Submitting grievance letter against line manager tomorrow - handling what comes next...

[Greenwitchart]

So I am finally sending a formal grievance about my line manager to HR tomorrow.

I got external/legal advice in term of the content. I am a senior team manager myself and reporting my line manager (a director) for a pattern of undermining, bullying, removal of some of my responsibilities and disability discrimination to the point where it is now impossible for me to do the job I was hired to do.

I am fully prepared to lose this job and I know this action will result in additional stress.

So this post is not so much about whether I am right or wrong to do this, as I have made my decision now, but rather I would love to hear from others who have also submitted grievance about their manager, how it was handled by the organisation and how they kept their sanity throughout the process.

I have seen a lot of these.
The first step is hard evidence, if there is none or very little, then the employer can do nothing. The employer has a duty to be fair. Sometimes people think they have email evidence but actually those words are open to interpretation most of them time. The next step is mediation which usually fails.

If you have hard evidence (that can clearly be interpreted to support your case) the employer may take some sort of action dependent on what it is eg could be given a verbal warning.

Overall, the vast majority of greviances fail due to the “he/she said or he/she did” or lack of evidence. They can also backfire as you can be seen to be causing trouble yourself.

The only one have seen succeed was where someone had a recording of the party, swearing at them.

I’m in a similar position. As a pp said, evidence is key. Still waiting for the decision on whether or not it will be upheld.
Regardless, I’m looking for another job.

I am sorry this is happening to you.

I did this.
Some of it was upheld.
Nothing changed and I am now in a new job and going to tribunal.
But I would have been forced out either way. At least I am standing up for myself this way.

It depends on how liked the manager is. I raised a grievance many years ago and they dismissed all my claims, defending him any way they could. For example, one of the examples I gave of his bullying behaviour was wanting to know where I was at all times in the building, and looking for me if I wasn’t ever at my desk. I managed to get someone to give evidence for me and they confirmed that there were a few incidents where he would stand on the other side of the frosted screen clearly eavesdropping. HR’s response was that I could provide he was there, but I couldn’t prove why he was there…That showed me a grievance is pointless if they favour the person.

I left a couple months later and went on to bigger and better things.

''@Newstartandhardenedheart
But I would have been forced out either way. At least I am standing up for myself this way.''

This is how I feel too.

The manager wants me out, but because of my disability they are doing it in a covert way to try to get me to quit. So I might as well stand up for myself.

I have accepted that this is no longer the job for me and I am looking for something else but at the same time I won't just let that manager get away with their behaviour.

Also, I know that manager has had issues with staff in the past and at least one similar discrimination complaint made against them so maybe HR will wake up to the fact that there is something dodgy going on in that team.

My manager's manager has also resigned so they won't have their protection anymore. Someone completely new will be managing them.

Thank you everyone for the comments. I really appreciate you sharing your stories and experiences in similar circumstances.

Not quite the same but when I left my senior job for another one I wrote a letter to the CEO outlining the appalling bullying behavior of the head of our business. Copied in the Chief people officer in the US so it couldn't be ignored. I sent it the day I left as I didn't much fancy experiencing the fallout as he was scarily bonkers. It did the trick, they did an investigation and got rid of him.

I wish I had done this as i was put on a PIP after no previous issues and had months of bullying and undermining from Manager trying to find stuff. I didn’t because manager had done exact same to a colleague and raised a grievance as a result ended up leaving pretty shortly after! However they got a better severance package than my redundancy package I ended up getting so they may offer a without prejudice package. I’ve heard there’s an anonymous complaint against said former manager. If I’d put a complaint in that may have given more evidence to get said manager out! Good luck and stick to the evidence you have but keep it simple for all to understand!

sorry you’re going through this. I know how awful it is to have your manager bully you.

It was different, but I moved to another internal role to escape my manager. We had reported her behaviour numerous times but nothing was ever done, i think because she had a disability tbh.

We were all then put at risk under a restructure. I reported the issue to HR and send along a log of incidences and any proof i could find. I didn’t raise it as an official grievance, but what they did was ‘make sure’ she didn’t get offered any other internal roles as part of the restructure and therefore was made to leave the business.

Omg this reads like something a friend just told me but her manager was some kind of disturbed weirdo. It turned out he had been behaving this way to may women minorities a group of them got together to raise a case. Its crazy what is actually going on in some offices. Anyway head up and fight.

What I will say is that HR won’t “wake up”. I had a complaint raised against me (wasn’t upheld and it was deemed no case to answer).

I was part of a very long list of people that this person accused/raised grievances against. They were known for it and HR were fully aware of it - but each complaint had to go through the process and be investigated. Even in a large organisation they had quite a reputation.

I think it’s good you are standing up for yourself and hopefully you have the evidence but be prepared for the outcome - which even in your favour - might not turn out in a way that you wish.

I did this.

(Very) long story short, the outcome was:

Grievance - not upheld (due to lack of evidence ie manager lied through their teeth)

Appeal - not upheld for same reasons but I knew this would raise the issues with some extremely senior people which it did

Then I was moved to another manager. Liar manager left shortly after.

I'm still there.

Thank you everyone for all the additional comments!

I sent my letter to HR so it is done now.

I did feel an immediate sense of relief afterwards.

I think in a way it will give me that additional push to finally leave that toxic workplace.

Well done @Greenwitchart - please let us know how you get on.

How are things @Greenwitchart? Im still waiting to hear the outcome of my grievance, hope yours has progressed and you know where you stand.

The update is that we agreed on a settlement , thankfully. Fingers crossed that I will soon be able to get on with my life and try to restore my health.

Sorry you're going through this.

I raised a grievance which was partly upheld. Then they reported me to the NMC. Destroyed my life for 2 years and nearly killed me.

My advice, be very careful 'whistleblowing'. Sometimes doing the right thing has bad outcomes. I was not the first to complain but I was the first to do it via the grievance process.

WOW, that was really quick, congratulations. I submitted a grievance some months ago and it's still not fully resolved. I would be THRILLED to be offered a settlement 😃

I put in a grievance and won. Current LM put me on a PIP with no real evidence and no warning. Her Manager wanted a few of the team on the Bell Curve and she was so hopeless and new she did it.

However, it took me 1 year and I had to appeal the decision. I was also told in error that my LM was also on a PIP which should never had happened.

However I did have written evidence that my Manager had no issues with my current performance and then gave me a PIP again the following quarter.

This was a large FTSE company with constant restructures and new line managers.

Ironically I took redudancy with a large payout and a few weeks before I left they asked me to stay as they had left it too late to get my replacement and the client would have gone bananas.

They were truly shite! Their answer to everything was to offshore even middle management roles. I had to fill in a leaving survey and told them all my concerns and needless to say heard nothing back (and didnt expect to!)

I hope it wasn't too stressful and you are happy with the settlement.

Does the line manager get to stay and continue?

That’s great news OP - here’s to moving on to somewhere less stressful, do you have anything lined up?
Do you mind me asking - did they uphold your grievance or offer a settlement to sweep it under the carpet?
im hoping to hear about mine soon but am not hopeful about my chances of a settlement.

I have found a part-time, freelance role that I can do from home to keep me going financially while I try to recover mentally & physically. I think it is a bit od sweeping under the carpet settlement but I was not mentally in a space where I could take on a long legal battle although I know I had a good case.

I did something similar one time - emailed it just before I shut down my laptop for the final time and said 'no need to reply' - I knew others had resigned because of this person and so my voice would have a bit of weight. A lone voice in that circumstance goes nowhere.

I heard from colleagues after I left that someone must have said somethign to her as she started to behave a lot better so I like to think I had a bit of impact. Whilst I was there she was teflon coated even winning a manager of the year award at the annual conference!