Informal Complaints Against Me At Work

[TimothyClaypoleLover]

I work part time. On one of my non working days a meeting was held with all my other colleagues and various complaints were made about me not being a team player, not helping others out, always being on the internet and leaving work for my jobshare to pick up which could easily completed by me.

I was gobsmacked and rather upset as no-one has said anything to my face. I hold my hands up to the odd occasion of internet surfing when not busy but in my mind the rest is completely untrue.

I was thinking about asking for the minutes from this meeting so I can see exactly who said what. Particularly as that meeting resulted in a meeting with my boss and HR to discuss me. My supervisor was rather vague in my meeting and kind of implied everyone had complained about me.

Background is that since coming back from maternity leave a couple of months back I kind of get the impression that my maternity cover is out to get me. I may be completely paranoid but I know for a fact she has been spreading rumours about me not wanting to be back at work to the extent that HR asked to see me with a view to agreeing to me leaving.

I was thinking that by asking for any minutes or notes I can at least defend each point raised if it comes to it as I was so upset in my meeting that I haven't thought clearly until this weekend. As everything is informal I am not sure what my rights are but had I been full time I would have been in the initial meeting and been able to defend myself before my boss and HR were consulted.

If anyone has any advice on how to proceed/deal with this issue I would be most appreciate.

How do you know all this? Your manager? In which case ask him or her for details of the concerns raised in order that you can address them. Seems strange to tell you concerns were raised but not the detail.

You would have been unlikely to be able to defend yourself had you been in the meeting as the discussion probably wouldn't have taken place with you there, so don't focus on that.

If it came to a grievance against you you would have to be given specific detail about the concerns so you'd be able to defend yourself, but in terms of good practice, if your boss wants you to improve he/she needs to explain clearly to you what the problem is.

Don't worry about the minutes of the meeting, it should be your boss explaining to you what the issues are.

Oh, and if several people complain about one person, then it would be strange for that not to be discussed with the person's boss and often with HR as well.

As Flowery said, I am wondering how you came to hear about this meeting? Assuming that it was your manager who informed you, I suggest that you set up a formal one to one meeting with her/him as soon as possible. It is your manager's responsibility to raise any issues regarding your performance directly with you.

I would focus on the meeting with your manager in the first instance (to enable you to understand what the problems are) before you consider going down the grievance route. All the best.

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