Victimisation?

Dolphinfish1

Ok, here's the deal. My wife is a couple of years short of drawing a fairly substantial pension, which falls due on her sixtieth birthday. For the last eight years she's been working for a mid-sized and pretty long established company. For seven of those eight years, her boss - who's the general manager of the company - has had no problem whatever with her or her work. Then, about a year ago, the goalposts started to shift in a rather mysterious manner.

First, he called her in for a "little chat" about her supposedly "bullying" another member of staff, somebody who she (my wife) considered a friend and with whom she often socialized outside work. He made it plain that, although he called it a "chat", it was in fact, an informal warning. My wife DOES sometimes have a snippy manner when under stress, but the individual concerned is something of a snowflake and I'm not at all sure a short manner on stressful occasions rises to the level of bullying. However, my wife agreed to watch it in future, and went back to work.

A month or two later, he called her in again, with the same complaint from the same member of staff. I should point out that both instances were in fact single occurrences, not complaints of ongoing behaviour. In this second instance, my wife had, in fact, apologized to the individual concerned at the time, but apparently that wasn't good enough for the big boss. Moreover, he told her he'd received similar complaints from two other members of staff. On drilling into this claim, however, it turned out that he had received NO such complaints. In fact, HE had gone to THEM and asked if she was sometimes snippy. On prodding from him, they agreed she could be, but themselves made no complaint about it. In other words, he was putting words in their mouths, attempting to solicit complaints against her. In any event, he told her the next instance would be on the record. Once again, my wife couldn't understand why he was making such a big deal out of such small occurrences, and why (since both she and the supposed complainant had worked together for seven years, and were continuing to word together without problems) this was suddenly becoming an issue now.

Fast forward a few more months and suddenly, my wife finds herself hauled up on a disciplinary for failing to meet proper working standards. This charge had nothing to do with the previous incidences, but rather referred to a series of improperly filled out invoices. Without getting into too much detail, this one stunk to high heaven. The invoices concerned were all made out within a period of a single month. They had not been sent out, and when they were pulled to form the basis of the charge against her, they had not yet gone through the internal checks which the company habitually uses in these matters. In short, no harm done, and, moreover, far worse than this had occurred at the hands of others without formal sanction. It was as if he was deliberately making an issue out of this. Moreover, the GM, when investigating the charge did not go to the daily uploads to the server to see if, when they left my wife's computer, they were correct or not. I held that this alone constituted a breach of his due diligence, that he had failed to examine all possible evidence, and that on that ground alone the charge should be dismissed. My wife, however, felt that an outright challenge would created bad feeling and sweet reason would prevail. Consequently, she ended up with a verbal warning, live for six months. I told her to appeal on several grounds. First, the GM's failure to do his due diligence. Second, his failure to take a written statement from her at the investigation stage, in contravention of best practice. Third, his insistence on doing the disciplinary himself, despite having done the investigation, also in breach of best practice, and fourthly, the fact that he handed out the verdict and the sanction IN the disciplinary instead of waiting to ponder a day or two, also in breach of best practice. In addition, I advised her to lodge a grievance against the guy for harassment. MY wife refused to do any of this on the grounds that it would create bad feeling and make her position untenable, a position I simply cannot understand, but perhaps that's because I can do resentment with the best of them and it does not frighten me in the least.

A workmate who accompanied my wife to the hearing felt that the GM was determined to hand out the verbal under all circumstances. It was felt at the time that the reason for this was because the mistake with the invoice had been brought to the GM's attention by the accounts manager, who is not the GM's bessie mate, and the GM felt he'd been made to look a fool in front of him. That seemed to explain things as far as my wife was concerned, although I personally remained uneasy. She determined to up her game and see out the verbal period, and initially, all seemed well. Then the other shoe dropped.

About three weeks after the disciplinary, the GM announced his retirement. He'll be retiring in a few months time. Just BEFORE my wife's verbal expires. You can see where I'm going here, can't you? Suddenly, the informal warnings about nothing events make sense (he was preparing the ground, giving himself an excuse to go straight to the formal stage, even with a matter which could and should have been dealt with informally). The demand that HE be the one to do the disciplinary (he could have got someone else, the company is not that small), presumably for fear that someone else would consider it a 'No further action'. The determination to get the formal warning on the record no matter what. Basically, it means that for the next six months, my wife is the one person on the planet who cannot apply for his job. It all adds up. He was nobbling her because he's got a place man in mind for the job, someone who will receive a suitably sweet 'bigging up' from him. I've begged my wife to lodge a grievance against this ars*hole, if only to embarrass him in front of the board. She's not having any of it, though. Her logic is that she never intended to go for the job anyway (which is true), that she only wants to coast down to retirement in two years and that it's not worth the effort. However, my if I've called this right, it means this male organ has been plotting and scheming in the dark for the last year or so specifically to 'get' my wife. My instinct is to go over there and chin him. Any alternative suggestions?

Mrs OBumble

You asked for suggestions, here's mine:

Butt out and let your wife manage her own work life. It's none of your business.

A person within a year or two of retirement is unlikely to be getting a promotion even if they wanted it.

Nody

Mod:
Let's not even go there; come back once you're ready to post it properly without calling out everyone (special snowflake, 1 year plot against your wife etc.); your wife wants to drop it and that's the best advice you'll get.