Bullying at work? Or just feeling victimized?

[giblets46]

Hi All,
I'm currently being pulled up and facing a disciplinary at work for poor performance.
Having worked at my role for 3 years with no issues, I got a new manager, we had very little face time (they were a home worker, maybe in 1-2 days every other week), often missing me when I was visiting customers, and when in would be in meetings most of the day. Previously I had regular (2-3 daily) chats with my manager where we would discuss the goings on.
We did meet a few times more formally where I would be questioned over what I was doing with my time (much of the role is day to day dealing with customers and at the time a big regulatory issue), as they didn’t believe I could fill so much time with reactionary work, this has continued, and whilst I accept many of the points that have been raised (my morale and performance have dropped over the last year), there have been some issues that raise concerns for me, others have stated they constitute bullying. After a few months of an ‘informal process’ this is now going through a formal disciplinary process for performance, I don’t really want to bring up this possible bullying as ‘tit for tat’. So would appreciate a bit of a sanity check
In terms of the part of this:
When I have raised issues or my disappointment with some of the direction in strategy, I have been told, ‘if you don’t believe in management, then maybe this is not the right company for you’ (the intonation was clear).
Early on they openly admitted they were not including me in discussions that were relevant for my role
I asked for help for one of the points raised in my performance review on a number of occasions, no help was forthcoming, this came to a head when I asked again, the manager finally sorted things out, then excluded me, when asked why, they stated that it was ‘because you didn’t do it’
Another comment in the review was for work she wanted done with an external company, however the manager kept telling me was irrelevant/ waste of time/ a distraction, and they didn’t think it fitted in with the strategy, when the work was done (to the standard and requirements that had been agreed), the manager then refused to use the work done and used a process they had made up themselves. (why make me do work that they had no intention of using?)
Another was a global process (started before the manager joined), we pushed hard, however even after the Global head (in their presence) stated we could not use a project, I was pestered as to why I was not chasing this up, and why I was not bothering.
The last two seem to me to be demanding stuff that was not achievable, despite having conversations where I believed the issue to be understood, I was pestered further about them as ‘an issue’

I think you need to be cognisant of the fact that there's not really any such thing as "bullying" in employment law, and victimisation had a very specific meaning in relation to specific claims, such as discrimination. So even if your perspective here is correct, there is very little that you could legally do - and that might influence how effective you think raising a grievance will be in the circumstances where you are already being managed for poor performance.

Two things stand out for me. The fact that your agree that there had been a loss of morale and performance - so even if some of this is technically unfair, there's some truth to it. And the fact that you think that telling you to leave if you don't like the strategic direction is bullying - that very definitely isn't bullying, it's just a fact. It sounds to me that whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation, it may be time to look to move on under your own steam, because you don't sound very happy with the employment, and they don't sound very happy with you. It happens. And it's not worth getting upset about. But it is worth reevaluating whether this is the right place for you now.

thanks for the reply I think that helps clarify this, many of the comments really can be addressed in the disciplinary process, and other aspect are simply poor management.
Going into more detail today, i note that having had no previous contact with my new manager they are claiming they identified performance deficiencies and improvements in essentially our very first meeting, having had a great record at the company, and no real understanding of what my role involved!

What were your previous performance reviews like? I'd have thought that any higher level manager worthy of the name would note a correlation between the arrival of the new manager and the loss of your morale. It sounds like your manager wants their own team and not to inherit one - ie get rid of you so they can get their own person in. I think Lucy is right - it is probably time to move on under your own steam. 3 years (or is it 4) is a decent time to have spent at one employer.

I left my last job after just under 2 years as was in hospital very poorly covered all time off with sick notes, and then went back to work to be told that i wasn't preforming my job role well enough. never had any PDR or meeting about my work, was always given new staff to train and had been there the longest time.
My union (which i paid into every month) stated they couldn't do anything because i haven't been there 2 years so i don't have a leg to stand on.i left cancelled my union membership and found out the new manager just didn't want me there he wanted his own staff in from his last place.

My previous performance reviews were always good/ excellent, so yes, looks like it was never meant to be.
Sad when companies do this, however the low morale is currently widespread here.
I've been offered a settlement agreement, so par for the course, suspect it's a case of trying to give me a signal early on!