How to deal with a serial grievance raiser
How to deal with a serial grievance raiser
It's not unusual to receive grievances from employees from time to time. However, one employee may raise grievances repeatedly, particularly where the working relationship is breaking down. How can you deal with this?
What is a grievance?
The Acas Code on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures says that grievances are "concerns, problems or complaints that employees raise with their employers". It also advises that many potential grievance issues can be resolved informally, with a quick word often being all that's required, but where it's not possible to resolve the matter informally, the employee should use it formally. Unfortunately, employees can occasionally turn into serial grievance raisers. This can place a huge burden on managers.
Tackling serial grievance raisers
You should deal with each grievance raised in accordance with your grievance procedure and the Acas Code, as you always need to act responsibly. However, this doesn't mean you're obliged to respond to every grievance in detail if it would be unreasonable to do so. Look at the content of each grievance and consider whether:
It's genuine - if you have concerns that it's unfounded, why do you believe that's the case? If you think it has been raised dishonestly or maliciously, you may be able to refuse to hear it, and even take disciplinary action against the employee, but you should first investigate it to ensure you have reasonable grounds for your belief
It's a reasonable complaint - any points that are entirely unreasonable and don't warrant a reply don't need to be addressed, but do explain to the employee why those points aren't being considered at the grievance meeting
It repeats an earlier grievance that has already been properly dealt with, and no new information or evidence has been given - if it's a repetitive complaint, you can advise the employee that they have already exhausted the internal grievance procedure on that matter and so no further reply will be provided, but first ask them to explain in writing how their new grievance differs from the earlier one or whether they have any new information or evidence.
It's really an appeal against a recently imposed disciplinary sanction (and it raises no other issues) - if so, treat it as an appeal under your disciplinary procedure
The employee has already raised a grievance involving similar issues and this is currently being addressed. It may be fair and appropriate to amalgamate the two grievances into one grievance process, to allow for a combined resolution, where they are sufficiently closely related to each other.
Tip. If the two grievances are not in any way connected, treat the new grievance as a fresh one and deal with it separately, even though that means running two grievance processes concurrently.
Mediation
Sometimes, repeated grievances are a symptom, not the real problem. You may want to consider mediation with a serial grievance raiser, bringing in an external mediator to help resolve any underlying issues that are the root cause of the employee's complaints. This might break the cycle of endless grievances.
Look at the content of each grievance. If it's genuine and is a reasonable complaint, you must deal with it. However, if it's malicious, entirely unreasonable, repeats an earlier grievance that has been dealt with, is really a disciplinary appeal or is raised whilst you're still dealing with another grievance, you may be able to take a different approach.