To feel completely undermined at work?

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@JayJayj She’s not medically unfit to work! This is a public sector disease. She’s not unwell. Stress is a normal feeling! It’s something that comes and goes in most jobs. It’s not inherently unhealthy. No wonder we’re a failing country. The issue needs to be sorted out and the other employee organised.The op needs to escalate the problem higher. If she flounces off, it’s not acceptable! In many companies behaviour like this would be called out. Only in public service is pulling a sickie advocated. Which is why productivity is dire. As we all know,

Does she not drive at all or is she just not comfortable driving longer distances? What did the job description say about the post holder needing to drive? Is she young/inexperienced? If so, perhaps she needs it spelling out clearly- ie her role is to assist you, so if you reasonably allocate work to her, her role means she has to do it. End of.

You can make all the assumptions you want.
OP literally says how much stress it is causing her. It isn’t good for your mental health, which is medical. Don’t try and tell me something that is your opinion while dismissing mine.

@JayJayj Because she’s not ill. For heaven’s sake! We all get a certain amount of stress at work. It’s normal. What on earth would happen if every snowflake went off sick like this? No wonder we have poor productivity. This is why the problem needs sorting out! For the good of the op, and the dc. It’s not acceptable to say this is stress and it’s medical. It’s not. If you really had seen someone have a breakdown you would not say the op should weaponise annoyance and inability to tackle the issue.

If you are the qualified professional and she is an unqualified assistant, is it really appropriate for her to be seeing children on her own? If she doesn’t feel confident, then she shouldn’t be delivering the meagre amount of therapy each child receives on her own.

Don’t blame her for your workload, she is paid to assist, not do on her own. The system is not her fault.

In what way is being off sick a disciplinary issue? She is stressed?

@JayJayj Who on earth thinks like this? In many ways this is a discipline issue too and will not help. Of course they won’t sort it out.

Can you screenshot the system with her initials against the children, then screenshot it again when she removes her initials, timed and dated? Then raise it at your next supervision, and the one after that and make sure it's logged so HR have a record of it on your supervision notes. Equally you could also go to HR and get your union involved as a grievance against your supervisor for not doing anything.

You mention that you only have one assistant ‘at the moment’ so I assume you should have two or more?
You say her job is to help ‘us’ so not just you?
Could it be that she is expected to cover the work of two assistants and is digging her heels in?
Having worked in the public sector and having to just pull in extra work through lack of staff I do have sympathy for both of you. I also imagine if she is an assistant she gets paid less than you?

I presume the worksheet is drawn up by yourself, is it possible to make it so she is unable to take her initial off , I know this is possible on a spreadsheet. You just block that cell to others. Also when she amends it are you notified automatically if you are can you make it so that your managers are automatically get notifications. This definitely needs to be flagged up as a Red Flag as people will be missed and it should be brought up at any future appraisals.

I’d be taking a couple of weeks off work sick. I bet they deal with her then. You can also put direct blame on the situation for adding to stress

Is she Gen Z. She sure sounds it.

@andweallsingalong That won’t work with a weak manager! They will reallocate the visits to OP! They won’t deal with the issue by knowing about it. They will offload it.

What is she actually doing during her workday?! You say she is refusing to visit 2 out of 6 schools but then that you are carrying the entire school load so if she is removing her initials from specific cases and not visiting schools how is she occupying her time?

Whatever the situation, I hope that you are conducting all of your interactions with her now in writing so that she can’t later deny having been asked to do specific tasks. It looks like this is heading for formal disciplinary action one way or another.

Surely it's a simple one.

Your manager told you to allocate children to her by adding her initials to the spreadsheet so you reply to her in a bright and breezy way cc'ing your manager that it's no error, manager said to allocate the cases you couldn't see it her and to let manager know if there is an issue.

Job done.

@Hopefulbride18 When I first joined the Education Dept of my LA in the 70s, every senior manager job had to be a teacher! So HR, Buildings, Finance - all of them. It fortunately dawned on them in the 80s that other qualifications mattered and were relevant and maybe the ex classics teacher didn’t have the necessary skills with NO further training. I’m amazed any large organisation doesn’t require the correct qualifications and experience for the job. I tend to stand by my original thought that it’s a reason the nhs fails us. Poor management at every level!

@OhDear111yes absolutely. I'm not sure how it's got so awful, feels worse than ever. I think it's partly because they like clinicians to step into these roles but, understandably, a lot of these people don't have the skills/experience to manage a team. The NHS don't like to pay for training so they get on with doing a job they're not trained to do...

@Hopefulbride18 So the manages need training too. Why have we ended up with managers who refuse to manage? It’s why the nhs fails us.

OP I fully sympathise, it sounds like you work in a similar service to me. I have had some similar challenges with assistants over the years.

Sorry I couldn't see in your post, do you line manage this individual? I would set up a meeting with whoever is managing the assistant and raise the bullet points you have listed at the end of your post. Explain that first step general emails have already been sent and have had no impact.

They then need to address it directly in the assistants supervision. Everytime she does something which is undermines you, you raise the example with the supervisor. The managers at the top will ignore this (they always do, most of them hate confrontation) unless it becomes something which is directly causing them hassle.

She has no right to decline visits if they are 'far away' or not a preferred type of intervention. All these jobs there is an expectation for everyone to travel and complete a variety of types of work. She is getting more controlling about the type of work she is doing and where, I have seen this time and time again and the more you let it slide the worse it gets.

@patooties Yes, I’ve no doubt the sickie will be coming. Why was someone employed to help dc in schools she/he refuses to visit? Surely the JD spelled out the job? Poor dc! It’s abysmal snd does need strong action. Only in the health service….. There’s supposed to be a service but the staff dictate who gets it by refusing to do their job. Why does anyone tolerate this?

She’ll be getting herself signed off next. Speak to your manager and suggest appropriate action via HR, look at her contract. You might need to make this more formal (having failed with the approach you’re taking now.)
She Is currently being paid for a job she is not doing - stealing a living and failing to provide the service to children she’s paid for.

Personally working in a similar public service role i would firstly send her an email with the manager copied in , asking why her name has been removed and giving her a full list of jobs assigned. I would add " as there seems to be some confusion about what i need you to do". If she or manager come back citing stress, asked for a work based stress assement for you ( adhd is protected i think) , so theyncan udebtufy where your support is. Union would be helpful

I don't think any of it should be tolerated. However, i personally would deal with it differently depending on what it is. Someone who is deliberately undermining me I would be wanting to act very strongly to make it clear that they either stop or i will make it my mission to get them out of the job one way or another. Probably via a disciplinary process. If they were anxious i would address it with a PIP with a more supportive aspect. If it was entitlement it would also be a PIP but less supportive and more educating her about her role and responsibilities.

I would suggest you raise it with your manager again and tell her plainly how you are feeling. After that it's the nuclear option and go off sick yourself.