Is this workplace bullying? need help!

[the_fresh]

Hey all

My partner has worked at the same place for about 4 and a half years, she quickly became a manager on her department after about 12 months and since then has been running the ship.
Her supervising manager also happens to be the bosses (business owner) daughter.
Since her bosses daughter got the roll their relationship has been rocky, but most of it is because of the way she treats my partner. Also there is some "you wouldn't get a job anywhere else, you untrained monkey".
Anyway, not last weekend, but the one before they had a staff member leave and was moving back home, my partner and some of the staff went out for drinks, while the bosses daughter didn't get an invite.
She then my partner has been getting pulled up for things that aren't happening.
Last Friday she had a meeting and was given a letter of concern for the following reasons:

1) one of her staff members jokingly said "I can't go down there, I'm scared of XZY" and he laughed. In the meeting it was made out like she was this big scary thing, the staff member has since gone to upper manager about this but was told to take it up with someone else.
2) She told a staff member that he had to stay by the door, which he had to let customers out after hours, he was busy chatting with others.
The bosses daughter said in the meeting that the way she said it in front of customers was rude and brought shame on the business, there were no customers in the area. The bosses daughter was the only other person in the area.

Today she was told that tomorrow she has a 4pm meeting where she would be given a written warning over the way she spoke to the bosses daughter. It was because after being told that the bosses daughter cannot do something because she's busy and has a lot of work, my partner said, yep, of cause you do".
Now no other staff members were around, in the letter today it states that she will be making all calls on it and she cannot talk about it with other staff members.
The bosses daughter is also in charge of issuing her, her $3500 bonus every 3 months, this bonus is earned by getting to work at 7am, leaving well after 6pm most days, never taking lunch and when she was made manager not getting a pay rise.

We need advise because her bosses daughter wants her gone and it seems like she's going to win.

 

[Present Not Past]

The bosses daughter sounds like a real piece of crap - probably because she knows that she is working in "Daddy's" business.
My advice to your partner is to get out - now. Take the experience that she has learnt over the 4 and a half years and go and work for a professional outfit.
With a person like her (daddy's girl) in the business, things will go wrong and she will look for scapegoats. One of those may be your partner. And "Daddy" is not going to want his precious daughter to be made to look bad. That would "bring shame on the business" as you have mentioned.
Get out now while she's on top, before things get really ugly.

 

[BORK]

Start looking for other positions elsewhere. She will likely not win taking on this in a family business(unless she starts sleeping with the business owner) and may do damage to her future prospects if she rocks the boat too hard. It is not just but probably the best outcome.

Also in her time remaining there carry something on her person that records all conversations. Document everything. Helps to have some leverage to gain a good reference if things really do turn ugly.

I would also recommend she do some research in office politics for extra knowledge in future roles. Shitty things can happen to people. I hope your partner moves on and does not dwell on her unjust time at her current employer.

 

[Chief]

Document, document, and also document. Everything.

 

[Niximus]

I'll preface with IANAL (I am not a lawyer for those of you with dirty minds) so you may wish to seek qualified legal advice.

The things to look for to determine if something is bullying are:
1) Is it repeated? - from what you say the answer seems to be yes.
2) Is it unreasonable? - again, yes it seems to be.
3) Does it pose a risk to health and safety? - It pretty well seems to.

If I were you, I'd get straight in touch with the Fair Work Commission https://www.fwc.gov.au/. They will be able to help you with where to go from here.

 

[BORK]

Is the industry this woman works in relatively small? Could word spread if they took it(even if very worthy) to the Fair Work Commission and make them less employable with other businesses in that industry?

 

[Jimmybob]

Life's too short to spend your days where someone makes you feel like s**t. Sure, *talk to fairwork, but also leave for something better, daddy's precious won't be going anywhere soon.

*Sometimes things like fairwork aren't worth the added stresses and it's better to just move on asap and let pieces of s**t be pieces of s**t.

 

[Niximus]

Life's too short to spend your days where someone makes you feel like s**t. Sure, *talk to fairwork, but also leave for something better, daddy's precious won't be going anywhere soon.

*Sometimes things like fairwork aren't worth the added stresses and it's better to just move on asap and let pieces of s**t be pieces of s**t.

It is worth noting that the FWC can only take action while you're working there.

 

[the_fresh]

Thanks guys.

So yesterday morning she got a call from a work place lawyer who helped her out a little bit.
The first thing she was told was that the person making the claims cannot be the judge of the outcome. This has happened on Friday last week and the letter she was given this week stated that she would be the judge of the outcome.
She spoke to the GM of the business, explained everything, explained her rights and that she was filling a bully complaint and complaint about the false claims.
She has also stated a number of times when she has been bullied, also explained that she will be pushing forward with legal action if no action is taken.
She loves the place, but hates whats happened, leaving would mean starting again and at the moment she wouldn't just leave her staff to put up with her.

 

[BORK]

Please bump this thread in coming months to say how it pans out from here.

Have to ask. Does she have intentions to climb the ladder at this business or remain in her role indefinitely? Or climb the ladder diagonally by accepting a job elsewhere later.

 

[the_fresh]

She has loved the place since day one and always has pushed for extra roles, the issue is going to be the bosses daughter will day take over.
At the same time, she has stopped looking at the place with rose coloured glasses and can now see why so many ex staff hate the place

 

[the_fresh]

So after all this is still happening.She had to provide a letter to make her complaint formal, which she did, the letter stated that for a number of weeks she has felt that the bullying is getting worse and more targeted, even after explaining a few things going on wither family (sister in a psych ward) at the moment.

for a few years she has managed the counter, plus ran the printing department, which since her doing that has showed profit year on year in both the counter and the printing department.

For about 2 months she was told that she was going to be trained in the lab while the bosses daughter is going overseas (on a trip that she'll be out of her depth on, but another story), my partner was told to train up someone in the printing department so they can help, while she's in the lab.
The bosses daughter is also the labs full time manager.

She trained someone up, today she was meant to be going to the lab to start day 1 of training, yet is told that she will not be trained up and will now be at the counter full time.
She'll also have to do extra work, while not be given any desk (the printing area has a desk, she has also been told that she will not be given a desk at all, the only manager not to get one).

Last night a customer emailed her, thanking her for a great job she did and how she was a credit to the store. She forwarded that email on to the GM, the boss and the bosses daughter, the first thing she hears from any of them is "we're keeping you on the counter full time".

Bork, its retail, in which she's bloody good at and loves(d) the place up until all this happened, she's also due for her bonus in 8 days, which she will sue for if not given.

 

[Chief]

In the end she no longer has the confidence of the bosses. They will most likely continue at her until she leaves of her own accord. Shitty, but that is what happens sometimes.

 

[the_fresh]

we're seeing a lawyer on Tuesday, so hopefully that will help.

JobWatch seemed shocked that the bosses daughter would write a letter like that, they seemed to think that they would know better.

The bosses daughter has been away the last 2 days and is away training all next week, it seems a little bit of a delaying tactic to make my partner forget and let it go which she won't.

 

[the_fresh]

Update:
On tuesday we saw a work place lawyer who explained a few things.
Firstly, we would have them on both letters, the first one the letter of concern should have outlined the issues, it didn't. They've also claimed that its not on official letterhead, which it is, so the lawyer said that while they are claiming its not an official course of action, it is and can be used against them.
The second letter is in the words of the lawyer "highly illegal" and if we pushed forward with action can expect a payout if she loses her job. They've offered no win no fee.
The action taken against her since she filed her complaint is also illegal and she has to write a letter stating that her wants all her training & roles to be reinstated within a week or will file to fair work. Its adversed action what they've done.

Someone said over dinner about this that if this was happening at a football club, she'll be made to go out and see what its like to work in the real world, maybe we could offer that as a way to deal with it.

 

[Power Raid]

Hey all

My partner has worked at the same place for about 4 and a half years, she quickly became a manager on her department after about 12 months and since then has been running the ship.
Her supervising manager also happens to be the bosses (business owner) daughter.
Since her bosses daughter got the roll their relationship has been rocky, but most of it is because of the way she treats my partner. Also there is some "you wouldn't get a job anywhere else, you untrained monkey".
Anyway, not last weekend, but the one before they had a staff member leave and was moving back home, my partner and some of the staff went out for drinks, while the bosses daughter didn't get an invite.
She then my partner has been getting pulled up for things that aren't happening.
Last Friday she had a meeting and was given a letter of concern for the following reasons:

1) one of her staff members jokingly said "I can't go down there, I'm scared of XZY" and he laughed. In the meeting it was made out like she was this big scary thing, the staff member has since gone to upper manager about this but was told to take it up with someone else.
2) She told a staff member that he had to stay by the door, which he had to let customers out after hours, he was busy chatting with others.
The bosses daughter said in the meeting that the way she said it in front of customers was rude and brought shame on the business, there were no customers in the area. The bosses daughter was the only other person in the area.

Today she was told that tomorrow she has a 4pm meeting where she would be given a written warning over the way she spoke to the bosses daughter. It was because after being told that the bosses daughter cannot do something because she's busy and has a lot of work, my partner said, yep, of cause you do".
Now no other staff members were around, in the letter today it states that she will be making all calls on it and she cannot talk about it with other staff members.
The bosses daughter is also in charge of issuing her, her $3500 bonus every 3 months, this bonus is earned by getting to work at 7am, leaving well after 6pm most days, never taking lunch and when she was made manager not getting a pay rise.

We need advise because her bosses daughter wants her gone and it seems like she's going to win.

fight or flight

seems like anything in between is not going to work



my advice, life's too short so start looking elsewhere

 

[The Swans Blog]

Pretty much look to move elsewhere. Its an insular, family owned and operated business, with a biased and family supporting GM. Her best course of action is to sue for harassment and get a payout and move elsewhere.

Had similar issues with previous employers. I went through HR with one that was a large ASX100 and it was resolved, and left another s**t as small company.

 

[the_fresh]

Pretty much look to move elsewhere. Its an insular, family owned and operated business, with a biased and family supporting GM. Her best course of action is to sue for harassment and get a payout and move elsewhere.

Had similar issues with previous employers. I went through HR with one that was a large ASX100 and it was resolved, and left another s**t as small company.

She doesn't really want to leave, has a few friends there and other than this one person she hasn't had an issue in 4 years.

The funniest thing happened on Friday, she was training someone up for about 8 weeks to take over her role while she was doing the backend stuff broke the $10,000 printer because what he did was next up on the training when she was told of a role change

 

[The Swans Blog]

She doesn't really want to leave, has a few friends there and other than this one person she hasn't had an issue in 4 years.

The funniest thing happened on Friday, she was training someone up for about 8 weeks to take over her role while she was doing the backend stuff broke the $10,000 printer because what he did was next up on the training when she was told of a role change

This isn't just some random tosspot that the company can easily piss off, it's a direct relative of the owner, who is financially, emotionally and professionally invested in the company. Things won't change.

In the end she no longer has the confidence of the bosses. They will most likely continue at her until she leaves of her own accord. Shitty, but that is what happens sometimes.

This really is just it and this is what happened to me. Someone in management harassed me because they could and because the director/owner of the company took a backwards, hands-off approach. I put in a letter of complaint and quit.

 

[MrsEddieBetts]

I'd say leave.
Yes, it sucks, and no, she shouldn't have to...but sometimes that's just life.

I'm an HR Manager for a large company and I can see where things have gone wrong and are questionable from the company, but it's the bosses daughter. In my experience, those No Win, No Charge lawyers tell you what you want to hear and you end up getting some 'go away' money, but the employment relationship is untenable after that.

 

[the_fresh]

Another update.
Yesterday she sat down with the GM & the bosses daughter to talk about her role.
A document was produced signed May 14, 2014, it was a copy and not the penned copy.
On it it stated nothing about fine art and that she answers to the department manager.
The copy that she signed, and that she brought home was dated May 14, 2014 and stated that she answers to the GM.
The bosses daughter became department manager in July of 2014.
The document that my partner brought home also stated that she is to oversee the day to day running of the imaging counter & fine art departments.

I spoke with the ACTU this morning, one of the things they said was to speak to Vic Police about this.
So I called to find out. I was told that under the crimes act it's illegal to make a false document and use it. a level 5 offence and theres up to 10 years jail.

The ACTU also stated that changing person role without them agreeing is "unfair dismissal", so file a claim with the FWC.

Every time she has a meeting they dig a bigger hole.

 

[Power Raid]

Another update.
Yesterday she sat down with the GM & the bosses daughter to talk about her role.
A document was produced signed May 14, 2014, it was a copy and not the penned copy.
On it it stated nothing about fine art and that she answers to the department manager.
The copy that she signed, and that she brought home was dated May 14, 2014 and stated that she answers to the GM.
The bosses daughter became department manager in July of 2014.
The document that my partner brought home also stated that she is to oversee the day to day running of the imaging counter & fine art departments.

I spoke with the ACTU this morning, one of the things they said was to speak to Vic Police about this.
So I called to find out. I was told that under the crimes act it's illegal to make a false document and use it. a level 5 offence and theres up to 10 years jail.

The ACTU also stated that changing person role without them agreeing is "unfair dismissal", so file a claim with the FWC.

Every time she has a meeting they dig a bigger hole.

careful........you will probably win a battle but not the war.

you have to consider life after this job and the reference checks won't be favourable. Even if you are 100% right and a victim a future boss may not want to invite trouble" into the work place.

I am not suggesting you should just roll over. I am just highlighting that you may want to step back and consider the big picture rather than just the task at hand.

 

[ash_1050]

Any updates?

 

[King Elvis]

What's the end game here?

It doesn't matter how much she likes working there, she needs to start looking for a new job - immediately.

Her position is untenable.

They sound like complete and utter dicks, but they own the company - this is a war you won't win.

If you want to make an issue of it, fair enough, it sounds like you should, but she needs to find another job; she cannot continue to work there with those people in the management structure.

Edit - what is the actual role? $14k bonus PA is pretty damned good for what sounds like retail work.

 

[bombers21]

Unfortunately workplaces do not look kindly to people that "complain" or rock the boat.

As many have said above she needs to look for another job. The fact she's gone down this path she's digging her own career grave at this workplace and there will be no further progression