Question about IA complaints

[DRM6000]

I have a friend (seriously) who works a non-sworn position for a SD. He has a supervisor who is on a complete power trip or something. Total a-hole. Nobody likes the guy, but he has seniority and seems untouchable. He sets up "gotcha'" situations to get my buddy in trouble all the time. The supe has already been the subject of an IA complaint in the past.

My question is: will my friend face repercussions for filing an IA complaint (lack of chances to be promoted, hurt his chances for employment at other agencies, etc.)? Will he be negatively branded?

[Yodaman]

Officially: No

Unofficially: Yes

[DRM6000]

That's what I suspected. Any advice on how to handle the situation?

[DNA]

Depends on what your friend's tolerance for pain. One way or the other.

Dan

[SDDAVE56]

He sets up "gotcha'" situations to get my buddy in trouble all the time

If your buddy is following policy and procedure hows he getting in trouble?

[edgerly779]

^^^ R u serious. Connected sups can always jam u up. CYA is the norm for some.

[DRM6000]

Originally Posted by SDDAVE56

He sets up "gotcha'" situations to get my buddy in trouble all the time

If your buddy is following policy and procedure hows he getting in trouble?

That's the latest problem. The supe told him what the policy is on a certain action. Then another department catches a problem with the way my buddy did something (following the supe's direction.) The correct policy and procedure was then followed. The supe then reprimands my friend for insubordination. Of course, the supe never made mention to the other dept. the "policy" that he told my friend.

That is just one example of many actions the supe has taken to make for hostile work environment.

I wish I be more specific, but I don't know who may be reading this. Plus, this isn't my problem. I'm just reaching out to the LE community for feedback and advice since my friend lacks LE connections outside of work. He certainly can't bring this up at work.

[SVT-40]

The employee needs to go to his labor group and get some support...

[esy]

Originally Posted by DRM6000

That's the latest problem. The supe told him what the policy is on a certain action. Then another department catches a problem with the way my buddy did something (following the supe's direction.) The correct policy and procedure was then followed. The supe then reprimands my friend for insubordination. Of course, the supe never made mention to the other dept. the "policy" that he told my friend.

That is just one example of many actions the supe has taken to make for hostile work environment.

I wish I be more specific, but I don't know who may be reading this. Plus, this isn't my problem. I'm just reaching out to the LE community for feedback and advice since my friend lacks LE connections outside of work. He certainly can't bring this up at work.

To reiterate what SDDAVE was referring if he is following proper department policy, there’s no going wrong there.

Another department’s policy should have no bearing on how he does his job with his own department. For example, my department’s use of force policy still goes with 835a and a use of force paradigm whereas another department does not. That other department can’t jam me up if I’m within policy.

If what this supervisor told your friend was incorrect policy, then that’s your friend’s fault through and through since he doesn’t know policy or didn’t verify the correct policy.

[Yodaman]

He’s LE and lacks LE connections outside of work? Odd.

[DRM6000]

Originally Posted by Yodaman

He’s LE and lacks LE connections outside of work? Odd.

He's non-sworn and relatively new to government work.

[DRM6000]

Originally Posted by esy

To reiterate what SDDAVE was referring if he is following proper department policy, there’s no going wrong there.

Another department’s policy should have no bearing on how he does his job with his own department. For example, my department’s use of force policy still goes with 835a and a use of force paradigm whereas another department does not. That other department can’t jam me up if I’m within policy.

If what this supervisor told your friend was incorrect policy, then that’s your friend’s fault through and through since he doesn’t know policy or didn’t verify the correct policy.

He was eventually informed of the correct policy and followed it. The supe (intentionally) gave him wrong info and reprimanded him for not following his direction. I say the supe intentionally gave him wrong info because he himself needs to follow the correct policy as not get himself in trouble.

When I mentioned department, I didn't mean agency. I mean department as in admin, HR, etc.

[Yodaman]

If he didn’t act within policy even with wrong info, his fault. If a sup tell you to go kick windows in for no reason, and you do, is the sup really to blame?

Even if it was intentional bad info, it’s on your buddy to follow policy as stated before me.

[DRM6000]

I told him he needs to confirm policy. He knows he needs to CYA.

[DNA]

His agency should have a policy manual, get him to study that.

Failing that, have co-workers available to corroborate what was said prior to things going sideways.

Otherwise ask to speak to the supervisor's supervisor and document in detail the incoming retaliation. Present the info to HR and see what goes down from there. They key here if you haven't noticed, is CYA aka documentation.

Dan

[DRM6000]

I think he's been documenting since the beginning of when things started to go bad. He certainly documents all his own actions for CYA and it's already helped him when the supe made false allegations regarding his performance. The supe's pattern of behavior is what's causing problems.

[jarhead714]

Ask him to take off his cover and duty belt and step outside onto the loading dock.

[syntaxerror]

Originally Posted by Yodaman

Officially: No

Unofficially: Yes

100% spot on. Word spreads quickly and it won't workout in your favor when it comes time to promote. They're better off applying to another agency.

[GizmoSD]

Is the supervisor sworn?

Your buddy needs to outwork the sup. Hard work (harder than everyone else) and within the rules is hard to criticize. Memorize policy...every little detail. Once he knows policy in and out, tell him to outwork everyone around him.

If you don’t work directly with your buddy, be wary of stories and what you believe. Government employees (more-so, non-sworn) generally can have relatively low productivity with no major repercussion, as long as they’re getting their primary job done for the most part. If they were working private sector they’d be fired long ago. So if one of those employees is actually getting supervised, they’re on the radar, and it’s likley not because they’re a rock star of productivity.

[micro911]

Maybe he can start recording conversations.

[BadKitty]

I used to work as a civilian in the education sector - I was a degree auditor at a university. Back then, we had most student records in an online database; but, some files hadn't been scanned yet and the paper hard copy files were kept in large filing cabinets. We had three departments all situated under one roof and we shared access to the files. The policy was, if you needed to refer to a hard copy student file, you would pull the file and sign out for it on a check-out card. One day, I was auditing some older students' files and I pulled a couple and signed-out for them.

Apparently some supervisor from the next department over happened to need the same file and she "couldn't find them" in the filing cabinet. She sent out an e-mail to all of the other supervisors in the building and got everyone all in a tizzy about "missing student files". While I was at lunch, my supervisor walked around to all of our cubicles to check and found them sitting right on my desk (secure area, not against policy at all). I was clearly working on them.

I got called into the office. I was questioned about why I had the files, blah blah blah. The whole thing was bizarre to me as auditing the files was literally my job. All of us auditors pulled hard files all of the time for many years. The whole brouhaha stemmed from the fact that some supervisor next door didn't know how to read the "OUT" card and e-mailed the whole building in a panic like a goober. Instead of admitting that they overreacted, my supervisor tried to backpeddle and tell me that there was no policy for checking out files (WTF? How do I audit them?). That same day, I was moved to a new cubicle and made to sit in a cubicle directly in front of my supervisor's office. My co-workers thought the whole thing was ludicrous and we started laughing about it and calling my desk the "remediation cubicle".

I was an all-star employee. I was highly rated on all of my performance evaluations, I carried a couple of specialties and was considered a national expert in one of those specialities, including being a presenter at a national conference. But yet.....I was expendable as soon as some supervisor next door decided I was the cause of her embarassment for not knowing how to use a file cabinet.

Look, if someone wants to jam you up, they're going to jam you up. If they need a fall guy, you're the fall guy. Deciding what to do depends a little on if your friend still wants to work for that agency and/or promote or if he is open to applying elsewhere. Since I knew promotion was not ever going to be an option at that employer, I just kept my head down and kept working hard there in my remediation cubicle. Meanwhile, I started applying for public safety jobs and eventually got out of dodge. At some point, the stress of working for that supervisor will outweigh the benefits of working there and your friend will need to leave. But making waves and trying to file IA complaints won't go over well, at least he'll pay for it "unofficially". Depending on his actual job/role, if he has an option to transfer to another department within the same SD, that may help. Otherwise, he might need to look for other pastures.....

[SMarquez]

I had a couple incidents where I knew an order was out of bonds or in a really gray area I simply asked for clarification by email. Quoting the policy manual really helps put a stop to BS like that.

[DRM6000]

Originally Posted by GizmoSD

Is the supervisor sworn?

Your buddy needs to outwork the sup. Hard work (harder than everyone else) and within the rules is hard to criticize. Memorize policy...every little detail. Once he knows policy in and out, tell him to outwork everyone around him.

If you don’t work directly with your buddy, be wary of stories and what you believe. Government employees (more-so, non-sworn) generally can have relatively low productivity with no major repercussion, as long as they’re getting their primary job done for the most part. If they were working private sector they’d be fired long ago. So if one of those employees is actually getting supervised, they’re on the radar, and it’s likley not because they’re a rock star of productivity.

Supervisor is not sworn. My friend came from the private sector and is way more productive and qualified than the others on his team. He took on projects everybody kept on the back burner and completed them faster than they would have. He makes them look bad. He seems to be well liked by the staff above the supervisor's position. One of his initial ideas was to eventually take his supervisor's job, but he's given that up.

He came from an industry that is kinda cut-throat so he is no stranger to pressure from others. I know him and his work ethic and I can say with confidence is isn't a slacker.

[DRM6000]

Originally Posted by SMarquez

I had a couple incidents where I knew an order was out of bonds or in a really gray area I simply asked for clarification by email. Quoting the policy manual really helps put a stop to BS like that.

That's what I told him and to make sure to bcc himself on everything.

[DRM6000]

Originally Posted by BadKitty

Look, if someone wants to jam you up, they're going to jam you up. If they need a fall guy, you're the fall guy. Deciding what to do depends a little on if your friend still wants to work for that agency and/or promote or if he is open to applying elsewhere. Since I knew promotion was not ever going to be an option at that employer, I just kept my head down and kept working hard there in my remediation cubicle. Meanwhile, I started applying for public safety jobs and eventually got out of dodge. At some point, the stress of working for that supervisor will outweigh the benefits of working there and your friend will need to leave. But making waves and trying to file IA complaints won't go over well, at least he'll pay for it "unofficially". Depending on his actual job/role, if he has an option to transfer to another department within the same SD, that may help. Otherwise, he might need to look for other pastures.....

That's what it's looking like for him. He's no stranger to stress at work, but this situation and environment has him really bothered. He has held higher positions, earned more money and worked with some real richards. It's unusual for him to be this worked up about the work environment so I trust that something really is wrong.