Someone is secretly bullying me at work..

[Hungrycaterpillarsmummy]

And I don't know who it is.

Basically, someone constantly changes my chair settings on the days I leave at 3pm (and others are in the office until 4/5pm).
I have a really bad back so my chair is set at a position that helps it plus we all have to do ergonomic checks as part of an EHS thing for our desk and chair.
So it really annoys me when it has been played with and someone is doing it on purpose. Other things happen to like the cables of my monitor are unplugged and my mouse is switched off.
When I started there over a year ago there were a couple of guys who would do stuff like this and it happened so much I had to bluntly tell them to stop. And they did. But this seems to be a bit 'extra'. I obviously made the mistake of showing my annoyance when it has happened previously (and by that I mean by saying something like "who has changed my chair settings?"

But the issue is - I don't know who it is and won't be able to find out.
My manager won't be able to find out. There's no CCTV and no one would admit it if she brought it up..so what do I do?!

Of course it is bullying.

This will partly depend on the size of your company but if you have an HR professional of some kind, email them and your manager to tell that you have a disability that has resulted in needing a chair set up in a particular way and your desk laid out in a particular way. Tell them that the settings on that chair have been altered, possibly accidentally but nonetheless altered, and that you want the company and colleagues to make the reasonable adjustment, use that term, to ensure that nothing on your desk and the settings on your chair aren't altered.

You can, if you want, politely remind them that Tthe Equality Act 2010 legally protects disabled people from discrimination in various areas, including employment, education, and access to goods and services. It defines a disabled person as someone with a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. The Act also requires employers and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate disabled individuals. The Act prohibits disability discrimination in the workplace, meaning employers cannot treat disabled employees less favorably than non-disabled employees. This includes various forms of discrimination, such as direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, and failure to provide reasonable adjustments.

I agree OP, it is bullying.

This is the kind of advice my 4 year old would give

I’d tell manager. They could tell staff at team meeting/send team email not to touch other people’s desks then if it is someone doing it deliberately they know they have been rumbled and if they were caught would enable management to easily take action.
If it’s just things unplugged and settings changed on chair I wouldn’t dismiss it just being someone after hours. Cleaners/security/Facilities management may all be there after hours (could be a cleaner bringing a child in as no childcare and letting them watch tv or do homework etc)

I've not read all the replies, but when I went into the office, I used to actually have to put a note on the chair who it belonged to, and then push it to a storage area when I was finished, and collect it when I come in to push it to the desk I wanted to use that day. Maybe do that?

These are the phrases bullies use to excuse their behaviour.

OP, do not, under any circumstances secrete a camera at work, this will get you a final written warning at best, probably sacked.

Anti climb paint in the most hidden areas might be an idea, stains the hands and sticks when touched.

Bloody hell, do you work in an office of 15 year olds?!!!
Do you think it’s just one person who is maybe the last to leave, or more than one and they think they’re oh so funny?

Could you randomly not pop back in after you have left work and see if you catch the culprit in the act?

You could take the 'fun' out of it for them by adjusting your own chair as you're leaving and unplugging things. Of course you've still got the hassle of sorting things when you come in the next day and they might switch to doing something else.

Ask your work for a new chair each time it’s tampered with. Say you are no longer confident in the chair, yes the settings have been changed - what else could have been changed? Or even in changing the settings something could be damaged.
Obviously you don’t want or need a new chair each time, but your need to make it a work problem, not you problem.

This is great advice OP.
Time to go back to your manager - maybe in writing - and raise the issue of workplace bullying. Because that's what this is - repeated, targeted, deliberate bullying.

Then I'd not make any comment to anyone in the workplace about this - just quietly sort out the leads, chair etc, make a written record of the issues and forward it to your manager / HR so the pattern is evident.

So sorry you have to work in this environment with people like this. The posters on the thread who've outed themselves as bullies or dismissed all this as harmless pranks show why workplace bullying by a group against an individual is too common.

Absolutely wrong. UNISON has defined workplace bullying as persistent offensive, intimidating, humiliating behaviour, which attempts to undermine an individual or group of employees. Bullying isn't defined by someone having "protected characteristics" (someone without protected characteristics can still be bullied in the workplace) but the offence of bullying would certainly be exacerbated by such protection under the Equality Act 2010, as it could lead to a discrimination claim at tribunal which could be very expensive to the employer.

Pop back unexpectedly?

But I really can't see what's to like about that place

Hidden cameras are illegal. You can always tell those posters on MN who don't work and likely never have with the ridiculous and childish shite they spout. Best sticking to episodes of Vera.

OP, it IS workplace bullying, report it!

You can get small discreet cameras OP and I'd definitely do that !! Ones that look like a key ring or similar, and could be easily left somewhere it wouldn't be noticed. You've told your manager, nothing has been resolved, so you can and should do whatever you need to find out who is doing it. It is most definitely bullying. And you don't need to tell anyone you've done that. But you would know who your tormentor was and think of ways to deal with him/her accordingly.

OP, call ACAS for advice. They will be able to help walk you through the steps you should take.

https://www.acas.org.uk/bullying-at-work

This could be classed as harassment as well as bullying.

'When bullying might be harassment

Bullying and harassment are often confused. By law (Equality Act 2010), bullying behaviour can be harassment if it relates to any of the following 'protected characteristics':

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation'

May I ask where do you work and would it be acceptable to secrete a camera there?

As you've already raised it informally (did you keep a record of your talk with the manager? If not, do that now).

The next step is to raise a formal grievance.

https://www.acas.org.uk/grievance-procedure-step-by-step

I honestly wouldn't care if it's acceptable or not. If I needed evidence of my bullying I'd do it. Very discreetly, but I'd not put up with this ridiculous school yard tormenting.

Why should OP look for another job? She's told us she "loves her job and the company" so why should she be hounded out of it by some moron who doesn't know how to behave professionally and like a grown-uo?
And OP's office isn't a "public space" - it's the offices of a privately-owned company and she would need their permission to film her desk and they would need to have a reasonable justification to allow it or they could be in breach of data protection laws and the Human Rights Act (employees have a right to privacy, and covert recordings can be a breach of that right).
Constructive dismissal claims are rarely successful at ET and OP would weaken her case by not raising a grievance with her employer first to show she had taken all reasonable steps to resolve the issue.

i hope you do manage to figure it out, OP. I used to have an ergonomic chair and hated it when someone had messed with it; I always ended up in so much pain. My employer paid a small fortune to an outside occupational health company, then even more for the whole ergonomic set-up that was recommended, so it needed to be maintained.

I truly hope that whoever is doing this to you, and it absolutely will be deliberate, ends up with horrendous back problems themselves one day and comes to realise what they have done!

Surely management can write an email to all staff to say anyone caught doing this is going to be addressed.
It is causing you a lot of distress and possible back injury. Thry won't want a tribunal on their hands.
Management needs to address this juvenile behaviour.

I would bring it to manager and if no redress then HR.
Explain that you don't want to complain but its happening every day and causing you pain and distress, that you don't know if malicious or just someone using your desk when you are not there but you really need to have your desk and chair as you found it due to health reasons.

Don't use cameras. You will probably get sacked.

I was thinking cleaning staff. For some reason many of them feel the need to fiddle with settings/ move things about to show they have been actively cleaning.

But n the basis that you have posted here and have already mentioned it to collegues and it continued, I can’t help wondering if you are feeding it with a heightened response op.