Bullied at work, resigned, told to leave a week later

Did you resign before you were told to leave work?

As a former union rep who went through something very similar in a previous role, you generally have to be a member before the situation started - they can't represent you retroactively.

I looked st some of the tribunal decisions concerning autism and other conditions and it is evident that the courts are not in favour of the claimant. 

Thank you for this excellent post explaining the legalese behind a situation like mine. I will refer to this for future employment to know exactly what I'm dealing with in case this awful situation repeats itself somewhere else. I will look into joining a union also. Thank you.

Yes this all happened to me as well. Ignoring, undermining, gossip, ostracisation, being left out of social and work related updates, told I was being paranoid, constantly changing goal posts, three managerial changes and moving my seating position in the office at least 9 times in the space of a year. Passive aggressive playground stuff. My natural instinct is still to hope they will have some horrific personal accidents in their lives but I have to move past that.

Hi, thanks for the links and advice. I will look into these avenues but ultimately if I get paid for the notice period I otherwise would have worked, I will try to cognitively and emotionally move past the whole ordeal. If I don't get paid, I will take it further.

Hi Robert, yeah I had to take sick leave as well. I resigned a few months  after my 6 month probation. I was told to leave less than a fortnight later

Hi Tom. I am going to look into joining a union. I've also decided to try and look at the situation differently and defuse my anger towards it. I would prefer it to be a benign memory that doesn't trigger anger and urges for retaliation. I need to find a way of letting it go. I don't really know how to do that yet.

Constructive dismissal is very, very rarely successful in an employment tribunal, whatever your rights may appear to be.

It is a little unclear to me whether you actually resigned or was dismissed.  Did you actually resign before being told to leave?

Once you have resigned from work, the employer may choose to simply pay you what you would have earned during to notice period.  In this case I would think that you would not get anywhere with this claim as it seems that is what your employer has done.

The following is my view (as a trained Union representative) and someone who is going through a process at the moment.

A tribunal would have expected you to go through the employers grievance procedure and then the appeal for this if you were unsuccessful.  To go to an employment tribunal you have several hoops to jump - Early Conciliation, application for tribunal, tribunal, employment tribunal in addition to grievance and grievance appeal which may be going on concurrent with the tribunal procedures.  You also have time limits - for the Early Concilliation you have to lodge the case within three months less one day. Then if it isn't resolved you have to lodge with the employment tribunal your case within a month of the concilliation certificate being issued.  These are inflexible time limits.

'Bullying' unfortunately is not a reason  that the employment tribunal would be interested in.  'Harassment' is, and there are defined behaviours which are classed as 'harrassment', and would need to be unwarranted behaviour based on your protected characteristic - which I am thinking in this case would be you being autistc.  Your employer will deny they have failed to properly investigate this of course and make out that any behaviour was minor or not proveable, and that they have operated in a correct manner in their investigations.

However cast-iron your case seems to be, the law, a tribunal, or a court can take another view.  You would in all probability be 'offered' a sum of money to quietly drop your case.  You have also a problem if you have been working less than two years for your employer as your employer can dismiss you without giving a reason, and merely saying it hasn't worked out and denying any discrimination.

Unfortunately about ninety percent of tribunal cases are either unsuccessful or are withdrawn (which usually means settled out of court) before any tribunal case.  And courts and tribunals do not take kindly to 'reasonable' offers being refused (however unreasonable they may seem) in order to 'have a day in court'.  And even if successful sums of money awarded can be quite low, although there is in theory 'unlimited' damages that can be awarded for discrimination. 

For legal advice and assistance alone (Union Members have legal help through their union solicitors via their union) I would urge anyone especially with any disability to join a union.  Trying to go through the procedure under any circumstances is very stressful, and more so without proper support.

You can look up some cases on the employment tribunal website, searching for ones that may be relevant to your case:

https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions?tribunal_decision_categories%5B%5D=disability-discrimination

(this will require a lot of trawling through the cases as many are 'withdrawn' which can mean anything from not turning up to being settled 'out of court'.)

Bullying can take many forms, too, and not often be so obvious.  Ignoring you.  Passive-aggressive comments.  That kind of stuff.

Thank you for reaching out to the community. Although I’m not aware of all the facts, Constructive Dismissal could be a possibility. However, It is a technical path and is best assisted with good legal advice. Other contributors have rightly pointed to some of the thresholds and help available but I would just add:

https://www.gov.uk/dismissal/unfair-and-constructive-dismissal 

http://m.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=6537 

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/leaving-a-job/dismissal/claiming-constructive-dismissal/ 

I would just add that bullying in the workplace is far too commonplace. The effect on the Austitic community is normally more damaging. Should any of the bullying you received be due to Aspergers, this could be classified as Harrasment as defined by the Equality Act 2010. Legal assistance should be able to clairify

I also fully sympathize and understand your situation because I went through something similar very recently in a new job.

I was bullied and shouted at by the management and also went on sick leave for a month.

Then a form of constructive dismissal was used on me to get rid of me within the 6 month probationary period where I had fewer employment rights.

Thanks Tom. I intend to reply to this properly and in depth tomorrow'. Thank you for your advice and kind words.

Hi AsperWoman,

I sympathise with you.  Something similar happened to me back in 1998.  I took a new job and was bullied horribly by the only other woman to share the office with me.  I did the job well, and had to learn it quickly, but she blamed me for everything that went wrong.  She used to come in and shout at me over things that were nothing to do with me.  Finally, I spoke to her calmly about it - but she dismissed my claims.  So I went sick, and I reported her.  When I returned to work - after 3 months - they moved me to another department.  Things were  okay for a while.  Then someone went sick in my old department, and I was deputed there - which meant working with this woman again.  I complained - but my complaints were ignored.  I had to do what I was told.  So... I left.

Basically, they'd closed ranks around this woman because she'd worked there for years, and was therefore of more value to them.  After I left, I found out she was actually hated by many people, and had bullied others.  But she was connected to the right people.

What happened to me was essentially 'constructive dismissal'.  But I wasn't in a union, and I had no grounds for come-back.  To be honest, though, I was just glad to be away from there.

My only advice, in this situation, is ... move on.  I'm sorry.  That's probably not very helpful.  But, for me at that time, it was the only thing I could do.  And it didn't hold me back.  I managed to get another job soon afterwards.  And I haven't had those kinds of problems since.

Are you in a union?  If not, check out your rights independently.  Contact ACAS and explain what's happened.

Ultimately, though... you may just have to do what I did:  bite the bullet and move on.

Take care.

Tom