Two years ago GBD had a major restructure. The client relations section, however, seemed to fall into the ‘too hard basket’ and was never assigned a permanent manager. The Section has had to make do with temporary managers who tended to stay for only a couple of months. However, for the last four months Chris (who has worked in client relations at GBD for a long time and in the public service for 30 years) has been taking on the temporary manager’s role. Following your success in a public sector recruitment and selection process, you have been appointed to the role of manager and asked to ‘clean up the area’. You have never worked for GBD but have had considerable experience outside of government. Your senior manager has told you that the area is lacking in transparent procedures, especially when dealing with clients, and that organizational policies are regularly not followed. You realize the task you are taking on is large but you are confident that your experience will guide you.

You first meet with each of the staff members to gain an understanding of what they do and of their expectations about their role, work tasks and management.

Everybody seems willing to work with developing more transparent procedures. Even Chris, who you expected might be resistant (because you were informed that he had also applied for the permanent position) appears to be supportive. However, a couple of weeks after beginning to implement a number of processes, Lee, a client relations officer, begins to become very silent in meetings. This behaviour has now escalated into the occasional snide comment and you have heard ‘on the grapevine’ that Lee has been making some comments to others in the section about your ability to manage.

This worries you as Lee is a staff member who you saw as being of central importance in the section, especially with regard to his expertise within a particular area of client relations. You ask to have a meeting with Lee to discuss his apparent withdrawal; but Lee says that everything is fine. You also try to raise the issue of whether Lee has any concerns about your ability to manage. Again Lee says everything is ok.

Another month passes and you are updating your senior manager, Robin, about how the workgroup is progressing:

Yourself: I have met with everybody and they all seem happy with the changes made. Everybody has submitted new position descriptions and we have negotiated and finalised them all….all but Lee who still refuses my requests for him to write a new position description. I have talked to him about this but he insists that his old position description is good enough. I explained to him that, given the restructure, it was no longer relevant given that his old role no longer existed as such. He insists that his old job remains very valuable and that he be allowed to continue doing it (with some very minor changes). I get the feeling that he is not happy with the changes I am making.

Robin: Oh Lee, he is so good at what he does and has been around here for so long, I guess he is having a hard time moving on.

Yourself: I agree he is a great source of knowledge and knows nearly everyone in the place but still that does not overcome the fact that he is refusing to do this task. He has also been refusing to do other small things as well.

Robin: L ike what?

Yourself: Well there have been a few incidences but one recent but regular one is refusing to let me know where he is going when he conducts a site visit…and on top of that turning off his mobile phone. When I asked him about this he just said that he was out of range…but it is happening too often. He has also been behaving aggressively to me…nothing I can’t handle but he often raises his voice to me when I ask him a simple question.

Robin: That is strange.

Yourself: And in meetings, when he eventually arrives, he is either silent or disruptive and makes snide comments about me or things I have said. I have tried to talk to him about it but he says he is fine and that he has no trouble with the way I am managing him.

What would you suggest I do about it?

Robin: For now I would take it easy, and he will come around.

Yourself: Well I guess you know him better than I do, so ok, then.

Another couple of months go by, in which time Robin, despite your concerns, creates a new position for Lee.

This position was not a planned change but it was felt that Lee, who had threatened to resign, had expertise they could not lose, and so he was accommodated.

A few more weeks pass and Lee seems to be inputting more into meetings. However, after a while the previous behaviours, such as being aggressive to you and making snide comments in meetings, return. You even begin to believe that he is starting to spread rumours about yourself, including your role as a manager being jeopardised because your marriage is ‘on the rocks’.

You only became aware of this when someone from another workgroup, whom you know personally, asked with concern how your marriage was.

At this point you start to become very wary about Lee and his behaviour. You believe that Lee is increasingly turning to Robin for advice. You also believe that Robin does not seem to take Lee’s behaviour (against you) seriously. It is in one of your regular meetings with Robin that he lets it slip that Lee has been meeting with him regularly and this is what led to him gaining the new position. You start to feel like you are being undermined by Lee and that Robin won’t do anything about it. It is mainly because of this you do not tell Robin about Lee’s increasingly aggressive behaviour towards you.

The last thing you need now is for Robin to think you cannot handle the situation. You start to become careful about what you say to Lee. You also start to document what has been happening and details of interactions with Lee. Whenever you have meetings with Lee you make sure that someone else is present or the door is open. This however, has affected your ability to do your job effectively.

You also notice a number of other staff sitting with Lee in meetings and making the same snide comments, while others in the group refuse to work with Lee. Importantly, for yourself, you have begun to feel less confident whenever Lee is around and often feel as if you are not so clear or even that you make mistakes in response to his comments. Work is no longer a pleasant place to be.

Things come to a head when two events occur in the same week. First of all an important report is due and Lee, whose knowledge is vital for a large part of the report, fails to produce any drafts and you need to pick up the slack at the last minute. On top of all of that, it has recently come to your notice that Lee has not been following the new procedures with clients.

You only learn of this when one of Lee’s clients contacts you directly with some concerns. The client also tells you that Lee has been talking about you in a very unprofessional manner to staff in their organization.

You decide to have a meeting with Lee about his failure to produce information vital for the report, the way he does not appear to be following the new procedures, and also the reportedly inappropriate comments he is making to clients.

Lee arrives at the meeting with Chris (the previous acting manager) who is there as a support person. You agree to this as you feel you have no other option at this point and besides your PA is there to take notes.

Just after you begin to outline your concerns to Lee, Lee interrupts and begins to list to you all of the ways you have not been fulfilling your role as a manager. You perceive that Chris supports the interruption because he looks at Lee and nods; he makes no attempt to intervene.

You state that this was not the purpose of the meeting and that these issues can be raised at another time if they would like. Chris then states that this is ‘not good enough’ and that you have ‘picked on Lee’, and that if you do not address these issues now they will

‘file a grievance based on workplace bullying’. You are left feeling as if you are the one who has been bullied by Lee, with Chris’s help.

Question 

1 Describe the behaviours displayed by Lee that could be considered as bullying.
2 Do you think that power played a role in this situation? In what way/s? You may need to think beyond the traditional formal power of a manager and to other sources of power.

3 What role did Robin, the senior manager, play in escalating the situation?
4 What impact is Lee’s behaviour having on you in your manager role and your ability to do your job?
5 What impact do you think that Lee’s behaviour is having (or could have) on the members of the group?
6 How do you think you, as the manager, could have handled the situation differently?
7 How do you think Robin, the senior manager, could have handled the situation differently?
8 Taking a strategic perspective, how could these types of situations be minimized or avoided in the future?