[jamesinnewcastl]

Hi Chris

I've been in a similar situation at work - due to a particular ***** manger and no fault of my own.

I was asked to 'bring a friend' to a meeting with that manager - but I was ready for him!

Beforehand I asked a friend to consult her employment lawer friend - he said that any company can make-up any sort of internal disciplinary procedure that they like - it might involve you pretending to be a frog and not exceeding 657 red stars - that isn't where employment law cuts in. That cuts in if you are sacked. The law doesn't give a stuff about the internal circus of your company.

If they sack you then external independant people will assess your claim of wrongful dismissal no-one in your company can interfere or bias that. Most HR people will pass wind at the thought of this and loads of internal issues will fizzle out as a result - they are more scared of external assessment than you should be of them. Assuming you didn't stab someone of course.

So when my meeting started the ***** pretended to be having a review of my project. I stopped him immediately and demanded to know what the meeting was about. Spluttering from him as he tried to keep going but I just told him that it was obvious that there was an issue and to stop sodding about. (Round 1 to me). He told me that the project wasn't going fast enough or the right way and that I was to be given a warning. I immediately asked when he had discussed this with me and taken time to correct what he saw as failing performance - he hadn't. I said that that wasn't fair and demanded to know why he thought a bombshell was the right way to go. More spluttering (Round 2 to me). He then stated that he would be reviewing my performance in 6 months time - I told him that he would not and that he would be meeting me every two weeks for the next 6 months in which time he would be coaching me and we would be exploring the issues -an empty gap of 6 months was ridiculous (he had to travel 300 mile to my site if we were to have a one-to-one) (Round 3 to me) We went to the customers site to discuss the project and after he said that we should go to my hotel and discuss the enormous brown envelope full of paper that he had with him, I told him no, as I am now on my own time - more spluttering (Round 4 to me).

Two days later my Director called me in and asked indignantly why I had been discussing the issue with everyone (he was best friend of ****) Apparently the production manager had gone to the MD about it - I didn't know. The whole issue was dropped, they had been 'told' by the MD.

So publicity really helps - if the whole company is talking about it the management have to toe the line. Recording conversations helps - not admissible if all parties don't agree, but again hard for them to lie if they know that you could produce a recording... Keep all emails - In any unminuted discussion send around to loads of people your summing up of the discussion. That will be solid evidence as disagreements would need to be written in response and again other eyes are on them. Doing that condenses informal chats to solid text. I have a friend who was awarded £500k in wrongful dismissal as he could produce emails that told the lie on the manger concerned since the manager had written the emails!

Bit late for this advice now, but I hope it might help others.

Cheers
James