Bullying at work

[Tony 1]

My eldest Daughters boyfriends works for a high street sports retailer, as his parents are away on a pre Christmas break I was asked by my Daughter would I be kind enough to phone up his manager to report that her boyfriend has flu and would not be attending work, thought ok better check this out, so me and the wife go up to his home knocked on the door to be greeted by a dishevelled looking boyfriend, to say he looked ruff was an understatement, I then ask him why didn’t he phone in, he then said the manager would give him a hard time, I said ok leave it to me, so I phone from his house, a young girl answers the phone I ask for the manager she said that’s me, I then explain the situation, she then says to me tell him how badly he is letting the team down, I said hang on what’s your name and could I have the number for the head office she then said why? She started to try and lay into me, saying what is it to do with me, I explained I wanted to know from the senior management if bullying was a policy they endorsed, she then said in a worried voice look there’s no need to escalate this, I then said again could I please have the number, she then said why, I said I have told you why, she then started on about, did I know how hard it was to be a manager, I said as someone who prior to working for myself run a factory employing over 300 hundred staff I said I think I may be able to empathise.

 

I could not believe this goes on in this day and age, the reason for my naivety is that I have worked for my self for the past 14yrs my daughter works in the banking industry and is treated really well (she has just got back from a expenses paid jolly to Euro Disney)>

 

The upshot is he has gone to work today, I have raised my concerns with the personal manager at head office who was most helpful, I told him I would be writing formally to him to register my concern and that if I hear of any more incidents of bullying I would be taking the matter up with the Chairman.

 

Just out of interest is this how most Employers/ Managers act these days?, with the unemployment figures being at an all time low Are things getting better or worse.

 

[ 17. December 2003, 02:47 PM: Message edited by: Tony C ]

[Apache]

I cant say where this was as I dont want to cause trouble for Elton, but one of the staff at my place of work who left recently, was to be honest, a rude, arrogant, obnoxious a******e.

 

He would leer at anything on two legs with breasts that came near (even though he had a wife who refused to beleive ill of him), he was frequently rude to myself and a girl my age who worked there before leaving in tears.

 

I refused to work shifts when he would be there too, because he would snip away at me until i started retaliating. In the end he left because of a disagreement with the new owner - thank god.

[lufc999]

T.C oh how i envy you working for yourself most places now aday's go on about team work and if you have a day off they are on your back i at the moment have the union involved as i havnt been paid sick pay since october the 7th i am entitled to full pay for six month but they are refusing to pay i took 6 month off unpaid leave, they even tried to get me to hand my notice in then re-apply for my job .... yeah right i aint as green as im cabbage looking then i went back to work and had to go on the sick but they have no sympathy at all. The way i and others are looking at it is i saved them 6 month sick pay but hey i'll stop now cause i could go on all nite ..lol lets just say it looks like i'll see them in the tribunal < sigh>

 

 

SORRY FOR GOING ON BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY YES ALL EMPLOYERS ARE BULLIES. IE PUTTING PRESSURE TO WORK OVERTIME

[Tony 1]

lufc, Sorry to hear you are in dispute with your Employer, it's bad enough not being in the best of health without having to worry about money. I thought sick pay was one of the entitlements which is clear cut eg if your not fit for work you got sick pay.

Glad you spotted the resign and re-apply for your job ploy, that would be convenient for them as any future redundancy you would get would be from the date you started under the new contract, if they re-employed you of course :mad: .

I thought those sort of sharp practices went out long ago.

 

Yes I am lucky to work for myself the only thing I have a problem with now is chasing those who owe me, the bigger the firm the slower they are in paying, the accounts managers in some of the larger companies I work for have no concept of cash flow and the smalll business. would never go back though

Anyway best of luck if you have to go the tribunal route mate

[Lid]

I think that you should point out to this retailer that whilst it maybe OK to pass on the flu and other illnesses to the rest of the staff, it's hardly fair to try and infect their customers.

 

Years ago when I worked in a High Street quick print business we had no paid sick days and only 15 days holidays a year. Staff used to come to work on their last legs, but after I had a quick chat to the owner, he agreed to include 10 days sick pay a year and increase the hols to 20 days!

[Gaffer]

lufc999:

SORRY FOR GOING ON BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY YES ALL EMPLOYERS ARE BULLIES. IE PUTTING PRESSURE TO WORK OVERTIME

That's a very 'general' statement! Where I work no-one is made to do overtime. At the end of the day it depends on the employees terms and conditions.

 

 

Tony, at times of sickness employees should be aware, and reminded, of their roles within a company by their employers, and that failure to attend work maybe in breach of their terms and conditions. I don't think she was in the wrong to point out that he may be letting the team down, but I do think think she was a tad over zealous in the way she put it. If you're sick, you're sick!

You've got to remember, at a tribunal they would've expected an employer to have asked for details rather than just accepting that he (or she) wouldn't be attending work through ill health.

 

It would be easy for me to continue to give my opinion (FWIW), but I can't really without knowing his terms and conditions, length of service, and attendance, building up to his supervisors/manageresses comments.

[scoobs11]

i'd kill for the chance of some overtime

[Orca]

scoobs not my type of overtime... :mad: forced and unpaid

[nigelnibbles]

does anyone else hate this "letting the team" down cr*p, used to happen a lot when I worked for a certain public transport, they tried to get you to go on "team building" exercises, to me its just a form of physcological bullying to make you feel guilty when you ill

[Jim Roper]

The more unreliable your workforce is, the more you have to be overstaffed to make sure the work gets done.

The more overstaffed you are, the less you can afford to pay each member of your staff.

We don't get sick pay until we have gone up 2 pay levels above the starting rate. We have to have a low absence rate (BIF) to get to higher levels. We aren't allowed to work overtime if we have a high absence rate.

Every night we turn in and have no idea who will turn up. It must be a real nightmare for management.

I think a lot of the trouble is that we have a lot of ex government employees who are accustomed to taking their 22 days sick every year(because the union fought for it) and can't get it out of their system.