The nasty behaviour continues: one of my “haters” (who has probably never even had a conversation with me) has put a notice on social media asking people to let them know where I am now. I have had to relocate to a town many miles away from my previous home because of the persistent threats, attempts to harm me and various forms of abuse.
Category Archives: Bullying in the Civil Service
MY FORMER EMPLOYER
In earlier posts I have written about the culture of bullying prevalent in some departments during the years I worked for my former employer. My own experience was that after some years of working there to everyone’s satisfaction, I was bullied by a line manager. When I asked to be put on a different team, it took a year before I was offered a move. [I understand that there had been a number of previous complaints of bullying against this line manager so management should have been aware of the issues.]
LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICES
There are certain aspects of public services in the area I live in which cause me concern:
Firstly, as I have detailed in earlier posts my former employer behaved in a cavalier way towards me. I was of course bullied and then had no alternative but to leave the job I had done to my employer’s satisfaction for over 12 years.
WAYS TO DEAL WITH BEING BULLIED
The advice from the government website states (and let’s not forget that this applies equally to their own departments!):
“What employees should do if they’re bullied or harassed
Employees should see if they can sort out the problem informally first. If they can’t, they should talk to their:
- manager
- human resources (HR) department
- trade union representative
If this doesn’t work, they can make a formal complaint using their employer’s grievance procedure. If this doesn’t work and they’re still being harassed, they can take legal action at an employment tribunal.” https://www.gov.uk/workplace-bullying-and-harassment
This is great in theory, but if as a civil servant a manager bullies you and no action is taken your options can seem limited.
LEGAL DUTIES UNDER FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT: IGNORED?
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) describes the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as providing “public access to information held by public authorities.
It does this in two ways:
- public authorities are obliged to publish certain information about their activities; and
- members of the public are entitled to request information from public authorities.
The Act covers any recorded information that is held by a public authority, including government departments, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and by UK-wide public authorities based in Scotland.
The main principle behind freedom of information legislation is that people have a right to know about the activities of public authorities, unless there is a good reason for them not to. This is sometimes described as a presumption or assumption in favour of disclosure.”
Continue reading LEGAL DUTIES UNDER FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT: IGNORED?
WHY I WRITE MY BLOG
I hope my readers have a wonderful 2017.
It has been suggested that if I had not started writing my blog the online personal abuse about me which has continued for a long time would not have happened. I therefore want to explain my reasons for writing about the bullying and the order in which things happened.
ATTENTION-SEEKERS
We all know people who are attention-seekers, and after a couple of alcoholic drinks most of us become attention-seekers. It is usually fairly harmless, low level behaviour when the alcohol has made us lose our inhibitions. However, there are those who turn everything that happens in their lives into a drama: from burning the toast in the morning to the evening train being late, it all becomes fodder for this type of behaviour. The people in their lives can reach overload as it can be exhausting for the “audience” if it is relentless without periods of relative calm and stability.
EFFECTS OF BEING BULLIED
I decided to write a blog about workplace bullying to inform readers about the facts: what happened, how it was dealt with and the outcome. I wanted to enable readers to recognise the signs of workplace bullying if something similar happened to them. In my next post I hope to give people some skills in dealing with being bullied in the workplace. With hindsight, there are some things I would have done differently in order to achieve a better outcome.
BREACHES OF TRUST AND CONFIDENTIALITY
Although I doubt that my previous employer would be a fan of my blog, I feel that writing it helps me and others who may be going through a similar experience. It has also rekindled my love of writing, so I will continue in my own unassuming way to try to entertain and inform my readers about aspects of my experience in this particular organisation.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT
When I resigned from the civil service I had (and still have) a strong sense of injustice at the way I had been treated, and this is what led me to write my blog. Not only does it help me to make some sort of sense of what happened, but I hope that in some small way I can help others going through similar experiences.
Today I would like to have a look at the relationship between management and employees, which is of major importance in any organisation in relation to employee morale and productivity .