Work situation, possible grievance, not sure what to do.

[zoerainbow]

Going to have to be a bit vague about this due to the situation being quite specific. DH has suggested I post this to get some unbiased opinions. NC obviously.

A senior member of staff (I'll call her Lynn) in my office (midlands based, NHS professionals, non-hospital etc) has lied about me to several staff members. This has had repercussions as what we do relies heavily on teamwork as we all have different strengths and what was said has resulted in other team members not trusting me. I strongly suspect this is because Lynn is trying to wrench control through divide and conquer. Part of Lynn's job is training and she is struggling with this as she does not understand how to do our jobs and may be in over her head with hers.

This has come to light because another member of staff (one band higher than Lynn, I'll call her Julie) found out what was said and reported me to senior management. Julie did this using quite unprofessional language and then aggressively pursued an outcome to the report.

Almost simultaneously I was informed by someone else about this (call him Pete) because he thought I had the right to know but he specifically asked me not to do anything with the info. Given how far this has reached already and that I had been reported, I had no choice but to do something. I went to my direct manager, found out a bit more that made it clear the source of this was Lynn in cohorts with a colleague on my band (call her Jane) who has been disciplined previously for poor performance and is only on a short term contract (but wants to be made permanent) - I think she is trying to push me out.

I have contacted the entire team with the support of my direct manager to clarify the situation. I haven't yet had any response to this.

Pete is really unhappy with me for reporting this as he thinks it will lead back to him. I have apologised, but I think I have been careful enough to cover this. Tbh I'm disappointed that he's not able to see this more from my perspective and offer more support to me but I haven't said this to him.

I guess my questions are what should I expect now? What I would like is an apology from Lynn, Julie and Jane and I think I would be willing to draw a line under this if that is forthcoming. I don't know if I should raise a grievance regardless (DH wants me to, but then he's angry for me so he's saying this with bias). I don't know if I should be sorry for betraying Pete or not.

Can anyone offer advice? Sorry this was so long.

Can you raise a grievance without naming Pete? It's gone so far that your account doesn't seem to have been questioned so it almost doesn't matter where you got the info. Julie has made it something formal with your personnel/HR department which will now be recorded and I think that raising a grievance will allow you to formally challenge it. If not what happens if further down the line Lynn starts saying something similar?all you would have would be their complaints on record. I wouldn't be asking for an apology, I would be asking the department how they intend to support you and put a stop to this in the department. Perhaps a training session on bullying or something?

Thank you for replying @blackcat86.

Yes can definitely raise a grievance without naming Pete. He feels it's obvious he's told me and it will lead to repercussions for him. He is probably one of the people I know best in the team and due to the layout of the office they will know he would've heard the lies being disseminated. I have said to him that I have covered his part as best I can and nothing can be pinned on him. He's possibly right that they would suspect him but I felt that I was left with no choice but to go to my manager with this.

Pete apparently doesn't see it this way. I'm not sure what he expected me to do with the info, maybe he was just venting about Lynn and Julie, they are generally not that well regarded as they are not good managers. Once he gave me specific info about me though, I had no choice but to take it further.

I feel that my line manager has been very supportive and our department lead will be too but I'm not sure how a grievance would play out.

My line manager has advised me that Lynn has asked him to keep out of this and I don't know if that's tantamount to a suggestion of wanting it buried - DH thinks possibly.

I would agree with your DH. Your line manager cannot keep out of it as they need to support you. If they don't feel they can then that's an excellent reason to raise a grievance as Lynn has acted improperly and then tried to prevent you getting support.

Oh I didn't even consider that. You're absolutely right. My line manager has refused to stay out of it anyway, but I agree that it's potentially an attempt to prevent me from getting support. I think she's doing it defensively and has not seen it that way. In other words that she's stupid rather than evil. But the words are out there aren't they?

Thank you for your help @blackcat86. I have just now contacted my union rep to ask for a meeting on Monday.

Absolutely. I hope that it all goes well for you. I work in the public sector and people like Lynn tend to get away with far too much until someone takes it further.

Sounds like school playground really. You say Lynn lied, she will probably say that she didn't and in the end, it's probably a case of misunderstanding.

If you like manager and their manager are supporting you, then surely that's all that matters. Let Lynn says what she wants, if people don't like her, they'll make their own judgement. Sometimes you have to just get 9n with the job and ignore people making things up. It probably would be a forgotten thing by now if you had.

Will it not depend on what was said? If it was a "Zoe did X which is gross misconduct" and can be evidenced or not versus "Zoe said you're lazy and rubbish"?

You seem to have jumped the gun here, OP. There doesn't seem to have been any action taken against you, it is unclear if they are even investigating this (don't say if it is outing, these are just questions to think about not reply to on here obviously!)

You did have a choice what to do with the information Pete gave you. You didn't have to do anything about it, certainly not involved your team ( I have contacted the entire team with the support of my direct manager to clarify the situation. I haven't yet had any response to this. ) because this is nothing to do with them yet everybody knows about it now. They won't want to get involved.

I would take the high road until you know what is actually happening.