bullying??

[fluffyblond]

hi, a friend of mine went home in tears the other day, her manager called her a 'butch lesbian' (she's not gay or butch) in fact her manager has said this a few times now and says its just a joke, the manager also makes jokes about her hobbies ect.. now my advise was to her was go and tell the managers manager as it a large company. so she did, the managers manager told her to stop being pathetic, and pay more attention to her job as there dept is not taking the money it should be!! and went on a 6 hour rant about how non of the staff are doing there job correctly, she had also said that if things didnt change then they will all get a disciplinary or the start of one. my friend told her colleagues as it effected them as well.

The next time she went in to work was Friday and the manager was'nt in. so the managers manager was joking to the other staff all day, but ignoring my friend totally, this manager had took 'some' of the other staff in to her office to say i didnt say disciplinary i just said its out of my hands and that my friend had over reacted, she didnt take in any staff that are friends with my friend. anyway the manager snatched some paper work out of her hands and walked away my friend started crying and walked out, in the car park she saw a higher manager who asked what was wrong, she told her and she said go home and i'll get the personnell manager to see you on monday.

I really dont know what to say to her as my last lot of advise made it worse, what do you guys think she should do now??

[Bobbisox]

she need to have someone in with her on Monday or at least request this FBlonde

[ubasses]

http://www.direct.gov...ionAtWork/DG_10026670

reading the above site may give some help

[karenmac60]

If she is in a union then she should be able to have a union rep in with her - if not then she can request someone else to be present. Personnel are probably the best folk to deal with this and are less likely to automatically take the side of management. She should write down everything that has happened so that she doesn't miss anything out if she gets upset.

[PipinHull]

What sort of company is it? (e.g part of a national firm or just a local one?) Shouldn't make a difference but larger ones are more likely to have an anti-harrassment or bullying policy. They should also have a grievance policy and she would probably be entitled to raise it as a grievance - there are usually stages to this process but the first one is often talking to a higher manager which she has already done. Sounds awful.

[fluffyblond]

Hi thanks for your answers, yes its a large national company, my worry is that all managers stick together, in times like this, I just hope they listen to her.