Would this be considered potential constructive dismissal?

kissenger

kissenger

kissenger

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I'm dealing with a situation at work and I'd really appreciate some advice, because it's new to me and I don't know if I'm in the right or wrong. Without giving away too many specific details, here's the situation:

I work for a university. I recently gave a talk at a conference on an aspect of my job. There was something in that talk that my boss subsequently took to be a criticism of her personally (I was basically giving examples of good and bad practice, and one of the examples of bad practice turned out to be something she had personally worked on, unbeknownst to me at the time). It gets worse though... The person chairing the panel I was on was my boss' boss, and, because of Covid, this was a video conference broadcast online all over the world (not that many people watched, but anybody potentially could have watched)!

A couple of hours after the event I get a really passive aggressive email from her asking me to do something relating to my job and this conference presentation. Red flag number one. Then a day or two later I get another email asking me about my ethics application for this project (everything you do needs ethical clearance these days). Red flag number two. Evidently she had taken it on herself to look into the ethics application (which had been approved about a year beforehand) and, to cut a long story short, after several emails back and forth she did find a minor issue with the application that she's now using to get me to stop working on this project. Red flag number three, which is what got me to write this post, is that she's now using this issue to get me to ask her boss (the guy who chaired the panel I was on) to take down the recording of my talk (it was taken down ages ago anyway, but I don't think she knows that), even going to the length of telling me in an email what to tell this guy, of course none of it mentioning her!

On top of that, ever since, she's acted completely differently towards me, not just in meetings and stuff, but dumping loads of extra work on me and refusing to change when I'm scheduled to be in the office, which she always did in the past, and still does for other members of staff.

Anyway, what do you guys think I should do in this situation? I'm leaning towards just doing what she says for now and moving on in the summer, because if this escalates there's a good chance I won't be able to get a reference off her at all, and I might end up stuck here. Although I could make her life difficult if I told her boss everything that's gone on.
 
You've screwed up by criticising your current employer and your manager. Rule #1 is to never talk about failures at your current employment; you could be deemed to have brought the organisation into disrepute. Talk to her, but start looking for another job.
 
Go above her head, and plan to move. She is never going to drop it and your card is marked like or not. The only out is your leaving or her boss.
 
Quartz said:
You've screwed up by criticising your current employer and your manager. Rule #1 is to never talk about failures at your current employment; you could be deemed to have brought the organisation into disrepute. Talk to her, but start looking for another job.
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I get what you're saying, but bear in mind I was aware that my boss' boss would be there, so I made it very clear that the thing I was criticising wasn't specific to my uni, but to the whole sector. My boss' boss didn't seem to have a problem with the presentation. He even emailed me a few days later with a compliment!

If the problem was that I'd disparaged my employer I think she would have went up the chain, but she's not done that. It seems like she's sort of doing the opposite, because she wants me to stop working on this, but she doesn't want me to talk to her boss about why, or let on that she's unhappy.
 
You need to go to HR immediately. Letting lay any longer will spell disaster. She is acting unethically in what she is asking you to do, and the fact she has put that in writing is immensely helpful.
 
SPG said:
Go above her head, and plan to move. She is never going to drop it and your card is marked like or not. The only out is your leaving or her boss.
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Why go above her head first though? Isn't it better to just play nice and hope she'll still give me a reference (she'll probably just be happy to see me gone at this point). If I go above her head she will have two reasons to be ****** off with me.
 
Luke said:
Have you considered talking to her about it?
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This sounds like a sensible, mature idea; perhaps there is misunderstanding and injured pride involved?

These are almost always a recipe for conflict in any relationship. This does of course assume that there not other undisclosed factors at play here?

It's good to talk ;)
 
She's not going to give you a good reference.

Write a file on all the decisions shes made since that presentation.

Then before you send it, approach her, and mention the presentation. Try and strike up a friendly toned conversation with her and say you've noticed shes changed with you recently since the presentation. See if she brings up the problem she has, if not then you say the problem. Then say it wasn't your intention to show her up as you didn't know you'd said anything wrong until after.

She is obviously trying to put on a friendly face to you in order to get you to take down the presentation. So two can play at that game.

If it all goes south and she becomes a bigger sulky idiot, go over her head to her boss and show him the file or whats been happening. All the while keeping your eyes open for another job if the boss boss decides to keep her over you.
 
dLockers said:
You need to go to HR immediately. Letting lay any longer will spell disaster. She is acting unethically in what she is asking you to do, and the fact she has put that in writing is immensely helpful.
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This really, you want to get a sit down with her and HR to air this out. It'll probably be sorted with a frank but fair conversation.
 
kissenger said:
Why go above her head first though? Isn't it better to just play nice and hope she'll still give me a reference (she'll probably just be happy to see me gone at this point). If I go above her head she will have two reasons to be ****** off with me.
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Can you easily get employed at a better position?
If so, go for it now.
Else follow the proper advice and hit up HR or her boss depending on how the organisation works.
 
Destination said:
Can you easily get employed at a better position?
If so, go for it now.
Else follow the proper advice and hit up HR or her boss depending on how the organisation works.
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I wouldn't quite say 'easily', because jobs in my field are very specialised and therefore somewhat rare, but I most likely will be able to find another one on the same or better pay this summer. In fact I was offered a job about 6 months ago at a higher grade than I'm on now, at a better uni, which I ended up turning down for personal reasons.

My worry with going to HR is that makes it very 'official', and she's been with the organisation a lot longer than me, so they might take her side unless it's 100% clear cut that she's in the wrong. I was thinking of trying to handle it by letting her boss know 'accidentally on purpose' (maybe bringing it up in a meeting about something else).
 
Providing what you've said is factual there isn't anything they can do about it. Keep a diary and evidence such as emails if you're being treated differently to others in the same role as you. I think you need to be employed there for two years or more to be able to bring a case.
 
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I don't understand what you've done OP. You gave a talk and one of the things you used an example of bad practice, was "something that she had worked on personally". What do you mean? Are you saying that an entire piece of work or a project she wrote personally was an example of "bad practice"?

I would not worry about references. That's never a reason to change your natural behaviour as all they tend to be is a statement that yes X worked at Y for duration of Z.
 
You'd have to resign first and be prepared to prove your resignation was caused by your employer’s conduct.

From the gov.uk website:

If you do have a case for constructive dismissal, you should leave your job immediately - your employer may argue that, by staying, you accepted the conduct or treatment.
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