Grievance raised against me

[Piggywaspushed]

I posted this yesterday in staffroom but I might get more traffic here possibly. (Sorry, I have made it longer so as to avoid dripfeeding but I don't want to out myself at the same time. I have NCd)

I don't want to go into too much detail here but does anyone have any experience of/ advice on having a grievance procedure raised against them?

Am in bits and most of online advice is for the aggrieved party and the info the head gave m yesterday is aimed at the aggrieved party, too. My local union guy is an old fashioned socialist type who, last time I met him, launched into a discussion about education and politics and wasn't useful.

Not been told what I have allegedly done just who has raised a grievance.

I don't need a character assassination here but just an outline of what valid grievances someone could have against another person : the colleague who has raised her grievance is not in any way my junior. We are co workers. She is not in two days a week and we only ever really communicate via emails so I am puzzled.

I also want to know , if her complaint is proven, what her endgame(s) could be?

I am being very careful not to now go around fact finding with my department colleagues (I have only told one and she is a close friend) but, for example, she spends a lot of time in our HoD's office with door closed (it's an interesting leadership style my HoD has!)if she has raised problems there, my HoD has never discussed these with me so this is a bolt from the blue. I know someone who worked with her in a previous school - a bit of digging reveals she has done this before : but , obviously, I can't mention this as an excuse! I think she knows I have a bit of a reputation for being a bit of a rebel and this makes me a soft target. I certainly inadvertently upset my line manager last week who then (apparently) cried and this aggrieved colleague rushed to soothe her. No doubt they then had a good bitch about me. But the line manager herself discussed matters with me later,and certainly hasn't raised a grievance herself. It just isn't what people do in my school.

It is clear she does not like me - but I can't see that as a viable reason to raise a grievance!

Lastly, assuming she has put this grievance in writing, should I request to see it? What are my rights there?

She has been frustrating me ever since she came to the school (she is a kind of automaton and keeps planning my lessons for me and organising me and I have found it hard to keep up.) - but I have never raised any of these issues as they seemed petty and I thought we were both just rubbing along. She seems to find me borderline incompetent : but that isn't a grievance, is it?

[t875]

I thought it's really unfair that you don't have anymore information about your grievance. Is it informal? Will you be able to have a representative? I would just say hello goodbye pleasant she clearly isn't making any effort and making you feel intimidated and making you think and 2nd guess yourself how your talking to her. I would go in keep your head down. It obviously isn't nothing big as you would have known more about it. I would enjoy your weekend and try not to let it or her get you down. I know you sound like you love your job but the worse case is move on. I'm sure this will calm down. Keep us posted though. I wish you all the best x

[Piggywaspushed]

Brilliant advice daisy and not at al patronising :)

I would watch your back. If the person has escalated it to several layers above your manager, there could be machinations going on behind the scenes

This is what I am scared of : can you outline what you mean?

[Piggywaspushed]

Thanks t

I shall have and then later Eurovision and

[BoneyBackJefferson]

All the best piggy I hope you can have have a relaxing weekend

[daisychain01]

When a grievance skips a few hierarchical levels, it can suggest the person has "friends in high places", otherwise why wouldn't they have just spoken to their manager and kept it more 'local'. Does that chime at all? I'm obviously not au fait with how your reporting lines work but it would make me feel uneasy. Maybe it's just something to be on your guard about, I don't want to make false assumptions

[t875]

Yeah we're be watching Eurovision here too! Enjoy your relaxing time. Remember your great at what you do! I had many a weekend ruined by my old boss. Worrying how Monday would go. Thank god im not in that place now

[GinSwigmore]

So what does she actually have in email against you? What have you written that is self-incriminating?
Why are you apologising?

On the one hand you sound like an assertive, strong outspoken person. On the other you are intimidated by her.
On the one hand you are doing more delivery, planning and marking.
On the other you are behind/not keeping up with SoW?/she does not know what she's meant to be teaching?

You have also pulled her up about parents eve (bet that went down well) and slagged her off to two members of staff.

So...either someone's been talking and she's going for unprofessional because you have talked about her behind her back. Or she's going for incompetent because you are not sticking to the SoW/communicating effectively what she needs to do?

^Clearly I could have misinterpreted your posts.

I also do feel sorry for you as I think the job is hard enough without grievances/personality clashes. It's not what I would do even if I was offended/exasperated by someone.
I could have put in a grievance once but what would it have brought. You still have to work together.
I had someone being snide once (they weren't wrong, some kids were behind with assessments). I explained directly this was why I needed their support/apologised for putting them in a position of "catch up".

Sharing classes can be a nightmare. I was secondary and had it a couple of times.
It was easier then in that we agreed to have a shared book where we just wrote a precis of what we had taught and anything we particularly wanted consolidating. We had our own books and were responsible for our own.
Parents eve, the one who had them the most, did (usually me). Reports again me.
It works better if the person doing the stand alone lesson either agrees to do their own thing but same topic area or takes a specific skill and concentrates on that or agrees to do all the consolidation, revising and testing.
(If they do assessing and mark the tests/fill in data sims it makes up for you doing the reports/parents eve).

All that said, I have been out the business for a while now so Ofsted would probably frown on that dynamic.

What I do think though is that you absolutely do need a heads up on what you have allegedly done in advance so you aren't being ambushed.


See you on the ESC thread

[Piggywaspushed]

So what does she actually have in email against you? What have you written that is self-incriminating?
Why are you apologising?

Because I thought I might not finish a play in time to accommodate the schedule she had written. I apologised because we had agreed to that week in advance. I am sure it was annoying. But I sped up and got it done.

I have not slagged her off at all behind her back (although I am sure I am entitled to talk to a friend!). I reported what my class said to the LM of that area as I thought this would protect me and seemed the professional thing to do. I have mentioned to two people (the dept has 12) that I find her draining to work with. I was then told that she was talking about me to the LM

Sharing teaching works when people have a good, and practical, working relationship. Between the two of us it is all done by email (which she isn't always replying to but usually acknowledges with a'fine, thanks' or whatever). I don't like the idea of sharing one text because it means you have to get exactly what you say you will get done in an hour and it doesn't suit my style - I have thought of practical solutions to this and she hasn't said she has minded. To me.

We have shared reports to reflect the amount we teach : dept policy as is the parents' evening thing. We have usually shared marking or I have done it. I don't know whether she is doing interim marking but we have assessments half termly(which is kind of exhausting : essentially no one can keep up with the SOWS so the amount of time to teach text mentioned above had been extended : I finished on less teaching time that anyone else within a week of them!)

I haven't liked a few of the changes in the dept over the last year or so - but they haven't been her changes and I haven't discussed my feelings with her. I have stuck tot he SOWs as closely as I can.

I didn't pull her up on the parents' evening. I was informed, after I had made some convoluted arrangements about booking appointments due to shared classes paying havoc with an online booking system , that she wasn't contracted to do parents'' evenings on that day of the week. I spoke to my LM about the problems it was going to cause me - not about the woman herself. She may well resent me for this: true! When she first arrived I made a document outlining how her appointment impacted on my workload : this should not have been shared with her : and was not about her but about timetabling and increases to expectations upon me. But I suspect my LMs may have construed that as me 'having a problem '. We were meant to turn up to a meeting together to discuss in class support but she didn't . When I said ' we're meant to be in a meeting with LM aren't we?', she replied 'I didn't see the email'. The meeting wasn't rescheduled and she never came to my class to support I fact. That was ages ago, though.


Sorry if all that sounds defensive . I will indeed go to the ESC thread later! :)

[Piggywaspushed]

ps I don't mind doing more marking! I secretly like marking...

[Piggywaspushed]

Oh, and I'm not doing more planning and she does know what she is teaching. The planning is as it should be 50/50 - with possibly me doing more communicating. This only affects one of the three shared classes anyway.

[Piggywaspushed]

I am a bit outspoken sometimes. Assertive, however, I am not.

I need to be now .Courage required.

[TooStressyForMyOwnGood]

Piggy . It must be so stressful. Your example of the email where you were 'behind' on the planning resonated with me. If you are relaxed and your co teacher is a planner it is terrible as (well this is what I found) they will produce a ridiculously over planned preparation timetable whichyou will inevitably be 'behind' in.

Would second the idea of formal union support and speaking to ACAS ASAP.

[GinSwigmore]

In light of all that lovey, no idea what she can accuse you of then enjoy Kiev, hope it works out Monday. What is it they say? Never defend, explain or justify. I'm not sure that is true in a mediation but don't get walked over if she's being petty about a play or popularity.

[Piggywaspushed]

Haha stress exactly that!

And lots of disapproving uber planners in teaching these days.

[Piggywaspushed]

Thanks for all yours support MNers. I thought I might come in for a bashing as once I posted about feeling bullied and was told I was the problem . But, despite some justified queries and critical observations/ suggestions, you have all of you been lovely!

[JustMyLuckUnfortunately]

Some great advice here and you sound self-aware. I hope it goes ok, so good luck

[Piggywaspushed]

Morning. I have had it confirmed that I am meeting early this week and will see notes beforehand. The complainant has not put anything in writing - notes will be taken in a meeting with her tomorrow.

At least that means nothing has been hidden from me.

[tinytemper66]

Are you taking someone with you? That you trust? They can make notes for you as you will not perhaps be able to remember everything.

[Piggywaspushed]

I think the jury is slightly out as to whether I can do that at this stage.

Taking someone might look like I am forcing them to take sides?

I have tow choices : my friend who is already 'involved' as I have spoken to her about problems with the woman so I don't want to drag her in. Or my school union rep who is the most lovely and trustworthy guy but is about to join SLT and is giving up the role so I can't imagine he'll want to be involved much. I'll ask him tomorrow how he feels.

I don't feel myself like I want to get external union in (yet) as this is the informal stage but will phone them/ ACAS tomorrow.

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Take someone from the union, or a colleague who can take notes. And what she says in her grievance should be shared with you - how on earth are you supposed to know what you have done? Have you been offered mediation? This can sometimes work well.

[tinytemper66]

They can be impartial. It isn`t about choosing sides but making sure things are said and done fairly and without prejudice.
I hope it goes ok. Our job is hard enough without this.

[Piggywaspushed]

tiny Isn't it just!!

I think Mrs that we aren't at the mediation stage yet. I am guessing it all hangs on a) how serious her allegations are and b) how I respond.

[t875]

Hi Piggy, glad its moved on a bit for you so you have a bit more of an idea. Let us know when you know anymore. x

[Allthebestnamesareused]

Yes when I saw your post saying you were sorry you were behind it occurred to me that as co-teachers (one carrying on from where the other left off) maybe her grievance (in her head) is competence based and she is going to complain that she is unable to plan effectively etc because she has to pick up slack (in her opinion). It might be worth covering bases along those lines.

[Haffdonga]

This sounds horrible, Piggy.

To me it sounds as if she is bullying you and you need to make it clear this is what you feel. To wit she blanks you when you greet her, she fails to respond to your polite and professional emails and spoken communication, she fails to attend meetings with you and she raises unjustified grievance complaints about you without having made any attempt to address her issues with you.

You need to protect your career here and forget nice. She's taken it straight to the nuclear option so you need to fight back. Niceties and apologies will make you look in the wrong (unless there is something you genuinely should apologise for). So, take a list of all examples of her lack of cooperation (dated and in writing) with you to the meeting. Explain you feel victimised and do involve union rep.