Work bulling and harassment

[Hocuspocuspreparatus]

Hello all,

I would really appreciate any advice here.

Long story short I started an NHS job for a very very popular and high rated trust in London at beginning of the year! Very excited and full of energy on my first day, a complete disaster. I spend time on the hospital corridor because they couldn’t decide who is my manager, where I will have my desk etc. Second day, eventually i had a manager assigned who asked me at 0930 in the morning what have I done until now and how I am going to fill my day given that I have a very high salary and is not happy to have me just sitting at the desk (I am just a band 5) when I didn’t even had an email address etc. something sounded and feels wrong from the beginning and I started being bullied, harassed and threatened. I spoke with Deputy General Manager and General Manager, they said ,,you are not an isolated case, we know about this and we are working on it, please stick with us,, I resigned twice, first in my day 11, then 2 month after. I put everything in writing for them, etc. 4 weeks ago, I got shouted at by my line manager (still same as day 1) in middle of the hospital following complaint that I do not do as I have been ask to, sort of horrible micromanagement etc. i send an grievance and HR responded 2 weeks later, we acknowledge your complaint. I spoke personally with HR (as in the same office) and said ,,we are aware of, we are working on it, it is a long process,,
On few occasions I have been stopped by several staff members asking me to be careful with the management. Honestly I started having nightmares and my anxiety got on the roof. However, I really really enjoyed the team (apart of management) and the role that I was doing but I couldn’t manage anymore with bullying and to make my life easier and to be able to resign properly I told them I cannot work anymore from Mid May as I don’t have any childcare anymore so I will have to resign and they need to let me go as I have no other option (that was 6 weeks ago) where the deputy and general manager said absolutely no, you have our full support, please fill in a flexible working request and we are going to work around that, you are a valued member of the team and we cannot let you go. I said ok, I asked to work part time and they said no problem. Fast forward the day has come (last day of full time and office) they booked me in for a HR meeting and the general manager along with HR said they cannot approve the flexible working request and they need to let me go from Monday onwards. I feel so betrayed, so stupid, they were in the same office with me every single day, including the day when they told me this but yet they choose not to talk to me but speak via teams. They basically hide and choose not to speak with me anymore. I am fine as not working there anymore as it was a toxic environment but I guess, was it fair to keep says yes, no problem and on the deadline day to say, no?
There were no actions and no outcomes of my grievances against the line manager at all, and I just find out that there were other 8 people involved as being bullied by the same person for the past 2 years and one of them suicidal.

What can I do? I want to make sure nobody will go through the same over and over again.
who can i speak with? Please any help would be so much appreciated

Thank you for reading that far.

I haven’t had enough caffeine for that wall of text but this makes no sense:

I resigned twice, first in my day 11, then 2 month after.

If you resigned, how come that wasn’t processed? And then when you resigned again? If you resigned because you were so unhappy so early on, why did you end up staying? And nothing has improved (raising a grievance within weeks of starting) but you are upset they have terminated your employment even though you wanted to leave?!

Am assuming you are non clinical staff? What was your job description?

This is very confusing. If you resigned and did not agree to rescind it, it sounds like they did process it and on the last day of your employment they held some sort of (exit?) meeting with HR.

I am not sure about the grievance either... or the tinescales but might they have been in the middle of an investigation and then your last day came around anyway?
Or did they close the grievance or ignore it altogether?

Did you actually put a formal flexible working request in?

It does sound very shambolic at their end, whatever happened.

Since you have presumably actually left now, do you have a case for constructive dismissal? (it would have to be based on grounds that ate automatically unfair, given the length of service) and there is a tight timescale for putting in a claim. They are also notoriously difficult to win.

May be give ACAS a call.

If you don't have grounds for constructive dismissal, then draw a line under the whole thing, don't give it any more headspace and try to find another job.

When I went to tell them about the issues I have, they sat down with me explaining that I am not an isolated case and please do not resign, will are working on it! Why I stayed? Because I need to pay my bills and because I still believe in kindness

This still doesn’t make sense.

I did add a formal flexible working request which for 4 weeks verbally it was aproved, but on the last day, was rejected so I was asked to resign. I did it again in writing and it was accepted. They said it doesn’t meet the business demands and my manager agreed with as they were all part of the meeting and decision. Even after the grievance, my manager added the probationary period meeting in (which in the end was cancelled) as apparently I meet some if the tasks but not all. i never been informed about a ,,thick box,, of achievements

I read it that the first two times the OP resigned she was persuaded to change her mind. (Although this was not spelled out so I may be wrong. )

In your OP:
I resigned twice, first in my day 11, then 2 month after.
and
Fast forward the day has come (last day of full time and office) they booked me in for a HR meeting and the general manager along with HR said they cannot approve the flexible working request and they need to let me go from Monday onwards

How had you reached your last day if you hadn't resigned?

And at some point, you also put in a flexible working request and then in your last update, you said:
but on the last day, was rejected so I was asked to resign.
Did they actually say they were asking you to resign - as in, use those exact words?

Are you absolutely sure they did not accept your second resignation? As it's unclear how you otherwise reached a date that both you and they seem to have understood to be your last day.
Or are you saying that you didn't know it was going to be your last day until they asked you to resign?

(They may well have had statutory grounds for rejecting your flexible working request, by the way, but it is unclear from what you've said)

Regardless, resignation doesn’t have to be accepted. If OP resigned, she resigned and they can’t stop her from leaving g in line with the required notice!

There’s nothing you can do Im afraid. You have less than 2 years service so
very few employment rights.

What have your trade union representatives said? They should be able to support you with this.

I think you need to write a very clear timeline of events. Bullet points of one or two sentences with dates.

Then if you are in a union phone the union, if you aren’t then ring ACAS and talk it through with them.

It sounds to me like you would have a case for constructive dismissal and possibly automatic unfair dismissal on the grounds of retaliation for the flexible working request, but the info in your OP isn’t super clear.

Not true. It’s changed to 6 months

I totally agree with you @ItTook9Years ... which is why I first asked if she had actually rescinded her resignation(s).

And then in OP's update they seem to have asked her to resign on what was apparently her last day anyway.

But I may have got things in the wrong order.

You are just proving what everyone knows.
There is too much money spent on office staff who are ineffective - you have now found out for yourself

It doesn’t take affect until January 2027.

Current rules still apply until then.

I think for you to get strategic answers, more detail is required and specifically timeframes.

Have you kept a diary of all these incidents?

Have you got copies of emails etc?

How long ago was your last day of work?

My advice would be: Look for other employment, contact your Trades Union representative if applicable and contact ACAS.

No-one should be treated as you have been.

Your Trust will have a Speak Up Guardian (+ Champions) - I would reach out to them in the first instance. Best of luck