Disciplinary advice? Done nothing wrong by their own admiss
Discussion
I work in a manual position as part of a team of seven. There is a range of personality types and one person who joined recently has failed to gel with the team and regularly gets a strop on (Person A). He's had run-ins with every other member of the team.
Several weeks ago this person lost control of a forklift and came close to colliding with a pedestrian (Person B, an acting supervisor). I witnessed it. Around the same time, the same two people had a confrontation in which Person A became very aggressive using foul language as he had been caught in a lie by Person B. I also witnessed this along with the rest of the team.
Cue two separate investigations in which we all gave statements.
Outcome -
Person A receives disciplinary.
Person B is stripped of supervisory role which was not contractual, but there is written record of it's existence.
The manager (inexperienced) is disciplined for failing to act on these and other matters. HR showed a great interest when they found that I had not had a personal review for two years, and I later found the the manager has almost lost his job over these issues and is now back on probation.
Almost all team members (including myself) are notified that any and all banter must stop. Although we all agree that some people have been known to go a bit too far, the warning we received was one of absolute zero-tolerance - any person heard saying anything that may cause offence, will be sacked as gross misconduct. We were given no indication of where the line is but are well aware that nowadays almost anything can be considered to be harassment or bullying. Now we're all walking on eggshells obviously, morale is at an all-time low and new divisions are already forming in the team.
Today Person A had his disciplinary in which he was issued with a final written warning (he has had previous warnings due to poor performance and attitude to others). He apparently made a complaint about a passage in my statement, where in response to a direct question from HR, I stated two facts about the person which apparently offended him. They are facts nonetheless and HR agree that I am not at fault, although they think I could have been more tactful.
I have been instructed by an independant manager to apologise to him and when I refused I was asked to approach him and explain that I didn't mean it as an attack. I have spoken to HR and they say that he was just reacting to his disciplinary by lashing out, but they still want me to speak to him in order to "help our relationship". I couldn't care less about that, but didn't mention this... I mentioned that I have tried saying hello to him a couple of times this week and been met with nothing more than grunts, and today when I waited to see if he said hello to me, I was completely blanked. They offered to make it more formal and I said I'd consider it over the weekend as I feel that I've done nothing wrong. At the same time, I asked if any complaint had been made against me specifically regarding the aforementioned offensive conduct, and was informed that I was not one of the accused.
I have now also received a letter reiterating their position that our conduct is unnaceptable and that any further breaches will be dealt with by sacking people. This is fair enough but we have not received any warning prior to being told that we're all a hair's breadth from the dole queue. The letter I received was fairly general but I know that Person B's letter was different to mine and another person received no letter, which indicates that certain of us are being targeted.
It seems clear to me that the company has not followed the ACAS Code of Practice and although this is all "informal and not on record" I am still not happy with the threats or the absense of investigation and a chance to present our own sides of the story. The supervisor is crushed because he really wanted to go up, not down.
I wonder if there is any advice to be had on this? (Apart from the obvious "Suck it up!") It appears that HR and Management are both attacking the problem in different ways. The fact that the inexperienced manager with his head on the chopping block is the nephew of the General Manager and the son of the Facilities Manager may have some bearing.
Several weeks ago this person lost control of a forklift and came close to colliding with a pedestrian (Person B, an acting supervisor). I witnessed it. Around the same time, the same two people had a confrontation in which Person A became very aggressive using foul language as he had been caught in a lie by Person B. I also witnessed this along with the rest of the team.
Cue two separate investigations in which we all gave statements.
Outcome -
Person A receives disciplinary.
Person B is stripped of supervisory role which was not contractual, but there is written record of it's existence.
The manager (inexperienced) is disciplined for failing to act on these and other matters. HR showed a great interest when they found that I had not had a personal review for two years, and I later found the the manager has almost lost his job over these issues and is now back on probation.
Almost all team members (including myself) are notified that any and all banter must stop. Although we all agree that some people have been known to go a bit too far, the warning we received was one of absolute zero-tolerance - any person heard saying anything that may cause offence, will be sacked as gross misconduct. We were given no indication of where the line is but are well aware that nowadays almost anything can be considered to be harassment or bullying. Now we're all walking on eggshells obviously, morale is at an all-time low and new divisions are already forming in the team.
Today Person A had his disciplinary in which he was issued with a final written warning (he has had previous warnings due to poor performance and attitude to others). He apparently made a complaint about a passage in my statement, where in response to a direct question from HR, I stated two facts about the person which apparently offended him. They are facts nonetheless and HR agree that I am not at fault, although they think I could have been more tactful.
I have been instructed by an independant manager to apologise to him and when I refused I was asked to approach him and explain that I didn't mean it as an attack. I have spoken to HR and they say that he was just reacting to his disciplinary by lashing out, but they still want me to speak to him in order to "help our relationship". I couldn't care less about that, but didn't mention this... I mentioned that I have tried saying hello to him a couple of times this week and been met with nothing more than grunts, and today when I waited to see if he said hello to me, I was completely blanked. They offered to make it more formal and I said I'd consider it over the weekend as I feel that I've done nothing wrong. At the same time, I asked if any complaint had been made against me specifically regarding the aforementioned offensive conduct, and was informed that I was not one of the accused.
I have now also received a letter reiterating their position that our conduct is unnaceptable and that any further breaches will be dealt with by sacking people. This is fair enough but we have not received any warning prior to being told that we're all a hair's breadth from the dole queue. The letter I received was fairly general but I know that Person B's letter was different to mine and another person received no letter, which indicates that certain of us are being targeted.
It seems clear to me that the company has not followed the ACAS Code of Practice and although this is all "informal and not on record" I am still not happy with the threats or the absense of investigation and a chance to present our own sides of the story. The supervisor is crushed because he really wanted to go up, not down.
I wonder if there is any advice to be had on this? (Apart from the obvious "Suck it up!") It appears that HR and Management are both attacking the problem in different ways. The fact that the inexperienced manager with his head on the chopping block is the nephew of the General Manager and the son of the Facilities Manager may have some bearing.
t, go up and say sorry to him to get hr off ur back, you can explain it is just a word and should be taken at face valueGassing Station | Jobs & Employment Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff