I was effectively bullied out of my job five years ago after getting ME because I simply lacked the strength and energy to get into a dragout fight with my employers. Amongst their tactics were: refusal to assign me parking closer to work than a ten minute walk; refusal to transfer me to an office much closer to my home and easily accessible by bus - even though their own doctor advised this urgently and there was a girl at the office in question willing to trade places with me; constant pressure to increase my partial hours after two whole weeks being back; refusal to transfer me to a non-physical role; constant inference that I was making life sooo much harder for my poor co-workers. Looking back, I regret giving in to them, but at the time I really was so ill I couldn't face a fight - heck, I couldn't even think straight. To anyone in a similar position now I would say - don't fight by yourself, get your union and the Citizens' Advice Bureau involved and stay signed off work if your employer won't respect the advice of doctors.
Is it too late to take the firm to a tribunal? To be honest, it sounds such a rotten company to work for you are probably better off not working there - but take them to the cleaners for compensation.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt was a county council...unfortunately, I wasn't doing any of the right things back then that would stand me in good stead if I tried to take them before a tribunal now - not making sure everything got documented and so on, not saying in my letter of resignation that I considered I'd been constructively dismissed, etc. Oh - and they managed to get rid of me just before I'd been with them the magical 2 years. What is so upsetting is that they were a very large organisation and so could easily have moved me to a position I could have coped with and so gone on working (albeit probably at something very boring) - but they chose this path instead. Just like the national government, it would seem our local government only paid lip service to good practice when dealing with the sick.
ReplyDeleteIn my then-innocence, I couldn't believe they insisted I travel into Cambridge several times to see their own doctor and then refused to take notice of anything he said!
Most employers are pretty crap, IMHO, even ones that shouldn't be. Up against the wall for them come the revolution! :)
ReplyDelete