My Blue Experience.
I started working for this supermarket in November (2017) as a delivery Driver and within the first week, I started to become a victim of Bullying by the other Drivers. I decided to ‘let them get on with it’ (I had far more important issues going on) but within a few days, Babs, a Senior Manager at the Store became involved and the bullying was taken to a completely different level. The Bullying went on for quite a few months and while I was going through that experience, I started noticing a number of other serious issues that were taking place and affecting other people within the department (most of which I have described in the first letter I gave to Sally (Store Manager- to follow)
In addition to that Bullying, before I was able to give the 1st Letter to Sally, I was put through a number of events I believe were to encourage me to leave this Company. To help you to understand, I am now jumping ahead to April (2018) so that I can take you through some of the experiences I went through;
At the beginning of April (2018) I started to have an issue with my Back, on my next day off, I went for a Massage in the hope it would resolve the problem- it didn’t, My Back got worse. I then went for treatment with an Osteotherapist in the hope of resolving the issue quickly but I was informed ‘my Spine had twisted,’ (I had 10 follow up treatments at a personal cost of around £500) During that treatment, I returned to working ‘unaided’ but, it soon became clear that I had done so too early, causing the problem to reoccur. Eventually (end of June) I needed to seek help from a Doctor, where I was referred to a Physiotherapist and put on Pain killers that ‘switch off’ the Nerve Endings.
(As I mentioned, I had previously broken my Ankle and although I had completed all of the Physio treatment, I was also supposed to join a Gym to use a running machine and do the final bit of strengthening however, when I started this job, I convinced myself, I was probably getting enough exercise at work (in & out of Vans and carrying heavy shopping up steps to flats etc.) and that would get me through until I received some wages and improved my Cashflow. Unfortunately, because I was distracted by the issues I was experiencing and moving home and also the amount of overtime I was doing, I completely forgot about the Gym and It turned out, my body was making me keep the weight off that Ankle by making me lean to one side and where I had been lifting the heavy shopping ‘off balance,’ it had caused my Spine to twist. Over the next few months, I was restricted to ‘light duties’ and was given assistance with the deliveries.
In the 1st Letter you will read, after crossing paths with Babs on a Monday and eventually being passed on to Helen, I then arrived at work on the Wednesday Evening to find I had not been allocated on the Drivers Route plan (without any notice) and eventually, after waiting for an hour, I was taken for an ‘Absence Review Meeting.’ at the end of that meeting and after we had stopped making written recordings of the questions and answers, Helen said to me “you might want to consider another line of work” which I found to be highly inappropriate. It was at this point; I made the connection that this had emanated from Babs and it was her taking indirect steps (with her Bullying) to encourage me to leave my employment. For me, Babs had now ‘crossed the line,’ after observing the other issues in the department and the people that had been affected and now her escalating behaviour towards me, it was clear, she was ‘out of control’ and she needed to be stopped (I wasn’t going to be confrontational but, I also wasn’t going to ‘stand by’ and watch anymore of her behaviour).
In the meantime, I carried on with my work, (I have a very professional approach to work) and despite the Bullying, I had remained completely approachable and as accommodating as possible with everyone. At the end of May, during a conversation in Costa Coffee with Helen (Dotcom Manager) I agreed to working ‘unassisted’ with a light route- (although I was still ‘signed off’ by the Doctor to be on ‘Light duties’) because Helen had concerns regarding the on-going cost of providing me with assistance- I didn’t mind, so long as the Managers were going to be sensible about it (especially Babs), we agreed up to a maximum weight of 500kg and if there were heavy drops to flats etc, we would address it or assistance would be given.
A couple of weeks later, towards the middle of June, I arrived at work to find it was a very quiet day (possibly due to one of the royal weddings or the football) most Drivers had been allocated between 6 & 10 drops but there was one route with 18 drops that had been allocated to Ronald (Driver). When Ronald saw he had been given so many drops compared to the other Drivers, he lost his composure and proceeded to walk out of the store to go home (there had been many issues where the long-term Drivers were continuously being allocated the best of the vehicles (‘their’ Van) and the smallest of the workloads) Babs became aware of Ronald’s issue and brought him back into ‘turnaround’ where she took 6 drops from his route and allocated them on to my route.
I didn’t have a problem with that (I prefer to be kept busy) but, I took the opportunity to ask Babs if she was going to make changes to routes for everyone else when the allocation wasn’t fair (it was a normal discussion, I simply asked the question without any animosity or attitude) Babs kept referring me back to the extra drops she had given to me and I kept explaining, the extra drops were not an issue for me, I just wanted to know if she was going to reallocate drops for everyone if the route allocations were unfair (Bab’s actions with Ronald were reactionary and showed her lack of understanding of how the department and allocations work- if you are on a route in a Town centre, then you will have more drops because of the Postcode and the volume of houses within it.
Ronald completed his route and was back at the Store by 11:30am, one of the earliest to finish) then Mary (Assistant Manager- talking to Babs, but clearly directed at me) interrupted with a ‘extremely bad tone of contempt’ and said “why are we even having this discussion,” this made Babs straighten her back and take a step back, Babs then called me out of the ‘turnaround’ area and ‘told me off’ for my bad attitude and she didn’t appreciate me ‘challenging’ her in front of other staff (there wasn’t any bad attitude- I simply asked a civil, but relevant question). After returning to my van (feeling put out) I found a general message on the drivers group App. From Babs, which seemed to me, to be a confrontational message relevant to the issues I had just had with Babs (I hadn’t noticed it had been sent a short while before we had our clash- my Phone is always kept in the van while I’m loading) I responded politely but directly to that message which then led to a few further messages (Babs wouldn’t let it go, she was determined to ‘impose’ her authority onto me by having the last word).
After leaving the store, I had just completed my first delivery, and the messages were still arriving, I messaged Babs back and said “I’m not responding to your messages anymore, you’re making me angry and I don’t want to have an accident, “I immediately received a phone call from Babs instructing me to return to the store (which I was happy to do). When I arrived back at the Store, Babs was waiting for me outside the doors to the ‘turnaround’ area with a Union rep. and I was prominently escorted to the Store Manager’s (Sally) office.
When we started the meeting, Sally (looking at me) said “I don’t understand how someone like you has ended up here,” Babs, clearly struggling to produce something that I had done wrong managed to come out with “I find Steve to be very Challenging,” I then replied “challenging- that’s a good ‘power word’ Babs” and as I said that, I was suddenly taken by surprise when I became overwhelmed with anger and announced “we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for your Managers Bullying” (it was clear Babs really didn’t know why we were in that Office and she was doing her best to come up with something to justify the situation).
Still angry, I was given the chance to calm down and led to another room for 5-10 minutes. When I returned, Sally said “you made some very serious allegations, do you want to pursue them” and I replied “no” (in my mind, I had put a ‘shot across the bow’ for Babs and also made Sally aware, there was a serious problem- I didn’t want to go as far as to make it official because that would have meant affecting other people and putting them into an uncomfortable position). I then spoke up and said “Babs, I’m an adult, I have an opinion and I will express it” (and the whole room ‘gasped’ in surprise at that statement).
I should never have ended up in Sally’s Office, this started as a normal conversation with my Manager that was provoked by Mary and escalated out of control by Babs trying to impose her authority over me. (later, I realised I had lost my composure because Babs had tried to ‘control me’- as though I was a small child- it was ‘extremely repressive’ behaviour). During that meeting, I also made Sally aware of the unfair practices that were happening in the department which Babs denied, so I suggested to Sally, if she didn’t believe me, she should go and ‘talk’ to the Drivers herself (informally- face to face) After the meeting ended, I went home- losing pay for that day. I think it was the next day- ‘Driver review meetings’ were being rolled out (the long-term Drivers told me; these reviews had never happened before in their service time of over 4years).