question re job description - my position

[Krakow]

I work as a secretary/reception person and a new person has joined the company to cover me for 1 day a week as I work 4 days a week and she will work 5 days a week.

A new job description has been drawn up and it is "reception/junior facilities management admin collective" - both the new person and I have the same job titles and also job tasks.

I was told that a junior facilities person was being interviewed and she would help at reception getting teas, etc leaving me to deal with the switchboard, clients, meeting rooms etc. I was told this by another manager not my manager who didn't give me any info at all until about 2 weeks before the new person started the job.

When going over the new job description 2 weeks before the new person started, my manager said to me " if the new person asks you to do anything..."- I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

I've been working for the company for 26 years plus and seemed to be being demoted by this new persons appointment even although we were both working together at the same desk doing the same tasks.

What I want to know is have I been demoted by what was said by my manger at the meeting and is this unfair constructive dismissal?

I would be very grateful for your comments. Thanks

I'm a bit confused. Are you working 4 days and she works 5 days, ie you will role share but she will be solely responsible for one day a week?

What is the title on your current job description (the one before this new one) and have you signed the new one?

Not sure how you feel demoted, if you are doing the same job and have the same job title etc? Your manager has made one slightly confusing comment. I would suggest you ask him/her for clarification about whether this person is doing the same role as you or whether the intention is they are now your line manager. Once you have your answer, you will know whether there is any problem.

Krakows Daughter here (namechanged), there's a bit more of a backstory to this, Mum is currently off with stress after a few years (at least) of her boss micro-managing and bullying her. This last thing is the tip of the iceberg and the straw that has broken the camels back.

Mum has worked for the company (although it has been taken over several times) for about 26 years. She started as a secretary to an accountant and since working for this woman has gradually been pushed out to receptionist and post opener and occasionally(when her boss fancies it) emptier of dish washers and doer of any menial task going. Mum tends to think "I don't want to let her see it bothers me" so just keeps taking on any additional task that gets send her way.

I don't want to drip feed but I may miss some of the detail but some of the things Mums boss has done are

-asked Mum (and Mum only) to fill out a timesheet on a weekly basis where she had to account for the work she did breaking her time into 15 minute periods. Mum filled this out for a year and her boss never gave her a reason why she had to do it, or held meetings with Mum to discuss the timesheets at any point. Mum was aware at the time that she was the only one in the office asked to do so but was reluctant to ask her boss why she was required to do so as her boss doesn't like being questioned. Mum stopped putting them in her bosses post slot after a year and her boss never mentioned it again.

• refused Mums request to go down to 3 days a week from 4 as of August (Mum turns 65 this month and wanted to slow down a bit). The reason given was that there was no-one to cover Mum on reception. About two months later a new hire was brought in to work on reception with Mum, the new hire works 5 days a week and was brought in as a junior facilities manager. At the same time my Mum was given her new job description of junior facilities manager. The Admin Manager who Mum doesn't work for told Mum the new hire was brought in to get teas and coffees and set up the projector screens etc, Mums boss told Mum that if the new hire asked her to do things, she had to do it, and said if she had any questions about the new hire to come to her, not the other Admin Manager or another named member of staff. I don't know how they can justify turning Mums request down on the basis of no cover and then hire someone to work beside her straight away.

-copies the new hire (or other staff) in on emails when asking Mum to do things but never copies Mum in on emails asking the new hire to do anything (hence why she thinks the new hire has been brought in as her superior). The new hire made a comment recently about asking if Mum was going to start opening the mail otherwise the new hire would "get it in the neck", also leading Mum to believe that Mums boss had given the new hire responsibility over making sure Mum was doing her job.

-during an appraisal once, Mums boss stated she thought Mum sat there doing nothing (which she doesn't, it's not her style)

• there are a miriad of other little picky things, like getting Mum to break down boxes after the office move, getting her to fill and empty the dishwasher in the office, even though its a managed office with cleaners who come in to do just that, just because Mums boss felt that it wasn't being done often enough. If you're paying for a service and it isn't satisfactory surely you speak to the service provider, you don't just pick someone else to do it instead? Mums boss seems to add new tasks into Mums job description as she pleases without any consultation.

• The Admin team which Mum belongs to went out for lunch. The person organising it noticed Mum wasn't invited and mentioned it to Mums boss who said that no, Mum wasn't coming on the lunch.

Mums boss has been the reason for several people leaving the company, she seems to enjoy making some peoples lives a misery, whilst being charm personified to others. If Mum decides to go ahead with a grievance she does have several people in the office who are willing to back her up, but she needs some advice on the best way forward and ,although I'm sure what Mums boss is doing isn't right, I'm no expert on this.

Hope this has cleared some things up!

That does add some clarity and what a lovely daughter you are!

Some more questions though,

Is there a HR dept?

Your mums request for flexible working should have been backed up with making the reception role a job share, not as clean cut as working 3 days as holidays would need covering as well as short notice sickness but still a compromise and cut down on overall cost (temp cover)

Does the reception role require 2 people to work behind the desk?

Has your mum signed her new job description?

It all sounds like bullying and the time sheets sound like the manager was trying to find proof to justify employing a second person.

Keep posting as it all sounds dodgy but manageable.

Thanks PissyDust!

There is an HR department but it isn't 'on site', they are aware that Mum is going to put in a grievance, she is just bullet pointing everything at the mo and linking the emails/evidence she has been taking to match.

The reception role has never had two people assigned, mum worked alone when she was full time, then when she went down to four days one of the other members of the admin team covered her day off, but no one worked alongside her when she was in, which is why it feels to me like this new hire has been brought in to replace mum when her boss makes things unpleasant enough for mum just to leave ( hence mum getting all the shitty, menial jobs flung her way). Especially so as mums request to work 3 days was turned down as they didn't have enough people to cover the additional day and then suddenly hired someone to work alongside mum and gave them both the same job description

Mum has never, as far as I'm aware, signed a new job description. They are handed to her as a fair accompli, not as something she has the right to agree or disagree to.

Mum works in a small office and really can't bear to be in the same room as her boss again so I'm not sure what the solution is. She was ready to hand in her resignation before we persuaded her not to and to go down the grievance route. Why should someone be allowed to get away with forcing her out of her job? And why should she get away with such behaviour!

Ps access to Internet is patchy at work so probably won't have access to check this until tonight

Forgot to say that the time sheet thing happened a couple of years ago, so doubt it has anything to do with them needing more staff on reception, if anything mums boss was trying to prove that she was sat doing nothing most of the day. Where I work if we asked someone to fill out that sort of time sheet there would be a framework of meetings built in to review them and discuss any issues that needed to be addressed. But mums boss never spoke to her about them at all, after the first request to fill them out. Leaving mum feeling that her boss doubted her performance but too apprehensive and unsure of policy to challenge her.

I did once consider anonymously sending mums boss a book on Management for Dummy's in the hope she'd pick up some tips!

And also it's the way she speaks to mum, and that's very hard to document.

Bumping

Hello again.

Your mum needs to document as much as she can, keep it factual and contact the HR department, this sounds like a one women crusade to push your mum out!

Thanks PissyDust do you think that any of this sounds like constructive dismissal? I thought the situation where they refused her request to go down to 3 days as they didn't have enough people on the admin team to cover the additional day, then hired someone to work alongside her 5 days a week and changed her job description to match the new hires was on shaky ground. Almost like the plan was to bring in a replacement ( otherwise why not tell mum they were bringing someone in to do the same role and allow her to do 3 days?)

What does she want to achieve? You mention she was ready to resign but you've persuaded her to put in a grievance, which is a stressful thing to do, do you have a concrete benefit for your mother in mind.

Lots of little things like this would be extremely difficult to prove as being constructive dismissal, probably impossible, particularly if some of it happened a long time ago and wasn't formally complained about at the time. They are not obliged to agree her flexible working request either.

You say she has now said she can't go in a room with her boss again. That's pretty serious, was there one thing that happened to prompt that.

Do be careful to think about best outcomes for your mum, as in my view that's more important than principle.

Mum is hoping that they will give her a settlement to go quietly. She can't afford to retire/resign yet so if she wasn't to get a settlement she would have to find another job, which isn't that easy in this climate as a 65 year old.

There was a spat between mum and her boss on the last day she was in work where mum had been asked to reorganise the Stationary cupboard, did so, and then found her boss going through it ripping fronts off boxes etc because she didn't think it had been done right. She saidmum hadn't labelled things sufficiently well for people to know what was in the cupboard and pointed at a box with 'A4 material envelopes' written on it and said that people wouldn't know what they were do mum should take one out and attach it to the front of the box. Mum said she thought that the label was self explanatory, boss disagreed, mum again said it was self explanatory and her boss said 'don't raised your voice to me, get in the meeting room now' and started saying she thought mum had been discontented in her work since the new hire started and was there a problem, mum said there was no problem with the new girl at all. This all does sound quite petty but it's a good example of the micromanaging and nit picking of apparently unimportant jobs that has been going on for years.

Mum is getting on a bit ( sorry mum!) and is really tired at the end of her 4 day week and she's at the point where she really wanted to work fewer hours and the though of coming in four days a week to have everything she does scrutinised and criticised ( her boss doesn't do praise, only criticism) was just too much.

Incidentally, someone from work phoned mum and said that her boss was heard screaming at her to get into the meeting room, so I don't think mums being too sensitive here.

Unless she was planning to retire in a few months she is not going to get a settlement of nearly enough to avoid having to find alternative employment.

It does sound like her boss is treating her poorly, I agree. She could certainly put in a grievance about her boss's behaviour, but putting in a grievance isn't going to prompt them to offer her money. To prompt them to offer her money she'll need to convince them that she has a good legal case for something and is strongly considering bringing that case to a tribunal.

She could 'suck it and see', raise a grievance about all this treatment, attend a hearing to discuss her complaints, and see how they deal with it, then decide.

Thanks flowery I think a tribunal might be the way it ends up going, hopefully the people from her office (who have also suffered at the hands of her boss) who said they would back her up will stick to their guns.

Really? It's very difficult to prove constructive dismissal, especially if it's lots of little (on the face of it) things, and especially if some of them were a while ago and not complained about formally at the time. Constructive dismissal is also incredibly stressful. I'm sure your mother (sorry OP for talking about you as if you are not here...!) would take proper legal advice before bringing a claim, but the kind of claim you are talking about is amongst the most difficult to prove and most stressful to bring.

flowery we'll see what HR say when mum puts in the grievance, at the very least if a few people come forward it might clip mums boss' wings and stop her being a horror to other people for a while