A bit of background, I work for a charity and last year, myself and two colleagues were suspended from work for two months following serious allegations made by short term temp. A full investigation took place, we were all interviewed separately as were our colleagues. As a result, the allegations were found to be false and we could return to work. It was a traumatic time, particularly as we were escorted out of the building in front of our colleagues and were not informed what the allegations were until 48 hours later. I have worked for the charity for two years. No apology has ever been made.
The only element of truth that was proved was that we had given our manager and senior colleague nicknames, they were not discriminatory, neither were they terms of endearment but they were found in emails that we had stupidly sent between us out of pure frustration!
My manager and our senior colleague are forever absent which puts a huge amount of pressure on the rest of us, they are not team players, it is one rule for them etc and it is fair to say that there is a lot of resentment in the team. I had tried to discuss this with my manager’s manager but she wasn’t interested, although she later apologised for not listening when it became clear that we were a dysfunctional team which needed her attention.
Upon our return to work, our seniors ignored us and then each gave us short sharp shrift and made it all about them, how they felt at being given a nickname and not about how being wrongly suspended had affected us. Should a meeting between the 5 of us been facilitated, it might have helped us all clear the air a little, however this never happened. On top of this we came back to a team in complete disarray, NOTHING had been done and it was left to us to play two months catch up!
Shortly afterwards, both our seniors went off (again) with stress for two months. During this time, we ran the team between us well, dealing with Year End etc and had access to higher management who listened to our concerns and promised change. Unfortunately, lockdown happened and our senior members have been allowed to return to work via the back door and nothing has changed. Higher management now have much more important issues to deal with i.e. COVID and the furlough scheme and we have all been thrown to the Lion’s den.
On Friday, I had my Annual Performance Review(APR) which I was dreading. (I had said that I was not comfortable with my manager doing it as A) she had hardly been in the office the previous year and therefore had no idea of my performance B) there was some animosity between us which had not yet been resolved.) However, although during the review she did praise me, I felt it insincere and a very mediocre review. I just wanted to get off the phone. Then at the very last minute she said she was going to refer to my “lapsed professionalism” referring to the emails that had come up as part of the investigation following the suspension “Did I still use the nicknames?” and “Did I regret the emails?”. I was surprised and I asked her not to mention “Lapsed Professionalism” as the suspension was a separate issue, I felt I had been punished enough and had apologised to her for the use of nicknames.
My question is: Surely, only the investigating officer should have had access to my emails and not someone that was involved in the complaint. Her manager told me herself that she had been told not to look through my emails. Is this a breach of confidentiality? I feel that I have not had a fair APR as she could not possibly be objective.
I love my job, I am generally well liked and focus on bringing the income in for the cause. During my manager’s absence, I have taken on the line management of one of her reports as she was clearly not coping. I just feel like she has it in for me and I cannot win. My manager is not liked, I believe that she has Narcissist Personality Disorder, she is passive aggressive, always must get a little dig in (such as in my APR) and many people have left because of her.
My question is: Surely, only the investigating officer should have had access to my emails and not someone that was involved in the complaint. Her manager told me herself that she had been told not to look through my emails. Is this a breach of confidentiality? I feel that I have not had a fair APR as she could not possibly be objective.