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View Full Version : A sudden deterioration in work atmosphere/conditions


LaneyV
08-16-2005, 10:42 AM
Right, has anybody dealt with a severe and fast change in the company atmosphere - and how have you survived?

The private company I work for has never been known for being good for its employees. Some of the supervisors are incompetent, some downright bullying, but they get away with it because they are on friendly terms with our manager, who clearly just want 'yes men', and who hasn't got a clue on how to run things.

A few weeks back me and my colleagues on one team, and another team, decided to stand up and refuse to do one task requested (basically we all get frequantly asked to go and 'help' a third party, and end up doing their job while they sit around, play cards and get paid for it).
Now, we've all received a written warning, a few verbal threats etc. Ultimately we didn't stand a chance on these disciplinary hearings due to the fact that the procedure was all done wrong, and the interviewers were inpartial due to several factors.

Last week our supervisor upped it and left, and next week they're bringing in a supervisor who in the past has been discriminatory against me purely due to my genrer and nationality. When I raised they matter with our manager, who told be to 're-educate' this man myself, and 'fight the prejudice'.

I'm at the end of my tether here :frustrate . Our manager is at the moment breathing down our necks, the supervisors present bully the staff mercilessly, and I know I won't stand a hope in hell if our new supervisor starts bullying me at work again. There's no hope of raising any matter with the manager, my first contact point, because our new supervisor is his most loyal 'footsoldier'.

Everyone at work is stressed, thinking of quitting and spend the working days moaning about the situation (I certainly do :D !) .It all feels like a big black hole at the moment, with no way out.

In my case, it's all going to be over in about 2,5 months (the most) anyway, because I'm relocation - but my God, doesn't it seem like an eternity. And since I have a 4 weeks' notice period to give, I'm dreading about the future misery my supervisor is going to put me through after finding out I'll be going.

Any idea how I can keep my head together for those crucial 2,5 month. My plan is to feing complete indifference to the situation, but I might explode :twisted: !

WeirdBrake
08-16-2005, 11:06 AM
Get a free consultation with an attorney in your area if you feel you've been discriminated against based on gender or nationality in the workplace. That's illegal. Especially if you've brought it to their attention, and they haven't done anything to remedy the situation.

GetMeOuttaDC
08-16-2005, 12:06 PM
Get a free consultation with an attorney in your area if you feel you've been discriminated against based on gender or nationality in the workplace. That's illegal. Especially if you've brought it to their attention, and they haven't done anything to remedy the situation.

psst... OP's in Scotland. It might not be illegal in the UK.

WeirdBrake
08-16-2005, 12:22 PM
Oops. LOL

See, this is why I have no desire to live abroad. My future profession ties me to this country.

spokes
08-16-2005, 02:20 PM
bullying at work - wow. i would have to think that there are some laws against that.

can you give me an example of a situtation where you were bullied?

Anyway that sounds like a crappy enviroment, do you have to give 4 weeks notice? can you speed up your relocation process?

LaneyV
08-18-2005, 11:38 AM
Anyway that sounds like a crappy enviroment, do you have to give 4 weeks notice? can you speed up your relocation process?

Well, insofar as the whole bullying situation's concerned, I'd like to think that we're now over that situation. Hopefully this new supervisor of ours has finally become more secure in his position so that he can stop seeing things as something that threaten his position as the alpha male (funnily enough, the situation that really got him riled up was finding out that I'm ex-army...seeing as he hasn't had much luck in finding a job like that..long story, odd man :googly: ).

Relocation is still planned in November, but I've been in touch with my old company which are now 're-training' me on monday and more than ready to take me on board immediately. I'm planning to go back to them for a part-time job, then see how this all pans out.

The one thing I've learned from all of this is that you should never burn bridges behind you - you might have to backpedal furiously in the future :razz: !

ladida
08-18-2005, 03:47 PM
Sometimes Colleagues Are Just Too Bad Not to Get Promoted (http://www.careerjournal.com/columnists/cubicleculture/20050818-cubicle.html)

LaneyV
08-20-2005, 08:39 AM
That was a very good article. One of my colleagues is actually a 'hot potato', wh has within a year been transferred five times, been promoted to a supervisor and the demoted again :googly: . He's a nice guy, but bloody hell is he a handfull :D !

I know that one of the problems with my new supervisor is that he's repeatedly told our manager that unless he gets the position as our supervisor (we're the highest-ranking 'team', thus our super gets paid more), he'll quit the company. I have a colleague who's an acting supervisor, and he got told he'll get the first 'going' position - and now he's been overlooked. Rumour has it that one of our union reps is now loading his big guns and is ready to state to the head of our union that the company blatantly lies to its employees. I'm sure our brand-new area boss will love that - the extent of our managers f**ked-uppedness was revealed to him on Thursday when he found out that all the teams are running with half of the manpower he's claimed they're running. Whoops :redface: :twisted: .

Oh, we'll see, we'll see. I have an appeal hearing for my written warning coming up, so hopefully my colleagues and I can close the book on all this quite soon. Besides, out of the six in my team, three have now applied for another company. Someone's going to be in for a rude awakening soon..