After 2 weeks off work enjoying a well earned (I think) bit of relaxation and sunshine, I had hoped to break myself in gently today.
No such luck unfortunately. Apart from the 312 emails that I came back in to, within 2 hours I found myself taking a very serious complaint from an employee.
The employee has alleged that his manager has being bullying him for the last 2 years, and is now at a stage where he can no longer work for him.
Sitting there, taking down all the details, it became quite clear that this is an exceptional messy situation, one with potentially very serious consequences for the manager and possibly even the company.
Obviously a full investigation has been launched, but my gut instinct tells me that this isn't a malicious claim and is very genuine. This has surprised me somewhat given that I personally have no time for the complainant, but nobody deserves to face bullying in any form and I'll be doing my utmost to bring the case to a swift, fair and satisfactory conclusion.
Watch this space...
Why is this just coming out now? Why hasn't the employee complained in the past two years?
Time for you to cosider the real impact of the prejudice you have - cf "I personally have no time for the complainant".
Well done for recognising and acknowledging your thoughts about this person.
H
Apparently the department head had been made aware of the issue by the individual some time ago, and has made several promises to deal with the situation, which obviously hasn't happened to the complainants satisfaction. We (HR) would much rather have found out about this a long time ago, as we would have put an end to things before they went to far, but unfortunately it's not a perfect world, especially here! Quite why no one has mentioned it to us before now is a mystery, perhaps it might become clearer as the investigation goes on.
'B'; I'm not sure I understand your point? The fact that I don't really have anytime for the person doesn't really affect things at all. I very rarely see the person (maybe twice in the past year) as we work in different sections of the business and on different work patterns. On the occassions that I have met them, they seem obnoxious, rude and somewhat arrogant, qualities that I have no problem displaying myself from time to time admittedly. As I said elsewhere in the same blog, my personal view on the person hasn't affected my view of their complaint, which I take to be genuine and will now do everything I can to help the individual, whether I personally like them or not.
"On the occassions that I have met them, they seem obnoxious, rude and somewhat arrogant, qualities that I have no problem displaying myself from time to time admittedly."
ahem, do I need to point out that some people respond to bad behaviour with their own version in order to show you up for what you yourself are doing to them....In HR you really do need to be on your best behaviour at all times...regardless of the provocation...you have the same role effectively as a judge in court...maybe you should choose a judge to mentor you.
Well B, maybe you belong to the rare breed of robot HR employees who are able to be completely devoid of emotion at all times and remain entirely objective (which I don't actually believe anyone, including a judge, can be entirely). Surely the point here is that personal views on an individual shouldn't detract from the serious nature of the case, which it isn't, so what's the problem?