Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Grievances

A new chap joined my unit a couple of months ago and now works in my section. He has always seemed a touch highly strung but beyond that a nice enough chap. However, his manager has come to speak to me a couple of times because she is so stressed at his behaviour.

They’ve had to arrange a couple of big meetings recently and this chap has proved to be more of a hindrance than anything else. He had to be sent home from the meeting a few weeks ago. It was being held in a hotel and he got some room upgrades basically by lying and then kept pilfering everything in sight – he filled his pockets with humbugs and biscuits and anything that technically you could have but are not really meant to take by the handful.

Last week he came and spoke to me because he was really upset that he wasn’t invited to the lunch part way through the meeting taking place the next day. I said to him that numbers had to be cut so people within the unit would always be the first to be crossed off the list and it was more important that the delegates and speakers were fed than people who worked in the unit who could just do whatever they normally did at lunch time. But he just couldn’t understand this and was still going to complain to his manager (who was the person who had made the decision) until I persuaded him that it really wasn’t the best time. I did also have to tell him in no uncertain terms that it was entirely inappropriate to ask the delegates to bring him gifts. I had to explain to him how badly that would reflect on the organisation to do something like that. Is that something that really needs to be pointed out??

Anyway, he’s now thinking about putting in a formal grievance against his manager for discriminatory behaviour by not inviting him to the lunch. He thinks the decision was based on his grade (whereas some might argue that it was to ensure that there was enough food for everyone else). His manager is feeling really miserable about it because she knows she has done nothing wrong but it is threatening nonetheless. Yesterday she looked through his employment file and realised that he has put in grievances before, which makes it more likely that he will go through with it. I have tried to reassure her that she has nothing to worry about, various people have commented on how odd his behaviour is and would be happy to speak up for his manager, but it’s never a pleasant thing. He went home sick yesterday with stress, so we’ll see if he comes in today.

On the housing front, I can’t go and see the place again until Friday so I have to hang on nervously until then. At least the owner knows I am interested and so is unlikely to accept an offer in the interim (I hope). I just don’t think I can put in an offer at the moment without feeling really comfortable with what I am doing and going back to look at the kitchen again is key to that. So let’s hope the next few days go by quickly and then my plans to become a property owner become a reality.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That guy sounds like a bit of a liability to the company. Is there no way that he could be put on a 'warning' or be spoken to by H.R.? IF you have a 'code of conduct' or something in the employment contract, you might be able to work with him on that. Maybe he needs to see these things in writing before he can digest and understand the behavioural requirements?

It does seem a little odd, though. Does he have some sort of behavioural difficulty that might be making him act this way? Might be a good idea to put him on 'very far away from any contact with our clients' duty for a while...

Best of luck for the house! Kitchens are SO important. I've always lived in the kitchen before this flat.

Random Reflections said...

He is a total liability. One of his main problems is that he lacks self awareness and just cannot see that his behaviour is inappropriate.

Today we found out that he has asked someone to ‘acquire’ some products for him, so we are trying it decide what action to take. His manager is really stressed at having to deal with him because you just cannot reason with him.

We will be consulting HR on how best to handle this but they will say the responsibility is with the line manager to deal with such things.

I’m hopeful the kitchen situation can be resolved with a bit of careful planning and creativity (and a hammer).

Anonymous said...

A word of warning, electrical wiring and DIY knocking down of walls with a hammer do not mix. Fortunately, I live to tell the tale, thankfully it was a very mild electric shock. Got the heart beating a bit fast. Hey, maybe you could wire your misbehaving chap upto the light switch in the corridor at work.......

Random Reflections said...

In reality I'd get a builder to do any building work, as it would be unfortunate if I destroyed the place- or me for that matter!