Discrimination/Bullying/Harrassment in the workplace

embee

Well.. I've had a crappy few days. As seems to be the pattern these days, its work-related. Yesterday (Sunday), I had a MAJOR run-in with my Team Leader over my Annual Leave entitlements... I could go into the minutae, but basically the conversation went something like this :

Me : Hi, can I just ask you something about my Annual Leave I've booked for my holidays next weekend?
Team Leader : Er... what Annual Leave?
Me : What? The Annual Leave I requested 3 weeks ago.
TL : Oh yeah, right. I dunno, I haven't heard back from them.
Me : Right well... this is my last shift before I'm due to go on my holidays, so I sort of need to know whether or not its been approved.
TL : Well, to be honest with you Sorcha, you should have checked yourself.
Me : Sorry, but its not my job to check. I'm meant to request it. You and the dedicated team who take care of Annual Leave are meant to sort it and get back to me.
TL : Don't start getting smart with me. Why did you leave it until 3 weeks before your holidays before booking it? Do you not realise its the busy time for Annual Leave with people away on their holidays?
Me : Excuse me? I have been on Maternity Leave since January 6th. Are you serious? Was I meant to contact work at the time I booked my holidays? My baby was 2 weeks old when I booked the holidays.
TL : I don't care if your baby was 2 minutes or two hours old, you should have seen about booking the time off earlier.
Me : What?! I told HR that I had holidays booked for September. They told me that you, my Team Leader, would sort it out.
TL : Well sorry, but you should never have booked and paid for holidays without checking whether or not you would get Annual Leave.
Me : What?! This is outrageous. I was on Maternity Leave. I was moving to a completely different working arrangement, from fulltime Monday-Friday to part time weekends. I wouldn't have known back then who my team leader was, what hours I'd be working, and what days I'd be working. How on earth could I have booked Annual Leave?
TL : This isn't my problem. Everyone here has to abide by the same rules.
Me : Maybe, but everyone here has NOT been on Maternity Leave for 7 months. Everyone here has NOT moved to a completely different working arrangement. I'm not a robot, I'm a person.
TL : Like I told you already, this is not my problem.
Me : Right so, what happens in the event that my Annual Leave request is refused?
TL : Well, you'll have to turn up for work.
Me : Right, well .... that won't be happening. I've booked and paid for a holiday and I'll be in France next weekend, Annual Leave or not.
TL : Fair enough. Be warned, it'll go down on our records as Unauthorised Absence. There'll be six days of it in your case. You could be let go.
Me : Let go? What, fired you mean? Ye can't fire me because you've either forgotten or are too lazy to see to my Annual Leave request!
TL : Well, thats the way it is. If you don't get your Annual Leave granted, by all means go away on your holidays, but you'll be fired when you get back.

After this, he got up from the table we were both sitting at and walked away, when I was mid-sentence.


(Sorry for the longwinded nature of this, its actually all much more complicated than this - this is abridged!)

Well, I am absolutely, unbelieveably disgusted.

I was so angry that I didn't hesitate to get onto our union rep,but, to be honest, they're absolutely rubbish.

I am so confused about all of this, but my Mam (who works in the same place) has said that his behaviour is tantamount to harrassment and discrimination. He is essentially threatening me with the sack (which he isn't even authorised to do - thats HR's job) because I was on Maternity Leave. If I didn't need the money, I'd have told him to shove his job where the sun doesn't shine, but I'm genuinely upset about the way he spoke to me.

Aside from this little run-in, he ignores my existence. He has had 4 weeks to add my name to the Team mailing list, so that I get team mails etc, but to date hasn't bothered (its literally a ten second job). He "forgets" to tell me when he's having team meetings (another CSR on the team had to gently remind him to tell me about it). He has sent around mails about the whole team having a team night out, and again, didn't bother to tell me.

Going back to work was hard enough, but this just takes the biscuit. All the excitement I thought I'd be feeling about going to France (my first holiday in 5 years) has vanished, and I'm worried sick about getting fired.....


What would ye do in my position?

Time Magazine

Pop into the Dept and have a free chat with these guys. They'll advise you of your rights and your chances of success in any action you may take.

Pipp

Hi embee,
first of all can I just say that Rhiannon is an absolutely gorgeous name for a little girl.. she looks like a right little cutie pie.
Anyway, Ill try to help you with your dilemma with your Team leader. Unfortunately I have been bullied in work too and I know exactly how you feel.
Firstly, if this guy fires you he has basically put his winkie on a chopping board and handed you the knife. You see what he has done with the exclusion from social events, failure to include in in team and essential work related emails is set himself up nicely for you to bring a case against him for constuctive dismissal. You see, exclusion of any kind is bullying, full stop. And what he is doing is basically trying to make your life as difficult as possible so you will resign, or so he has an "excuse" to fire you. In his mind, you taking your holidays is the "excuse" that he has been waiting for to fire you, when in reality its simply his ineptitude at organising his own staff that has caused your annual leave request to go by the wayside resulting in you being unsure and asking him about it in the first place. Do you see what I am getting at?
Basically, did you go through proper channels to organise your leave? Did you fulfill all the requirements your employer expects in order for you to get approval for holiday leave? If you did then you have no need to worry and this guy hasnt got a leg to stand on.
Go to HR yourself and ask about your holidays, if they are happy then take your holidays and ignore this conversation you had with your Team Leader.
Also, it mightnt be a bad idea to start making notes of all your dealings with this individual, get proof that you arent on mailing lists and keep a log of dates and times and exactly what was said by whom - this will help your case if you decide to make a formal complaint. If anyone witnesses this guy bullying you get them to be a witness, get them to write down what happened and sign and date it. In the meantime, if this is really bothering you can you organise a meeting with your HR manager and tell him that you are feeling bullied and undermined?
Maybe this Team Leader just does not like you as a person, or maybe he resents the fact that you had maternity leave. Youll never really know why these people pick a person to "pick" on, they just do it, and unfortunately he seems to have picked you.
The Campaign against bullying site is good, put it into google and it should come up, they helped me when I made a formal complaint about a manager.
I hope ive helped you in some way, PM me if you want. Your Team Leader sounds like a clueless numpty who shouldnt be managing anyone at all!!
Pipp

embee

Heya Pipp and Ibid,

Thanks for replying.

Pipp wrote:

Basically, did you go through proper channels to organise your leave? Did you fulfill all the requirements your employer expects in order for you to get approval for holiday leave?

Yes, I most certainly did. All that they require is that you book it over a week in advance. I placed the AL request on August 12th, and I'm going on holidays this Saturday, September 2nd. As I said previously, my Mam works in the same place. When I was on Maternity Leave, the team who deal with all AL requests sent around an email telling people NOT to book up their AL months in advance, and that it would HAVE to be done closer to the time you want the AL, so my TL telling me I should have booked it earlier (ie whilst I was on Maternity Leave) is invalid.

Pipp wrote:

Go to HR yourself and ask about your holidays, if they are happy then take your holidays and ignore this conversation you had with your Team Leader.

Unfortunately, I can't do this. The team who deal with AL requests and scheduling are the only people I would need to talk to about this, and they're based in Dublin (I work in Dundalk). They are the people who grant/refuse AL, so my dealings should have been with them from the start. My TL, instead of having the conversation that is in the original post, should have referred me to them straight away, but didn't.

Pipp wrote:

If anyone witnesses this guy bullying you get them to be a witness, get them to write down what happened and sign and date it.

I honestly don't see that any of my team members would sign and date something that was seen to be going against my TL. The main reason is that they are all good friends. Before my TL was made a TL, he was on their team and was (and still is) buddies with them all. I could very easily see them all closing ranks.

Pipp wrote:

Maybe this Team Leader just does not like you as a person, or maybe he resents the fact that you had maternity leave.

I don't think its that he doesn't like me as a person (I'm new on the team so he hasn't had a chance to get to know me properly). I think its more to do with the Maternity Leave to be honest. My returning from Maternity Leave has meant an awful lot of extra hassle for him - when I went on Mat. Leave, my entire profile was deleted, which meant I had no logins or passwords for ANY of the systems. Now, as my TL, he's in charge of trying to get everything set back up for me. To date, I am still without passwords/access to a significant amount of systems, and I am constantly having to go to other CSR's to ask if they can do X/Y/Z for me as my system won't let me etc, or go to him to ask him why I still can't access Systems.

I don't even know if I want to pursue this and make a formal complaint against him. All I wanted is to be treated fairly and not be treated as though I don't exist.

The Hill Billy

embee:

This has gone beyond a simple disagreement over booking AL. From your description of your workplace it appears that it is a large-ish organisation. They should have a decent HR department (an oxymoron if ever there was one ). I'd suggest that you get in touch with them - not just the team that deals with AL - explain events thus far & ask them to clarify the situation regarding your AL & your TL's attitude/behaviour.

Best of luck!