Horrible situation (long)

[slotnicki]

A few months ago some colleagues and I became concerned about the behaviour of our manager -aggressive emails, lack of discretion, underming behaviours- We went to see their manager who made notes and undertook to take advice - but we have heard nothing since.

At the same time, we we being restructured, with fewer jobs for the number of employees. In any discussion, my manager tried to put me off, by telling me that the job in my area was a f/t job - and I only work part-time. He also made it clear to my union rep that there was no chance of me geting one of the jobs.

To be honest, I do only want to work p/t, but annoyed at my manager's attitude, decided to apply. I got shortlisted (we were assured that a rigorous shortlisting process had taken place)and 7 of us were invited to attend an assessment centre - 3 for one job (Job B) and 4 for the other (Job A).

To our surprise, we were were told that out of all of us, only 1 person had got through (for job A). We later found out that it is possble that some allowance was made, after the person revealed some extenuating circumstancesafter the event.

One colleague is now taking legal advice, as we cannot believe the outcome of the assessment process and various other issues have since emerged.

The day before the assessment centre, a temp told people in a meeting that they would be doing the job that I and others were supposedly being assessed for until things were sorted out (job B). Other comments were made which also supported this assertion. They were also given responsibility for a key area of work which came under the post, as well as recruiting for a post which would come under the postholder. Shortly after the assessment, we were told that the temp would take on the job. Something very similar happened in relation to job A, in that several weeks before the assessment the one successful candidate was also given responsibility for recruiting to a post which would come under the new job.

I really didn't want the job, however I feel that we have been put through a process which we were set up to fail and I find this totally unacceptable. At the same time, I am not really sure whether it is worth pursuing any of this and how far to go. My colleague has written to HR and is going to see a solicitor, so I will watch developments with interest.

I have an interview for another post which I should get. The problem is that it is in the same part of the organisation with the same manager - and what with everything I have descibed above - and having received yet another aggressive email this week - can't face it. I should add that my union is not effective, so it is down to me to pursue this or not on my own. I had got to the point last week, when I had decided to take a redundancy payment and go - however we have since been told that there will be pressure for us to take jobs.

I am worried about the implications of pursuing a battle in what is a very vindictie organisational culture - but feel that I can't let this go.

What do people think?

[bethoo]

all i can say is you need to build evidence, for one keep the aggressive emails, that is a form of bullying anyway.

sadly this happens in alot of workplaces where someone has already been chosen for the advertised job but has to be seen to be doing the normal procedure.

[flowerybeanbag]

slotnicki I don't feel I can advise about the dodgy-sounding recruitment process as I don't really understand what happened and I think it sounds quite complicated, so I'm going to leave that for the minute.

With the issues with your boss, have you followed up with his/her line manager? I think you should, you were promised some kind of action so I think it's reasonable to ask what is happening. Continue to keep records of anything you are concerned about.

Perhaps there might be a nice HR person you could talk to about what the best way of dealing with this is?

With the redundancy thing, it's not as easy as deciding to take redundancy unless they are asking for volunteers - unfortunately if it's not voluntary redundancies if there is a post for you, you will probably be forced to take that or forfeit your redundancy money if you choose not to.

See if you can have a chat with your boss's line manager and/or an HR person about your concerns, it sounds as though you will be working with this person for the forseeable future so you need to get it resolved. Have you thought about having a conversation directly with your boss yourself about your concerns?