Really need advice please

[Miacat3]

Hello fellow professionals I have just had the day from hell at work hence why I am posting this early in a morning due to been unable to sleep. I will warn you that this is a long post but please read and offer advice if you can.

Yesterday morning while I was in the middle of a session is was brought to my attention by a fellow staff member that my chair had forward an email that I had sent to him the following evening to all staff and committee members. This email contains details of my rate of pay and another staff members rate of pay, it contain my comments about my staff and their conduct at work and a rant about how I felt it was unfair that I hadn't received a pay rise in five years etc. I also stated that the staff and myself felt it was the right time for the chair to step down at the next committee meeting as staff felt that they couldn't approach the chair with any worries or concerns. I should point out that the chair had made it quite clear to the staff and other committee member that they intended to step down from the committee at our next committee meeting.

I am the manager of the setting and believed that my email was a private and confidential email that was sent between a manager and her chairperson. I was not asked for my consent for the email to be forwarded to anyone else and the chair decided to forward the email to everyone during the middle of a perschool session when the chair knew I would be in ratios and therefore would have no chance to response to the sending of the email.

 

Another committee member called into the preschool to talk to me about the email and she informed me that the chair had personally rung them and explained that they felt that myself and staff didn't appreciate all the work and effort that they had put into preschool in their role as chair. I would just like to point out that I have thanked the chair verbal, through text messages and email for their efforts and time in helping to develop the preschool. The chair stepped down immediately and removed their name from companies house and has given us 14 days before they inform ofsted that they are no longer the nominated/ registered person for the setting.

 

I have not responded to the email that the chair forwarded to all staff and committee members and need some advice on what to do next. I feel that the chair has sent out my email in the hope it was cause problems with my staff and the headmistress of the local school who was also mentioned in my text.

 

I believe that the chair has broke the data protection act by giving out details of my pay and another staff members pay and also should not have shared an email that I believed was confidential between an employer and employee. I just feel so helpless as I feel that everyone has only received the chair side of the story and that the chair is trying to make life difficult for me and damage my reputation.Should I send an email out to all staff and committee members stating that I did not give my consent for the email that I thought was an private and confidential email between the chair and manager.

 

Please can you offer me advice as feeling very alone and I'm suffering from mood swings of tears and angry that a person that I thought I knew well could stab me in the back without a though it seems for the effect it would have on preschool and its reputation. Thank you for taking the time to read.

[Guest]

Oh gosh, no wonder you haven't slept! What an awful situation. I'm really sorry, I'm not sure what to advise, but I didn't want to read and not comment.

 

What the chair has done is completely wrong, but how you go about redressing the situation without looking like tit-for-tat I'm not sure. Perhaps call ACAS and see if they have some advice?

 

I hope today is ok

[SueJ]

What a horrible position to be in.

 

Your chair has obviously decided to "go public" with your grievances - I'm not sure where you stand on data protection but would suggest you call the information commissionaire's office to find out.

 

https://ico.org.uk/

 

Hiapreschools suggestion to phone ACAS is also a good one to find out about your employee rights in respect of this. If you feel your position is now untenable you might want to look into their publications about bullying, harassment and constructive dismissal.

 

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1461

 

If however you want to fight your corner I personally would guard against going down the email route to try to redress the balance. As the chair has chosen to "air the laundry" in public I think the best course of action now would be to have a face to face meeting with the staff team and the remaining committee members so that you can discuss your reasons point by point with everyone in person - bal*s of steel required I know but it demonstrates that you at least in this sorry saga have the backbone to actually talk to people face to face.

 

As you are a committee group it could also be worth looking into who you are insured with as there is sometimes legal support via your insurers - if it's the psla then it will be lawcall.

 

You obviously felt strongly enough about your "grievances" to contact the chair so hopefully your conviction in your thoughts will give you the strength you need to open face to face discussions to endeavour to resolve them but make sure that you get professional advice first and until you get that don't commit anything to written format including email to protect yourself.

 

You also need to take care of yourself and your health and hopefully gather around you friends and family who can help support you at this stressful time.

 

Good luck - seek best advice and tread carefully

[Foreveryoung]

It's a hard one is this, as yes pay details shouldn't be shared but presuming the e-mail was confidential was just that a presumption unless it was marked as confidential or states that. I do think your chair has acted completely inappropriately and really feel for you so just wanted to send a big virtual hug and say you will get through this ! One bad apple can rock the cart so now it will be more stable and a positive future.

I agree with Sue an e-mail will possibly heighten the issue and could potentially back fire, personally I would have an emergency meeting with the board (not ex chair) and discuss the e-mail face to face, address the data breach and where to go from here, you and the board should be a team and ensuring that in a negative situation like this you act as one and support staff as one will have a positive outcome, the staff need to feel reassured in the people above them so joining together and bringing a message to them that all agree will probably be better and/or a direct e-mail to the staff from the board.

Good luck keep positive xxx

[narnia]

Ouch! Can I play devil's advocate here............and feel free to ignore me..........

You chose to take the bull by the horns, in telling the chair that your staff had no confidence in him and that he should step down................even though you knew he had every intention of doing so anyway at the next meeting. In hindsight, it might have been better to wait for that meeting to see if he did just that? If you wanted to send him an email, couldn't you have simply said ' i understand you wish to stand down with effect from the next meeting. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your hard work. Could I also ask that you place on the agenda, my request for a review into my salary, which hasn't changed for the past five years'.

If I was your chair, I might feel like your email was a personal attack and that I was being pushed, rather than being allowed to go gracefully. The other information you put in the email was possibly insensitive too................now that your staff know how you really feel about them, you are going to have to tread very carefully around them and apologise where needs be. A face to face meeting, where everyone can clear the air, seems to be the way to go?

Lesson learned// NEVER commit anything to email that you wouldn't say to someone's face. harsh, but true, i think.

Your committee MUST inform Ofsted that the nominated person has stood down and you must do it today, don't wait for him to give them the information in two weeks time. Urgently look at who could take over that role with immediate effect........could you do it?

Good luck.......................I'm certain that you regret sending the email.........if you need advice, several folk have already suggested Lawcall and ACAS. But I genuinely wish you good luck in sorting this out. We have ALL said or done things in the heat of the moment that we utterly regret afterwards. It's how you come back from it that is the measure of your integrity

[lsp]

You may find that PLA Law call is there for the Committee as they are the insured party and not for you as the committees employee. I know I had issues in the past when they would not speak to me as the Manager.

[diesel10]

Oh dear. If there are any lessons from this, NEVER email this sort of stuff. It is so easy to forward. A letter needs time and exoense to photocopy and post on.

 

And NEVER treat the committee like that, they are unpaid volunteers and therefore it's no problem to them to step down. It's not their paid job that's at stake. Any sign off trouble and they are off, it's happened to me before, even though the constitution states they must get a replace.

[BroadOaks]

Might be worth taking advice from the ICO or if your committee is a member it would really help to see if any laws have been broken here with confidentiality. You will notice emails from your local authority for example usually have disclaimers at the bottom explaining the "rules" of sharing information.

 

At the end of the day - you have now got everything of you chest and it's out in the open. Any positives from this will be people now know where they stand with you and issues can be put right hopefully making your days better in the long term.

 

Good luck

[narnia]

I think I'd be wary of suggesting the chair broke rules of confidentiality, to be honest. Hasn't the OP broken those same rules? For me, the need is to move on, mend bridges where necessary and to make sure there is a new chair in place very quickly, so an Extraordinary meeting might need to be called to sort this out. Whoever is in charge of the committee will need to get in touch with Lawcall or whomever if you think laws have been broken............and the committee must inform Ofsted, if they haven't already.

 

Good luck with it all, I'm sure it will sort itself out ( these things usually do), but you might need to eat some humble pie for a while xx

[Fredbear]

Great advice from Narnia as always. I do hope you are able to resolve this and move on.