Well, to give you a bit of background into my life thus far- I'll start with the event that happened in February 2008...

I work for a major dairy company and have done since July 2006. I used to love it there- I virtually lived there even though I'm salaried so I don't get any extra pay or anything. I was considered one of the top employees on site and rapidly progressed through to managing the laboratory when the current QA Manager went on secondment for 12 months. I did this for 8 months then after expecting to be given the position after being 'groomed' for it they decided to appoint an external person.

Now, in February 2008 an interim QA Manager was appointed and unfortunately it seemed that we just were not destined to get along. Despite my bitter disappointment I tried extremely hard to be courteous, professional and helpful but it seemed the odds were stacked against me- I was considered a threat to her and thus began a campaign to undermine, demean and bully me in order to try and ensure I was no longer a 'threat'.

In June 2008 I decided I couldn't take this anymore- I was worried about my health, I became tearful and withdrawn and I felt that she wouldn't stop at anything to try and remove me from my position. I lodged a formal grievance.

The grievance investigation was expected to take 2 days, yet because it was considered a low priority the actual final meeting was a month later. This was despite the fact I refused to go to work due to the stress it was causing me. In the first hearing I gave a recorded list of the bullying occurances and even mentioned an 'email' which I was confused by as the bully in one of her shouting moods ranted to me about an email to which I didn't have a clue what she was on about. I mentioned this in the hearing as I wanted them to investigate- the reason for me mentioning this will become clear...

While off work I found that a similar position to mine was being advertised- I phoned the recruitment agency and discovered it was to cover me! This sent alarm bells ringing as if they were going to accept the bullying then I should be able to return sharply...

fast forward past much dithering by the company to the final hearing.

I attended the final hearing where they went through all my allegations and then proceeded to discount all of them as the bully's opinion was obviously so much more important than mine! It was over an hour and a half of being slated and it seemed that the investigation DIDN'T look into the bullying rather than try to make me look as bad as possible!

Now, to the email. The person responsible for the investigation said that the company are going to bring a counter allegation of hacking against me as the email I mentioned earlier that I didn't understand was apparently something I had hacked into- WHAT?! I may be adept at using computers but I sure as hell can't hack!! I was gobsmacked- why on earth would I ask them to investigate an email which I apparently hacked?? They obviously do not have a high opinion of me

So I've been off work for nearly 2 months waiting and I'm meant to return on the 4th August- but to what? a disciplinary? more bullying? I've got a meeting on Friday to discuss the occupational health report that I received today- It was good- the Occ health nurse mentioned I might come under the disability discrimination act because of the stress and my depression over all of this- so hopefully that will make them think twice about trying it on! Go Occy Health!!

I just feel saddened by this- I could of easily stayed there for the rest of my working life. I put my life into working there and this is how they show what they think of me. I feel so hurt and disillusioned. I just want out of there into a company that appreciates me and treats me with respect- not one that wants to avoid any and all responsibility to its employees. They always said that the people there couldn't be trusted and sadly- being the trusting person that I am I dismissed it to my regret

That's about it work-wise for now. I'm going to do another blog post about more important things