Advice....

[Mama8474749]

I’ve worked at my company for almost five years.

My line manager was recently reported (by someone else) to HR regarding her treatment of myself and other people within the company. The line manager was suspended for around 2 months as she was subject to disciplinary procedures.

I hadn’t really taken it to HR as I didn’t want to rock the boat (I wasn’t long back from maternity leave) but this person made threats of violence, Constantly belittled me and was overly picky about my work and not others. A witness made the complaint to HR and the entire investigation really blindsided me.

She was found guilty (or whatever the correct term is) but has been allowed to return to work.

It was ok for a while but it now seems she’s slipping back in to her old ways of bullying. I’ve taken this to HR and basically been told I need to get on with it. And we now need to learn to deal with our issues between us.

It’s getting me down, I’m anxious about going to work and it’s effecting my home life as I’m constantly cranky.

What are my options?

[EBearhug]

Are you in a union? If so, I would ask them for advice.

Keep a log of all incidents. If anything is in email or other written form, even better.

Speak to your manager. I know this won't be easy, but it's what HR have asked you to do, and it's not unreasonable - if you were to raise a grievance (which is an option, and part of why you should keep a log), one of the first things people will ask is, "what has been done to resolve this so far?"

Try to be specific, and ask for that back. "If a piece of work isn't up to standard, I need specific examples to know where to improve." Otherwise, you might be left thinking you need to spellcheck it better, when she's referring to formatting the report structure - and that goes both ways. If you are finding behaviour X is the problem, you need to state that, so she can't assume you're talking about behaviour Y. If she's already giving specific examples, but isn't doing so for your peers, you need to ask to be treated the same as them. There can be valid reasons for doing this - I would expect something like spellchecking work to be a basic from everyone, but other things I would pick up with some people more than others, because people don't all perform the same, and some people need to improve on different areas than others - but if someone is getting pushed to improve different things that others aren't, it needs to be clear why.

This won't be an easy thing for you to talk about with her, so have you got anyome you can practise with, to role play how it could go?

If you have tried raising it with her, you could raise a grievance.

Ultimately, you can search for a new job. If things aren't likely to change and it's affecting you that much that it's affecting your home life, you need to think about how much more you are prepared to put up with.

[daisychain01]

She was found guilty (or whatever the correct term is) but has been allowed to return to work

How do you know this? Who told you and were they involved in reporting this manager. If so, it would be worth you discussing with the person what exactly they reported. Then, armed with this specific information, you need to join the dots with HR, who have already found this person culpable of wrong-doing, and explain to them that the adverse pattern of behaviour that they acknowledged was undesirable, is still ongoing and you are still being targeted.

On this occasion, I call "slopey shoulders" on HR, they're putting you back in the firing line and ignoring the manager's negative record. Hold them to account, but firstly suggest to them that it is untenable for you to put yourself back in the firing line due to risk of retaliation and you need them to intervene.

A meeting could be called including you, a union rep if you have one, HR and the manager to discuss the situation.

[zebra22]

Follow the company grievance procedure