Council worker claims he wasn't allowed to work from home to support wife who had cancer

The former employee, who asked to remain anonymous, alleged a manager also scheduled a meeting at the same time as one of her appointments and believed the timing was deliberate.

They added they believed the same manager passed over them for a job vacancy, despite finding no applicants, and was left in tears over the treatment.

Alan Menzies, East Riding Council’s deputy chief executive, said bullying was absolutely not tolerated and urged staff to report any such behaviour so it could be dealt with.

It comes as allegations of the bullying of council staff from managers continue to mount against the authority.

They follow the emergence of a draft Local Government Association (LGA) report which claimed visitors witnessed bullying and unusually controlling behaviour late last year.

Council leader Coun Jonathan Owen said the authority would take all allegations of bullying extremely seriously and called on victims and witnesses to come forward in a meeting last year.

The ex-worker said they left the council 14 months ago after deciding they could not take the bullying anymore and even looked for jobs as far away as London.

They added they believed a massive cultural shift would be needed to eradicate bullying and change would need to come from the top.

The former employee said: “I started working for the council in February 2012. It was quite a good place to work for the first few years, but my manager who I had a good working relationship went off sick, so another manager stepped in to cover for them.

“My wife was diagnosed with cancer in 2019, she had lymphoma. She needed chemo and radiotherapy and she had to go for regular hospital appointments, so I asked if I could work at home so I could take her.

“At first the senior managers said that wasn’t a problem and I could take as much time as I needed and not to worry about it. And the council itself claims to be a cancer-friendly organisation.

“But when push came to shove I was never able to take her to Castle Hill Hospital , family and friends had to instead. The manager expected to me to be at my desk in County Hall at 8.30am every day, even though they knew my wife had cancer.

“I asked them if I could work from home instead or work at one of the council depots close to Castle Hill but they said no, I wanted to be there to support my wife.

“I remember one Friday afternoon she had an appointment so I asked again if I could take her and work the rest of the day at home just on that occasion.

“Not only did they say no but the manager scheduled a meeting for me to go to in County Hall for 2.30pm, at the same time as her appointment, and I was expected to be there.

“I suspect the manager did that deliberately, in the end I was able to get round it but only by using a holiday day. Throughout it all there wasn’t a shred of sympathy or understanding from this manager, they never said they were sorry or asked how my wife was.

“I went to the head of HR about it all, their respond was basically that there wasn’t anything they could do about it. Of course the irony of it all was that one year later we were all sent home to work because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“At another time there was a vacancy advertised within the council, I applied because it would have effectively been a promotion for me. I have very specific qualifications and a masters degree, so I was one of only a handful of people qualified to do that job.

“But it seemed as though the criteria for the job had been engineered so that certain people couldn’t apply. They didn’t get anyone for the job in the end and they had to re-advertise it even though there were three people in our team who were perfectly capable of doing it.

“I think in this particular manager’s case they were either massively out of their depth or were on an ego trip. Other managers I’d had generally left me alone because my work was quite technical and they trusted me to know what I was doing, but this manager was also trying to micromanage us.

“In about 18 months they only stuck their head through the door of their office into ours twice I think. I think in certain parts of the council its part of the culture, the problem is it’s a vast organisation so it’s impossible for the people at the top to have sight over everything.

“As far as managers go you have everything from ones who are good people and fine to work with and others who are dictatorial or just nasty. I went to about 30 or 40 interviews for jobs so I could leave.

“I felt vindicated after the LGA report, but I think it would require a massive cultural change to improve things and it would have to come from the top.”

Mr Menzies said council staff should refer to its internal systems which set out procedures for dealing with bullying if they experience it.

The deputy chief executive said: “We investigate all matters brought to our attention with the seriousness they deserve and our policies are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure they meet the needs of our staff and also take external advice on them, to ensure that we are acting in line with best practice in the field and in the sector.

“Staff can report bullying via their line manager or by other routes such as through the trade union, occupational health or people services. We absolutely do not tolerate bullying and staff are urged to report such behaviour as soon as possible so it can be dealt with.”