Grievance meeting

[settingss]

I have been falsely accused of a laundry list of things by someone I manage, some of which I can disprove with evidence but other things will be my word against theirs especially as it makes reference to conversations held a year ago over the phone for example with no record or witnesses.

I have an investigation meeting to answer to the grievance soon, and just wondered if anyone has any advice? How to approach it, how to conduct myself, what not to say etc. never been in a situation like this before.

Are you part of a union OP? If so, take a union rep to any meetings with you.

Prepare your own evidence ready to provide it, if you are able to prove some of the points to be incorrect then your word does carry more weight on the other points.

Take someone in with you

Definitely take someone with you. Ideally a union rep if in the union or if not a supportive colleague. They should give you time to find someone and shouldn't pressure you into a meeting alone.

Have a look at the ACAS website. There's advice on there about what you.should expect.

Thanks, I have a union rep but he isn’t very good - he’s very generic and doesn’t give me much support

Have a timeline with evidence. If you are given dates and times of conversations ask to be allowed to check your diary - it is possible you were in a meeting/ sick/on leave etc.

Tale a companion either a TU rep or trusted colleague and ask them to take detailed notes.

I carry out grievance investigations, so hold meetings with both sides plus any witnesses. As others have said, if you can take someone with you, but if not, do remember that it is the role of the investigator to gather evidence from both sides. I always go in with an open mind and in most instances have never met any of the participants before.

I would suggest that you go through each of the allegations and note down in detail any evidence that you hold, that would disprove them. If you have emails or similar, put these aside and offer them up to the person doing the investigation. If an allegation is based on a telephone conversation that supposedly happened over a year ago and there were no witnesses, note this down. The aim would be to produce a detailed document that you could use at the meeting and make available to the investigator. I have recommended that grievances be upheld but equally often find against them. Even if I think that there may be some substance to the allegations, I can't uphold them if the evidence isn't there.

1. Be prepared - get your evidence together in advance, being as specific and factual as you can, adding dates and times if possible.
2. Try to keep your emotions out of it - be calm and objective, particularly if you are refuting the other parties' evidence (appreciate this is really hard to do though, especially if you feel the comments are unfair or unreasonable). Also be open to the other person's point of view - for instance, you may have said something one way but they misunderstood/took it a different way. For example, something along the lines of "that wasn't my intent but I can see how this might have been misinterpreted'.
3. Definitely take someone with you if you can
4. Get a copy of the grievance policy so you know what to expect from the process, including timescales and how to appeal if necessary.
5. Hopefully they will have a note taker present, so ensure you get a copy of the notes from the meeting.

Hope this helps x

Hello.

Firstly sorry, it’s a shit position to be in. I’ve been on the receiving end of it (no case to answer outcome) and I’ve subsequently trained to be an investigating officer.

If you have someone who can attend with you for support take them with you.

Difficult I know but try (at least during the interview) to keep the emotion out of it. Keep things factual.

I assume you have a copy of the allegations. Work through each one, where there is factual evidence provide copies. Go through your diary to check where you were, if you had meetings and to refresh your memory in case there are any potential witnesses.

During the interview answer the specific questions, don’t offer anymore, don’t “fill the silence”, just stick to the facts. Where there’s scenarios which are their word against yours don’t be tempted to “add anything”. If you don’t recall specific scenarios say that.

More widely look if you have evidence around their performance. Did you ask them to do something/tasks that they ignored, didn’t complete? Have they found it difficult to undertake reasonable management requests? For your own sanity can you think of an incident that might have triggered the breakdown in the relationship? Or can you think when things started to take a turn?

If it’s linked to performance for example have a timeline of when performance started to decline and how you were managing this - did this cause issues between you?

During the investigation meeting, try to keep calm. If you need a break ask, if you need them to clarify anything ask.

You can take notes in with you, which is why my starting point would be to work through each point raised and have your response.

I imagine if you can prove lots of it is nonsense, then the stuff without evidence will likely not be taken seriously - if you haven't got evidence, have they?

You can request a different one within the union.