Employment anxiety and work settlement - help

[falaff]

This is really long, sorry :/

SHORT VERSION: I suffer from anxiety and my boss is aware of this. My boss has not followed company policy on grievances and has ignored issues such as bullying and has made my work very stressful. This has exasperated my anxiety to the point where I am off work sick. I am negotiating a settlement or a return to work. My boss will not reassure me that he will approach things differently and therefore I feel forced into a settlement. Do I have grounds for unfair dismissal because of disability?

LONG VERSION:
I am looking for advice on how to proceed with a settlement. I would like to know if I have grounds for a case based on my disabililties - anxiety, depression and ADHD. I have been with the company for 16 months so not eligible for unfiar dismisal.

I am currently off work sick with anxiety (3 months) due to how work (boss, other colleagues) have treated me. I have told them this reason. They know that I have anxiety and this is not the first time that I have been off sick frof work-induced anxiety.

My boss is the CEO so I find that I have noone to escallate this to. He is also the cause of many of my grievances but is handling my settlement/return to work with legal and HR advice. Is this right or should someone else handle it?

Some of the issues:

• I am being intimidated and picked on at work. My boss is acutely aware of this, being included on emails where this has happened. I have written a grievance. This staff member has previously bullied other staff who have resigned because of this, whilst they have been promoted. He has taken no action nor replied to my greivance. I have been encouraged to 'drop things' to not upset company dynamics. I feel physically sick with worry when I think about working with this member of staff now.

• None of my formal grievances on the above have been dealt with in line with company policy. I have had no feedback and no investigations have been made. Basically nothing, and as a result, nothing has changed or things have gotten worse and I haven't been able to appeal. This has caused me to be anxious about them remaining and reoccurring and I am fearful about returning to work. My boss is refusing to give me any evidence that the correct proceedure has been folowed despite me asking.

• In comparison, complaints raised by other members of staff are treated differently. e.g. staff have ganged up to issue false complaints about me. Instead of identifying this as the bullying that it was, I was dealt with a zero-tolerance approach (think: leaving a dirty mug on my desk = immediate banning of tea), which caused me great upset. My boss failed to act on the bullying despite agreeing it was happening. When I raised a similar issue earlier, it was not dealt with and has therefore continued. I was told not to pursue it as it would upset company dynamics. I believe that me raising it led to the petty retaliation from other staff.

• My boss hasn't considered my anxiety-related requests. For example, when the above happened, I was dealing with a difficult deadline. The 'dirty mug' issue wasn't urgent and the bullying/zero-tolerance approach was upsetting, so I asked my boss to pick it up after the weekend so I could still work and not be affected by the anxiety. He initially agreed but then ignored this and emailed me about it the next day, which caused me to have a panic attack and be phyically unable to work, miss the deadline, and spend the weekend in bed.

• I am paid less than both other people at the same level, who are both men. I have asked this to be reviewed complete with requested information 4 months ago and this hasn't been looked at, with the reason that I have been off sick. However, they have contacted me about other trivial things whilst I have been off sick.

• My work is given lower priority than other work and I keep having resources taken away despite my workload increasing. This has caused me a huge amount of stress, but my boss has not resolved any of it despite me asking many times.

• A colleage shared private information with my boss about my relationship with another colleague (this is allowed). In a catch-up meeting, my boss told me that he had heard that my relationship was affecting my work (untrue), but had not investigated first. He did this in front of other staff members including my partner, which humiliated me. I was then forced to 'make up' with the person who 'reported' this in a meeting outside of work and was verbally abused by her. This caused me to take several days off because of anxiety. It was agreed that she shouldn't have shared private information, but this wasn't acted on, and she has since said other inappropriate things in work emails that has caused me to be picked on.

There are so many other things but I just can't list them all or this will be an even bigger essay.

WHAT TO DO
I honestly cannot face going back to work because I know my boss won't address these issues properly based on past experience. The damage has also already been done and the issues won't go away.

They are offering 2 months notice plus another 2 months in settlement. I highly doubt that I will be better and be back in work in 4 months and that's if a suitable job comes up.

I am very angry that I am being essentially forced to leave a full-time permanent job on which my house depends and be unemployed during an economic crisis. My job is rare as hens teeth at the moment and I could be unemployed for a year. I am also still sick and can't imagine being able to hold down a full time job now.

What do I do?? Do I ask for more so that I don't suffer financially? What if I don't get another job for 9 months?? should I take them to court? Can I take them to court? I don't think I could bear the stress.

I’m going to re-read this (possibly several times) however, if you have an ADHD diagnosis & it significantly impacts you, you are pretty much meeting the definition of disability, which means you have a protected characteristic. So you don’t need 2 years service.

Do you want to be beaten by them? What’s the real issue behind this?

Have you name changed OP? Aspects of this sound familiar.

If you have been offered a settlement agreement your employer should be paying for you to get independent legal advice on it. Your solicitor is best-placed to advise you on the alternatives, including the strength or otherwise of any legal claim you may have.

Thanks for replying. My depression and anxiety is also long term, diagnosed and currently treated, although I have relapsed because of this.

I am struggling to find out if I have any gronds due to disabilty. My employed hasn't made any any attempts to address the intimidation and bullying, and this has significantly aggrevated my anxiety, as has his failure to provide the resources I need to do my job. The 'fear' of issues returning because they have not been addressed also makes me panic and fear going into work. His direct behaviour has also aggrevated my anxiety, e.g. making me have the meeting with the member of staff and emailing me when I have asked for space. However, he or anyone else hasn't done anything specifically because of my disabilities, e.g. not given me an opportunity or mocked my disabilities.

Any thoughts on the unequal pay? Is the fact that I am one woman amongst two other men who are paid higher enough?

I'm not sure what you mean about your last sentence. The real issue is that this company has caused me to be sick for 3 months. I have been scuicidal. This has in turn affected my relationships and physical health. I absolutely dread going back to work because I know things won't change. I am so sad because on paper when I started this was my ideal job. I have performed very well in the job and done nothing wrong, yet I am faced with long term unemployment and having to use my savings for my mortgage. It seems so unfair and I don't want them to get away with it.

I don't want to have to court and sue them. I would be satisfied with just being able to have an income until I get another job, but I have no idea when that will be in this climate. The settlement they are offering will cover me for 4 months, but does nothing to make up for my 3 months of feeling like death and being unable to live my life, nor the numerous other occasions where it's made me ill, nor the fact that I am not paid fairly.

@TitsOot4Xmas, Sorry, I posted in employment so it may be that you have seen that one, but was advised to post here.

@flowery they will pay £300 but I spoke to someone today and they said that would only cover the settlement as it stands, not any renegotiations. That would be another £500.

Being paid a different amount to two men in itself isn't proof of anything. A difference in salaries can be justified in many ways.

@Doyoumind I appreciate that, but I know I'm not being paid fairly. We have the same responsibilities, albeit different roles, and are on the same level in the company structure. They have also just advertised for a lesser role at a higher salary bracket to me, and someone on the level down from me (another man) is on a salary £500 less despite me having significantly more responsibility. I don't think it is sexual discrimination but I can't see how they can claim that I am getting equal pay. My boss (CEO) said he 'didn't disagree with me and it needs reviewing' and asked me to send a letter outlining my case 4 months ago, yet has not responded. It's just one of many things though.

They won't pay you more than they need you to go - why would they?

I don't understand what you're asking for. Is it a large company you work for? Have you asked for reasonable adjustments?

What & where is the discrimination?

I don't know if it is discrimination or not. I am confused and worn out. All I know is that they have repeatedly ignored or failed to deal with serious issues that I have raised, despite being very clear that they affect my anxiety. They have seen me get increasingly unwell and have failed to act to the point where it has made me have a breakdown and I can no longer work. The way that issues have been handled wrongly as I have outlined with favourable treatment to other staff has really affected me and I don't feel supported by my boss as he will not deal with bullying and intimidation nor provide me with what I need to do my job.

It is a small company, 1 CEO, a board of trustees, 3 senior managers including me, a few project managers (until they left) and a team of workers with varying skills. A small cohort of the workers repeatedly break company rules and make life very hard for others yet get rewarded and have grievances against them ignored, and other staff end up leaving.

They are not trivial and I have seen 3 other colleagues leave in a year because of poor company dynamics, gross misconduct being ignored, favourable treatment and bullying.

I have asked for reasonable adjustments like flexible working. That has been fine. What I have also asked for is bullying to be addressed and for many other things to be resolved that are giving me anxiety such as no budget and no staff yet an increasing workload. I have raised these issues multiple times.

What I am asking for really is to understand if this behaviour is something I just have to live with or whether I have any grounds to have a better settlement deal which will mean that this awful experience doesn't cost me my savings or my house. I don't want to be financially better off or even compensated for the the 3 months that I have been reduced to a shell of myself. I just want to be able to pay my mortgage, feed my dog and get my life back.

What I am asking for really is to understand if this behaviour is something I just have to live with or whether I have any grounds to have a better settlement deal which will mean that this awful experience doesn't cost me my savings or my house.

It doesn't sound like your employer is willing to admit to any wrongdoing, specific to behaviour of staff towards you. The best you can expect is what they've done which is the Settlement Agreement of 4 months' pay, which can be taken as a tacit acknowledgement that the relationship has broken down and they're offering you a way out.

You'd be ill-advised to take them through a Tribunal. It would be risky under those circumstances as a Court would say that they've tried to sort the matter out amicably.

The settlement agreement can be worded as an Ex-Gratia, which is classed as tax-free up to £30K under HMRC regulations (as it's non- contractual), so the 4 months would be paid gross, so the equivalent of 5 months pay. In your position, that's a reasonable offer to avoid the cost and stress of Tribunal.

Plus if you have accrued holiday pay, that would be payable and taxed as it's contractual.

If your employer has been paying you sick pay for the past 3 months, presumably that means your actual outgoings have reduced, so hopefully that has helped towards your mortgage. Your employer isn't going to care about your mortgage or savings (sorry to be blunt).

”flowery they will pay £300 but I spoke to someone today and they said that would only cover the settlement as it stands, not any renegotiations. That would be another £500.”

Renegotiation costing more is one thing, but not even giving you a view on whether it’s worth doing so is a bit rubbish of the solicitor.

What I’m struggling to see is a correlation between your pre-existing disability (assuming the criteria to be defined as a disability is met) and how you have been treated. It does seem clear they’ve treated you badly, but can you show a potential tribunal enough grounds to believe that the reason for that was your disability? The two years needed to claim (constructive) unfair dismissal won’t apply if the reason for your dismissal was your disability.

With the equal pay, there are potentially a number of reasons they could justify the differential, and obviously without them having responded, it’s impossible to say whether the reasons are sufficient.

@flowery no I don't think I can prove that it is because of my disability. Because others have been treated the same and they do not have disabilities. They have been able to leave for other jobs though. But because of my disability, it has had a worse effect on me to the point where I have been off sick.

I am getting very worried about all of this now. I can't even eat.

Ok well to show discrimination you need to show that you were treated less favourably than others, and that the less favourable treatment was (or could have been) because of your disability. If you were treated the same, but just reacted differently, that's not discriminatory treatment on their part.

I think you need to pay the £500 to have a proper assessment of your case by an employment lawyer. They shouldn’t ignore your grievances but they don’t have to uphold them either nor to address them in the way you want.

There are different types of disability discrimination- less favourable treatment, unfavourable treatment (no comparator needed) and failure to make a reasonable adjustment. You need someone to properly analyse your case to see if you can get more in a settlement. It’s a very technical area and no one on here can give you the position without full knowledge of the circumstances (which faod you should not share online).

Also @daisychain01 what you say is incorrect. Notice pay is now taxed as such.

@CayrolBaaaskin

Also *@daisychain01* what you say is incorrect. Notice pay is now taxed as such.

I didn't mention contractual notice period in my advice about the Settlement Agreement as an ex-gratia So I wasn't incorrect.