Disiplinary action for being conscientious

[wrnw33847]

I'll try and make this clear.

I have worked for this company for over two years. I have never had a contract and there is no grievance procedure or handbook. The Directors are not very good at managing people.

The first person I had a problem with because he was working on his own website in work time and lost us 10-15 customers by literally ignoring their emails/not getting back to them etc. I brought my observations to the Directors and was told it was none of my business and they would deal with it. Eight months later and many lost customers, they sacked him. But because of my constant remarks they dubbed me as wearing my heart on my sleeve, whatever that means.

About six months ago the second waste of space was taken on and call it intuition but I knew straight away this guy was all mouth and no work. I dont have to deal with him in my daily job but the Directors are obsessed by my avoidance of him and because of this I am being given a second written warning this week. I have asked them to write down the exact reasons for the warning and have joined a union because I am not clued up on whether some of the things they have said and done to me are right. For example a couple of weeks ago they took me to the local pub for my appraisal and shouted at me until I was sobbing. They have told me I have to talk to him or they will replace me but my argument is that if I need to speak to him on a professional level then I will but I dont need to. He, on the other hand will not approach me and constantly emails me if he needs anything from me but the Directors say that its my fault he wont speak to me. It is all really been blown out of proportion and the fact that they have given me two written warnings has made everything worse.

The rest of the staff think he is useless too but they won't say anything and we are losing customers because of him now. Its very frustrating, I used to love my job and though I was a valued employee but even though the Directors heap praise on the work that I do how can they make me feel so belittled. My loyalty has all but disappeared. This is a diluted post or we would be here all night but I would be interested in any advice.

[advisee]

Should they ever dismiss you, it would almost certainly be unfair dismissal.

 

Keep notes of everything that happens to you.

[bed32]

Should they ever dismiss you, it would almost certainly be unfair dismissal.

 

Keep notes of everything that happens to you.

Not sure about that - failure to get on with your colleagues is a potentially fair reason for dismissal. What is more it is one of those things that is very hard to fight as it is very subjective.

 

I would say that if you have been given a written warning then you should appeal it - otherwise you could be seen as accepting the criticism which would make it hard to fight for unfair dismissal should that happen.

 

Why not just try to get on with the guy? Provided that he is not stopping you doing your job then leave it to his managers to sort it out. If you do start some form of private vendetta against him then you will be putting yourself firmly in the wrong. What is more he could be using your behaviour as screen to mask his own incompetence.

 

There are a lot of people working who really don't seem up to the job but it is up to their managers to manage that.