Bullying is a crime!

by Gill 22 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Gill

  The last few months have been very difficult for us.

  My husband has been experiencing bullying by his boss at work and his management team. There is no reason for the bullying....it is just happening. He is repeatedly being asked into investigations and disciplinary meetings for issues so small that his Trade Union representatives are at their wits end and have finally decided to call in the head of their Trade Union and a lawyer to begin going down the road of constructive dismissal. My husband, who I have known since being a child, has always been a calm and mentally grounded man. He went to the doctors last week and the doctor told him he had a severe reactive depression caused by the bullying. He sending him to a counsellor and wants him to go on the sick to get away from the situation at work. The next day, my husband went back to work and found he was being investigated yet again, simply for having a pre arranged day off and furthur disciplinary was being arranged.

  I am afraid that he is on the verge of a breakdown, despite all the support he is receiving from the Union.

  There was a grievance meeting last Friday, from my husband against his boss. Basically, all there admitted there was nothing wrong with my husband's work. They claimed it was a 'personality clash' and my husband was being overly sensitive!

  My daughter works in the Human Resources department, and had been asked to do a survey of the other workers a few months ago. Overwhelmingly, the staff had complained of severe bullying by the boss and the management team. On the Friday, the senior HR manager deleted all references to bullying from the survey results and then sent them to the directors of the firm! (She doesn't know that the original paper surveys have been kept safe when they should have been destroyed by her instructions!)

  I feel bullying is a crime! It is no different from someone coming into your home and attacking you and stealing everything from you. However, the law seems only to be able to provide a small amount of compensation if you leave your job for this reason. No one however, can ever repay you for the suffering and psychological trauma you have been through!

  My husband feels that it is no different to his boss actually stealing the food from our family's mouths.

  Why can't we take out an injunction against this man?

  Sometimes, it just feels so despairing!
• 

  Vivamus

  Well that just sucks. Having had a break-down myself, I know it can be devastating. So I would take the docters advice, and call in sick so that he can get away from work-stress. And not to sound insensitive - but it is *just* work, even though that can be a hard thing to realise at the moment.
• 

  Gill

  Vivamus - Thanks! That is a good point.....'it's 'just' work!' These things build up and up and make you feel so ill that you soon lose all perspective. I am encouraging him to do what the doctor says and go on the sick but he likes his job! He is a very skilled person and would find it easy to get another job and yet.....he's broken over being picked on like this. It's the injustice of it all!
• 

  Vivamus

  Gill, I know. When I called in sick (burn out combined with daily migraines) I felt as though my life was over. I loved my job, loved my life and envisioned that by calling in sick - I'd loose everything ...

  But, with time came perspective . Your health and happiness is what counts the most, if your husband can easily find another job - well that ensures you don't have to worry on that front. If he feels to be not appreciated, and not valued for his skill ... well perhaps he needs to find an employer that will value all that.

  I do understand that this entire situation is stressfull. So remind him that his home is a haven, and his family is all that really matters. I wish you well.
• 

  Pioneer Spit...oh, i mean Spirit

  Harrassment is against the law, and for them to admit that your husband is not at fault nor is his work, that it's a personality clash should be all the motivation they need to stop immediately, or risk being sued by apparently several! employees?

  Remind him of how talented he is, and that it's not the only job on Earth. Nothing is worth the constant mental strain. . .I say this as I wait oh so impatiently for my new job to start. I've gone through some similar things at work, but have another job waiting for me-I'm delaying because of a customer order that is incoming-$$- I keep wondering if it's worth it.
• 

  Mary

  He is repeatedly being asked into investigations and disciplinary meetings for issues so small that his Trade Union representatives are at their wits end and have finally decided to call in the head of their Trade Union and a lawyer to begin going down the road of constructive dismissal.

  While I'm not pro-union, it most definitely sounds like harassment. Your hubby should inform his boss that all conversations will be tape-recorded which should make der fuehrer think twice before he calls him in again for some perceived problem. I'm glad the Union has a lawyer on it, as this asshole could/should be charged with harassment.
• 

  Gill

  Pioneer Spit - I do tell him how talented he is because he is. There is a massive shortage of his types of skills in the UK. However, he can't seem to accept and seems to be in a state of shock that someone has chosen to bully him so badly. Until he 'names' the problem in his own mind and accepts that he has no choice but to leave the firm he will remain traumatised.

  Mary - This 'boss' of my husband is so bad that the whole factory of grown men INCLUDING one Croatian Special Forces defector (complete with bullet wounds) is terrified of him. He threatens the staff physically, mentally, verbally and the Polish women he frightens with his sexual innuendo. He is an absolute monstor. The Union is desperately trying to get the foreign immigrant women to join them as they are paid one pound an hour less than the men for doing the same job and they don't know it. Last week, management approached HR and asked them if there was a way to stop the WOMEN from being allowed to go to the toilet. HR said absolutely NOT. So instead, everytime a woman has to go to the toilet a manager rushes out to stop her and ask her WHY she is going to the toilet! It's an absolute outrage and these women do not know that this is not allowed and they are being abused!!

  When my husband and daughter come home I hear the tales of all the different methods of killing the boss that members of staff have come up with that day. It is absolutely horrifying that grown people are reduced to fantasising about murder but that is how bad this man is!

  I wish I could say I was exaggerating any of this. I want them both to leave this firm as I KNOW that something very bad is going to happen there and I don't want them to still be working there when it kicks off!
• 

  Mary

  He threatens the staff physically, mentally, verbally and the Polish women he frightens with his sexual innuendo. He is an absolute monstor.

  Is this guy mentally disturbed? I mean, there's a difference between having a boss who's a prick, and one who is mentally unbalanced. Someone else recently did a thread about their boss acting in a manner very similar to what you've described above and it is indeed scary to think of anyone that angry and crazy, in a position of authority. Not only that, but threatening the staff in a PHYSICAL manner is against the law, and so is Sexual Harassment (I will assume you have Human Rights laws in England). This guy needs to be fired. Or at least have the living shit beat out of him......

  The Union is desperately trying to get the foreign immigrant women to join them as they are paid one pound an hour less than the men for doing the same job and they don't know it. Last week, management approached HR and asked them if there was a way to stop the WOMEN from being allowed to go to the toilet. HR said absolutely NOT. So instead, everytime a woman has to go to the toilet a manager rushes out to stop her and ask her WHY she is going to the toilet! It's an absolute outrage and these women do not know that this is not allowed and they are being abused!!

  WTF??! So is the problem this one guy, or all of Management? It sounds to me like maybe Fleet Street would be interested in what's going on at this company.....Jesus.......
• 

  Gill

  Mary - The primary problem is the boss (a director) and the influence and the pressure he then exerts on the management!

  The management happen to be spineless and talentless. Their only talent is bullying and they are getting away with it hand over fist.

  People in the UK are being sacked from their jobs and replaced by low paid immigrant workers who are not all as talented as the people whose jobs they usurp. The immigrants are also not au fait with our employment laws and the british workers are screwed left right and centre!

  Management fear for their own jobs and their stress is then taken out on the employees. This is Britain in 2007! Totally stuffed!
• 

  quietlyleaving

  what a nightmare situation. I really feel for you and your husband.