Complaint about me by staff member

[SpiritualKnot]

Hi, I'm the team leader for 4 members of staff. 3 say I'm the best team leader they've ever had. The 4th however will not do anything I ask of her.(She is a higer grade than the other 3)

The other 3 and myself are frustrated about this. The boss and deputy boss says just tell her to do the work, I was referred to occi health and the counsellor advised me just to ask her to do the work.

The woman goes to another team leader about everything (she should be coming to me but doesn't). The other team leader is a trouble maker and tells her she's doing too much and mustn't do more. This is a constant battle for me, I arrange that the woman covers for me on holiday and then the other team leader tells her she shouldn't and then I get complaints when I get back. It was the other team leader that ensured she got the higher grade, though the bosses felt she wasn't really up to it. It was my job to support her, I ensured she went on courses etc, but it became clear very early on that she was just determined to drop her other responsibilites.

The boss had an analysis of our work done, mine and the 3 others were very good, the woman and the team leader were extremely low. The woman spends the majority of her time doing admin which the boss doesn't want.

She wrote me an extremely disturbing email, outlining all the short comings of the service and how I could correct these. Alarmingly they were all things that she had caused to happen. Like she had no insight, sense of responsibility or accountability. Because of the email, I have written down exactly what the team should do for every situation. It was all totally reasonable and inkeeping with job descriptions and work policy and was what the other 3 had been doing anyway.

Frustration by the other 3 increased as a result, as even though she knew what to do she was still not doing it. Anyway I have become increasingly short with the woman as she just won't do as asked. End of last week one of the other 3 came to me and said she couldn't take any more of this woman not helping. I phoned and asked the woman if she'd done what she was meant to do and she just kept asking if I wanted to speak to another in my team about it. I said no, I was asking her. She hung up on me, I was later told she stormed out of the office and spoke to the other team leader. She then went home with work related stress.

She has now put in a complaint about me, the boss won't tell me what it is, the union person says she plans to turn up on the day to help. The woman can take in a friend and I suspect it will be the other team leader. Team leaders are currently reapplying for our jobs Other team leader and myself probably going for same job. Apparently I'm not allowed to tell anyone about this complaint.

Boss says he hopes it'll sort out, I've said this girl won't be managed by me. He says if it doesn't sort out, then she'll have to be disciplined.

Questions:
Am I entitled to know what the complaint is before the meeting?
Can I say no to other team leader being there? I suspect she has instigated this and there is a conflict of interests as if she makes trouble for me, it won't look good for me when it comes to reapplication. I think she will try and take it to a formal level to continue the problem.
Surely I should be meeting with the union before this, rep can't expect to just turn up on the day?
Main union rep is off for 3 weeks, should I wait till he gets back as he may be better than this one?
Why am I not allowed to tell anyone about this? I'm not able to carry out my work as I'm so stressed with it all.

Firstly I know it really stressful when someone does this to you. Not a nice experience to say the least You can't tell anyone due to it being confidential, anyone from work could be called upon to be part of any investigation that could happen.What meeting exactly have you been summend too, what does the letter say?
Have you got a copy if the policy? If not get one ASAP. You can ask to delay the meeting if your union rep is not avaiable, for about a week. Yes you should be advised what the meeting is regarding.

If you look at the directgov website it will detail the min terms that they have to provide.

Btw can I ask why this hasn't been addressed formally with the mos? I have seen axfew times where someone has been allowed to 'get away' with too much, it's not been addressed for whatever reason and it always blows up in the end.

Get a copy of your employers grievance/disciplinary policy. If this meeting forms part of an official investigation then you are entitled to know what the complaint is, and to have someone with you. You can't stop the other team leader being there if the complainant wants them there.

Firework, I have told the bosses many times and their reaction was to refer me to occi health and to tell me to just tell her what to do. The boss has spoken to her about it and she cries and argues with him the same way she does with me.

This is the second time she has complained, previous time was about a year ago, she complained about the team member who works the hardest, she didn't say hello to her apparently.

I've been in the job nearly 20 years, she's been doing it for 5 years.

I'll get a copy of the grievance policy and will look through it.

Thank you

It's so wring that they've got a mos who is clearly underperforming and rather than supporting you in undertaking measures to get her where she needs to be or get her out they've had a word with her that's not worked. By complaining about others she is failing to take responsibility for her own performance and trying to blame others.

Agree in finding out what she has specifically complained about so that you can gather your facts together to refute the allegations, and putting off until union rep is there.

By the way what happened to the complaint about the hard working team member?

Maybe it is time document of how and when the complainant has failed to perform satisfactorily, how you have tried various measures that she ignores, how it impinges on the rest of the team, and formally complain about her. I think the analysis your boss carried out is is most telling - you can't carry dead wood for ever.

BLoody hell, can they not see for themselves how poor she is? She is underperforming, her buddy is also underperforming (who got her into a grade higher than she is capable of, despite the boss's reservations - who manages that??)

Your bosses are being weak and pathetic - since you are up for reapplying for your job, I wouldn't follow that up right now but if you were in a stable position I'd be considering taking out a grievance against them for not managing the problem properly! How large is this company?

In reality, by now, she should be on at least her second verbal warning, if not a written warning. If she has contracted duties that she is not performing or not performing adequately, then she shouldn't be doing the job she is doing.

Of course, they might just be waiting for the reapplication process to get rid of her (if her grade is up for the same as yours).

But it's still very poor management on their part.

In response to your questions - I can't answer them sorry, but I do think you've been given the rough end of the deal here and hope you can resolve it and beat the other team leader for the job!

The previous hard working staff member got a real slaughtering from the girl and her team leader buddy and has been labelled a trouble maker ever since. I wasn't the hard worker's team leader at the time but am now.

I work for the NHS. Our boss and deputy are both new as there has been a big re shuffle of the hospital trusts in our area. Complaining woman is lower grade than me, her job probably isn't at risk so she won't need to reapply.

I'm currently going through notes etc to document her poor performance and showing the induction and support I gave her when she took the job on.

Both these staff know I'm doing a PhD which is to be submitted by December 31st this year, that along with the job reapplication is enough for anyone to contend with I think. Saw my supervisor at the uni today and said I'd do loads today and then went to the hospital and wasted hours looking at her perfomance records and ringing round human resources fior support. The Union rep acted like I was a nuisance but will see me later this week.