What’s my employers’ duty of care? Should I expect more?

[Sillyquestion123]

I work in a client facing role and yesterday one of clients verbally abused me. He even used swear words and it’s all recorded. I’m still shaken by the ordeal.

My manager reassured me it was not my fault, and she’d listen to the recording , but that was about it.

Im still in charge of that account until I hear otherwise.

ive never been in this situation before so I really know if should be expecting more or not.

Report him to his HR department and police .

“I wouldn't expect my manager to do anything except reassure me that I acted appropriately”

It’s your low expectations for yourself when legally in this situation you have iron clad rights

Yes, they’ve already given notice even though we have almost a year left in the contract.

Agreed. The level of passivity, low expectations for oneself and understatement of the mans actions by PPs on this thread is ridiculous

Eh, are you living and working in the Sciliy Isles and not used to negative client responses? What do you expect your manager to do?

Happens in my area of work all the time. If it’s particularly aggressive and abusive the client would be told we are not working for them.

But you sound like you don’t live in the real world.

Pretty sure if he spoke to a doctors receptionist or railway ticket office staff that way the police would be called.. They have zero tolerance policy for abuse

I would think carefully about what you want to happen here. There is little chance of your company flagging it to the client’s company, and even less chance of them doing anything about it even if they did.

You could ask to stop being the contact person for the account but that affects you and not him, and also leaves another colleague to deal with him. It’s rubbish but ultimately if this man’s own company isn’t going to tackle this, yours has no chance.

I would just send an email for the record to your manager outlining in brief what happened and how you intend to deal with it in future (call meeting to a close, remind him such language isn’t appropriate etc.), which also gives him/her a chance to suggest something else.

The only thing I can think of is that my managers send him an email/request in writing is that due to the indocident im never expected to be on a 1:1 call with him, and that someone from my team will always attend with me.

Unfortunately sucking up this kind of awful is exactly what is expected in the public sector and the everyday experience of people in low wage jobsf

I can't believe posters saying to put up with it!

Even years ago working in a supermarket when this happened, the person would get thrown out the shop and banned.

This client should be un-cliented!

@Sillyquestion123 obviously this is unacceptable behaviour. You've stated the solution early on, which is to point out calmly at the time that this isn't acceptable so you need to end the call now and resume when the person in question is able to do so without swearing at you.
Assuming you have some seniority and responsibility by now, you have been very sheltered / fortunate if you've not encountered anything like this before.
Treat it as a learning experience that won't happen again because you will be better equipped to take control and shut it down should it reoccur.
It's not bullying or harassment as a one off. You've reported it and honestly to keep pursuing it further is basically dog at a bone.

i am senior, but it’s just fairly uncommon.

sure I’ve read very uncomfortable things (like graphic death reports and a suicidal letter that still lives rent free in my head) but as much as many clients have been beyond frustrated (because they’re a very big chunk of the time!) They’ve always been able to separate the company from the person in front of them and it’s always been in a confrontational but professional manner- to that I’m more than used to!

When this happened to me (but admittedly it wasn't a client it was lawyer on the other side) the head of my department made a complaint to the head of his department.
I suspect it wasn't the first complaint and within a week he was no longer working there

It's disappointing people suggesting this is just something you have to deal with. It absolutely shouldn't be.

Do you have an employee assistance program?

If you do, it might be worth getting in touch with them for some support.

This has clearly had a significant impact on you, and some help processing it might be useful to you.

No we don’t, I might have access from a previous company

I think OP needs justice, not support

I had a similar situation at work few years ago. Our leadership made a complaint to the client's leadership and told them they didn't think it was acceptable to either shout or be rude to our people because everyone is an adult and if there are any issues, everyone can discuss them in a calm and rational manner and work on addressing them. They were pretty adamant that being disrespectful wasn't an option even if we were the service provider who was paid for the service.

They’re not mutually exclusive, or substitutable.

Just find it strange that response is to tell PP to get MH support rather than get justice. This isn’t an OP problem , it’s the abuser problem & he needs to be held accountable

Why such a low expectation for yourself ? Why not seek justice?

Actually, I’ve made a very sensible suggestion on how their employer could address the situation.

Ive also then identified that the OP is feeling the emotional impact of the event. The other person getting told their behaviour isn’t acceptable doesn’t alter what the OP experienced. And given the OP is struggling, then suggesting somewhere that could get support with that seemed sensible.

Because justice comes at a cost to my employer, and they’re not willing to lose that £££.

it’s not ideal but I also understand the business decision.

A £100k account is pretty small change (dinInread that right from earlier). Surely you can’t be thought of that badly in your organisation and your company does have a duty of care to protect against abuse wherever it comes from. Paying an invoice does not allow someone to treat a supplier this way.