Hi Ya

This is an experiment, blogging from my desk at work, though my home page.
Its been a difficult day as we lost internet connection for most of the day ( it came back just now) as most of our systems rely on the use of the internet, we were reduced to using back ups and recording on word. since we gave up the ghost at 3.30, not much work has been done except to muddle through with those poor souls who struggled through the torrential downpours to get to us. I know its not monsoon weather according to those who have experienced the real thing, but it seems a reasonable subsitiute to me.

Oh dear

Iwas asked today to read the statement of one of my colleagues involved in the grievance procedure. suffice it to say i was shocked at the treatment they had received from our sacked colleague. as the fallout rumbles on, many have commented that they were dismayed at the sacking, because the sacked one had been good at the job. Although one did say that it reminded them of slightly similar occurance some time ago and went on to say that you can never tell.
The report also included some things that had apparently been said against me and another worker, questioning our competance etc,
I'm the first to admit to not being perfect, it still surprises me that others are willing to work with me and take advice from me, but, the other worker, well thats different, they are a highly skilled compteant worker, whom i respect. and fully deserve to be where they are.

A long standing worker of over 14 years retired today, its very sad to see someone leave, i know we are not getting any younger, but Brian was always unfailingly polite, very hard working and accepted me and all the others we worked with, with our varing degrees of ability. I felt, feel very sad, but we move on and i look forward to seeing him at the christmas party.
I think i was feeling particularly emotional as my dog was in the vets all day with a suspected dislocated shoulder-after two xrays and lots of tlc it turned out to be a bad sprain, the only downside is she cant go any distance for 2 weeks-she's not going to like that!

Just another monday

My turn today to advice session superviser, oh joy. 5 debt cases, an employment one, a misselling of endowment/investment, an insurance complaint, bankruptcy forms and half a dozen sugnpostings-no one looks in the phone book anymore. and one adviser phoned in sick with swine flu, apparently its quite easy to get the tamiflu, she just phoned up and asked for it.

same again tomorrow i suspect.

now the fall out

I have been so busy since my last post, Wednesday. Things with the colleague worsened, there was a secret meeting and we were asked not to get to work before 9.30 on Thursday. well when i got to work, i was told the **** had been fired. management were all a bit shell shocked and are now trying to find someone to take over the work.
This is where it got more difficult in some ways as stuff started creeping out of the woodwork. ie jobs they had not completed, work just not done, strange documents on the project laptop. distressed people contacting us because they were expecting stuff to have happened that hadn't.

In amounst this was all the usual enquiries; old lady: my daughters got me to sign something and now she owns my house. young family we can't pay our bills, single parent domestic violence victim, overpayment of benefits.
on wards and upwards.

Well I never did

Just yesterday had a fairly common enquiry, i've got toothache where can i get an nhs dentist? we went to the nhs direct web site, where you can usually find this info and stone me, the WHOLE site is devoted to pig flu- we could only conclude that for the duration of the pandemic, no one in england and wales will have anything else wrong with them. NHS choices was a bit more useful, at least after you had waded thru all the swine flu crap you could get a list of every dentist registered in our area. So the achey toothed client was left to phone round.
I hope no one out there needs to find out if they have appendicitis, or if their kid had measles!
The colleague problem refuses to go away, one person of sick with stress? I'm not sleeping and I know for a fact that nor is the manager. I'm not cofident of a happy outcome, think I will go see the doc myself, if i can get through the swine flu halt and lame.

Just another Friday

Todays questions were the usual stuff,benefit,debt,how can a landlord get more money out of a tenant. The bully didnt come in today,but phoned to say they wpild be in Monday. Oh deep joy. still dont know what is going to happen. jist have to wait and see.

What can you do?

I work for an independent advice giving organisation this you would think would be the perfect place to work and have your rights protected. You would be mistaken. This shonky organisation cares only for its reputation. If a colleague calls you a liar, thats considered fine. If that colleague bullies other workers, thats also fine.

I'm not sure how I can continue to help our volunteers give advice to people about work issues and not feel it stick in my throat.

Let me tell you what I mean.

Just over two weeks ago I witnessed a "colleague" embark on a rant about the quality of a volunteers work. Shouting the odds to another colleague, in the open office, with other people in ear shot. Now I am not saying there was no cause for them to complain, only that they chose to act in a manner which is contrary to our organisations dignity at work/anti bullying policy. This person is physically intimidating and frequently has driven others into tears. Because of the nature of this "persons" behaviour, no one has been willing to make a complaint.
I decided to take that step, and approached a member of the management, and after some discussion I agreed to think about making a formal complaint. As I left the meeting another colleague approached me and asked for a confidential chat. They then told me a catalogue of events, with this person being relentlessly bullied by the "colleague". But they did not want to talk to management. I felt that I had not choice but to mention this when I went back with my formal statement.
I was later informed that there would be an investigation of my complaint and I was aware that other colleagues were interviewed, including those present at the incident I had raised.

Today there was a meeting with the "colleague" and a manager. It would appear he was also intimidated by this person, to the extent that he took her word that nothing happened. He said lawyers had advised him that as "all these things had happened in the past", there was nothing he could do.

This happened on a day when i helped 4 people with their debts, one person with a complaint about a bank, and discussed introducing a new way of helping people with debt.

If I said I was pissed off, it would be a bit of an understatement, not sure what to do, so I thought I would blog it from day to day and see where it takes me