Work Disciplinary

RumbleBee

RumbleBee

RumbleBee

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Work Disciplinary (Updated with Outcome)

I wonder if anyone can offer any advice regarding my wife's (Sarah) Work Disciplinary.

My wife received notification of a disciplinary she has to attend tomorrow morning with the managing director and immediate manager. Immediate manager is making the accusations. This is following a day’s sickness where she was in agony and desperately needed to see a doctor.

She phoned in sick and was told by her manager ‘I am very disappointed in you’ Sarah started crying on the phone explaining that she was in agony and needed to see a doctor immediately. Her mouth had become all swollen and the painkillers were not working and so she return to work the next day still in agony in fear of her manager. Basically she was bullied into not taking any further sickness.

Returning to work the surprise letter states four accusations that are 100% not true. She has now written her account of these four accusations, none of which relate to the sickness. Sarah believes this is just an excuse because of the sickness.

She has a record of ‘well done’ messages from this same manager. This very manger who has bullied her for a few months in a few different ways, all of which she has written down.

Unfortunately she is not in a union and so must fend for herself. She will take someone with her to the meeting.

The managing director who she will meet tomorrow has recently taken over the company and does not really know either party involved. Maybe this is an excuse to cut costs and lay off staff, but Sarah will not accepot this disciplanary, denying everything said about her on the leter. She has done nothing wrong and feels she is being bullied.

Any advice regarding this sort of thing.
 
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Here are the four things

1) General perfomance and approach to daily workload.
Sarah works beyond her call of duty covering colleagues roles day in, day out.

2) The level of admin processing is below standard.
This is not true. Sarah has written down her daily workload whch she meets 100%.

3) The maintenance of stock level database that you are responsible for requires reguler updating which you are not maximising.
As above she has written down her daily workload which shows she does as required.

4) Level of personal internt usage during company time
Sarah is the only person in the room who does not have time for personal internet use and will refer the MD to her internet history which has not been cleared.

Just to add to this she was lead to believe by her doctor she may need surgery on if her anti-biotics do not work. She has been in the worst pain I've ever seen all week barely sleeping dragging herself into work practially overdosing on painkillers. Thankfully this has been resolved today during her dinnertime. Seems it was problems with a wisdom tooth that the dentist has now removed. She returened to work after dinnertime with a bloody mouth in fear of taking further sickness.
 
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Sounds like she has already taken the right approach. She has a paper and electronic record which disputes the clams made against her.
 
when was she notified? is it an actual discipinary hearing or just an investigation meeting? if it's a hearing, have they given reasonable notice and provided copies of the relevant evidence? how long has she worked there

sounds dodgy to me, but more info would help
 
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Dolph said:
when was she notified? is it an actual discipinary hearing or just an investigation meeting? if it's a hearing, have they given reasonable notice and provided copies of the relevant evidence? is your wife a member of a union or does she have a colleague to take as an employee rep?

sounds dodgy to me, but more info would help
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She was notifiied at 5pm this evening, to meet tomorrow at 9am.

She managed to get out of the MD, that the accusation was made 5 minutes after she phoned in sick.

The letter states this is a 'Disciplinary meeting'.

Sarah has written all past accounts of when she felt bullied by this loud mouth manager. She is a flexible person that works well with everyone and as much as she hated this manager. (me being her husband hears this stuff week in week out) she always displays a proffesional attiitude and does her job to the best of her ability.
 
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Get a letter signed by the doctor if possible in the time, maybe get them to call the doctor. Explain that you should have had more time to recover. If they take even the slightest disciplinary action, hand in your notice.
 
RumbleBee said:
She was notifiied at 5pm this evening, to meet tomorrow at 9am.

She managed to get out of the MD, that the accusation was made 5 minutes after she phoned in sick.

The letter states this is a 'Disciplinary meeting'.

Sarah has written all past accounts of when she felt bullied by this loud mouth manager. She is a flexible person that works well with everyone and as much as she hated this manager. (me being her husband hears this stuff week in week out) she always displays a proffesional attiitude and does her job to the best of her ability.
Click to expand...

Make sure you document everything for what could possibly turn into an unfair dismissal claim - she should try and save a copy of her internet history somehow for example. Having a paper trail you can turn to can be invaluable.

They've not given much warning of the meeting either which is naughty.
 
That most certainly doesn't sound like a reasonable timescale to me, more like five to seven days notice for an actual discipinary meeting is generally considered reasonable. head over to direct.gov and read the info there for a start.
(can't easily link as posting frm phone).
 
oh no dont hand in your notice, take them to tribunal, there has been no notice period, also you dont have to be in a union to have councel come in with you. sounds like pure bullying to me. im a trade union rep and this smacks of lots of wrong doing!
 
What was the timescale between your wife phoning in sick and receiving the letter?

If it's reached the Disciplinary stage surely someone outwith the MD and manager would've had to act as investigating officer re the accusations.
 
These are a complete pita for all concerned including her manager and the MD

Make sure she takes somebody with her to the meeting - try and get someone more senior than your wife - I'd recommend a senior manager in HR (unless she works in the HR dept!), even if she's had very little prior contact with them. They know the ropes and depending on what sort of organisation she works in, can give an impartial and professional response (a friend/close colleague probably won't be able to provide this.) It also gets HR involved, if they are not already, and they'll be in a position to afterwards tell your wife's boss and MD whether they think they have a leg to stand on. If you work it slyly enough, you can feed them false info that will be informally reported back to the boss & MD.

This meeting will essentially be for the boss to set out a case against your wife and they will be looking to elicit some response. Your wife should concentrate on getting details specific instances/allegations - it's no use saying she uses the internet too much - she wants to be asking when/what time/how was this monitored/have you monitored others to see if my useage is unusual. In my limited experience, if a manager has it in for an employee, the allegations tend to relate to a few specific instances that have been overblown into vaguer and more non-specific, broader allegations. Details, details, details are what you want. If they can't provide them, they don't have a case and she can tell them so. If they can provide a lot of specifics, you wife needs to repsond positively to what's said (but not admit anything!) eg. if they think she's using the internet too much, ask to have her access cut - uit's a positive reponse that 100% solves the problem (and future allegations)

Just reading point 1 - that's toss ask for specifics and lots of instances

Point 2 - ok, why hasn't this been brought to her attention before - is it a recent thing - what are the specifics - she needs to say how she is going to address them

Point 3 - in what way is she not maximising - all sounds a bit vague to me - get specifics - ask the manager how he thinks it could have been done better - and don't take a vague answer - would the boss's suggestions have made a material difference. If she thinks it's a wobbly answer she needs to tell them

Stay calm (never treat this as a personal attack or else she'll get her knickers in a twist and won't present herself effectively)

Take lots and lots and lots of notes - check them "So you are saying that X happened at Y o'clock and your witness is Mr A" - make them go back over what they have said so there's no room for misunderstanding - you can really skewer them if they are unprepared or are just out to bully you. Make them doubt themselves

After the meeting, she needs to discuss it with the person she took - it's very difficult to get proper perspective when you are the one under attack

OMG - I've just read the 5pm today and the 9am tomorrow piece - this sounds well out of order - I''d seriously consider throwing a sickie, going to the doctors and getting a note for a few days. She should phone in sick tomorrow specifically stating stress as the reason, and ask for a copy of the company's sick policy and disciplinary policy to be sent to her. They can hardly hold a disciplinary meeting if she hasn't has adequate time to prepare or familiarise themselves with policy
 
Pipe & Slippers said:
OMG - I've just read the 5pm today and the 9am tomorrow piece - this sounds well out of order - I''d seriously consider throwing a sickie, going to the doctors and getting a note for a few days. She should phone in sick tomorrow specifically stating stress as the reason, and ask for a copy of the company's sick policy and disciplinary policy to be sent to her. They can hardly hold a disciplinary meeting if she hasn't has adequate time to prepare or familiarise themselves with policy
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Should what the OP is saying be 100% fact then please, please take this advice, with the excepton of 'few days' being at least 2 weeks.

Cite the recent pain she has been suffering in combination with the high levels of stress from the unfair and unsubstantiated claims made by the aforementioned manager as the reason.

Play the ******* at their own game.
 
What type of company is this? Sounds like a SME run by a complete knob IMO, and I've seen small companies in big trouble after throwing accusations around like this. I'd be shocked if this was a larger company.
 
Indeed it is 100% fact and yes this as well as her poorly mouth has caused more stress than I've seen in her since I met her 15 years ago.

She's not convinced about the taking further sick leave though. She's quite determind to speak her mind at this meeting. Would you honestly believe this to be the best advice. I'd love for her to do this and get some propper medication and care for the stress she has been put under, but she's quite focused on tomorrow's events now.

Assuming she did take futher sick leave can they legally do anything on the assumtion she is 'skiving' or just avoiding the accusations?. Will a doctors note cover this?

I assume if she provides a doctors note this will cause great anger and frustration to her manager and will make things worse and they will get sneaky and nark them all off doing herself no favours.

Just to confirm this is a small company with no official HR department she is aware of. It's just admin staff and factory workers. I'll ask her to check the structure of the company if this helps, but so little time to prepare so no doubt it's all gonna happen tomorrow.

I really appreciate the advice given. It's very helpful to be able to post here.

She now wants to look for another job but does not want to be unemployed in the meantime.
 
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Sounds like the 'Immediate manager' wants to get rid of her for personal reasons or the company are wanting to cut back on staff and brought up these four points. As others have pointed out, the notice given for the disciplinary hearing is far too short, 5 working days we're recommended by ACAS when i was invloved in HR a few years ago, under 12hours notice is just silly and would be held against the company if it came to a tribunal.

Looking at the worst possible outcome, if these 4 points have not been brought up in documented evidence prior to this hearing, to sack someone because of them wouldn't stand up well in a tribunal. If the points we're true (not saying they are :)), the company should have brought them up with her in the form of a verbal warning, or even just informal chat, to go straight to a sacking would require a situation of gross misconduct, which the above points are not. So try not to worry

Some great advice in above posts, probably a good idea to refresh your mind on them tommorow morning if you decide to go, id personally request it be delayed for such a reasonable time and get further advice from a union.
Good luck ;)
 
go in grab her boss by the nuts and squeeze whilst maintaining eye contact.

Unless the boss is a woman in which case... good luck. Women bosses can be a nightmare.

Sounds like the boss has been told to get rid of someone and is doing it Alan Partridge style http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efK_BvZAYL0
 
I'd avoid the sickness, but ask for a reasonable time to prepare for the meeting. if they refuse, make sure to appeal the outcome on that basis
(plus whatever else they screw up
)

it does sound like the company is trying to use a disciplinary to punish sickness, which is pretty low. ti the point where if she has the service length, it might be worth talking to the cab about constructive or unfair dismissal
 
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