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Bullied in my old job?

Recently, I worked for a Menswear store called Open.

I assisted in putting the shop together from the very beginning, and my job title was Supervisor, and the young lady that offered me the job told me that I was on a minimum 20 hour contract.

Everything began brilliantly, despite the fact that I had no supervisory duties, I was merely a glorified shopfitter/stockroom assistant, but I could deal with that.

One day, I was asked to work late into the evening, alone, to oversee the work of two contractors, and get some jobs done myself. Now, I had the keys to the store, which I should not have been allowed to have, and the contractors left the store at around 8pm, leaving me to work alone (surely this should not have happened?)

I remained in the store until 1am, and then cycled home to get some rest before coming back in at 9am.

My Store Manager approached me and asked if I had moved a fire extinguisher, which I can assure you all that I absolutely did not. What an incompetent thing to do?

I told her that I hadn't, and she went on to say that a fire extinguisher was moved from its stored position, and was used to prop open the door to the ladies toilets (which were being painted by the contractors...) and I again told her, in adamant fashion that I had not touched any fire extinguisher.

Now. Open is part of JD group, which own JD Sports, and I had trained at JD Sports prior to the opening of the Open store. (Sounds like a riddle this does...)

I became friends with the staff and manager at JD Sports, and even spoke to some of them via Whatsapp. The JD assistant manager sent me a message via Whatsapp, that specifically mentioned my working in the store until 1am, that I had moved a fire extinguisher and that I had accomplished none of the tasks set for me by my store manager, and that I had actually lied about the extinguisher.

1. How did she know all of that?
2. How unfair to say that I'd accomplished nothing, despite working my backside off that night.

I discovered that my Store Manager had been discussing me in depth with the JD Store Manager.

Surely this is a severe case of a lack of professionalism by a store manager?
It left me feeling awkward upon my return to work.

I gradually began to notice that I was being treated differently by my manager, who often had a smug look on her face when she looked at me.

My hours were cut to 4 a week, another male member of staff was sacked, and every female member of staff had lots of hours, including the other 2 supervisors which I allegedly had identical contracts to.

I asked my Store Manager if we could have a chat and clear the air. She admitted going to JD in confidence to discussing me (that failed) and she admitted not believing what I had said about the fire extinguisher. She said that the cut in hours was a business decision and nothing personal...

I recorded all of this on my phone...

I've since left the company, due to feeling unwelcome and uncomfortable in the role.

Can I escalate this?

I should never have had the keys to the store
I should never have been accused of being a liar
I should never have been working alone
I should never have had the drop in hours
I should never have heard from another store that my manager had been discussing me.

My apologies from poor grammar.

Can anyone help or point me in the right direction?

Reply 1

tinkerbelle2

Hi, your grammar wasn't poor at all, it was good! :smile:

, I am no expert on this issue and haven't had a huge amount of work experience, but I am currently in a similar situation. Especially can relate to the bit about working your backside off and still being told tasks are incomplete or not done as asked etc...
You stayed on to help them out and they showed no appreciation. It's a lack of common decency on their part.
I definitely think you can escalate this. Have you contacted HR?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

doodle_333

you could have raised a grievance while you were with the company however I don't imagine you'll have many options now

what I would say about what happened is:
1. what did you do when you were given keys/left alone? you could only complain if you kicked up a big fuss at the time and were told you'd be fired if you didn't agree or something
2. why didn't you leave with the contractors if you didn't want to be alone? if you weren't meant to be alone your manager couldn't have complained that you did so
3. as for the fire extinguisher in my opinion you would have been responsible whoever moved it and you should have made sure it stayed where it was meant to
4. your manager shouldn't have been discussing you with other people unless it was her own line manager for advice so that was clearly inappropriate and it was made worse as the other manager should not have got involved either
5. if you are contracted to certain hours you have to be given those hours (or at least paid for them!) so it was illegal for them to not give the hours

in future if something like this happens you are expected to keep a record (e,g. of each instance in which your manager is rude or demonstrates favoritism of other staff) and then you need to bring it up with your manager and if that is ineffective follow your companies grievance procedures