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| Date: |
02 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Anon ()
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| Company: |
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| Agreed. Steel yourself for the internal grievance procedure. It is worth the fight if you have a good claim! |
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| Date: |
02 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Jane ()
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| Company: |
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| A futher cautionary word to those considering taking their employers to tribunal: even if you are aware of documentary evidence of unfair selection procedures (such as a 'redundancy hitlist' produced before your appraisals were undertaken, when your appraisals have been cited as the reason for your selection) the bank will move heaven and earth not to disclose the document, even with properly executed Subject Access Requests under the Data Protection Act 1998. They'll say 'the document has not been found' which is, of course, not at all the same thing as 'the document does not and did not exist'. Even appealing to the Information Commissioner will not help (they're swamped with similar claims). It's an uphill battle to obtain the truth from an employer hell-bent on concealing it. You have been warned... |
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| Date: |
02 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Undisclosed ()
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| Company: |
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| A startling thing about the internal grievance procedure is how little an employer has to prove to make a case for your dismissal. But when it comes to challenging the decision, you have to provide very strong evidence to make the grievance panel take you seriously. Once a bank has decided to get rid of you they will make a lot of personal and professional allegations against you with little or no evidence to back it up. So use the grievance procedure to stand up for yourself and point out how weak their evidence is. It is a very empowering experience and does make the bank more keen to be seen to follow fair procedure |
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| Date: |
02 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Anonymous ()
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| Company: |
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| If you have to raise a grievance against a bank, be prepared to fight alone. None of your colleagues will support you and will probably give evidence against you to try to undermine your credibility. Don't take it personally when you read their statements, even if you know the comments are false. A bank will have great power to influence witnesses in the internal grievance procedure, but if a case does go to the Employment Tribunal witnesses get nervous and feel more uncomfortable about lying under oath. The legal process is not easy, but does recognise there is an inequality in bargaining power and a high degree of bias in the grievance outcome decisions |
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| Date: |
02 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Been there! ()
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| Company: |
|
| Don't be scared to shop around for a solicitor. Quite often regional lawyers will only cost £80 vs £250 for city lawyers. But when it comes to negotiating with the bank, a City firm will have far more experience and be able to secure you a better deal. Solicitors generally work on an hourly rate, no win/no fee (where they take about 30% of your settlement) or fixed fee (where you pay a fixed sum and they will only invest a certain number of hours on your case). You only get what you pay for. Given the size of the potential settlement, it may be wise to spend a little more. Always check if you have legal insurance, which could save you a packet if the bank decides to put up a lengthy fight. It is quite normal for banks to settle on the court steps, hoping you would have run out of money by then or lost your nerve! |
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| Date: |
02 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Anon ()
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| Company: |
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| If your redundancy is potentially related to your health, be very careful about talking to the company's occupational health department. They have a strong relationship with the bank and may well try to undermine your case. Make detailed notes even at meetings with the company health advisors and always seek independent medical advice (on a regular basis if you have a condition impacting your work) |
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| Date: |
02 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Anon ()
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| Company: |
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| HR know employees are quite emotionally vulnerable when their employment is threatened. HR often plays on this by implying that you will be treated better by the company if you go quietly. Bank's don't like grievances and will put a lot of psychological pressure on you not to submit a grievance, knowing that if you don't submit a grievance in time it will be very difficult for you to pursue a legal claim against them. Be careful to make notes of all your "confidential discussions" with HR, often they are not very confidential and are fed back to your manager/other parties the grievance will impact. HR will often deny they details of their discussions with you because it shows they were notified of certain breaches of duty of care to you, so keep your notes and don't rely on anyone to back you up! The old expression "you have no friends in banking" is very true in this type of situation! |
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| Date: |
02 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Anonymous ()
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| Company: |
|
| US banks are used to a litigatious environment, so are likely to be more careful to formally follow the appropriate dismissal/redundancy procedure, even if their substantive reasons were not lawful. European banks tend to be more relaxed about the legalities, but that doesn't mean they are easy targets. They often assume European employees don't want to go to court either, so will not actually go through with the threat of litigation. You may find yourself in for a big fight to make them realise you mean business! |
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| Date: |
03 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
new york law related ? ()
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| Company: |
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| any comments about new york law related claim ? |
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| Date: |
03 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
John Saunders ()
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| Company: |
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| Be very careful about suing your employer. If you are looking to retire, then fine but if you are mid-career, then no amount of redundancy payment will make up for what will turn out to be a scuppered career. In other words, no employer likes to find out that you have taken legal action in your past and you will find yourself in the unenviable position of never getting beyond 2nd interview stage anywhere. |
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| Date: |
03 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Anon ()
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| Company: |
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| I understand John's comment. But it very much depends on the facts of the case. There are many good employers out there and people know certain groups of employees are always more vulnerable |
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| Date: |
03 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Undisclosed ()
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| Company: |
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| I disagree with John. Many individuals face real discrimination in the work place. It takes a few brave individuals to speak out and make a real change in working practices. For such individuals it is often not a case of suing because of the financial benefits, it is about improving standards for many other people who face the same discrimination at work. If no one is willing to fight nothing will ever improve |
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| Date: |
03 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Jane ()
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| Company: |
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| John, while I'd agree with your comments in general, it isn't always the case: we've pursued a very large global bank for misdemeanours for several years. The last time we had to attend a High Court appearance and other half had to take half a day off work, his present employer actually wished him luck - and said that he respected the stand taken against dirty tricks and cheap corner-cutting. He also said that the law is a lottery. He was right - we lost, but it hasn't had an impact on other half's employment. Decent employers realise that the City is full of dodgy characters and abysmal managers, and that sometimes you have to stand up for the truth. Those who don't are, quite simply, not worth working for. |
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| Date: |
03 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Anonymous ()
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| Company: |
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| I think John is being a bit harsh! It is totally irrelevant whether you took an employer to court, unless it was for some vexatious reason. Many people suffer real damage at the hands of their employers, due to bullying, discrimination etc. It can push many people into depression, consider suicide etc. Why should the victim be victimised further, when even people with convictions against them can find employment in banking (unless it is relevant to their position) |
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| Date: |
03 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
MS ()
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| Company: |
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| Good to hear you are doing well Jane. I've heard so many people say if you complain about the bank you'll never work again. Quite often it is just to scare people into putting up with the status quo, however bad it is. I agree also that if no one speaks out, nothing will improve for other employees |
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| Date: |
03 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Helen Colquhoun ()
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| Company: |
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| As a dual qualified (NY/UK) employment lawyer, my experience is that US banks can often ride roughshod over UK grievance and redundancy procedures, purely because similar statutory protections do not exist in the US and they are therefore blissfully unaware of them until it the deed is done. US employers are constantly amazed to learn about the statutory procedures they are supposed to follow, and are all too used to simply being able to terminate employees on no notice, for no apparent reason and with no pay-off (unless of course there are express contractual protections to the contrary). |
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| Date: |
03 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Jane ()
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| Company: |
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| Dear MS, whoever you may be, thank you for your comment. Be assured that the battle will not be abandoned without a satisfactory result for the other half. Too decent a bloke (which is why he was targeted) and too much a gentleman, they picked him because they thought he was 'easy meat'. Well, he wasn't. We won't give up until we have absolute truth. Banks perhaps need to realise that you don't make a person redundant. You affect an entire family. And some of us are mad, obsessive, determined and feisty characters. |
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| Date: |
03 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Anon ()
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| Company: |
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| A very impressive list of anons... now why should I buck the trend. |
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| Date: |
04 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Undisclosed ()
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| Company: |
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| I understand the challenges faced by multinationals, however, given many banks have a well established UK presence, with HR and Employee Relations professionals to support personnel management, there is no excuse for their "ignorance of the law”. It is quite concerning that when an employee approaches HR for support with enforcing their rights, HR will just deny liability. I was attacked at work by a senior member of my team, which was extremely distressing. A week later I found my employment terminated without pay, in contrast my attacker was supported by the bank because he was more senior. I was lucky that this bank had to disclose my Subject Access Request for technical reasons, which revealed serious evidence of bullying and discrimination going back some time before the attack. I think it is wrong for anyone to suggest I should be further discriminated against by prospective employers because I was attacked at work and had to complain about it. The UK Data Protection Act is in need of reform to ensure employers can’t just waive compliance in the majority of cases. Disclosure would allow employers to show they have followed a fair procedure in terminating staff |
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| Date: |
04 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Fiona ()
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| Company: |
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| I think the discussion here is very useful in raising awareness of the unfairness of employee dismissal procedures. A couple of years ago I found myself in an unfair dismissal situation and I stood my ground. Contrary to what John suggests I managed to move from a 2nd Tier to a Top Tier bank and have successfully rebuilt my career. I have kept the reason for my move private because there are still a lot of narrow minded people in the City, who don't face sexual or racial discrimination so may not realise how serious it is. I hope speaking out will stop people being intimidated by the notion that standing up for themselves will end their career in banking. I don't think anyone is suggesting people should engage in frivolous litigation, but if a bank treats you unfairly you have a right to complain. Without people willing to take a risk, banks will be able to continue getting away with non compliance with the law |
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| Date: |
04 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
JD ()
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| Company: |
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| Compromise agreements are a licence for banks to get away with murder, gaging the employee from disclosing the details which gave rise to liability by the bank. In some cases there is a public interest in taking the case further to ensure the banks do not consider themselves above the law! |
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| Date: |
04 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Jane ()
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| Company: |
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| The real bugbear is the cap imposed on unfair dismissal payouts. I think it hovers somewhere around the £70,000 mark. You can be awarded much higher damages if you can claim any of the discrimination clauses, but a straightforward white male is stuck with the £70k figure, irrespective of how badly he has been treated by his employer. When you consider that this is not even close to the earnings of a reasonably experienced banker, it creates a situation where the more experienced and high earning employees are disproportionately affected by redundancy - and it also creates an environment for the banks where culling their higher achievers (and earners) makes short term sense. There should be more lobbying to get the cap raised to reflect the salaries of those affected in the City. |
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| Date: |
04 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Mary S (Formerly MS) ()
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| Company: |
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| Hi Jane, I read your comments with interest. I think it is extremely brave the way you challenged your employer. I can understand why so many people on this site want to protect their anonymity. You don't get much support when you're up against a bank. It is unfortunately that there is no union representation. With collective bargaining power, it would not be so intimidating or costly for employees to protect their rights at work |
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| Date: |
04 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Jane ()
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| Company: |
|
| Mary, thank you again. I wouldn't say it was brave to stand up to the bank - perhaps foolhardy, given the way we've been treated ever since. But I do believe you should fight for the things you believe in. In fact it was my husband treated abysmally by the bank - I rather suspect that most banks wouldn't want to hire me, given my outspoken stroppiness...I'm writing a book on our experiences, so I'll ask eFinancialCareers to plug it when it's published! |
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| Date: |
04 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Ex ML ()
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| Company: |
|
| As a highflyer at a US bank in London for over 5 years, things started going badly for me when I moved to a new department where my line manager was very weak and another senior manager in the area was keen on making sexual jokes towards me. Because the firm had paid for my MBA to the tune of £30k I could not leave and had to endure this environment for a year. It was very tough and demoralising to go from being a top performer to this. After making a complaint, HR "investigated" but nothing changed. The manager who was making sexual jokes remained employed and I was sidelined from further work, which I brought to the attention of HR again. After this, I was selected for redundancy on the basis that I was the weakest member of the team. When I asked for information on how I was selected, I was given a printout with one line of a spreadsheet with scores of 0/20 against each criteria. It was all nonsense.
Lessons learnt: HR is always there to protect the firm and HR staff will look you in the eye and lie and cheat, as will your own managers. I made a subject access request but nothing was done. Firms know they can do this as the Information Commissioner can't really help. |
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| Date: |
04 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Jane ()
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| Company: |
|
| Dear ex ML, sorry to hear about your awful story. Sadly, it's more the case that the Information Commissioner WON'T help, rather than can't. We've asked them twice to intervene in our case. They insist that the information we seek 'can't be found' - when we know the name of the law firm holding a compromise agreement specifically gagging the employee to whom the data was inadvertently sent. Doesn't get more open and shut than that in terms of data abuse, really). Yet the IC insists that they will not take action (ahem, it is 'inappropriate at this time'). Truly a watchdog with no teeth. As an employee there is no-one there to champion you, you have to do it all yourself. |
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| Date: |
04 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Anonymous ()
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| Company: |
|
| I am currently appealing a "redundancy". The true situation is that my line manager was bullying me for the prior 2 years and has a reputation throughout the firm as a bully. I sought to resolve this through an informal resolution process that I initiated but the organisation suffers from weak management and hence an unwillingness to tackle the real issue ie the bully. The consistent advise that I received before commencing on this informal process was that it almost always ends in the victim leaving the firm, usually through a redundancy/firing. Hence, I took very detailed notes at all stages over the past months.
If you believe that you're a victim of bullying (not just unfair dismissal and/or discrimination), then you should also look to see if you have potential grounds for action under the Protection From Harassment Act 1997 which created a criminal offence for bullying. It also provides a civil law remedy to seek damages against the employer for bullying by an employee towards another employee, such damages being far greater than under English law for unfair dismissal. Majrowski and Green v Deutsche Bank are the 2 key precedent cases |
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| Date: |
04 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Sue (I previously used the name Undisclosed) ()
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| Company: |
|
| Apologies for withholding my name, I previously wrote about how I was attacked at work. Naturally it is a sensitive issue. I have a great deal of sympathy for Ex ML. It can be really upsetting when a company is claiming the grounds for your dismissal is poor performance, when you have a history of high achievement in the bank. In my situation I had just been awarded a very good bonus, but the bank still claimed the dismissal was about performance and totally unrelated to the attack by the senior male banker. I found myself totally shunned by my team and colleagues who had consistently given me good feedback suddenly acted as witnesses against me. As I mentioned, I was lucky with my Subject Access Request, which revealed some very embarrassing discussions by senior members of my team. I will never trust HR to protect my employment rights again! |
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| Date: |
04 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Mary S ()
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| Company: |
|
| Dear Jane, I will definitely be the first to buy your book! Can't wait to read about the challenges you faced and any advice you can give other people currently in the same situation you were. I think it is tough knowing you have a very small chance of succeeding against a bank, but I'm sure you are much stronger for having fought back! I know I am! Best of luck for the future to you and your husband. I'm sure you'll meet lots of people who had similar experiences at your book launch. |
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| Date: |
05 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Jo ()
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| Company: |
|
| Dear Anonymous IB, I read your account and felt surprised how similar it was to my own current situation. I also followed the "informal resolution" route. The bank was very laid back about following their own internal procedures as set out by the employee handbook.
While the bank denies it, any employment lawyer would tell you this procedure is part of the 3 stage statutory grievance procedure so the bank needs to follow certain steps such as giving you written notice of the outcome and your right to appeal.
In my situation, I went through the investigation and knew none of my team would support me, I was given a very brief verbal explanation of the outcome by HR. Naturally they found “no bullying, no sexual discrimination etc”. Even as a layperson it was very easy for me to challenge, which I did numerous times in writing but HR just told me to move on.
As you mention, another useful ground for challenge is Dignity at Work (bullying). If you give the bank notice of bullying, under the Health & Safety Act they need to take steps to ensure you are supported eg stress management training etc. I feel stunned I am constantly educating my employer about the relevant law! |
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| Date: |
05 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Sam ()
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| Company: |
|
| Here are some of sites on employment law, which are useful when writing your grievance.
GENERAL EMPLOYMENT LAW
http://www.stripessolicitors.co.uk/pages/unfair_dismissal.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/guides_to/employment_index.shtml
WORK RELATED STRESS (caused by bullying etc):
http://www.lhc.org.uk/members/pubs/books/hl/hl03_07.htm |
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| Date: |
05 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Jane ()
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| Company: |
|
| Thanks, Mary - consider yourself invited to the launch! Early stages of discussions with publisher currently, but looking very promising. One thing is for sure - it won't be dull, or doomladen. The most useful attribute you can bring to this situation is a good sense of humour... |
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| Date: |
07 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Mary ()
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| Company: |
|
| Hi Jane, I’m sure you will do very well with your book. Sometimes having a negative experience can motivate you to do great things. I studied law at university before going into banking, which has been a great asset in my fight against my Swiss employer. It is shocking how badly I have been treated by them, but I am coming to realise none of it is personal. I’m currently thinking of retraining as an employment lawyer to raise awareness of the way banks abuse their dominant bargaining power. It is true that many people fear they will never work again in the City if they challenge their employer. However, it would be interesting to see how uneasy people would be if they knew the full extent of the abuse of the law by their bank. When people see high profile cases in the papers, it is easy to dismiss it as an individual who simply couldn’t cope with the pressures of banking. In reality it is just the tip of the iceberg, compromise agreements often hide the facts of the most shocking cases. I think there is definitely a market for your book. It is important that employees are equipped to protect themselves from the underhand tactics many of these banks employ to get rid of staff |
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| Date: |
07 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Jane ()
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| Company: |
|
| Mary, I completely agree with you. It does sound as though your battle is almost identical to ours - and one of my primary motivations to keep taking the fight to the bullies was that none of it was necessary: a shred of decency and the ability to acknowledge when wrongdoing has happened, and all of this would have been resolved years ago. I won't support the idea that bullies and cheats should be allowed to win just because they're big and have infinite resources at their disposal. I haven't behaved perfectly throughout our battle - but I know I haven't lied to anyone, or done anything other than to protect my husband's reputation and try to establish the truth. The villains of the piece just hand the problem over to HR and the legal department - and they are 100% complicit in unethical and unlawful behaviour. There should be penalties... I applaud your ambitions to train as an employment lawyer - the world needs more lawyers motivated by ethics and decency than by billable hours. Mary, if you email the editor of eFinancialCareers with your contact details, she can pass them onto me (off the site so your identity is protected). We could swap war stories? |
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| Date: |
07 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
()
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| Company: |
|
| I was bullied and harassed at a US bank. If you want to get payment you have to move first, make sure you have legal insurance, you can get £50k to £100k on your home insurance. Then make notes, keep a diary. Finally submit a grievance Before they tank you. Grievance procedure will make a banana republic proud..however, then you can resign and get your legal insurance lawyer involved. Legal insurance wont cover a £400/hr lawyer but it will half that...or you could get a younger cheaper smart lawyer where the insurance covers their entire fee. Then you just sit there, (you still get stressed) and wait for the cheque. You do need a lawyer to guide you through the grievance procedure...however think outside London. There are lawyers in the West country who are just as good, but dont have to pay London rent...result, the fees for a senior partner are £100 - £150 /hr cheaper. Even £50/hr cheaper adds up.
Good luck. I'm all for firing weak performers, but people who bully juniors due to their own poor performance need to be taken to Court and ripped apart. Legal insurance will give you the upper cap fee to do this. Dont rely on HR, they take the commerical view. Senior $$ vs junior -$$ |
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| Date: |
10 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
ex-cap mkts ()
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| Company: |
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| Don't believe all the people who claim that if you submit a grievance your career is over. This is the usual scare tactic, and oh does work well. Instead, first speak to your bully or manager and takes notes. With dictaphones being so cheap and small, I would seriously consider keeping one on you at all times to record your manager's bullying on tape.
I kept detailed notes of dates and times when i was harassed. Of course the grievance procedure was a sham, but with the weight of eveidence I had, my former bank settled prior to court and I also ensured everyone I worked for signed gagging orders. I moved into a HF (this was late 2006, before the mkts turned) and have never looked back. Never let a bullying manager walk over you, they do so because they feel threatened by you.
If you think you'll just wait it out, don't! Bullying will affect your entire life, you go home and take it out on your gf/wife/friends and you will start to hate yourself. Its very hard but stand up for yourself. Like the Dr.Pepper add...what's the worst that can happen...? Banking isn't that great; get other interests (part-time law course?), then you won't be afraid should you decide to walk away. |
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| Date: |
11 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Jane ()
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| Company: |
|
| Like your style ex cap.mkts Hedge Funds...if nothing else, you'll have an accurate record of the bullying/empty promises/stellar-appraisal-subsequently-denied. Slight word of caution: as far as I am aware, recordings made without the knowledge/consent of all parties concerned are not admissible evidence in court (one of the reasons that electronic bugging is such a dubious area of surveillance). Of course, this doesn't stop you using such recordings to blow the bad guys out of the water before you get in front of a judge. But doesn't the fact that you're even thinking this way demonstrate that the trust relationship with your employer is totally broken? Another black mark against firms that proclaim that they 'value their employees as their greatest asset'. Yeah right. |
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| Date: |
12 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Julie ()
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| Company: |
|
| It’s true many employers do try to scare you off by saying you’ll never get another job in the City if you make a complaint. However, if your grievance is on the grounds of discrimination, such a threat is an act of victimisation under the legislation and actionable. No prospective employer should be discriminating against a job seeker on this basis either. It’s shocking that people think it is acceptable to openly make such unlawful comments! |
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| Date: |
14 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
ex-cap mkts ()
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| Company: |
|
| Thanks Jane! I do agree that electronic bugging has side issues attached, however the grievance process is not a Court and you can write whatever you like in the letter. You will probably scare your employer enough for them to privately settle with you. I was actually offered quite a large amount of money to not go through the appeal stage of the grievance, but I wanted to see my manager in Court. Though I hardly showed it, the bullying I endured really affected me and I needed private CBT therapy to fully recover. There was no way I was going to let this guy get away with it. Workplace bullying is inlike any other form of harassment. You cannot walk away, and unlike school you can't even punch your bully (of course my manager was a classic short ar5e...as they probably all are). I implore anyone who is being bullied to stand up for yourself, by not doing so you will only hurt yourself long term. Life is funny, only a few weeks back my ex-manager had an interview at the HF i worked for...poor guy was another redundant trader looking for a job. Lets just say he didnt get the job, and his interview with me was well interesting...and quite fun! Unfortunately I didn't punch him... |
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| Date: |
14 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Julie ()
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| Company: |
|
| Dear ex-cap mkts, I have a great deal of admiration for you. I also understand the impact work place bullying can have on your health longer term if you don't stand up for yourself. Great to hear you're doing well in your new career! |
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| Date: |
15 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Jane ()
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| Company: |
|
| Ex-cap mkts: thank you for the best laugh I've had all year: the prospect of your ex-manager coming for an interview at your HF has cheered me up no end. We've been hammered by a large bank, and I think they think we're going to go away to lick our wounds and give up the fight. That's a form of corporate bullying, of course, and there are a few extremely senior managers I'd love to see out there on the jobseeker rounds. Thank you for proving that what goes around comes around...and for being brave enough to stick to your guns. You're an inspiration (and yes, our Big Bad Bank is reading this, because I've made a point of directing their attention to these debate streams. Maybe they'll learn something. Somehow I doubt it...but it's fun poking them where it hurts: REPUTATION. |
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| Date: |
15 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Jane ()
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| Company: |
|
| Forgot to mention something I find amazing: senior management at big bad banks get there by dint of sharp elbows, knives where necessary, the odd professional assassination and all-round dirty politics (forgive my cynicism - it's hard-earned). When it comes to taking the blame for misdeeds and atrocious practices, they're long gone - onto the main board. HR and Legal Services get to smuggle out the dirty laundry and bury the bodies. It's the little people who pay, not the dirty tricksters. So have pity on your HR 'professionals'. They're only there to hide the evidence, after all. Poor souls. |
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| Date: |
16 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Anon ()
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| Company: |
|
| I don't know how some of these HR people sleep at night... |
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| Date: |
17 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
Jane ()
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| Company: |
|
| I doubt they have any trouble at all sleeping. You, the employee, always have to remember that HR is not there to protect your employment rights. It's there to protect management from the consequences of its actions, pure and simple. You need to have a purblind conscience and a very elastic sense of morality if you're to flourish in HR. Special breed of human. |
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| Date: |
17 Apr 2008
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| Name/Email: |
ex-cap mkts ()
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| Company: |
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| Thank you Julie & Jane. You are spot on about HR, the moment you raise a claim they do a (v) quick commercial view on you vs your bully...most times you lose and they want you out asap. After reading comments on 'Whistleblowing your way out of redundancy', I would just like to stress how hard it is to win a case. I had a super tight case, a diary, even colleagues who confirmed my story during the grievance. Despite my frontier performance, they had to attack my credibility...wait for it...yes as a trader I was constantly '5-10min' late getting back to my desk when getting lunch! When that failed they tried to use a middle office lady to claim I was 'sexually suggestive' to her. Only after another brave female colleague during a grievance meeting stated how riduculous this was did they quietly drop that. If you do want to take your bank on: 1. be very good already, 2. be ready for a long (and mentally) tiring fight. 3. persaverance...I run a lot and rarely give up when the pain starts, this is probably why I eventually won. It feels great at the end, but ask yourself can you deal with the middle bit? They will fight and fight hard and dirty. Maybe move on than stand and fight? |
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| Date: |
17 Apr 2008
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Jane ()
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| Dear ex-cap mkts. You have been through the wringer and I wish you well in your future away from such chicanery. You are so not alone here. I've mentioned elsewhere that I'm writing a book about our experience - but actually it's more of a guide. The real deal to working in a bank where profits really do mean more than people. Where ethics flew out of the window decades ago (but the bank's mission statements claim moral high ground). What happens when you challenge your situation, find out that dirty dealing is involved - find witnesses to prove it, fight it through the legal channels of Employment and Data Law. What happens to a decent joe doing a good job who gets shafted by a global bank. What you can expect. I don't think they'll like it much, but it has to be out there so people understand the real and murky world of working in finance. The fact they're in the mess they're in is, to my way of thinking, purely down to greed and a lack of decent management. Emphasis on the decent. |
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