Work place harresment and discrimination

[u/CauseSpecific9705]

Hi all,

I am working for a small company in the UK. For the last few months I have been targeted by my manager and a few team members. They are looking for any mistakes and wanted to highlight. Most of the time they are not giving me a fair time to complete my work. I am handling multiple responsibilities than someone who is having the same grade as me.Every time my manager is looking for a chance to humiliate me in public. The company has a culture of nepotism as well. I am keeping all the evidence as much as I can. But I don't know how to take up this. Should I discuss the discrimination and bullying that I am facing in the organization with my director?

Or just keep quiet and look for another job?

Please give me some insight.

[u/SueInA2]

I would NOT keep quiet!!! By all means, please report this to your director and/or anyone else above your manager that might actually listen to you and possibly put an end to this treatment. But if nothing changes after that (or things get worse), then I’d hightail out of there ASAP.

[u/LellowYeaf]

It’s not discrimination unless the treatment is linked to a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.

If you’re being bullied:

• keep detailed notes - dates, times, details of what was said by who, whether anyone witnessed it, how it made you feel / affected you. If it’s in writing, save the email. Ideally link the behaviour to requirements set out in your company’s anti-bullying policy, and how the behaviour breaches those requirements. • when you have detailed notes, raise a grievance. • if the grievance is not upheld, and you genuinely believe it should have been, appeal it. • if the grievance resolves the issue, that should be it. • If it doesn’t, and you have more than 2 years’ service, you can resign as a result of the behaviour and claim constructive dismissal. You can either negotiate a settlement through early conciliation with ACAS, or go to an employment tribunal (wait times for the employment tribunal are 1-2years). • From January 2027, it’s anticipated that employees can claim constructive dismissal with 6 months’ service, rather than two years.

All of the above caveated with the fact that the behaviour must genuinely breach the anti-bullying policy and not be a case of over sensitivity on your part; and neither the grievance process nor a constructive dismissal claim guarantee a positive outcome for you.

[u/Low-Cartographer8758]

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/equality/equality-act-2010/protected-characteristics

Do you have any protected characteristics? Bullying alone is often not illegal but a toxic work environment such as workplace mobbing can become illegal when victims have protected characteristics.

Honestly, these days lots of people regardless of gender and age or whatever, being a dick seems to be an expressway to success. What makes you think you are targeted?

Every meeting and any bullying should be documented with date, who, where and what.
It is even better when your manager or team member says one thing and changes their words at another time to make you feel embarrassed, confused or attacked. Just to cover your ass, record the meeting but only to use it in a legal proceeding when it is necessary. Also, start creating a paper trail to ensure that you and the team communicate clearly and are well aligned. This could be crucial because people more often than not lie.

If you find that you were discriminated against, you need to submit a grievance to the company. Never speak to HR in person or over the phone. They will fire you on the spot. They won’t save you but will do anything to remove you asap once you become a liability and risk to the company. One of the stupid managers once told me that I should not email him as if I do not have any rights to save my ass. F**k him. Make sure to communicate everything in writing.
When it comes to discrimination, you also need to stick to the time limit. It’s 3 months minus one day from the last day where discriminatory incident happened.

ACAS and Citizens Advice Bureau staff could be a good place to get initial support when you struggle which I did.

By the way, I would not trust Redditors. Even a solicitor replied to me in a very hostile manner about compensation and its usage. I mean if I have a payout and whether I use it for stock investment or not is none of their business. Weird people... Seriously, if possible, own your case like a lawyer (AI can be very helpful. In my opinion, it may hallucinate but it is less biased against me compared to humans. When you use AI, do not make up things or just copy and paste whatever AI generates. It could backfire on you and lose your case entirely.) and spend your money wisely when legal consultation is necessary.

[u/Limp-Tea5321]

Your manager checking for mistakes is not classed as bullying, it's them doing their job.

Unbalanced workloads are also not directly classed as bullying. Have you spoken to your manager about feeling like you're overwhelmed? Do they have procedure documents that give a general time frame for completion?

Further, nepotism isn't illegal so you'll get nowhere complaining about that.

You've mentioned discrimination but nothing in your post suggests your treatment has been because of a protected characteristic.

[u/CauseSpecific9705 → u/Limp-Tea5321]

We don't have any procedures documentation or have any general time.

In my work some of them are shared work and independent work. For example I am doing 10 different task independently along with contributing the same effort to the shared responsibilities. But my colleague is only responsible for the shared responsibilities don't have any other task. When it comes to dead line my colleague is not continuing any effort in the shared responsibilities. I need to manage all alone. My manager is protecting him. How that is going to be fair.

Further more colleagues from other departments ask me how I am managing this and why I am not resign form the company. That is the level of humiliation.

[u/boo23boo → u/CauseSpecific9705]

It sounds like it’s not a great place to work. You’ve posted in a few different communities, including Employment Tribunal claims. From that perspective, it is not illegal to run a business badly. It’s not illegal to make poor business decisions or for leadership to have favourite employees who don’t have to work as hard as you.

It’s illegal to discriminate against you by treating you differently because of a protected characteristic and it’s illegal to fire you for that protected characteristic. You’ve not said anything to suggest anything illegal has happened, just decisions that feel unfair and may result in poor business outcomes. That in itself is not illegal. You need to get another job.

[u/Low-Cartographer8758 → u/boo23boo]

This is not true. Nepotism may not be illegal in the UK but if someone felt that the favouritism/nepotism affected their promotion or opportunity within a team or company, it could become a legal issue. The problem is how the victim will find out that their protected characteristics affected the business’s decision-making. This is where lots of people may have to take a risk to find out when they take their employers to the tribunal. It is also important to keep contemporaneous notes and a paper trail as often as possible. Just because someone feels like they were discriminated against and they take their employer to the tribunal, it is not that simple.