Have you ever been harassed at work by your boss.?

Question

I broke my little finger at a special needs school i work at. It isnt healing after 10 weeks. I want to claim for personal injury. I have been their 12 months. Since then,the headmistress has had countless meetings with me from my C.R.B form, which she says something has arisen which has set alarm bells ringing, to not signing out which she says is a deriliction of duty. I have been residing with a clique of people who are a bad influence, to allowing EBD kids to swear and smoke. All are lies.
I feel like walking away......but I love the job I do because I get really good results.
Should I put up and shut up!!!???.

Answer 1

Ok, I think you up the ante on this.

First step is to submit an immediate grievance against your headmistress for bullying and harassment. There will be an internal policy on this and your union should be able to assist.

You may have to take a hit on 'not signing out' - very trivial but it will be a requirement - but ' I have been residing with a clique of people who are a bad influence ' ? That falls far outwith an employer's remit, disciplinary or otherwise, and is patently inappropriate.

The grievance should probably cite this as a lead example, and seek either withdrawal of other allegations or substantive evidence to support them. If evidence is produced you have a baseline to argue against - if not, they lose. The grievance should also note the 'coincidence' of timing. It depends on very particular detail of the circumstances whether any stronger contention can be made.

Depending on how bright she is, she may retreat at this point. You have a very serious complaint against her if she continues to harass you, as it is likely to be clear that this is due to your submission of a grievance against her.

If she is stupid enough to continue with this behaviour demand that she put any further complaints in writing for your informed consideration and refuse comment until she does so. If she insists on a meeting, you insist upon the presence of an impartial third party note-taker to make a verbatim record of what is said.

It ain't easy but the best way is to play hard ball. It sometimes happens but these things don't tend to get better unless confronted head on with equal strength and knowledge of the law, which I'm guessing is not her strong suit.

If you're concerned that doing something like this might harm your career, I understand that. It does sometimes happen. Far more often though it makes managers incredibly careful around you and that isn't generally a bad thing. Seriously I've had a lot of experience with this kind of thing - it doesn't tend to hurt careers.

Good luck with this - really hope you can turn the tables on this idiot.

Answer 2

Don't shut up. However you should get a book and in it record everything she does every single second of it. Record everything. Communicate with her in writing at all times.If she sends emails make copies. Don't be afraid. If unacceptable things do happen go above her head again in writing. Challenge everything she says with fact every step of the way. It will be hard and it will make you feel like leaving but don't. That's what she wants. Find out your work policy on harassment.Let all trusted colleagues know what's going on. Go to your GP and tell him.You are experiencing harassment because you are rightfully putting in a claim.You need to put all accusations that she has made, in writing to her asking her what is her evidence for these accusations and say too that they are causing you a lot of stress and worry. She'll never stop bullies never do. Don't trust her ever.
Lead her up your path even if you have to play dumb to get her to put stuff in writing.Good Luck.

Answer 3

Your question made me think of my own situation a few years ago. I was employed by a private school and we got a new head who was truly out of her mind and decided when she got there that she wanted about half the staff gone. She began to harass the ones she didn't outright fire right away. I was one of those who got harassed. It was truly a nightmare and I chose to leave. One word of warning though....if you apply to a similar school, they might call her for a reference (even if you don't use her as an official reference) and she may throw you under the bus. That happened to me and I lost out on another job I was highly qualified for. Good luck to you, this is never a good situation!

Answer 4

If you are not already a member of a union join one and get the union officials and the union's legal people to sort it out. This kind of thing is what unions are for - a kind of insurance policy for when things do go wrong.