered  whilst working late that I was rated as 1 below par/ not performing in my performance review. First time ever. This rating does not align with my contributions and appears to be a deliberate attempt to discredit my work and manage me out of the business. In contrast to my junior team members who are being actively supported and encouraged to be fast tracked to promotion. 
5. Company Culture & Forced Departures – Feeling compelled to have resign due to the unfair treatment I'm experiencing and is a trend seen with other colleagues that have since left the business and suggests a broader issue regarding workplace culture and toxic management practices.

Any help or, advice would be welcomed at this stage. Never been in this situation before and prided myself on my work ethic and professionalism.

GingerTim

Are you in a union?

Savvy_Sue

You won't get legal advice here, beyond saying that taking your employer to a tribunal is hard, with an uncertain outcome however strong your case is, and leaving may be the better option. Pregnant then screwed may be helpful if you think the maternity leave has triggered this. https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/

Union also worth consulting if you're in one. 

Grumpy_chap

It is not wholly clear that the issues the OP mentions are specific to the OP, let alone whether they are linked to the OP's maternity leave.  It could be that a change in the (local) company culture simply coincides with the period when the OP was absent for maternity leave.  That may mean the changes are more noticeable to the OP if they all landed at once, whereas others experienced the change over a period of a few months.

Under the "Workload" item, the OP says the demands have not been observed across the business "other than those that are in my team".

Under the "Culture" item, the OP says there "is a trend seen with other colleagues" which "suggests a broader issue".

While the above are not good observations, if the issues are down to the behaviour of the Management team more generally, then the potential for a legal case is probably not that strong as no discrimination appears to be demonstrated.  The root cause might well be something far more innocent (but still damaging) such as a new local Manager with different personality / experience applying tactics that are not aligned to the company culture.

That might mean that the solution is to either find another job under the OP's own control and timeframe (and tolerate matters in the meantime) or for the OP to ride this out on the assumption that the impact on team performance will eventually show the ineffective management and force a change of management style / Manager.

The OP should, as others suggest, consult their Union if appropriate.
Embarking on a grievance process, linking to discrimination connected with pregnancy, may well not be beneficial to the OP, particularly if the current culture within the OP's part of the business is toxic as indicated.  A toxic business, or ineffective Manager, will not be able to manage the grievance constructively.

Certainly, I would suggest, before embarking on any possible grievance / action around individual persecution or discrimination linked to maternity leave, the OP needs to establish in a provable way that is plausibly the case and not some wider change in the business culture.

The pragmatic step might be to look at this as an opportunity / prompt to find a job that allows the OP to progress elsewhere.

IANAL

Angeleyes1 said:

Hi,

Looking for some advice on best way forward with a employment issue 

I’ve been in my current place of employment for more than 2 years (nearly double figures!).

My preference would have been to remain in the job role but, I feel that we may have gone past this point and I’m now unsure of what may be the best route forward as it is likely that the business will place me onto a PIP, which I find absolutely astounding as my line manager previously denied this and it has really affected me, given the amount of hours, weekends, days off and evenings I’ve worked.

It’s also worth flagging that - I flagged a complaint (off the record) in 2023 to HR about the treatment I was receiving by a select few in the team which I feel created an even more hostile environment, which didn’t help and contributed to the business systematically trying to manage me out.  

A quick summary of the situation endured to date is below.

1. Harassment & Exclusion – I have been subjected to derogatory comments since returning from Mat Leave culminating recently in receiving them whilst I was on AL and countless other times with regards to my role, accounts, from members of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).  Regularly excluded or, not even considered or, invited to mandatory company events which included an Inclusion event and as someone with protected characteristics, I found it astounding that they didn’t make allowances for me to attend along with the rest of the company when asked was denied.
2. Unreasonable Workload & Role Misalignment – Since my return from maternity, I have been continuously moved, assigned additional responsibilities outside my role’s scope, which required to work weekends, evenings, and non-working days without appropriate support or recognition, not echoed elsewhere within the business. The team significantly reduced, leaving me with an unsustainable workload. I have not observed similar expectations placed upon my colleagues elsewhere in the company other than those that are in my team.
3. Undermining & Hostile Conduct from Senior Leadership –harassing emails from senior leadership, who have repeatedly undermined my position and credibility in front of junior team members via email correspondence.
4. Unjust Performance Review – Despite achieving the highest year-on-year increase in billings without a fully resourced team, I recently discovered  whilst working late that I was rated as 1 below par/ not performing in my performance review. First time ever. This rating does not align with my contributions and appears to be a deliberate attempt to discredit my work and manage me out of the business. In contrast to my junior team members who are being actively supported and encouraged to be fast tracked to promotion. 
5. Company Culture & Forced Departures – Feeling compelled to have resign due to the unfair treatment I'm experiencing and is a trend seen with other colleagues that have since left the business and suggests a broader issue regarding workplace culture and toxic management practices.

Any help or, advice would be welcomed at this stage. Never been in this situation before and prided myself on my work ethic and professionalism.

Angeleyes1

Thanks for coming back to me on the above. I really do appreciate you taking the time to comment as you have done. Unfortunately, I’m not in a union so, I’m unable to lean into that as an option and although I don’t want to have to go down the grievance route, I do feel I’ve been left with no other choice than to undertake this path in order to expose what I feel is a huge injustice that has taken place and toxicity in the workplace as I do believe this type of behaviour has become more commonplace of late by businesses that wishes to remove those that they no longer feel is a good culture fit, and them having to pay redundancy, I recognise that it’s unlikely to result in my desired outcome which if I’m being honest, would have been to just be left to do my job which is all I ever really wanted. 

Grumpy_chap

Angeleyes1 said:

Thanks for coming back to me on the above. I really do appreciate you taking the time to comment as you have done. Unfortunately, I’m not in a union so, I’m unable to lean into that as an option and although I don’t want to have to go down the grievance route, I do feel I’ve been left with no other choice than to undertake this path in order to expose what I feel is a huge injustice that has taken place and toxicity in the workplace as I do believe this type of behaviour has become more commonplace of late by businesses that wishes to remove those that they no longer feel is a good culture fit, and them having to pay redundancy, I recognise that it’s unlikely to result in my desired outcome which if I’m being honest, would have been to just be left to do my job which is all I ever really wanted. 

While this is stressful for you and you no doubt feel very "raw" about matters, what outcome do you actually want to achieve from the grievance route?
You seem to accept that what you really want - to just be left to do your job - is not likely to be achieved.

lincroft1710

The problem is that despite the existence of grievances, protected characteristics, tribunals etc, except in very extreme, high salaried, high profile cases, employees rarely win when there is a toxic employment environment. Even if an employee was successful at a constructive dismissal tribunal the award is in real terms poor