Dealing with Boss who just doesn't care

Hi All,

I wonder if anyone can give me any tips here,

Mrs Cushtie works in an office where she is the receptionist/PA to the Boss/office administrator/general dogs body.

From what she tells me and from speaking to other people that work there the head honcho is a bean counter with absolutely no people skills whatsoever. Mr Cushtie has been there for over 18 months and for the last 6 has been trying to get said boss to give her her annual review, everyday she asks him and every day he comes up with a different excuse and fobs her off.

Lately he has taken to calling her by the wrong name,

It seems to me he is just trying to wear her down so that she will not ask him anymore

She is at the point now where she will just walk out the door.

When she was offered the position she was told that she would be made permanent in six months (if all worked out) and she would get her first review after six more months

When she was there six months she was made permanent but has yet to be given a proper job description or contract (AFAIK this is against the law) every time she asks for it is the same as above, he fobs her off with some excuse.

Recently a girl has left the company and they have not hired a replacement and looks like they don't intend to, Mrs Cushtie has "inherited" some of this persons duties also.


The place she works is a regional office of a large Irish multinational, should she just go over his head and go to head office, she doesn't want to rock the boat as she has to work with this man everyday

She come home everyday absoloutley shattered and almost in tears. She is practically at breaking point and to tell the truth so am I.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

She come home everyday absoloutley shattered and almost in tears. She is practically at breaking point and to tell the truth so am I.

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No job is worth this. If she can't either (a) do something to improve matters (is there a confidential complaints procedure that might help?) and/or (b) compartmentalise the work issues so that they don't impinge so much on her general wellbeing then I personally reckon that she should start looking for a new job and, if it somes to it, jack the current one in. However she should not doing anything rash particularly if she is finding it difficult to focus and think clearly due to stress/annoyance.

Sympathies

I sympathise with your situation.

Mrs. Ned used to work as a PA to the Boss in two different outfits. Both bosses were bullies and had no respect for those who worked for them.

She has since left the PA game altogether with my full support.

Your other half may wish to look elsewhere for employment. The close relationship between a PA and his/her boss means that a decent personal relationship has to exist, based on mutual respect.

If the boss is a ignorant This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language, then it's very difficult to see a way out other then moving on. The stress that this is clearly doing is doing neither of you any good - I let our similar situation drag on for too long before saying enough was enough.

Ned

Legal Advice

Depending how bad things are, maybe no harm talking to a lawyer - Mrs. Ned received 3 months pay from her last employment as a settlement against taking a case against her former boss.

re

Cushtie, I too sympathise with your situation. I would be in a similar situation to Mrs Cushtie's. No respect given by direct boss, expected to be able to do a million and one things and little or no thanks for it. current boss took over when old boss retired. Old boss was a true gentleman, always nice to me and available to help if I was ever stuck with something. New boss with just over 4 months. It seems to me that he has the impression I do nothing, and he would never think I had enough to do, always adding more to my list of duties, but never adding anymore to my salary.
Anyway, that's slight off point. Every employee is entitled to a contract, written, within two months of starting a job. As far as i know, this is covered under the Terms + Conditions of Employment Act, 1994. Mrs Cushtie should bring this to her boss's attention.
Also, if he is ignoring her, my advice would be for her to take a few days off. It sounds like she is completely stressed out, and I'm sure a doctor would be able to see this. If she brings back in a cert that states 'work related stress' as her condition, then unless the guy is a complete moron, he should sit up and take notice.
I hope it works out for you, I really do. Nothing worse than dreading work and being on the verge of tears each day. Plus it puts a strain on your personal relationships too.
Ned, may I ask what line of work Mrs Ned went into after she left the PA world? If I'm not being too nosey.

Thanks.

Re: re

In relation to one's statutory employment rights the following links might be of interest:


www.entemp.ie/erir/empl2.htm

I'm not saying that this case necessarily shows evidence of bullying or constructive dismissal but if you think that it does then be aware that there is legislation to deal with that sort of stuff.

New career

Don't mind at all Tilly.

She sifted to university administration - far less stressful.

She's currently enjoying a career break looking after our child. I do envy her.

Ned

Hard

I had a boss like that in my last job ,he was not my direct boss but a company director. He for some reason took a dislike to me after sucking up to me initially when everything was going great , because union talks broke down his position was under pressure and looked for scapegoats including me , systems manager ,as progress had halted.

I was told by my boss that i was not wanted by the company and i should leave and get another job. I was fuming after all my work , i was only in the job 10 months
i waited until then 11 months was up which meant that they had to give me 1 months official notice bringing me over the statutory.
PS I was so upset , i cornered the director in the car park one evening , i told him that i would leave but i will be paid off and if that did not happen it would be detrimental to his health , went out on a limb.
The following week i got 4 months salary and agreed to leave with a nicely worded reference signed off by Mr Director , my boss could not believe the payment

American Beauty style.....

By the way i am not suggesting this to anyone..but as above look at the law their is a great deal of free information out there , start with the labour relations.

Re: Hard

i told him that i would leave but i will be paid off and if that did not happen it would be detrimental to his health

...

By the way i am not suggesting this to anyone.

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Yeah - I certainly wouldn't recommend the above approach either. It could result in criminal charges! :eek

Re: Hard

I was in a job situation similar to Mrs. C, I was about to walk when rumours spread of a takeover or downsizing, and 4 weeks later i walked away quite a bit richer (voluntary), but in the 9 months I was there I ended up on anti-depressents, and was generally very miserable to everyone around me, it was a load off to get out.

Ned, we will be in the position soon of Mrs Bear having a career break with baby #1, but to be honest I am not sure i will envy her.......when I walk in the door in the evening I am sure little bear will be thrust into my arms while she goes out for a break.................
Stobear

Hi Cushtie,

Sorry to hear about your wife's work related stress.

As it is always best to have paper back-up in any problem would it not be best if she were to go ahead and request her full job description/annual review in writing and c.c. head office. Don't forget if as you say "She is at the point now where she will just walk out the door" what has she got to lose.

IMHO if he causes a problem over this a short sick leave rest with doctor's stress related note might be a good idea and whilst helping her would also strengthen her case.

He appears to be just a bully.

Thanks to everyone who has given advice so far.

a few weeks ago she sent him a long email outlining her concerns over her increased workload/duties and requested that she meet with him to go through her job description, workload, annual review, sign contract etc. all she got back was a curt one liner along the lines of "I will discuss this with you in the near future".

it's just so frustrating to be trying to deal with someone like that,

""I will discuss this with you in the near future".

As it was a few weeks ago definitely time for a follow-up so with 'receipt' option requested.

No offence but is there any chance that your wife is overreacting? I can understand that chasing the review and clarification of duties etc. may be frustrating it seems a bit extreme to be letting end up in tears. If the duties are too onerous then your wife should simply priortise the most important tasks and do the work to the best of her ability. If task remain that cannot be done then that's hardly her fault. Keeping the boss appraised of the situation, even if he is ostensibly not paying attention, ensures that she has fulfilled her duties/obligations to the best of her abilities. Of course none of this detracts from the fact that your wife should insist on her statutory rights (e.g. contract of employment, reviews if contractually guaranteed, restriction of role to the job description etc.). Similarly if (a long shot perhaps) your wife is suffering from (work related or other) stress or depression then she should certainly make looking after her health the top priority task as mentioned above. I posted some stuff about stress/depression in another topic that you might have seen and might be of interest if relevant. If you can't find it I'll try and root it out.

my first thoughts were that she might be over reacting just a little at first, but from talking to some of her work colleagues I don't think so. one of them that was covering for her for two days a few weeks ago said she did not know how Mrs Cushtie did it.

I have told her that she needs to make sure that her boss is kept update all the time with all developments, everything to be put in writing etc etc and she does this but he just fobs here off all the time. thats the main problem, he will not listen and on the rare occasions that he has he never follows through on promises to rectify the situation.

He is the head man there so where else can she go.

She is afraid if she keeps "bugging" him that he will get pi**ed off with her and get rid her and as she doesn't have a contract.

..

You know anyone who could make him an offer he can't refuse???

Re: ..

He is the head man there so where else can she go.

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You mentioned that going to head office or whatever over his head might be a last resort. I would certainly try that before doing anything rash like jacking the job in. In the meantime, even if the boss doesn't pay any heed she should continue planning her work and keeping tabs on progress (and lack of it if/where relevant) on paper and make sure that he gets a copy (e.g. a weekly activity log and/or task list). Even if he ignores it she is doing more than enough to cover herself in terms of proving that she's doing her job to the best of her ability and any failures are, presumably, largely down to lack of managerial direction. Working to such a plan and keeping an activity log should also help reduce the stress of the work whatever about that caused by your man.

re:.

Hi folks,

Interesting that nobody really suggested joining or contacting the local union (admittedly this may not be possible) in your case.

This does strike me as a form of bullying - there appears to be a pattern of exclusion being done by the boss and to be honest if the organisation does NOT have some sort of policy in dealing with such behaviour and address it, well, I guess it's time to call in the good people of the Labour Court and have a solicitor handy.

Having been at close quarters in a broadly similar ongoing case, I would strongly urge you to take detailed notes of specific incidents that occur or continue to occur. It will be useful for later.

One thing you would need to be clear about is that the Labour Court will be very big on procedure - so whoever doesn't follow it will be in deep doo-doo!

Another thing I can tell you is that if the Labour Court does not find appropriate procedures in place, then they will aboslutely plaster the employer for negilgence and it's worse if the company is a fairly large one!

To be honest, this sort of behaviour is actually quite commonplace - I remember one office saying that oh we don't have bullying - this was because the victim was shunted out! nice eh?

The only good thing is that gradually more and more cases are coming through and the thing with bullies is that they are ultimately cowards and if you pull them up once, the usually crawl back under the stone!

Anyway, hang tough! I know it's unpleasant but I'd take this to the nth degree - it will be worth it in the long run.

OpusnBill

Tape

Tapeworms example i think is when someone cracks and who knows what could happen then, dont recommend that approach but i admire the BALLS!!!!!!!!!!

Weekly staff meetings.

There are many jobs where the old familiar boss retires and is replaced with a new boss. The new boss immediately sees things that need to be changed, in his eyes for the better. Maybe his head office have told him to shake the place up a bit, maybe it needs it.
The first thing that staff do is react negatively because no one likes change. Maybe the chats, the cigarette breaks, the long coffee breaks, the reading of magazines, the sloppiness that in the past were taken for granted are no longer allowed.
The boss needs to communicate these changes to his staff by holding regular meetings etc. If he makes to many changes to soon and does not communicate with his staff then he comes across as a bully or aggressive.

However the word "bully" is being over used by staff who simply do not like the new manager.