A bit of advice from you chaps (work related)

Ok, so i work in a supermarket (amazing i know) I cant be arsed to say which one for fear of wrath and all that. Recently a new team leader (think head manager of department) joined, he instantly put the boot in to pretty much everyone, myself included to make his presence felt. I wouldnt mind so much but he just keeps doing it. He seems to find new ways to pull me up on things he doesnt like - even if to be honest I am only working to the way I was trained, it isnt my fault if he does things differently to company policy.

The problem with all this is that now he is threatening me with disciplinaries and even the sack for essentially doing my job, and to be honest I'm a bit worried and do wonder if he can actually find a way of doing it. I certainly cant afford to lose my job, let alone over something as trivial as not arranging boxes just so especially as it goes against training.
Yesterday i worked my absolute bollocks off, only for him to knock things over and say that id done them wrong, that it was essentially gooseberry fool. Bit much surely just because a couple of things wernt his specific way.

A friend was saying that basically that means he thinks the company doesnt know what its doing, and that I should look into matters more thoroughly, especially if he continues and then get him skullfucked. But surely that would only make things worse...

What ye think?

I would be inclined to put your concerns in writing and lodge these with management higher up the chain or even the HR department. Explain in the letter that you are doing the job as per your job description and as per the Companies best policy etc but that you feel the is being undermined somewhat by your immediate manager.

Having done this, should the gooseberry fool hit the fan down the line, you have at least covered yourself and can claim that your concerns had already been mentioned etc.

Ok, not at a huge amount of advise but every little helps eh

You could go at if from a Health & Safety angle.

If you don't follow your training and somehow get hurt because of this the company would have no chance in defending a injury claim from you against them.

By not following your training there is also a chance that you could be risking other people getting injured.

Training staff in the most menial of things is the way companies try and avoid claims / litigation if your being told not to follow your training your health & safety department / insurance department will definitely have something to say about it.

Have you worked there longer than a year? If so, you'll be very hard to sack if you're not doing anything massively wrong, I assume you get three warnings or so and then get sacked, but what they won't tell you verbally is that all of those warnings have to come in a three or six month period (depending on your companies policies/your contract) it's only gross misconduct warnings that would last longer.

If I was you, I'd set him up and get him sacked, you've worked there longer and probably know how things work better than he does so use that to your advantage, plus if he's new to the company he'll still be on probation, the higher management would rather get someone else in than put in the effort to improve him if you make him look a total idiot.

Don't feel guilty, what he's doing is nothing short of bullying, let the mummy strawberry floater burn!

Neo Cortex wrote:Ok, so i work in a supermarket (amazing i know) I cant be arsed to say which one for fear of wrath and all that. Recently a new team leader (think head manager of department) joined, he instantly put the boot in to pretty much everyone, myself included to make his presence felt. I wouldnt mind so much but he just keeps doing it. He seems to find new ways to pull me up on things he doesnt like - even if to be honest I am only working to the way I was trained, it isnt my fault if he does things differently to company policy.

The problem with all this is that now he is threatening me with disciplinaries and even the sack for essentially doing my job, and to be honest I'm a bit worried and do wonder if he can actually find a way of doing it. I certainly cant afford to lose my job, let alone over something as trivial as not arranging boxes just so especially as it goes against training.
Yesterday i worked my absolute ******** off, only for him to knock things over and say that id done them wrong, that it was essentially ****. Bit much surely just because a couple of things wernt his specific way.

A friend was saying that basically that means he thinks the company doesnt know what its doing, and that I should look into matters more thoroughly, especially if he continues and then get him skullfucked. But surely that would only make things worse...

What ye think?

Talk to the union rep if you want to know where you stand. You're probably quite right.

I'd love to see a disciplinary write-up on that one, actually.
"Obstructing a superior technician by humming, clicking and being quiet"

It's really difficult to fire people these days because of the 'compensation' culture so aside from stealing, punching him in his face or shitting in a customers hat you should be fine. However, if he's deliberately messing things up that you've done, for what seems like a personal kick, i'd go to HR. It's unlikely he'll get 'officially' punished for it, but somebody will have a word which will probably make him think twice about it in future.

Is probably the simplest answer.

Without reading the first post I'd like to do a KKLEIN and say:

Gordonramsey.jpeg

Fit Girl Round strawberry floating 2! DING DING!

Edit: Crap I was wrong.

Dude, put it all in writing. Complain to Human Resources via writing and telephone. Complain to higher ups and put it in writing too. This strawberry floater sounds like he's trying to fire you to make an example out of you. What a bloody tosspot. And he pushed over your boxes while working? You must fear for your personal safety with regarding his physical conduct and agressive demeanor as well as feeling intimidated and constantly nervous to the point your work is being affected. He's also purposefully making you go against company policy and you feel he's trying to get you fired because he has some sort of personal agenda. You get what I'm saying?

You must let the management higher up know what he's like, what he's doing is nothing short of bullying and he sounds like a terrible manager, frankly.

It is bullying. And there's no excuse for it, especially being in a position in which you feel you cannot defend yourself. I know what it's like to give work your all, 100 percent and more to make everyone happy only to be stamped in the face. I work extra hard at work, always doing things before I'm told in the way the company likes, I rarely am given orders since I manage to do the work before anyone has even noticed but if anyone takes the piss, the I get really annoyed. Do something before it affects your work. It's essential, especially since this twat sounds like he just wants to fire someone.

Department managers aren't the big dogs. In hugely successful and ubiquitous firms such as Tesco and Sainsbury's, you're protected by comprehensive and tested company policies. The unorthodox methods of someone who is supposed to lead others will be frowned upon much more than a junior staffer who is just trying to do his job.

All I can do is echo what other posters have put on there - if you have a Union you can join, then do so as soon as possible, because they are 9 times out of ten the best avenue to take in circumstances like this and only cost a few pounds a month in dues. And definitely complain to your HR rep. about this - some companies also have a confidential bullying helpline for circumstances like this, so that might be an area to investigate.

Other than that, the main thing I would do straightaway is start writing down exact times and accounts of his bullying towards you (or as best from memory for events in the past) in order to have a record in case this goes higher, so you can show that you're taking this seriously and it's not just a spurious claim against one or two incidents. When you can throw out a big list of events against this, it always makes more of an impression to anyone looking at the case.

Does he have the same type of attitude to other workers around, or have other workers witnessed his unreasonable behaviour towards you? Though sometimes it can be hard with some co-workers who have the "head-down" attitude for things like this, if you've got any friends on people on your side that you can call on to act as witnesses then that would be very useful too.

Whatever you do, best of luck to you. We've all experienced little gets like this who have a little bit of power and try to throw it around, but the important thing is to realise that they're a big fish in a small pond - you've got a lot more potential for your future ahead of you than this prick.

Essentially he has this attitude with everyone, i know others have got it worse too- he has made three women who work there burst into tears (ironically some of the more dedicated staff members) and infuriated one of the male staffers so much so that he nearly got a smack in the mouth.

Nice fellow, at the moment it would seem a good idea to keep a record of what he is doing, get it in writing, and if he persists (which seems likely) then go above the buggers head. Its very ironic really as he always goes on about moral values and gooseberry fool like that, yet cant even keep them. Maybe he has absolutely no idea just how useless with people he really is, and that baffles me as to how he can reach such a high position. (Admittedly that is nothing compared to higher up in the company obviously)

It is irritating having a discussion with him, he wont let you speak until HE is finished (negating your ability to get your side across) constantly says how he isnt going to raise his voice or get angry at you (which i find so patronising, like he is having a dig at you but just wants to point out how he wont break the rules to do so)

Cheers for the advice though guys, definitely a big help :mrgreen:

You should put the complaint through. You don't need to give him a chance or a wait and see attitude. You may as well complain since it'll be kept confidential if you ask it and on top of that he'll get a little record of it too. The next time someone else complains, they'll look at his past incident and come down harder on him.

If you are doing things the way you have always done it, then I dont think he has the right to force you to change, and yell at you for not doing it. Just try to talk to someone higher up.

Would talking to him about it be out of the question?

Speak to your personnel manager about filing a grievance.

Last edited by Igor on Sun Aug 24, 2008 4:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Charles Manson wrote:Speak to your personnel manager about filing a grievance.

Yep, do that. He sounds like a manager where I used to work (Barclaycard). Various inadequacies have caused them to fail in other areas of life, so in order to make themselves feel better they demean and belittle people under them. Unfortunately for me, this manager did get me fired, and I am currently appealing this. Whatever you do, don't let it get that far.

EDIT: And whatever you do, don't fob yourself off with "He does it to everyone...". If you do nothing, you are advocating his bullying behaving, and no better than him.

Yeah, bloke sounds like a complete arsehole. As a department manager he doesn't have so much power over you that he should be able to get away with what sounds basically like bullying. Not that anyone should, of course, but you know what I mean.

I wouldn't fell like a snitch for making a complaint either. This guy seems to have deliberately set out to make other people's lives miserable, which isn't on. There's no reason in the world for you to have to put up with this gooseberry fool when you're just doing your job.

Key his car. Spike his drinks. Leave a horse's head in his bed.

Sounds like Morrisons to me

A bit of advice from you chaps (work related)

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