# workie problem - not IF related



## sallywags (Jun 27, 2005)

Hi guys, I just wondered if anyone had any good ideas how to manage a situation where i work. I have posted on the work issues thread, but obviously not everyone has access to that, so I am keen to see if anyone else has any common sense suggestiongs that might help!

There is an individual here who, basically, makes everyone's life a misery and our management just will not do anything about it.

I encountered her on my first day here over a year ago, and it took me about a week to realise that all the terrible stories she was telling me about everyone in the department were actually more becuase of her than the individuals concerned. She is very rude, manipulative and generally unpleasant to work with, and it hasn't helped recently as she has been temporarily promoted, so she is using the 'power' she has to bully as well.

She is not senior to me and although there is no direct correlation with our positions, if anything i am slightly senior to her - and certainly was before the recent promotion, but not senior enough to deal with this myself. What this means though is that she gives me slightly less grief than everyone else!







I leave soon too, so it doesn't affect me too much - it's easier for me to ignore as i won't have to work with her for too much longer.

However, it is a fairly regular occurence to have members of staff in tears, arguments, and everyone feeling generally upset and uncomfortable at work. There have been several specific events, all of which have been reported, but it is the general unpleasantness of her which is the main problem.

When the problems have been reported, our mangement have actually said that the rest of the department should modify their behaviour in order to 'not give her an excuse to be unpleasant'!!







They have never investigated any of the specific incidents, except on one occasion to have the line manager take the other person who was affected aside and told her that 'if she didn't learn to tolerate people better then she would be responsible for tearing the team apart' !!

We all have modified our behaviour anyway, as you would, because no-one likes an unpleasant environment so we all do what we can to 'keep the peace' -but i absolutely disagree that she should be continually allowed to bully, be unpleasant, make personal remarks and generally behave as she pleases, jsut because the management don't want to tackle it. Conversely, someone discussed this with the line manager yesterday as she had a really tough day with this individual on friday, and he said that she couldn't complain about it as there was not enough evidence - i.e. there wasn't a massive falling out!!

there are several people looking for new jobs, and many diaries etc being kept as evidence. I spoke to the unit E&D advisor, but because I haven't made a formal complaint as such, as I don't feel quite as personally affected as the others, nothing has been done. I just hate to see the atmosphere here, and how so many people are unhappy because of one person.

I am so cross that one person is allowed to continue like this, and furious that the management are just burying their heads and ignoring it. They are desperate not to do anything about it - and I'm not sure what else I can do.

any thoughts?


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## MrsMaguire (May 25, 2009)

Hiya,


It must be an awful environment for you to work in. I really don't know what can be done if the managers aren't going to take it seriously. I would have thought in your line of work they would have been more proactive in tackling things like that as I thought the armed services were really strict on appropriate behaviour and that kind of thing. 


I guess if you're all keeping diaries then I guess you could leave it a month then present the managers with the evidence and take it from there. I think what I'd do in a similar situation is keep escalating it to higher and higher management until its dealt with. I don't know if its an option, but if you could threaten your managers that you're going to escalate it right to the top as its unacceptable. 


I really hope something gets sorted soon. 


xx


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## sallywags (Jun 27, 2005)

thanks hun - although it is a military unit, the department i work in is predominantly civilian - i'm the only uniformed person in it, so it is much harder to deal with.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but i feel i have done my bit and frankly i'll be out of there in a very short time, so maybe i should just let them fight their own battles!!


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## Maisyz (Dec 15, 2010)

Hello, sorry to hear it'snot great. Of course as employers they have a responsibility to take bullying seriously and deal with it so the diary things are great as evidence of what has been going on. Perhaps a different approach may work however (have used this approach in some teams with issues before where ther have been individuals who do not understand the way they interract with others) Basially it needs a day maximum (can do in a lot less if the analyses are done inadvance) Dressed up as a "how we work better together as a team day) it includes essentially psychometric tests of personality type ie if ENFP, INFJ etc, each person does their test, has a feedback sheet on what their personality type may mean, then we usually have a group discusson about how the different personality types may typically interract ie an Extrovert may find an Introvert difficult to deal with as they aren't outgoing but etc.  

There is also a questionnaire on Conflict resolution sequences Red Green Blue questionnaire which is aimed at looking at leaders characteristics and how you deal with conflict etc, it's a really nice little questionnaire to do and the outputs are really good because it allows people to discuss safely that hey maybe the profiles right and tehy do lose their rag a bit quickly etc. The management team might find the troublesome lady concerned easier to talk to in this training and development context than in challenging it directly (though it sounds like me thta they should do this)

So I'd suggest next time concerns are mentioned someone sugests HR are asked to get involved to help run a working together effectively day or tarining session. That way you are making a positive suggestion for improvement (so how can they object), can get HR involved who should say WTF is going on if they do get a whiff of a bully and it might just work as well (I have known it too)

Anyway hope this helps, you will need HR who are psych test trained to do the ENFP tests but they may have new tools that could do the job/ ideas to help. 

Hope all goes well

Maisyz


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## MrsMaguire (May 25, 2009)

Hiya,


I was thinking about this, I remember a situation I was in many years ago which led me to realise that for whatever reason some people will always be more equal than others and get away with their behaviour no matter how bad. 


When I was 18 I got a position at a big corporate company and I was a team manager of about 30 staff in a big call centre function, they really thought the sun shined out of my backside, but due to the location of where I worked and due to my health getting worse I had to leave. I managed to secure a position as Duty Call Centre Manager with another company that used to be quite big. Everyone up to the Managing Director thought I was amazing as I really turned their Call Centre function around and everyone start achieving results. As we were taken over they were keen to add someone from the new company into the management structure, I soon realised that this person was a bit of a trouble maker. Essentially I carried on doing all the work and putting in 60/70 hour weeks and they took the credit for it.

They worked to change things round and make everyone really scared of their jobs, unfortunately the Call Centre didn't really reflect the demographics of the area so she set about making it more multicultural no matter who awful the staff she employed were. It was soon my job to get these people up to scratch. Initially the new manager made a Team Managers life a living hell so she was forced to leave and look for another job. Soon I realised that I was her next focus. This manager must have experienced some difficulties in her career as she thought it was wrong that young white members of staff would be supported to do so well in their careers. I remember getting really upset as the MD was singing my praises at every opportunity, but this manager was making my life a living hell. I got really upset during a management training day and spoke to the HRM but nothing was ever done about it. 


In the end I decided I wasn't going to take anymore and I was going to look for another job, I secured a really good position with another company, but needed to work out my notice, it was so stressful and some issues weren't being addressed so I'd be dealing with screaming customer after screaming customer. I remember deciding just to get signed off with stress. That night the MD came to me again saying how amazing I was for everything I'd done for the company, I remember smiling to myself thinking well this is my last shift and its shocking how little you know about your own company. For some reason when I handed in my sick note with my resignation I got a letter through the post offering me a big pay out in return for me not taking my grievances any further. I had no interest in taking things any further and it was a really generous pay off so I took the money and went. 


My brother in law now works for the same company, eventually they had to deal with this woman as so many people were making complaints, but instead of directly dealing with her and getting her out of the company they decided to promote her upwards so she'd have less to do with the call centre personnel. 

I think it shows that for whatever reason some people are more equal than others and there must be a reason they're reluctant to deal with her. The good thing is everyone is keeping diaries of her behaviour, I think you need to empower your staff to take further action and to keep fighting for a resolution with this. Whether they get rid of her or move her somewhere else so she can't cause as much trouble. 

With you only having just over 4/5 months left, I'd try not to get too wound up about it, if you can try and deal with the woman and let her know that the other staff are unhappy and that she needs to think about her behaviour, hopefully that will get her moving forwards to rectifying any issues people have with her. 


xxx


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