Work . . . Continued

[Tally]

I have to work with a really nasty man. He has been there 4 weeks now, and I was off for the first week and a half. Every day I tell the manager what he has done the previous night, and every day the manager says things like, "it's unacceptable," and "if he carries on like this he won't be working here much longer," and then does absolutely nothing.

 

After 4 weeks they could have given him numerous warnings and dealt with breeches of those warnings, but they have done absolutely nothing.

 

The latest plan was to send him to work on the Grocery department. I was relieved to be rid of him, even though I didn't think it was fair on other people. But it hasn't happened anyway. Yesterday a manager said it was going to happen because they can only take action if he upsets them as well. He has already upset all 5 of us but they can't take any action until he upsets people on Grocery. I don't understand why Grocery staff's feelings matter more than my department's. And if he has already upset 5 people, why give him the opportunity to upset even more? And in the meantime, they are doing absolutely nothing to protect us from him.

 

He keeps working the 2nd delivery as soon as it comes in the door, even if he hasn't finished what he was doing before. We aren't supposed to work the 2nd delivery unless we run out of things to do, but we are supposed to do all of the 1st. He refuses to speak to any of the women on the department, and instead pulls our colleague out of Frozen if he has a question. Sometimes he asks for instructions from him, but as he doesn't know what we are doing he sometimes gives the wrong instruction. I keep telling him it isn't our job, and we have to finish our job before we start on other people's, but he says, "I was told to do this," storms off and does it anyway. If I tell him there's still stock left out and he needs to put that away before starting something else, he says, "I was told to do this," storms off in a tantrum, and although he does eventually deal with it, he does it again the next day. If I tell him he needs to put the stock away on the shelves, he says, "I was told to do this," storms off and does it, but leaves it again the next day. The thing is, if you go to someone on another department and only tell them half the story, they are bound to tell you the wrong thing. Freezer Boy has now agreed to say that he doesn't know as he is working Frozen today, which will eliminate the "I was told to do this," but the temper tantrums, storming off and ignoring predate this anyway.

 

Last night he took two hours to do a very small job. When I told my manager he said he didn't care and I should just ignore it. How can I ignore it when I have to work twice as hard to get everything done because someone is working deliberately slow and then goes and does the wrong thing afterwards? I don't think a new starter on their probationary period should be getting special allowances to behave like this.

 

There is one reason why he could be better in Grocery if it's handled correctly. Each person works one aisle, so he cannot go behind their back and ask numerous people for instruction until he gets one he likes, as he will be working with only one person. He should be working with a manager really, but I can't see that happening.

 

I don't know what more I can do. My mum says to talk to a manager, but I have talked to my department manager, the day department manager, personnel manager and all the store managers. They all agree it's unacceptable, but none of them ever actually do anything. I don't know why they keep employing nasty vicious bullies, but I can't stay there if that is how it is going to be now.

[warrenpenalver]

keep a journal of all the nasty comments and unacceptable behaviour he does. do you belong to a union?? maybe go via the union and bring up a grievance or similar. youve got him on discrimination against woman, ie being sexist. thats got to be dismissable offence just to start with.

 

definitely seek advice from a union if you have one. Im not sure if retail has unions but id guess so.

[pearl]

How can I ignore it when I have to work twice as hard to get everything done because someone is working deliberately slow and then goes and does the wrong thing afterwards?

 

Theres a lot in your post Tally but that one jumped out at me. If you work twice as hard because he is being deliberately slow, you are enabling him to behave that way. What you do is, you work at your normal pace, then when questions are asked about why work is not done, you spill.

 

I am in a similar situation, not through a colleague, but through a restructure which has prevented us from completing our work each day. Its REALLY hard if you are conscientious & care about your work, but we are all supporting each other in working at the same pace as before but leaving stuff incomplete rather than stay late to finish, & accrue flexi we can never take because we are so short staffed.

 

Its only when you "allow" this to happen, & cracks start to show up, & management start getting grief, that anything will change. You are doing what you can, don't make yourself ill doing someone else's work. <'>

[fiorelli]

Tally, have you gone to your personnel manager? If you have been to your line manager and raised your concerns and nothing has been done about it, then your personnel manager would be the next point of call, then store manager, and failing that, the Main Human Resources people at Head Office.

 

As Warren pointed out, keep a diary of what he has said, what he has done, what has upset you and how, and date and time (if possible, rough times would be fine), you can then show this/photocopy it and send to HR.

 

 

Look at the grievance procedure and follow what that says, and if you still get no joy, contact citizens advice. You shouldn't have to put up with people being nasty in the workplace, and there are laws in place to prevent that.

 

(Oh, and I agree with Pearl, just do your job, and no more. I know how difficult that may be - I used to work in a supermarket myself - but unless he is shown to not be pulling his weight/the job isn't getting done, then the managers are less likely to do anything about it.)

[Tally]

I started keeping a record, but when they said he was moving to Grocery last week I threw it away because I thought I didn't need it any more. It didn't occur to me that it was a complete lie. I have been telling the manager every morning though, so they should be able to confirm that they were kept updated on things, but I don't know whether they actually would.

 

The union rep is out ever since she heard me saying she looked like a monkey. (Whoops!) Well, I never lied her much before that either.

 

We do have a whistleblowing telephone number, but it's really for reporting problems that you can't raise with a manager because it is about the manager. And I don't have anything concrete to say other than he works slow, goes to the wrong people and is rude, all of which he can claim he does because he is new and no one told him otherwise.

 

I tried not covering for him, but as I am about to go home they just gave me a list of jobs to do, so it was easier to just do it and go home on time. He leaves earlier than us because he has to catch the bus, so it only becomes apparent when the rest of us are about to leave.

[Tally]

There might be good news . . .

 

He has been to Personnel to complain that his back can't take the heavy lifting.

 

This is obviously nonsense because when given the choice between yoghurts (light) and butter (heavy), he chose butter, and chose juice (heavy) over sliced meats (light).

 

But if he says his back hurts, they have to act on it, and he will have to be taken off the department on his next shift

 

So we believe the real reason he wants to change departments is because he has realised that no one likes him. And unless he develops a new personality in the next few hours, he is going to come across the same problem there, and eventually leave altogether.

 

The only thing is, we have to swap him for two other new starters on Grocery. Although they both actually appear to possess a brain, it's yet more new people that I really don't have the strength for right now.

[alanm]

Hi, really feel for anyone working with such really nasty people, can't give you any advice as such but just posting to let you know I empathise.

 

Where I was in January, there was this very nasty manager, she KNEW I HAD AS, yet still got the accountant below her who took me on to make me receive phone calls from irate suppliers. My contract was finished early and while a pain to be out of work, I still felt relief at being away from such a low life manager. Speaking to a recruitment agency guy he said he had heard her name being "bandied about with choice words that weren't very complimentary."

 

Good luck, hope it gets better soon,

 

Alan

[Tenhands]

I hope things improve for you, we have enough trouble coping and even managing to do a job. Well done for still going to work, despite all the problems.

 

Best Wishes

Tenhands

Edited May 2, 2008 by Tenhands

[Tally]

Oh, another lie. He is still on my department

 

He has told people that he spent 3 years in hospital and once caused �5000 worth of damage in an uncontrollable rage before 6 male nurses were able to restrain him. He is always saying how he punched his nephew because he has ADHD. It's really intimidating and quite frankly, I am scared to go to work with someone who feels that learning disability is reasonable justification for punching someone.

 

I tried to talk to the store manager this morning to say that I was upset that I was left last weekend to work on my own with 4 new starters, and I've just heard that the same thing was happening this weekend, and I would appreciate some support because I am finding it hard to cope with. I said I was finding one of them particularly hard to cope with, and all the managers had said they were going to sort something out, and I felt let down that nothing had been done yet. He said no one had mentioned any issues with any of the new starters at all (although my supervisor has said several times that she told him things). I said again that I can't cope with the situation as it is, and he got really defensive and started asking, "well, what do you want me to do about it?"

 

I said I don't think it's my place to decide what action should be taken, but that I was very unhappy and frightened by the current situation, I can't cope with it, and it is intolerable, and that I don't think staff should be supported in this kind of behaviour. I think he wanted to me say, "sack him," so that he could tell me I was being unreasonable and then not have to do anything.

 

I said how he is going to someone on another department for instruction.

 

I told him the constant talk of violence is intimidating, and he said that they can't do anything until (not unless) he hits me. I didn't think of it at the time, but I want to suggest that, with his recent admission (about the hospital incident) of severe anger management issues, maybe it would be useful to contact his previous employer to ask how they avoided his triggers.

 

Unfortunately though, I appear to have turned every single manager against me. He could have said, "I'll look into it," without committing himself to anything, but he got so defensive and made it very clear he intends to do absolutely nothing at all. It's complete rubbish that no one had told him anything. If his management team are not telling him anything, he needs to raise that with them and not me.

 

His advice was to "stop worrying about it."

[Tally]

After the manager was so nasty, I felt like I was going to have to leave. I couldn't see any other choice. I can't cope with these nasty people they keep employing, the first was a major trigger that led to me taking 2 weeks off sick, and I returned to be faced with the second. When I speak out about it to managers, they do nothing, and the Store Manager told me he intends to take no action.

 

I couldn't sleep at all on Saturday. In the end I went into work to speak to the Personnel Manager. I wasn't hopeful, but I decided I couldn't make things any worse for myself, so I may as well give it a try. The Store Manager's account of our conversation to him had been completely different to how it really happened, but he did actually take what I said seriously, even though he was so stand-offish about it with me.

 

The Store Manager spoke to him, and he can't have come up with any kind of justification or counter-allegation, because the Night Manager was asked to forcibly remove him from the building if there were any problems He still refused to speak to any of us, and still went off and did the wrong thing without checking, but he didn't throw any tantrums or gob off about people he'd thumped, but it's only a matter of time because he simply cannot control his temper.