Published on 12, July, 2020
Continuing with my problems at work.
And the incidents that annoy me.
I work as a support worker with people having both physical & mental disabilities who exhibit challenging behaviour.
Last week I got a severe reprimand from a senior support worker for using my smartphone at work. I was checking the weather forecast on the BBC site. A couple of hours later the same support worker was spending hours on her smartphone playing solitaire, while her colleague was on social websites. I hate hypocrisy.
I still haven't been sacked. But I am facing a formal disciplinary hearing in two weeks time, where one option is dismissal.
New charges against me include, that at one meeting I was moving about on a rotating chair playing with it. I was actually stimming while under stress and trying to relax.
My rant about the disciplinary hearing etc.
The work involves shift work. Shifts are typically 7h, 7.5h or 8h without any breaks.
On the day before my hearing I was on the rota to work back to back shifts with no breaks, totalling 14.5h. I queried this with the management explaining that this is unreasonable. They smiled and explained that it was an honest error.
On the day of my actual hearing I was on the rota to work 13h on that day. Again I queried it and again big smiles and it's an error.
And there is no way I can prove whether it's deliberate or human error.
A few months earlier I had made a complaint of workplace bullying against my line manager. She responded by making a list of counter complaints against me.
My employment advisors persuaded me to withdraw my complaint, as an act of good faith and go back to work and try to make a fresh start.
At the actual hearing I discovered that my withdrawal of the bullying complaint was recorded. And my complaints were inadmissible. But she had not withdrawn hers and these stood and we're all repeated. The hearing went downhill there.
And I was fired.
"Recorded"?As in covert sound recording?If so, this is illegal unless you agreed to it.
Not as in sound recording. Just that it was stated that my complaint of bullying was withdrawn by me. With no further explanation given. Then the full details of allegations made against me were presented.
Perhaps you might want to join a union such as Unite just in case you have to face similar issues in the future.It's something I'm seriously considering myself given my past experiences in the workplace.