23-06-2013, 06:20 PM
Lenneth,
You have always seemed to be a very nice person who can be quite feisty in support of what you believe: but you have unluckily fallen foul of an all too common type of bully, who cannot resist trying to put down anyone whom they perceive as fitting their prejudices or belonging to some category of people they despise. This type of victimisation is by no means unique to our own situation, but extends right across the board whenever such a bully perceives a potential victim, however unreasonably. Congratulations on the actions you took, but like you I doubt they will get you the action they should.
From an employer’s point of view, such people poison the work environment but present a real problem to deal with, since they are usually not readily reformed. It is most often difficult or impossible to gather the type of evidence that will support a dismissal for cause, and dismissal without cause becomes increasingly expensive the longer the person concerned has been employed , and may be effectively excluded by a collective agreement. The employer ought to bite the bullet and pay the penalty for a bad hire, but this rarely happens and requires an unusually ruthless HR person with full management support.
This thread also raises another interesting but somewhat OT issue - how does one complain about the conduct of a corporate employee gracefully but effectively? A few people seem able to achieve this somehow; most of us fail miserably, either by suffering in silence (my own weakness far too often), or by becoming too aggressive too quickly with the wrong people (my wife’s failing), although I have too admit that she has on occasion produced startling results, both good and bad. My own experience with dissatisfied clients or customers (including myself) is that most of the time they don’t complain. They just vote with their feet and like you will, go elsewhere next time.
You have always seemed to be a very nice person who can be quite feisty in support of what you believe: but you have unluckily fallen foul of an all too common type of bully, who cannot resist trying to put down anyone whom they perceive as fitting their prejudices or belonging to some category of people they despise. This type of victimisation is by no means unique to our own situation, but extends right across the board whenever such a bully perceives a potential victim, however unreasonably. Congratulations on the actions you took, but like you I doubt they will get you the action they should.
From an employer’s point of view, such people poison the work environment but present a real problem to deal with, since they are usually not readily reformed. It is most often difficult or impossible to gather the type of evidence that will support a dismissal for cause, and dismissal without cause becomes increasingly expensive the longer the person concerned has been employed , and may be effectively excluded by a collective agreement. The employer ought to bite the bullet and pay the penalty for a bad hire, but this rarely happens and requires an unusually ruthless HR person with full management support.
This thread also raises another interesting but somewhat OT issue - how does one complain about the conduct of a corporate employee gracefully but effectively? A few people seem able to achieve this somehow; most of us fail miserably, either by suffering in silence (my own weakness far too often), or by becoming too aggressive too quickly with the wrong people (my wife’s failing), although I have too admit that she has on occasion produced startling results, both good and bad. My own experience with dissatisfied clients or customers (including myself) is that most of the time they don’t complain. They just vote with their feet and like you will, go elsewhere next time.