AIBU to go off sick over complaint about me at work

Do they have any protected characteristics that they will use to claim they have been unfairly overlooked for the position? They are clearly annoyed they didn’t get the job.

The OP stated the recruitment process was withdrawn so there should be no issue there.

OP, what are you worried about about exactly? HR can hardly say you were in the wrong for not providing feedback when you have evidence from Management instructing you not to.

Even there was no such instruction from Management, the worst that would happen would be that you’d be told to provide feedback in this case and apologise for the misunderstanding, and to provide feedback more promptly in future - it’s hardly a sacking offence! But that’s only if Management didn’t instruct you not to provide feedback, but they did! So why all the angst on your part?

There must be a senior person you can pass the email on to

It sounds like you work for a completely incompetent local authority? With equally useless HR. There is no way they can sack you or even reprimand you for this. If they do sack you it’s unfair dismissal and you can also claim damages for your mental health. Don’t worry about this. It’s not your fault.

Dont go off sick, just co-operate abd get it sorted out ASAP. They are just following procedure, the sooner the investigation is complete the better for all.
Ridiculous though that you couldn't just tell the. The job vacancy had been pulled.

Also you want to be at work when stuff like this is happening so you get your information spread around and keep making noise about how ridiculous the whole thing is. Advocate for yourself, rather than hide away

Print off the emails containing the instructions not to give feedback. Print off any emails from you back to the applicant. I think, despite it being really horrible, I’d stick it out at work and get the meeting out of the way asap. Stand firm in the meeting and don’t allow HR/management to trot out any nonsense about blame. This is not your fault. 💐

IMO, OP wouldn't be going off sick because there's a complaint about her. She'd be going off sick because her management have deliberately put her in this position and are now allowing a complaint to be formally pursued against her for doing what they have actually required her to do. That's appalling.

I would say just carry on with your job as you haven’t done anything wrong. You were just following instructions.

I would say you have avoided a difficult employee - if they are kicking off now they would surely find things wrong if they were in post.

Do they have any protected characteristics that they will use to claim they have been unfairly overlooked for the position? They are clearly annoyed they didn’t get the job.

Agreed. They need dealing with properly and proportionately. That doesn’t need to include protracted proceedings that drag your hapless employee (who was following instruction) into ludicrous, unnecessary meetings. It can be dealt with at a senior manager’s desk, or across email between those with authority to sign off, with a formal response to the complainant being written after that.

Wasting time and money on this is neither a good use of public funds, nor ethical practice towards their employees - to whom they have responsibilities as well, let’s not forget.

It’s this kind of arrant nonsense that gets the public sector a bad name.

You were just following their orders, the problem was caused by the lack of communication as the complainer can't seem to accept it and move on.

It was absalutely no fault your yours. You were following the instructions of the hierarchy above you, under no circumstances should you be feeling anxious and the complainer needs to back off.

And this was a policy that the OP says was agreed by SLT! So I just don’t get why HR is calling the OP into a formal meeting to explain herself for simply implementing an SLT decision! And her manager is just allowing this?

It sounds like there’s serious management dysfunction at the organisation for this to escalate like this.

No, complaints have to be dealt with professionally and proportionately. They don’t all require a formal investigation - that is excessive and unnecessary.

I say this as someone things worked in the public sector for decades at a senior level, and dealt with many complaints over the years.

As I’ve posted previously, where is the OP’s manager here. They seem conspicuous by their absence. If they have refused to engage and support the OP with this, then the OP needs to raise a grievance against her manager, and look for another job asap.

Don’t go off sick you’ll feel worse being at home stressing. Go in to work keep everything as normal and deal with this head on. It’s not you but hr and recruitment that should be worried. Get everything you need in order, emails, dates and phone calls and be as prepared as possible so it’s over with as soon as possible.

Because formal complaints have to be dealt with formally.

I don’t think you should go off sick because of this. I was in a similar situation years ago and it was awful but I didn’t go off sick; in fact that never occurred to me.

Definitely take the union representative with you. You know you’ll be ok in the end and it’s just something you have to weather through. I sympathise: I’ve been there..

I don't understand why your line manager simply sends n email to the complainant reiterating that no feedback can be given at this time.
The person probsbly doesn't realise that this is the party line

I personally would take sick leave so you have time and space to concentrate on collecting your evidence and preparing a statement for your investigation hearing.

That’s making Mount Everest out of a molehill…

If it’s as the OP has described, then virtually no time would be required to do this. Supposedly, she had instructions from Management or Legal not to provide feedback. She then didn’t provide feedback… case closed!

A email from Management and Legal stating this is all that’s required - a 2 minute job to find, if that… As for the statement… “I received written instructions from Legal not to provide feedback to interview candidates. I didn’t provide feedback, and informed the candidate who asked that I was unable to do so as your records will show.” That took all of 30 seconds…

Unless there’s a massive drop feed, this isn’t a fraud trial requiring volumes of evidence!

The issue isn’t with the complainant - they have a good reason to be angered by their treatment… It’s with HR/Management, and potentially the OP if she’s inexplicably not told her manager who could have nipped this in the bud.

I personally would take sick leave so you have time and space to concentrate on collecting your evidence and preparing a statement for your investigation hearing. They may try to throw you under the bus (eg try to make you accept a written warning to appease the interviewee especially if they are alleging some protected characteristic element) so you need to be prepared and protect yourself now. If it starts to look as if they really are going to use you as a scapegoat (ie the investigation recommends disciplinary action) then you will need to immediately put in a grievance at that point, as your grievance will automatically stop the disciplinary process. Then you submit a SAR requesting to see all emails and documents about you etc relating to the recruitment process and the complaint.

I was thinking that… If such a straightforward complaint happened at my place of work (a large local authority), there’d have been a brief exchange of emails between those involved, and a senior manager would have written a response to the complainant, politely but firmly explaining the issue and shutting it down … No need for a formal investigation - how absurd!

But refusing to give feedback just plays into that narrative. Schools are horrible toxic places and slt throw people under the bus without a thought.

Lots of talk of going to her union, but first she surely needs to go to her manager to chat about this (and I emphasise chat as there seems to be an assumption that all this all has to be done through stiff, formal meetings - that’s not how good management works!)

OP, what does your manager say? Because if I was your manager (and i manage many people in my role at a council) I’d, first, be reassuring you that you had done nothing wrong, and second, be contacting HR and advocating on your behalf telling them I had instructed you not to provide the applicant with feedback! I’d be telling HR very clearly that the way they were handling this was causing significant stress to a member of my team, and that they needed to talking to both of us, informally before there’s any formal meeting (which frankly this case doesn’t warrant at all).

Start polishing your CV OP, your workplace sounds like the type to use this complaint to push you (a scapegoat) out.

Unless there are key details you haven’t provided, then I can’t see how you are in any way culpable.

I’m a senior manager at a local authority and have responded to numerous complaints over the years. If you haven’t done so already I would raise with your manager, explaining your stress at the situation and that you are on the verge of going off sick as a result.

Your manager should be able to reassure you that this is just routine process… the HR meeting will be fact-finding; it won’t be a disciplinary… And if there is legal advice stating you shouldn’t provide feedback then that’s that… you don’t have a case to answer!

However, the fact that this is making you so incredibly stressed does indicate there’s an underlying reason that is causing your resilience levels to be so very low, because if this non-issue is causing such an issue, I’m assuming you’re an extremely anxious person who often catastrophises and generally struggles with life.

So I’d be looking for some support to address what’s going on in your mind to allow such a small issue to lead to such an unhealthy disproportionate response, because other issues will inevitably arise in work and life that will easily eclipse this one!

I wouldn’t go off sick over this. I don’t think that’s appropriate unless you are actually ill.

however I would be very strongly complaining to HR, raising your own grievance that you’ve been thrown under a bus and please ask them to end this farce immediately. They absolutely need to stick up for their employees

Use the employee assistance process, and get a meeting with your manager and / or your HR person on Monday and have this conversation with them.

There should be a way to expedite the process if it’s causing you this much distress.

After that, make a decision on whether you’re feel fit to work. If you jump straight to taking time off, then it’s likely to slow the process down further which doesn’t sound like will help you at all.