| Table of Contents Being Cabin Crew | The Ugly Truth Part 3 Page 1 – The Head of Cabin Crew Page 2 – Employing a Sociopath Page 3 – The Day Life Changed Page 4 – Shalom Tel Aviv Page 5 – Post Flight Customer Feedback Page 6 – Cue Second Disciplinary Page 7 – Outcome of the Grievance Page 8 – Yee Haw The Last Page! Being Cabin Crew | The Ugly Truth Part 5 |
Yee Haw The Last Page!
With Manager Fred having found there was a case to answer the matter regarding the complaint from the CEO was passed to another manager to deal with.
The first letter I received from Cabin Crew Manager Brenda regarding this second meeting was 10th December 2019. I still hadn’t received the outcome of my appeal from the Head of Department. Until I received that I had no intentions of dealing with a second grievance.
I received the outcome on 20th December 2019. Despite telling me she would try to deal with it as quickly as possible it had taken the Head of Department eight weeks to complete the investigation. It was almost a year to the day since my trip with Bart.
I called in sick the following day and never returned to work prior to being made redundant.
Here’s a recap on how long it took different managers to complete their investigations.
It took Lana the manager who conducted the initial investigation two months and ten days. It took Hayley who carried out the disciplinary hearing/investigation six weeks. It took the Head of Department eight weeks. I waited almost five weeks for the outcome of Fred’s investigation and almost six weeks for Brenda’s.
Each one of them blamed the delay on the fact they had annual leave.
Before participating in the second grievance investigation my manager wanted me to be cleared by Occupational Health. I had to be cleared to ensure I was fit enough to participate.
In one of her emails Brenda says; “I can see from your roster you have recently been off sick”. I was still off sick and hadn’t advised the company otherwise.
Having learnt I was facing another disciplinary I spoke to the Union. I told them I was contemplating not attending the hearing. I kind of knew I had no chance of winning so what was the point?
By this time I had only attended the investigative meeting with Fred. That took place before I was off sick.
The following email is my conversation with the Union rep’. The appeal meeting with the Head of Department took place on 29th October.
In my reply to Brenda regarding her “invitation” to the disciplinary meeting, I mentioned something regarding a TV personality who had recently taken her own life. Her reply is interesting considering that at that time I was off work once again struggling with anxiety and depression.
The chain of correspondence can be seen here.
The following comes from the report completed on me by Occupational Health. This assessment had to be carried before the grievance could go ahead. The reason was because I was on long term sick.
The grievances referred to are grievances I submitted against Bart, Anna, Mia, Peter and Ven.
Not having heard anything from the company I chased them up. By this point in time I’d had the grievance meeting with Brenda regarding my tongue-in-cheek comment.
Unsurprisingly the grievance was upheld although she downgraded it from a final written warning to a written warning. That was the sole reason for me not being fired.
Having spoken to my manager about the grievances I submitted he told me all seventeen Crew Managers were currently dealing with at least two grievances so it may be some time before I hear back from anyone. This was right at the beginning of Covid-19.
I was subsequently told in an email by an Employee Relations Consultant that I could not raise a grievance regarding any matter that had already been investigated as part of my appeal. That meant I couldn’t accuse Bart and those with whom he colluded of lying because that was a significant part of my appeal. I could therefore not do anything more about it.
By the time of this email Covid was well underway and many employees were on furlough.
Although I spoke to the Union and sought legal advice regarding how to proceed, it was now really difficult because of Covid. Not only was I still off sick but I was also shielding. A pre-existing condition I have meant I was classed as “clinically extremely vulnerable.”
The world was changing at an alarming rate. I was trying desperately to get back on track mentally but having recently had a second grievance upheld against me and now having to shield wasn’t helping.
Just a month or so later I was told I was being made redundant. At 53 and after being with the company for thirty years that’s not something you want to hear. Not only could I not work because of Covid and not being fit mentally, but I was now being told when things improved I had no job to go back to.
The company selected which crew members were to be made redundant based on certain criteria. They also selected who would be offered a place in the holding pool and who wouldn’t.
Being in the holding pool meant when things picked up you could be called back and be re-employed.
The company originally wanted to keep the holding pool open for twelve months but after negotiations with the Union agreed to extend it to twenty four. Many people were made redundant and were told they did not have a place in the holding pool.
In the investigation meeting conducted by Brenda that was carried out by telephone, the first she talks about is the time my post was submitted.
During Fred’s investigation he tried hard to prove I was lying about deleting my post. He therefore focussed a huge amount of attention on the time it was submitted. I initially said I deleted it a short while afterwards.
In my mind I believed I deleted it a couple of hours later. It was actually the following day, or at least it was the following day when I believe I deleted it.
Fred told me the post was submitted very late in the evening. That confused me because I tend to go to bed quite early. I had no clear recollection of what time it was posted.
The precise time it was submitted was discussed extensively during my second meeting by telephone with Fred.
I emailed him a few days later to say I was very confused about the timings. It really had nothing to do with the complaint itself. To me it was all minor detail that wasn’t that important.
The complaint from the CEO was about words I used not about the time of the post or whether I deleted it or whether it was deleted by I.T.
The following comes from the outcome of the disciplinary investigation carried out by Brenda.
The meeting went on for about three hours during which time I was thoroughly interrogated about why I made the comment, my use of the word “bloody” and much, much more. The same Union rep’ who had accompanied me to all previous meetings dialled into the call.
Here’s the rest of the outcome which is self explanatory;
I had to smile. She says the group contained people who look to me for direction and leadership. I had tried to give direction and leadership on my flight to Atlanta and look where that got me!
Furthermore not an ounce of consideration was given to the contribution I’d made in my own free time to try and help make this new route a success.
Instead of the CEO thanking me for looking after a blogger who subsequently wrote a glowing report about his flight, he submitted a complaint against me for a tongue-in-cheek comment that led to a disciplinary and ultimately cost me my job.
As it turned out with redundancies that were then announced in response to Covid-19 I lost my job anyway. But so did the Head of Department. That’s karma.
What a complete and utter waste of everyone’s time and resources. All over a silly comment that was taken out of context and blown completely out of all logical proportion.
It’s my believe the Head of Department made it known from the start the outcome that she wanted. That’s why Fred had to come up with something more substantial to support the case.
He therefore focussed his attention on the time I submitted the post and the time I claimed to have deleted it. All in an attempt to prove I was lying.
Imagine being put through all of that after giving so much to a company for thirty years.
I often wonder how Bart, Anna, Ven, Peter, Mia, T, Lana, Hayley, Fred, Brenda, Jack and the Head of Department would feel had I gone through with what I considered doing many times. I don’t believe they would have felt much remorse or considered their actions to be a contributing factor.
They probably would have said “poor guy, he did have mental health problems.”
During the darkest and most terrifying time of my life when I felt incredibly self-destructive, the one thing that held me back was the thought that if I’m not here nobody will ever hear the truth.
I decided early on to start blogging about my last eighteen months with the company because I wanted to get everything down in writing. Writing this blog has not been easy. Each time I write I relive every painful second of what I went through.
Although in one respect it’s cathartic and helps with the healing process, I still have so much anger.
As a result of losing my job my entire life fell apart. I almost lost my house, it put incredible strain on my relationship and on my already fragile mental health.
I don’t believe I’ll ever get over what has happened. I haven’t worked since and the future however long or short it may be is looking pretty grim.
Being Cabin Crew | The Ugly Truth 