Hello,

We have a supervisor in our company who is not well liked by the majority of employees in the office.  She has been with us since October of 2008 and has really taken a liking to bullying one of her staff members.  Additionally, she has been known to make snide and accusatory remarks to others in the company. 

Although no formal complaint has been filed, I have been informed of many of her actions.  I believe on Monday, the target of the bullying is going to make a formal complaint as she requested a meeting with me.  We are a very small company.  I am 99% certain this meeting is going to involve the Bully. 

At this time, I have briefly informed the Bully's Supervisor of her actions.  I do not believe anything has been done.  We just hired a new President who is very involved in the staff and likes to be "in the loop" with us.  My question is, do I inform the President, as a heads up, that this is all going on?  I would like to tell him but am afraid that by doing so, I am going over the Bully's Supervisor's head, who is also my Supervisor.  He is out of town until Friday.  Maybe I can just shoot them both an email? 

Thoughts?  Also, once this complaint is filed, I know we are going to have to sit down with the bully and discuss the issues.  Any suggestions?

 Thanks a bunch!

new2hr:

Also, once this complaint is filed, I know we are going to have to sit down with the bully and discuss the issues.

 

It doesn't sound to me like you have investigated anything, you just have a smattering of complaints.  Where there's smoke, there's smoke.  Especially when the smoke surrounds a new supervisor.  Could there be fire? Sure.  But, based on what you've communicated here, I don't think you've done enough due dilligence to know that this supervisor is a problem.  The old crew may prefer the old supervisor's more lax ways.  Before you determine that you need to sit down with the bully and discuss the issues, I think you need to sit down with yourself and decide if you've been sucked into making a judgment before you've even conducted an investigation of any type.  You don't even know the actual content of the upcoming meeting.

I wouldn't take anything up the ladder at this point but I don't know much about your situatation.  The questions you have are mostly political and have to do with your formal and informal authority within the company.

The meeting has occurred.  These are the accusations:

Preaching God (ie: We have to deal with many people in our lives here on Earth, but we will all have to answer to God someday when we are standing in front of him)

Being led into the kitchen by a "come here" finger, pointing to a tomato top in the sink and asking the employee if she had tomatoes for lunch

Being told that she is whispering to people at her desk

Being told that she can be heard huffing and puffing at her desk and that she doesn't care about her job

Basically, the employee came out said "I feel like I am being harrassed.  I want to come to work and do my job but I feel like I am being watched at every corner."

I do not have much experience or any training in this situation so regarding investigating and due diligence, what is the next step?  There are only two people on her staff.  The other one, she constantly praises in front of everyone. 

new2hr:

The meeting has occurred.  These are the accusations:

Preaching God (ie: We have to deal with many people in our lives here on Earth, but we will all have to answer to God someday when we are standing in front of him)

Being led into the kitchen by a "come here" finger, pointing to a tomato top in the sink and asking the employee if she had tomatoes for lunch

Being told that she is whispering to people at her desk

Being told that she can be heard huffing and puffing at her desk and that she doesn't care about her job

Basically, the employee came out said "I feel like I am being harrassed.  I want to come to work and do my job but I feel like I am being watched at every corner."

I do not have much experience or any training in this situation so regarding investigating and due diligence, what is the next step?  There are only two people on her staff.  The other one, she constantly praises in front of everyone. 

The primary risk area is the preaching issue.  The others are area of concern for company management, depending on what they want out of their culture and their desired means of workforce management.

Whispering at your desk is not a crime and also probably does not violate any policy.  So why is she being bothered about it?  It's not illegal to say that to a subordinate but one would want to know why she ha said such a thing and what she wants done about it.  Being asked if you are responsible for a mess is likewise not illegal and also probably does not violate a policy.  Do we know that the complainant is not huffing and puffing at her desk muttering that she doesn't care about her job?

 

I would investigate the preaching immediately.

Next, I would look carefully at performance of the complainant and the reputation of the supervisor among others, not just her other subordinate.  Don't be surprised if you discover that the complainant is a bad apple.  Similarly, do not draw that conclusion in advance.

The first thing you need to do is get written statments of exactly when and what happened. Then you need to investigate if what your being told is true or co-workers that are just making statements because they don't like her. Make sure if and when you talk to the bully you have a manager in their with you as a witness.