So, it’s not been a great start so far. First, I sit next to this weird employee and then when I do report, it’s dealt with so badly.
Days are dragging by and STILL no one has contacted me, so I report as sick and the doctor signs me off. If I continue coming into work with this much anxiety and panic because I am being held in limbo, I could seriously put someone at risk on the phone because of my state. I am in no fit way to be helping people.
What a shock. It has been 2 more weeks and I still haven’t heard a thing, from anyone! So I decide to get back to the office so I can chase this myself. However, I return to an email from an investigation officer telling me that he will be dealing with the case and explaining what will happen. Finally. I don’t have to be in this horrendous limbo of not knowing.
He tells me that they have moved said colleague and that I will need to make a statement. I immediately set a date as I want this over and done with asap. It’s nearly been a month since I reported this, I know these things can take ages but I just need my part to be done with.
3 weeks later, I get 3 trains and a bus to the Professional Standards office and give my statement to the investigation officer. He tells me he will now collate everything I’ve said and give to the accused colleague to have a look at for 2 weeks and then take a statement from him. Erm okay? I find that strange, isn’t it best to interview him without him having access to what I’ve reported to see what his face value response would be? This way he will have time to think of excuses and reasons? Ugh, oh well. What do I know.
A couple of months go by and I am waiting to hear if it will be taken to a misconduct hearing or not. More waiting, fab. There’s anxiety, and then there is endless waiting. Like a black hole of what-ifs and worst-case-scenarios with only your own irrational thoughts to keep you company. But eventually I am told that it will be a gross misconduct case and that there will be a hearing after all. Wow, not only am I relieved that I’m not waiting anymore, but I feel heard and not like I’m the only one who thinks what I witnessed was absolutely shocking and shouldn’t be allowed in the Met.
It’s now November 2023, 7 months since I reported what happened. I’ve just left the hearing at New Scotland Yard. Drained, deflated and frazzled. I had to go into a room with the panel, consisting of 2 senior female employees and 1 senior male employee, and explain what happened (with the colleague in the room staring at me the whole time, not fun). Intimidated doesn’t even scratch the surface on how I felt during the whole process. The panel had some questions and so did the colleague’s trade union rep. I alone, with no trade union rep to help me or support me (I was advised earlier on in the investigation that if I’m telling the truth and have done nothing wrong then I wouldn’t need to consult the union), answered everything that was asked of me with tears rolling down my cheeks trying to avoid the intense eye contact the colleague was giving me the whole time. Not an experience I’d recommend.
I am told, once I finish my part of the hearing, that the panel will deliberate and inform the colleague of their decision and I will be notified by my investigation officer at some point. Ugh, I hope it’s not another week or even a month wait. But to my surprise, I get a call shortly after I make it home that day telling me he has been dismissed for gross misconduct with immediate effect. Pass taken off of him there and then and no longer a Met employee. The panel said with all the evidence and contribution I made to the hearing, that they fully believe me and there is no space for someone like that in the force.
I am so proud. They are doing what they promised. They are making the Met a better force. At least I thought they were. Fast forward April 2024 and I’ve been enjoying a new role as a dispatcher, when I receive an email from the Superintendent that led the misconduct hearing back in November. It reads, “Can I meet you at some point for a quick meeting? Today.” My stomach drops.
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