Thanks Dawn.

It seems that I am not the only one who has been through a negative experience of an ET and I am very touched by the people taking the trouble to write to me – so thank you. At the moment, I am just feeling tired and the ET is only a partial contributor at present, mainly because since it was postponed in April we haven’t had much communication except dates for scheduling the next one. Just prior to that it was a nightmare especially as I had to go through all of this last year when she put most of the same stuff in a grievance. It is a challenge when you are supposed to be everyone’s support.

Now its staff off sick, heavy mental health case load, new chief exec and too much to do.

I am lucky that some time ago the Trust gave me a personal support person outside my department and we meet once a month and she champions me when I need it and reminds me to look after myself when I am not. But she was also the person who was tasked to investigate the grievance at the end of last year so now she is embroiled in the ET as well as not being able to support me through the grievance investigation so that was hard.

The doctor can be a bit defensive especially on cases where he has put in a lot of hard work and some of the stuff she wrote upset him. In the end we have had to get another doctor involved in her case as he won’t see her because she has said he is unprofessional and compromised – ‘compromised because he works for the hospital that is!!.

She is not mentally well balanced and part of the problem was the years (and I do mean years, off sick but not paid years, but years nonetheless)  trying to get her official diagnosis out of her. The worst of her behaviour came when she was allegedly declared well by her GP – well actually she declared herself well and the GP very particularly used those words when writing to us!

We’ve been assured by the lawyers that our case is solid. Even MIND pulled out of helping this lady. This is her second hospital where she has tried the same thing and they paid her off last time so this spurs on her sense of righteousness as well as her confidence that she will succeed.  We have to win for the sake of all the other cases she has prepared and for her future employers….

And yes, its hard not to get defensive or think that if you could have communicated better, this situation may have been avoided. Even though I am confident that actually in this case, we probably tried too hard to resolve the issues and still nothing worked, going through everything is still difficult.

I am seriously not throwing my toys out the pram and leaving but I didn’t threaten to when the Trust’s lawyers told us she had applied for another postponement. I am working on leaving the country but that is to go to Australia where my children have now all returned. I need to find a role first and I don’t particularly like the health and safety model of the OHN role they use out there so it may take some time to find work.

But don’t worry, I’ll get my JISC linked to my home email address when the time comes…

Best wishes

Sue

Susan,

That sounds extremely stressful just reading it without living it….poor you…keep your chin up.

D :P

If they just had to pay a bond which they will get back if they win would be a good thing either way if it keeps the vexatious litigant at bay.

My current personal experience is of a person who has made an ET claim and has a second and third case in preparation, has already applied for and been granted 2 delays in the proceedings for the first one, ruined 2 of my holidays and is trying for a third. They have made a complaint about everyone they have ever come in contact with within the organisation and never succeeded internally in proving a single case (often because of their lack of participation) and now they have gone to an ET where they haven’t even bothered to submit a statement whereas 5 of us have had to work on, and submit, statements, mine being 30 pages long.

The stress is unbelievable even when you know they don’t have case. The cost to the public purse is considerable, barristers solicitors, legal clerks, independent assessment fees. But we have to keep going to win because of the other pending cases. The organisation initially waived the bond but the ET is apparently insisting because of the time wasting behaviour and lack of participation in the process.

I am thinking of leaving the country just to bring it to an end in my life…..

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