Disrespect in the workplace

Something similar happened to a colleague of mine in a large organization.

She was being bullied in subtle ways by a younger (bright eyed and busy tailed but less qualified) workmate and her line manager swept her complaints under the carpet. Bullying can take many forms and does not have to be overt, Undermining someone's confidence, denying them relevent information, constantly interrupting their work are all forms of bullying which can chip away at their sense of self. HR departments are often very poor at recognising this and term it "different styles of working."

We sometimes discussed it and I urged her to join a union and create a paper trail of anything significant which happned. As some of you know I pride myself on being a cynical hard nosed planner. She took my advice.

The company did not follow its own procedures for terminating her contract and made monumental blunders. In those days you only needed 1 year with the organization to qualify for legal protection. There were also disability elements so she had a protected characteristic.

Her union hired a soliciter who threatened a tribunal and she got 10K compensation. She later put in a subject access request for her HR file and was shocked at the way the case had been mishandled.

Subsequently she set up as a self employed consultant in the same area. Like one of the posters upthread she had considerable expertise in her field.

If you belong to a strong union and document every incident then you may some away with a settlement. Its no real recompense for losing a job you love but it does run their noses in it.

It’s disheartening how often experienced workers are undervalued. I've witnessed a seasoned office manager being bullied out by younger colleagues. Many can relate to such unfair treatment.

Seems this type of failing in the workplace takes place often. We all just overcome it in our own ways - time is a healer but is of little consequence at the time. I totally lost my confidence but have lately been speaking with a European Uni who have been so very impressed with my work - what a boost to my confidence. Do not let them win and rise above it. Your gut instinct is correct. I did hear similar experiences described as ‘kicking the ladder away’. .. just try to keep away from those with that mindset - there are genuine people out there. .. don’t let it cloud your future ventures, which there can be if you let it.

Me too, and I have been on GN for ages

mummytummy

Same here Drina01

Only come across this thread as I purposely went looking for “ageism” as I’m going through it at work at the moment and at 61 I don’t feel that’s old 😂

mummytummy
I have also even later just come across this post as I was looking for something on the subject .
This involves a female of 62 who is currently being bullied at work by her boss , by way of discriminatory remarks regarding amongst other things age, he btw is a similar age .
Thing is it is a small family run business which has no HR department or visible policy on bullying . I have advised to keep a note of everything & to seek advice .
I have little faith in small business owners , having myself experienced issues which would of been resolvable in a larger corporate business .in not one but two previous roles

Same here Drina01

Only come across this thread as I purposely went looking for “ageism” as I’m going through it at work at the moment and at 61 I don’t feel that’s old 😂

I sometimes look back to see what I may have missed… and must have missed that one. My experience does come back to haunt me sometimes as quite traumatic.

How do you ‘just notice’ a thread which is a year old?

Just noticed this thread so late to the table. !
After a great career I was forced out of my beloved job last year fuelled by a girl who came back from maternity leave. We were only a Team of 4 plus Authors however 2 of those piled in (one who bothered me day and night with work and one who was promoted to Lead who I truly believe had never seriously been trained in working with evidence, and had been instrumental in getting rid of those who did). The girl in question is not qualified for my role and has had to go on training to actually work with the big international databases which has taken me all my career to master search strategies within them. However overnight my manager seemed to have taken a surprising vengeance towards me once she was back. I was never privy to ‘their’ team meetings so no idea what was going on within them. I was in at the beginning of evidence based medicine, won accolades in my career, and known throughout that ‘information world’ as being at the top of my tree constantly updating my qualifications and practices. It has been devastating to finish my career like that. What’s worse is I knew the ‘company’ wasn’t working to the expected standards but foolishly kept quiet hoping I would influence them to do the right thing. I can see online the medical topics haven’t been searched properly but powerless to do anything. I did ask via my right to see correspondence via Teams and mail etc. it made for sobering reading - ageist, very vindictive, untruthful and setting me up to fail without telling me what was going on. I haven’t worked since as lost my confidence but put all my energies into grandchildren. ACAS were shocked but at the end of the day no one wants to put themselves through agony.
I think jealousy may fuel incompetencies. Though there’s never been a jealous bone in my body so this is alien to me. It has affected me though terribly.

My ex-SIL is a narcissist and bully at work. He shouts at his staff and believes he gets away with it by buying them all cakes on a Friday!
We are betting on how long he will last in post since bullying is not tolerated these days.

Just before I retired I was in a job with a female boss where her hair appointments, high heeled ankle strap silver sandals and nails were more important than running the office. She would leave letters unsigned for weeks so they had to be re-done and she had a gaggle of silly women who hung on her every word. One day she had bad news and the whole secretarial department took her out for lunch. She was sacked after six months by which time I was long gone. Shame really as I did enjoy the job, just could not stand working with her. She replaced a female narcissist who used to have explosive rows with everyone. I sometimes wonder who employs these people.

It happened to me. I didn't get the head of faculty role and it went to a very young man who wasn't and still isn't up to it. All my ideas were taken by him and passed off as his. Senior management didn't want to know. I retired five years ago and he's still as incompetent and unprofessional as he was when he started. He thinks he's great though yet every Depute Head job he applies for, he doesn't get. His poor faculty will be stuck with him for ever! It's most definitely not sour grapes from me.