AIBU to go off sick over complaint about me at work

All the best with this. At least Unison are worthwhile. You will be stressed and upset so I reckon you are due a few days off sick. You could also take more time at the very end as things can move slowly in Local Gov. Some people do this professionally ,apply for jobs and then sue if things don't go their way. If you know their name you could look into their details. I remember there was a man who more or less made it his life's work suing companies. Let Unison know if you can find anything to nail this utter swine. If you do put in for stress leave you don't have to stay at home. I once had a week as I was being harassed by a man who came into our workplace and he thought he was entitled to my job. If you are on long term sick leave you can get out and about and it might even do you some good to go on holiday .Local Gov management tend to recruit less capable bosses who are mainly incapable of being a good manager. I think back and would actually only rate about 2 bosses as worthy of being managers. I really wish you well.I send a hug over the internet.

I'm so sorry this has caused you anxiety and upset. The complainer is clearly complaining about the system, not about you personally. Please don't take any negativity from it. It bears no reflection on you at all.

The candidate is absolutely within their right to complain and ask for feedback, and during the investigation it will come out that you weren’t allowed to pass anything on due to a management decision.
hopefully you have in writing from above where you were told not to give away any information? If so, print and take with you to the meeting.
its so rare but sometimes people are determined to get that feedback and will go to mad lengths to get it. You’ve only followed what you were told so with your audit trail on that you will be fine so do not go off sick in case someone higher throws you under the bus.

Thank fuck you didn't recruit this twat. Don't shoulder all this as it wasn't your decision and pass this onto someone above your pay grade. I worked for a LA and had to deal with massive arse holes. However it wasn't without a lot of anxiety and ultimately people can be extremely unkind and do not understand consequences for those they moan about.

@SadlyNotATroll
I'm both a former very senior manager in the public sector, & also a Unison rep before it became untenable.

I would not go sick under any circumstances ; it would be indicative of a failure to cope with the job.

You know you are in the right, you also know that there are procedures that must be adhered to.

Stay strong, Sister.

Depends on the nature of the complaint, doesn’t it.

If it accuses OP of being abusive, for example, then yes. If, as suggested by OP, it’s because the candidate was promised feedback, and that promise was then rescinded, then no, it doesn’t need the full baroque rigmarole of the public sector complaint process. Because she was merely carrying out the required procedure. Any manager with any sense - and an eye to spending public funds wisely and responsibly - will make sure a sensible path is taken.

I can beat that one, I once had someone raise a grievance against me because when I was note taking in their grievance about something completely unrelated (I work in HR) I kept interrupting them. Yes - to take notes and clarify what they were saying! Utterly utterly ridiculous and a waste of everyone's time including my manager but this person had form for stomping her foot whenever she felt like it and getting her own way - and management pandered to her to keep the peace (and presumably avoid being next on her hit list)

Don't go off sick, don't give the complainer that much power. It will look shit. Just carry on with an air of nonchalance and truth will out, nothing will come of this petty complaint, companies have the right to withdraw vacancies whenever they want even public sector, so long as there has been no discrimination.

💯 (sadly)

The employer is 'investigating' OP because a member of the public has made a complaint against her. Notwithstanding that her conduct was entirely in accordance with employer's instructions. It would be odd if she weren't interviewed given the complaint is against her, however ill conceived and unfair the complaint is

it's just an investigation to establish what happened, once they have done that, they will revert to the application to jog on and it will concluded.

no need to worry or pretend to be sick

Personally I’d go off sick and seek employment elsewhere, because whoever you’re currently working for, sounds like an absolute shit show.

I get all of that but I find it bizarre that the OP’s first thought is to go off sick before she’s even spoken to HR. Her first thought should be to try and fix the situation and find a resolution, not absolve herself of all responsibility and leave everyone in the lurch. She can’t complain of other people not having dealt with the situation properly if she’s considering doing the same herself.

People really need to consider their own resilience in situations like this. Maybe taking on responsibilities such as interview panels etc. is not for the OP.

Your company are not treating you fairly here

why are they investigating you for following orders?

can you speak to a union rep?

If it’s the first time someone has come up against something like this, and where they haven’t done anything wrong, but the fault lies higher up, it is tremendously stressful.

Especially if it hasn’t been dealt with properly. Surely in this scenario there should have been an informal conversation to establish the facts, the manager already knows what they’ve told the person to do so should have already confirmed this (possibly avoiding the need for even the informal conversation) and then the manager responds to the complaint drawing a line under the whole thing.

HR have gone straight to formal meetings, probably with accompanying letters in HR speak warning about legal
rights and possible consequences. I’ve had people who work for me reduced to tears by letters like this simply asking them to be a witness in someone else’s case.

All it does is create more stress and take up more time.

I work in the public sector and I would never do this. The fact that so many people’s first thought in times of difficulty is to “go off sick” is outrageous. And for 4 weeks?! The impact that has on a service is awful.

Forward the emails to HR, all of them. If they still decide to sanction you for it, start looking for another job.

Too late now, but in your position, I’d have sent the first email and if the candidate continued to email, I would have forwarded all to HR, copying in the candidate with a “Can you assist with this enquiry, please” message. I’ve had to do with with students who question processes I have nothing to do with, as I only lecture part time and have no input on course management. They rarely come back to me after the first one.

@SadlyNotATroll Do not go off sick. I know you are probably scared and anxious but that is perfectly normal in this type of situation.

You have your interview next week where you provide your evidence that you were following a management instruction. As a pp suggested a timeline with copies of correspondence will help.

Your employer should have an EAP - Employee Assistance Programme, contact them as they are designed to provide support to you in this type of situation.

You have done nothing wrong, the applicant has raised the grievance against you because you are the one saying no. The reality is you are actually acting as a representative of the organisation and it is the organisation who is responsible not you personally.

Personally, I think the organisation has over reacted by saying no feedback. It’s perfectly straightforward to give non-discriminatory feedback, you just build in a checking process.

Well this is why it could well be a LA, this is what people at work do all the time. Bit stressed, off sick, overwhelmed, off sick, weather not to your liking, off sick. Got a new pet, off sick, got back from a holiday and tired, off sick.

You name it.

I genuinely do not understand why so many people seem to think “going off sick” is an acceptable response to pretty standard work stresses. You followed a policy you were told to follow (in writing), and now they want to simply confirm that after a complaint has been received. On what planet do you think this means you are now too ill to work for the next 4 weeks?

I understand how distressing this is but I think if you engage with the process, be reasonable and have the union you will be fine.

The investigation meeting is just fact finding. You have evidence that you were following direction. The candidate is hoping to get the role on the back of you not following the process and you have. You can submit your documentation.

If the investigator has any experience they will recognise that you didn't make this decision and how stressful it is for you.

Your HR dept are being way OTT with this and I would submit a formal grievance over the way you’re being treated, with the support of your union. They seem to have completely skipped basic fact finding, because if they had done it, this wouldn’t be formal (based on the info you have given).

I sense the HR meeting is probably just a very simple fact finding meeting (if unnecessary and could be done via email imo), and that’s all there is to it… And they’d be aghast that the OP had escalated this in her mind out of all proportion into something akin to a Crown Court trial in which she is being accused of some heinous crime!

This is bonkers.
I do work in the public sector as a manager. If a member of the public made a complaint (or an internal one if it was an internal candidate), the complaint would be recorded and allocated to a suitable person for review. The complainant would then be told by your manager that you hadn’t done anything wrong and why. Written up and closed. End of.
Your HR dept are being way OTT with this and I would submit a formal grievance over the way you’re being treated, with the support of your union. They seem to have completely skipped basic fact finding, because if they had done it, this wouldn’t be formal (based on the info you have given).

Indeed, which is why I don’t think this is a Council. I can’t fathom how this is being managed between HR and the OP without her manager seemingly having any involvement, especially when this is clearly a management issue!

It sounds more like a very poorly run university?

Indeed, it’s obviously not the OP’s fault, but even if it was, it’s a “do better next time” issue, nothing more.

Seriosuly OP, if this non-issue is causing this, I’d seek some support. I had someone on my team go off with stress and anxiety because they had contrived a completely false narrative about how they were failing at their work, despite assurances that they weren’t, and without any issues being reported raised about her performance. She seemed to gone into an anxiety spiral that no amount of reassurance could rectify… She blamed me and others for her situation when actually we bent over backwards to assure her that what she was doing was great, but she had convinced herself that she was failing... I’m still not sure what triggered her breakdown, but your thread reminds me of her by the way you’ve taken a non-issue that should be routine, and escalated it into a major incident that’s majorly impacting your mental health!

I work for a LA, HR arent involved in hiring at all. We get the CVs, we decide who to interview, we decide who to the offer the job to (we're the managers)

In fact HR do almost nothing. Im frequently amazed at this site where every bit of advice about job things is 'speak to HR' or 'HR will discipline them', 'report to HR'

Pointless.