Bullied by an Owner Rep

by Anonymous
(Australia)

I am a 40-year-old executive who takes pride in his work and workplace. I work in a hotel and I take pride in my work and ensure that I achieve what is expected of me.

This instance happened recently when we receive an infringement for one of our cars in the fleet. This is nothing out of the blue and has happened in the past. I was sent an email by our finance team to look into this. Within half an hour of receiving the email, I found the respective person and nominated him for the fine.

The next day, the owner rep (whom I don't report to and is not my boss) found this and came to see me in my office. He asked to see all the transportation logs, maintenance logs, SOP for the issue of the car, etc. This is something that I was never asked for or was told that it is a requirement. This instance took place in the back office and a CCTV was placed right at the entrance that captured the entire scenario. I advised the rep that we have never prepared these logs and reports and was never asked to do so. The owner rep did not listen to me and called the financial controller in the back office. Within minutes his behavior changed, he started raising his voice and started being aggressive towards me. He was waving his finger at me and continued to come closer to me when I was moving backwards. I said that I am feeling threatened, but he did not stop.

Soon he left the office, and I was there thinking what just happened. Thankfully, the HR came to see me asking something and I ended up explaining everything to her. I was not in the right frame of mind and did not know what was happening. The entire day I kept on thinking about the incident, did not even share with my wife as I thought it will go away as rep must be having a bad day.

I was wrong, it did not stop there. The owner continued to harass me via emails and did not stop. It is then I decided to raise the complaint. My immediate manager was on leave, so a meeting was arranged with the Regional HR Manager. After sharing my concern, she asked me to go home, and I declined. I still came to work and did my job and all I asked them is to get this guy off my back. My immediate manager has another week before he came back to work.

After the weekend, I thought HR or senior management would be in touch with me, but I was wrong. No one checked on me, and here I was trying to be professional. The entire week passed, and my manager came back on Monday. He asked about me and what exactly happened. Later in the evening I received a call from Regional HR and Regional manager and I felt it was a pity call. I did tell them about how I was feeling, and I did not shy away from the fact that I felt ignored as neither of them made an effort to contact me.

During the call, Regional HR advised that she will be onsite soon, which she did. I had a meeting with her and explained her everything and also showed her the footage of the incident.

I am not sure what are they going to do and what is going to happen as the owner rep is not employed by the organization I work for. Maybe it was a tactic to show they cared, or maybe it was real. I should have gone to fair work and raised a complaint against this respective person.

I am now feeling better and have started to look for jobs as I don't feel safe, appreciated, or valued being a part of this company.