Thread: Help - Workplace Advice

Help

Have recently brought to the attention of my manager ongoing problems with one of the supervisors where I work.

Out of 5 staff, 4 of us have raised concerns regarding this person.

We assumed working for a local government and studying the employment conditions etc etc, that our concerns would be dealt with in a fair, unbaised way and we would be supported.

However, it is beginning to feel that the only one being supported is the aforesaid supervisor as she is the only one who knows what the state of play is.

There was a meeting earlier this week, where the problems were discussed, and our induvidual names were mentioned along with what we had said - good start eh !!!, we have had no feedback from the manager and have been told by the other supervisor, that we have 2 choices we either sit down and discuss it informally or we go the more formal route for which we will be supported.

As you can imagine, the atmostphere is awful, we have no clear direction from our manager, we are of the opinion that we are being made out to be the ones in the wrong, and felt that by bringing these issues to our manager, they would have a duty to deal / comment/ keep us informed/ not make us the scapegoats etc etc.....

Any advice.



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Originally Posted by pinkpetal

Help

Have recently brought to the attention of my manager ongoing problems with one of the supervisors where I work.

Out of 5 staff, 4 of us have raised concerns regarding this person.

We assumed working for a local government and studying the employment conditions etc etc, that our concerns would be dealt with in a fair, unbaised way and we would be supported.

However, it is beginning to feel that the only one being supported is the aforesaid supervisor as she is the only one who knows what the state of play is.

There was a meeting earlier this week, where the problems were discussed, and our induvidual names were mentioned along with what we had said - good start eh !!!, we have had no feedback from the manager and have been told by the other supervisor, that we have 2 choices we either sit down and discuss it informally or we go the more formal route for which we will be supported.

As you can imagine, the atmostphere is awful, we have no clear direction from our manager, we are of the opinion that we are being made out to be the ones in the wrong, and felt that by bringing these issues to our manager, they would have a duty to deal / comment/ keep us informed/ not make us the scapegoats etc etc.....

Any advice.

Have you discussed this with anyone in Personnel/Human Resources?

Most companies have a procedure for grievance against a member of staff. It is documented in our company handbook.

Jeremy

Hi

HR were in the said meeting, but no one has offered any of us advice or support.

They appear to be looking at a grievance proceedure, but the concerns point more towards bullying in the workplace , which is the route we believe should be followed. Get the feeling that they think it will just go away if they ignore us !!

Both issues are supposed to be dealt with in a professional manner, however, the manager and this particular supervisor are very friendly and earlier in the week when I was working with the supervisor (for the first time since the allegations) the manager was emailing her from home throughout the evening. The atmosphere was very strained for the 2 1/2 hours i had to work with her, this on its own is one of the ongoing problems we have !!! She was apparently told in the meeting by HR that this is not acceptable.

We have received no support or communication from the manager !! the allegations / concerns were raised over 10 days ago during supervision with the manager - so had to be documented.

Any ideas, is the onus on us or now that we have brought it to managements attention should they be acting on this ??

I would have thought bullying would fall under the grievence procedure. Getting a bit outside of knowledge now.

Anyone better qualified?

Jeremy

Bullying is definitely not acceptable in a workplace; however, it normally stems from a particular problem with one of the persons involved within the grievance procedure. As there are 4 staff complaining about 1 person, I would assume that it is a problem with the supervisor?

Is it possible to elaborate on why 4 of the staff are unhappy? What have they done exactly?

Hi,
grievance procedures are often time limited. If you have reported it to your manager and he cannot come to a resonable resolution within 14 days or so it then has to be passed to someone higher in authority, they then in turn will try to resolve the matter, the problem is, if the highest authority cannot resolve it it just stays unresolved, I would personally ask to see the manager and take a Union rep or friend in with me and document the meeting ourselves, you have that right to have someone with you, if you do that they will realise they cant just sweep this under the carpet. IMO, I would also check your companies policy on grievance procedures so you have a clear understanding of what has to happen.

Hi

Yes the problem is with a supervisor:

My personal concerns are:

Refusing requests for annual leave
Phoning me at home and having a go at me, because I did not phone in personally to report myself as sick and telling me that she had received a "confused" message and wanted to know if I was coming into work or not that evening, even though my husband had phoned the evening before and she had personnally arranged cover that evening so there was no confusion.
The atmosphere she causes whilst working, everyone sits in silence and is to afraid to talk !
Cant ask her for help without getting the feeling that you are stupid and should know how or what to do.
Making derogatory comments about other members of staff, if they are off sick, even making comments that make you feel that you have lied about being sick !!
I am constantly being left to work my particular department on my own, she does the rotas and if my normal working collegue is off, she makes no attempt to cover the shift, whereas some nights there are 4 people working and other times there is just one and its not because they are quiet times - you never know what is going to happen as it is an emergency service !!!!

Our usual manager has recently gone off on maternity leave, this supervisor has had a promotion but it is for a specific part my mangers job, which relates purely to IT issues. Another person who had the same role as myself has got a secondment to do the rest of the job.

The concerns were raised on 2nd november, and i have found out today that the manager has gone on holiday for a week, so we are all left in the dark about how to proceed.

The other supervisor is as angry about the situation as the rest of us, we all feel really let down especially as we all now have to work with the afore said supervisor, who is not speaking and causing an even worse atmosphere than before, and speaking for myself I am dreading coming into work when I know she is in.

Its a really nasty situation !!

Hi,
if this supervisor in question is making derogatory remarks about you and or others, it may well be in your interest to speak to those who the remarks were made to and ask them if they would be prepared, if required, to make statements in relation to the remarks made. This would strengthen your case too.

Yes they all are aware .... out of the 5 staff 4 of us have raised the concerns..... even the 5th one is now commenting on the atmosphere!!!

Trouble is that the new manager actually commented that "if anyone has a problem with "X" i will have trouble because I like her. So it looks like some personal feelings may be involved, rather than being professional.....

Then what I would strongly suggest is going over the managers head and report this to his superior, or next in line up the management scale. I would also state that you are doing this due to there being a possible conflict of interest and also raise the point of what he has said either to you and or others in relation to this matter. He has a duty of care for everyone under him, not pick and choose who he likes and dislikes.

Sounds to me that the supervisor is incompetant, among other things. However, it sounds like you have a case of harassment.

Have you spoken to Acas - Home ?

Trouble with this place is that they employ for "bums on seats" not for capability to do the jobs.. its all about budgets budgets budgets.....

I recently got a complete trashing yesterday because I fixed the fax machine in 10 mins when 2 others had tried all day !!!!! Ooh you just cant help some people...

Anyone would think I worked for a council !!!!! ohhh thats the problem... I do.....

Supervisor is completely incompetant, unprofessional, unaproachable and just damn nasty!!!

The problem is we have all got put up with the situation being even worse because she knows who said what about her in their supervision!!!

I am going to contact UNISON tomorrow and see what they say.....

I'll keep you posted if you are interested