In the workplace, as indeed in life, there are a number of situations that have both an ‘in theory’ and an ‘in practice’ answer.
If you feel that your boss is treating you unfairly, this is one such situation. You will be able to find all sorts of employment law advice, but what we are looking to provide in this article is the real life solution.
It may sound wrong to suggest that the ‘official’ employment law advice is not applicable, because it is a good idea to understand your rights in the workplace. However, let us look at the ways in which you can either solve or minimise the problem before you go through official means.
If you work for a large company with strict human resources practices and a respect for operating under the exact rules of employment law, you may find that you are able to go through the official channels. However, if you work for a smaller organisation, while you may be legally entitled to make a complaint or ask for a review of the situation, in practice this may just make it difficult to stay in your job.
Large Company
Larger organisations tend to have the resources to be able to respond to human resources issues in a more regulated manner. Not only this, but it is expected that you follow these regulations and so your complaint or concerns are given the treatment they require.
You will be expected to speak to your HR manager in an honest and open way, allowing you to explain how and why you feel as though your boss is treating you unfairly. Your HR manager will then deal with the situation, perhaps with a senior manager and it will be closely monitored.
If you do not feel your personal situation is problematic enough to involve your HR department but you require some changes to the behaviour of your boss and their treatment of you, you could arrange a less formal meeting. Be clear about why you feel your boss is treating you unfairly – it can be easy to look for someone else’s behaviour in a situation when perhaps we should modify our own.
Once you are able to define and illustrate, with clear examples, why you feel as you do, ask to have a chat with your boss. You may ask a trusted colleague to be present, although this makes the chat less informal and more of a meeting. Explain to your boss how you feel, say how it is affecting your work and your confidence. Detail what you would like to change, within reason, and ask for their views.
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
Smaller Company
In a smaller operation there is unlikely to be the same infrastructure available, so complaints and criticisms rarely have a third party mediator, such as an HR manager.
In order to deal with your situation effectively and without making your difficulty with your boss more of a problem than it needs to be, you should be very clear about why you feel they are treating you unfairly. Think about your job and how well you have been performing before you say anything. It may be that you can see how you can modify your own behaviour before speaking to your boss.
If the problem is more serious than you feel able to cope with, it is important that you do bring the matter to your boss’s attention.
I was.asked to try to do 4 x12 hour shifts. which I was a bit reluctant to do but they said they were keen to employ me and if I tried it for a few weeks and it gave me problems then they would drop me one day. This job is really strenuous.and includes hoisting people who are over 20stone. I have tried to 4 weeks to keep going but it's becoming increasingly hard to continue doing these shifts. I emailed the manager and said that the old.manager agreed to me dropping a day. She has totally ignored my email even watching me struggle and refusing to help me leaving me to hoist and turn these people up to 8 times a day. We are regularly under staffed and have to meet the target of everyone out of bed before 11am but with indedstaffi g it's sometimes impossible. Today I was in sojch pain I forgot.to do something and my.mangef had.me in the office I tried.to explain that the pain is awful and I'm struggling but she totally disregarded it. I have since found out she has given the same job as I do to someone else and allowed them to drop their hours significantly from 4x12 hour shifts to 3x6 hour shifts. And another doing the same job as me permission to start work 1 hour later each day. I have only worked there 4 months and still in my probation tonight my back gave way I am sat here in tears.in agony. I was totally upfront at interview with them about my conditiond. I work hard sometimes through breaks short staffed and my manager avoids me like then plague yet her pets she gives anything to. There is no person in my line of work who doesn't suffer from joint problems. I feel like she's setting me up for a fall as I reported her for speaking about another client to another family who had nothing to do with them and I felt it was breaking confidentiality. I just feel like I'm being singled out by her. I'm even thinking of bringing the union rep in.
I have a investigating meeting next week with my Manager, HR Team, and the Shop Steward, due to a injury on duty and an unfairly treatment;
Kindly read the below email and understand how it happened and please give me feedback on how to handle or answer the questions they might make.
Hope you are all well;
Just to introduce the issue on the subject;
This case arises out of a forklift accident which occurred at JNB GTW on the 20th of December involving myself as a victim of a forklift hit when I was working on a PM shift reporting to Mark Hank as my Duty Manager at that particular month.
The accident happened when I was about to lodge a KQ container which had approximately ±500Kg for a flight KQ0765 containing parcels/shipments of the destinations Kenya-NBO, Uganda-EBB and Tanzania-DAR respectively that I prepared that day.
It was about 21hrs40 when I closed and shrink wrapped the container and pushed to the outbound skid and loaded on a slave pallet that weighs approximately ±200Kg which was inserted on a 5 ton forklift to take the container and lodge at swissport warehouse in order to be loaded at the airline and be uplifted at midnight to the final destination.
Few minutes before the accident, I had spoken to my colleague who was about to operate the forklift and I asked him to borrow me the forklift before he could go to the dolly and fetch the inbound EK container that was brought from the airline and placed outside the warehouse premises; He refused/denied to borrow me the forklift claiming that he needed to fetch the container ASAP and He would borrow me afterwards, then he left with the forklift and went to fetch the container even though I had told him that my cut off time was due and I had to take the container before I could be offloaded by the airline due to late lodging.
When He returned with the forklift, He positioned the 5 ton forklift together with the slave pallet weighing approximately ±200Kg and approximately ±500Kg container loaded with parcels/shipments towards the outbound roller band when I immediately pushed and placed the container on the sliding slave pallet, afterwards I took two steps down the outbound roller band to reach the forklift after my colleague got off, and as I was about to climb the forklift the same reversed and ran over and caught my right foot causing it to be swollen and stiff where I couldn't even fell it and simultaneously hit and pierced my left leg with the frame of the mast of the forklift causing a hole where I could see white bare skin tissue causing a severe bleeding, therefore I practically believe that my colleague failed to apply the hand brake in order to prevent this accident.
At that moment the right front tire of the forklift was on top of my right foot, I immediately screamed so that my colleague could help me and remove the forklift from my right foot, and as I stood with all that heaviness of the forklift, slave pallet, equip
I am leaving home at 5.30am, and not getting home until 8.15pm, because of bus travel times. I have once had to walk three miles back to a point with more regular evening buses, because the last bus from the area I work in went straight past me and another individual, even though we were both flagging it down, and both at the bus stop, and I have been involved in accidents twice, walking along the unlit, unpavemented road from my office to the bus stop. I am also, in order to meet my hours requirement at the office, working without breaks - I use computers exclusively, and am literally working 8.5hrs a day with no breaks. By the time I get home, I am frequently too tired to eat, and will just go straight to bed. My wife is disabled, and is becoming stressed at having to try and manage on her own (she has mild cerebral palsy and Asperger's, and was refused PIP, so can't hire a carer to support her while I'm at work, she is not deemed to need funded care, and the reason I had to give up freelance work and look for corporate employment was that she was becoming extremely anxious about a transfer from ESA to Universal Credit, to the point of saying it would be better if she killed herself, because "at least then they can't screw us over by saying I'm not really disabled."
I have asked my line manager if I could work from home, and was told "we'll discuss that another time". At an informal meeting with the HR manager - a routine thing she does with all new hires in the first few weeks - she actually raised the question of how I was managing with the commute. I explained about not being able to take breaks, and that it would be easier if I could work from home part time
pls. advise can this be unfair treatment?
I've been offered a new job out of this company and now looking to take legal action
I rang HR and area manager came in he turned all around on me saying I want managers job. He told me he had gone through temperature book and just saw things were missing on the day I ran the shop nothing major just a time that I finished a task. After he'd gone there were so many important things that had been missed by manager but were dismissed.
The situation is making me ill!!
My problem is that I'm working on a project which is managed by a partnership of 4 organisations, including my own; the project is led by one of the other partners. Recently there was a meeting called by the lead partner and my boss attended. The meeting turned out to be about me, with the lead partner complaining that I was not devoting the allocated number of hours to the project. This is correct, but it's because the lead partner made some of my role redundant due to poor project management. My question is this, was it fair for the lead partner to have a meeting about my working practices in front of all partners, where I was not invited to give my side of the story? I feel I have been badly treated and my professionalism undermined. It's true there is a problem which needs sorted and I'm prepared to work with the partners to find a solution, but the way it has been done I feel is wrong. Am I over-reacting?
Both my coworkers and residents. I am to the point where I've been doing extensive job searching and I told her only to find out she doesn't give me a good reference. I did have one opportunity to leave there full time and go somewhere else for about 2 months but the hours were not good for me. I stayed at the first job only for PRN but they eventually called me back to work there fulltime. And only to find out I come back to being treated unfairly even more. I deal with her son who also works there who seems to clearly have issues because he harasses me on a daily bases. I have records that date back to march on this harassment which is clearly a different scenario. Despite all I put up with I still complete my woRk effectively but now I am at my wits end. I just don't know whether both of these issues should be reported or should I move on silently. I feel that everyone has a voice and it should be heard. Not only do I make sure I show up to work, I also pick up another employee to make sure she makes it to work. But with my hours being reduced to my evaluation being a complete dissappointment I know where I stand and I feel like something needs to be done about it. She clearly doesn't have respect for her employees only a select few where you can see favorism.
I want to excel and I have what it takes to do what I'm hired to do. I was asked to help out with additional work while few team members were out on vacation. I reported to work early and work on weekend. My direct manager just informs me on Friday before leaving that my mentor is promoted and I have to report to her. I feel discriminated. What rights do I have and please advise on action that I can take here? Thanks!
I thank you in anticipation of your time and consideration of my query
I am at my wits end as I have no power to defend myself and am being told yet again this could lead to losing my job!...... How can I make my managers see that they need to produce evidence and listen to my side of events?
Other people within the workplace are getting away without disaplinary procedure for worse actions such as brawling in the workplace & verbal abuse towards customers....., am I being discriminated against?
Feeling so deflated!
It is discrimination for an employer to treat pregnant women less favourably because they're pregnant. So if your employer tries to reduce your hours, give you poor reports, give you unsuitable work and so on, you can take action.
If you feel you are being denied your rights, speak to your employer or HR manager. If you're still unhappy you should make a complaint using your employer's internal grievance procedure.Following that, your local Citizen's Advice Bureau or ACAS can offer you help with progressing to a Tribunal.
She likes to do "favours" for certain employees, for example allowing certain engineers have £1000s worth of tools and equipment bought for them (for personal use) but charges to the customer without them knowing. She tells me to order the goods "on the quiet" and provide false quotations to the customers to approve, and I have to cover it up when billing out etc. I have done this numerous times for her, and she always tells me to keep quiet to other employees that don't receive this same treatment.
I recently asked her if it was OK to work one day from one of my sites that is based more local to home, in order to attend a midwife appointment that I wanted my partner to attend with me. I was pretty shocked when she said no because "it didn't suit the needs of the business" (Her favourite one liner!) but it would not have affected the business as I can work remotely from anywhere, this was a site that I work from on a weekly basis anyway. Because of her decision, I am now spending extra in fuel to get to my appointment and back, and my partner is unable to come with me. I don't want it to sound bitter, but it seems she favours some employees over others and despite me covering up her dodgy dealings, she still unwilling to allow me make decisions that benefit my personal issues. This is a woman that works from home when her dog is ill. She also prefers working with men to women. Any input would be appreciated!! Thanks.
This went on until August 2013. My boss called a meeting and asked for all the lads to come to the workshop. They said that things hadn't really got much better so they said they were taking £1 an hour off us all. So the lads on the books and the self employed lads lost a £1. I then asked if we was getting our time & a half overtime back. They said no! I thought it was really unfair because the lads on the books like myself lost £1 an hour and the overtime rate while the self employed lads just lost the £1. Nothing was signed to agree this it was all verbal but the lads didn't want to say no, incase they got a hard time. They said they would review the situation in 6 months, which would February 2014.
I was very unhappy so I decided not to work over 40 hours. I was working at Bradford University an the time and I did this for about 6 weeks. Then one day one of my bosses came on site and he said you've got to work over!!!! I said am not doing it! I said I don't think it's fair. If you want make to work over I want paying. My boss then asked me to go to the workshop later that day. When I arrived at the workshop his partner was there so it was like 2 against 1. They said if I didn't work over time they would leave me in the workshop then review it again in a few months. They knew I wasn't really keen on working in the shop so that's why they said it. At the time my wife was pregnant and I didn't want them to make things difficult for me so I said I'd just do it. Last thing I wanted was to be working away especially if I had to go to the hospital with my wife.
When it got to Christmas 2014 we have a Christmas do! Where we go out for drinks and the company pay. I never got invite while the other lads did. I was gutted! Just because I stepped up when I wasn't happy they didn't like it.
February 2014 came and we thought the money situation would be reviewed nothing was said.
August 2014 a year since we lost our pound and still nothing was said.
I was really fed up with work I hadn't had a wage rise since 2008 I felt so down. So in November 2014 I asked one of my bosses for a chat. I said I was unhappy and really disappointed that nothing had been mentioned about money. I said even if things weren't changing they should of at least told the lads. He said they would look at things in the new year and he was confident things would change.
December 2014 on the 11th
Someone please help me out
Could you please give me some help. I am a night manager at a large company for 14 years. We have just had a new MD come in to the company and my job along with the day managers job is being made redundant. I have been told this by another director and one lady from HR. The day manager and I will then have to apply for general managers role along with the day manager. My problems are as follows.
The day manager is married to out lady in HR and I know she passes on information regarding other matters to him so what would stop her from doing the same giving the day manager an unfair advantage.
Also over the past 4 weeks I have been kept out of emails and meetings that normally I would be sent or meetings I would have gone to. All emails go to the day manager and he has been in all meetings before and after I was told about my job being under threat.
I know and see the new MD talking to the day manager and the day manager has told me in his words are why don't the MD send this to email to myself instead of him. The new MD has hardly ever spoken to me and has criticized me to the day manager. I think and it looks to me that a decision to make the day manager the general manager has been made before hand. The applying for the job is just a legal way of getting me out of the company.
Either way it looks like I will be made redundant. Do I have a claim for unfair dismissal
What do you think?
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