AIBU to go off sick over complaint about me at work

as a senior manager in a government department i would take a very dim view of you going off sick over this.

tbh if this situation makes you that sick I’d question whether you’re suitable for your role

HR and your management have behaved appallingly, what a ludicrous waste of everyone's time. Don't go off sick though, just do the bare minimum to get through the day until this farce is over. Wishing you all the best!

Just habg in there. It’s not nice but if you’ve done nothing wrong it will be ok. Even if you fucked up then it will be ok

Oh, I omitted to say, that I left for my MH.

Don’t go sick. Put your metaphorical red lipstick on. Contact your union rep. Be prepared for the person who told you not to provide feedback to try to throw you under the bus by saying something along the lines that you didn’t explain fully you had a commitment to provide feedback and that was stated in the job vacancy.

I understand how stressful this is for you, because you know it is unethical. Some of the PPs on here that just attempt to write the complainant off, I think one suggests an “unhinged applicant”.

If this is the attitude of the public sector, well we only have ourselves to blame and @SadlyNotATroll like to many become unwell and days are lost, lowers productivity.

I left the public sector many years ago, much to the surprise of my colleagues. One person said that those that care leave and the rest become institutionalised.

why would you need to go off sick? You were doing as you were told, so nothing will come of it.

Yeah I suspected as much. I've been public sector before but perhaps not in the worst offending areas for this sort of thing. I'd still question the process regardless. It's a waste of everyone's time and you are still within your rights to object even if they claim they have to do the thing regardless. I'm sure your rep will guide you. Just make sure you have all your evidence lined up, it sounds like you have a solid 'defence'. Stick that grievance in afterwards if you're still feeling upset by it.

Who is the person that told you the vacancy was withdrawn and you couldn’t provide feedback to candidates that had been interviewed; your line manager, or an HR Director? Did you push back, explaining you had given an undertaking you would provide feedback and now they were placing you in a difficult situation?

Why didn't you forward the second,third and fourth email up the chain and pass it to the twat who made that decision.

I don't understand why (and I know the OP doesn't either) you couldn't say that due to unforeseen circumstances the position is no longer available, we haven't evaluated your application therefore we can't give feedback.

And just because your being sued for giving feedback, surely you still need to fill the role.

Op go off sick and let the bosses deal with the shit show. I personally would have responded to the bosses that I will be attending the meeting only if the person who made the decision is also in attendance

I suspect the policy on this states that if a complaint is raised it must be investigated. Doesn’t make it less stressful for you but it’s a box ticking exercise.

If you go on sick, it will be on hold until your return to work.

I speak as someone who’s been investigated and someone who’s an investigator/decision making officer.

It makes no sense but HR must be seen to follow their policy. (Protect the organisation not its people).

Have your evidence ready, name anyone who has been party to the situation and listen to the union rep.

Get through it.

That's not how it feels to the OP, who while not having done anything wrong, feels thrown under the bus by the scale and kind of the investigation.

Well you acted on written instructions. It’s the person who wrote those instructions that should be worried.

You’ll be fine.

Oh come on. If you're experienced enough at work to chair an interview panel you are experienced enough to deal with a minor complaint without going off sick.

Public health dept by any chance?

I have chaired public sector interview panels. Had we told candidates we would provide feedback after interview, I would be providing feedback. Just because someone tells you to do something you don’t have to do it - its ok to push back.

@SadlyNotATroll - "... I was tasked with communicating this decision to the unsuccessful applicants after they had interviewed, but was not able to offer any information as to why they were unsuccessful, despite them being told if they were unsuccessful that they would get feedback. Upper management forbade me from providing any further context, e.g. that there was a legal issue affecting the vacancy."

Apologies if I've missed this but couldn't you just have told all the applicants that they had not been unsuccessful but that owing to circumstances beyond the department's control the vacancy had been withdrawn?

Surely upper managemnet were not forbidding you from telling the applicants that the vacancy had been withdrawn?

Did management advise you to tell the applicants that they'd been "unsuccessful"?

I'm finding it difficult to understand what circumstances would mean you couldn't simply tell them the vacancy had been withdrawn

It's a university isn't it?

Hello, I work for a union. In these sorts of circumstances I'd be getting ahead of this case and emailing HR to ask why on earth they are dragging you through a formal process when this is so clear cut? Just to get that on record. Where the fuck are your managers and why haven't they closed this down?

Sounds like a total waste of time. I know in parts of the public sector they claim they have to do the process, but sometimes the process is just nonsense (like here).

It will be ok, you know. I think you know that. If you're going to go off sick (which isn't for me or anyone else to say other than you and the GP), ask the doctor to log it specifically as work-related stress in the fit note, and tell your work you need to see Occupational Health. They'll have all that stuff in place where you work, and you might as well make a slight nuisance of yourself. Basically make them support you and make it difficult so they think twice about doing this again.

This is very strange.
Could you not have said “due to unforeseen circumstances we’ve had to temporarily withdraw this vacancy. We’re so grateful for your application and time and while we don’t expect you to wait, we will be back in touch when we’re in a position to reopen the vacancy”?

If you're feeling so upset in anticipation of this meeting, you'd be better off having a meeting with your union rep rather than going off ill. The union rep will have a perspective on what's likely to happen and how serious (or most likely, not serious) the situation is. But I agree with PP, don't go off sick until you know what's happening. And even then, be guided by your union rep as to how to respond.

You're not sick; you should go to work.
It sounds like you have followed the rules, so I'm not sure what you're worried about. You massively weakened your position if you fake illness.

Fwiw, I have been advised by HR consultants that it is safest to have a policy of never offering feedback to anyone, but if you're going to do that you need to tell the candidates that, ideally at the outset, but if the policy changed during the recruitment process, surely you can say sorry due to a change of policy we are no longer able to offer feedback.

But, in this situation it would have been much more straightforward to just tell them the decision had been taken not to recruit.