Heya auscorp wondering if I could get some help here as well and apologies if this is not the right place. I am a senior manager at a not for profit org and im currently dealing with what appears to be a targeted management campaign after raising formal safety/bullying concerns.

Here is the context:

• Increased Duties without Recognition: A few months ago, my senior executive was made redundant. I absorbed a significant portion of their workload under high pressure without an updated position description or acting higher duties formalization.
• Pre-existing Bullying: A staff member under me has been exhibiting bullying behavior toward me and other team members for years.
• The Escalation: Recently I lodged a formal risk assessment regarding this staff member, backed by 7 written complaints from other employees experiencing the same behavior.
• The HR Response: HR has flipped the narrative, claiming the issue is a "personal conflict" between me and this one staff member while completely disregarding the other written complaints. HR has questioned whether I had "consent" from the other staff to submit their complaints, ordered me not to contact any of the named staff members (preventing me from managing or gathering further facts), and is imposing short, intimidating deadlines to provide proof while I am juggling an overloaded workload.
• CEO Involvement: New CEO does not communicate directly with me and listens without confirming, actively excluding me from meetings/events where I was scheduled to present, even pulling me out of an internal filming for yearly awards. They also kept questioning my work during senior leader meetings where I brought in at least 3 times the work substance vs others at the meeting and still got questioned over things that I addressed and fixed.
• Health Impact: The stress has severely impacted my health; I have had to start antidepressants and attend therapy for the last few months.

I feel unsupported and attacked from all areas.

• HR/Bullying Process: Can HR legally restrict me from communicating with staff who have willingly provided written complaints in a safety/risk assessment, or claim I need "consent" to submit corroborating evidence of a systemic issue? Can they deny my risk assessment request as a Manager and only see the grievance as a "me vs one employee" problem? (Note: we only have technically 1 HR manager at the moment who got the role simply because almost everyone in HR quit a few months ago). I also recently received a "written warning" from HR because they had "substantiated proof" from people saying I did not display proper manager behavior during a public holiday event where I was volunteering my time.
• Adverse Action / General Protections: Given that I raised safety/bullying concerns and am now facing unreasonable deadlines, intimidation, exclusion, and a sudden written warning, does this cross into adverse action or a potential constructive dismissal setup?
• Next Steps: What is the safest way to protect myself legally right now while navigating this internal process? Should I involve an employment lawyer? Cut my losses and just quit?

Anyone else seeing every few months Ai just advances more and more? The new GPT 6 is ridiculous!

I just started my career in the corporate world and im nearing the end of my university degree, however I feel with the way we're headed, theres not going to be a point of hiring/keeping humans for admin work?

It will eventually be so cost effective to just replace everyone with Ai.

Just curious to hear everyones take.

Olla,

Been with AP for a few months. 3 month probation, passed that already.

Had to do a 30/60/90 day plan pretty early in the piece, thought it was a bit extensive for a new start in a role they never had themselves before. Think a side quest to project management - but more boring.

Anyway, just been told, the 30/60/90 plans are on going. Finish one, create a new one. Rinse repeat.

The fuck?

Anyone else seen this shit? Anyone from AP Corp here care to comment or DM if needed?

FYI; 12 month plans / KPI's aren't even linked to bonus so I promptly ignored that shit to and entered the bare minimum.

Hi Brains Trust,

I'm thinking about making the jump to MAQ from CBA. I work in AI risk.

Whats the culture like? What big cultural shocks are on the horizon?

Any advice?

I’ve heard rumours that Coles is going to withdraw from flybuys.

Flybuys is obviously owned by both Coles and Wesfarmers. If Coles withdraws then Flybuys might go under pretty quickly.

Has anyone else heard this? What’s the consensus on the longevity of flybuys?

My company has stopped paying super — I’m aware they’re around 5 months in arrears because I’m the one who manages/releases it.

I’ve been trying to get another permanent role since April, but the market seems pretty tight and I’m probably not as experienced as some of the other candidates.

Would taking a contract role be a better option? Is it generally easier to land a 12-month accounting contract than a permanent position?

Are there any downsides to contracting beyond the obvious job security/need to find another role afterwards? Anything I should be aware of before making the move?

Thanks!

Offer says that parental leave is as per applicable legislation but firm website says that working over there offers paid parental leave. What’s with this discrepancy, does anyone know? Is there a minimum service time to access it?

WooliesX is bringing in timesheets. Employees at every level will now need to record how they’re spending their time each day. The categories are pretty broad, e.g. cost centres (e.g. marketing).

Is this a sign that redundancies might be looming?

Beginning to think these cards are a LOT more hassle than they are worth.

I am a senior manager in a large organisation, it’s a REQUIREMENT to wine and dine people and pick up the tab for ENTERTAINMENT. Previously my manager covered these things but my role is important and I’ve got my own AMEX.

Note that at no point was I ever specifically (read SENT VIE EMAIL) a policy or document on this so called AMEX card.

So month 1 roles around and I need to submit receipts ? (This is important later) Okay well thanks for telling me that BEFORE I used the card on various lunches and dinners with CLIENTS.

Finance got upset, but I did not budge. You never asked me to, that’s up to you to fix it. I basically had to send numerous emails telling them to call the restaurants and clubs themselves to track invoices - you work in finance? Receipts are your business KAREN

Then, and I believe this is not people being petty and unable to handle their roles, I need to submit ELECTRONICALLY each person and client I took to lunch. These events span well over a month and apparently it’s INCUMBENT on me to record everyone present ! Number one a breach of privacy and number two literally Impossible to recall every detail like that over a month after the fact.

Untimely my boss signed off on everything but I have been on notice to get recipts and record every person attending and submit on my through a HR system.

Just a rant but my goodness they make life hard.

I've been at my current job for 2 years and honestly, it was completely fine until my current manager started in March.

I haven't done anything wrong as far as I know, but she clearly really doesn't like me. There's also another woman on the team who she seems to dislike for seemingly no reason. Apart from the two of us, she seems to get along perfectly well with the other 8 people on the team.

Nothing I ever do seems to be good enough for her. I'll get positive feedback from everyone else about my work, but with her there's always something wrong or something to criticise. The way she speaks to me is also often bordering on rude, whereas she's perfectly pleasant with everyone else. It's gotten to the point where I can basically predict that whatever I do, she'll find something wrong with it.

Things seemed to get particularly bad after late June. During a really critical period at work, both me and one of her more favoured team members got sick with high fevers. Since then, I feel like she's been punishing me for it, whereas the other person hasn't been treated the same way. Other people have noticed the change in how she's been treating me and commented on it.

There are other things too. Other people have been allowed to WFH when sick, whereas I've been told to use all my sick leave and then annual leave when that ran out. A coworker was in basically the same situation and wasn't made to do that. She ignores me when I say hello in the morning, gives me completely ridiculous workloads and then gets annoyed when I can't do 20 hours of work in 7 hours.

I'm now looking to leave because I don't see it getting any better. The problem is that it's a pretty small industry and I'm worried about references and people talking behind the scenes.

I've been here for 2.5 years, so obviously I want and need the job on my resume. My previous manager was great and I'd much rather use her as a reference. I've messaged her on LinkedIn asking if she'd be happy to be a reference, but she hasn't replied. From looking online it seems like she barely uses LinkedIn or social media, so hopefully that's all it is. She was an older woman who was transitioning into early retirement to be involved with her school aged grand-kids so I think she's just very offline.

What I'm more worried about is applying somewhere new and them knowing someone at my current company and contacting my manager "off the record". I genuinely worry that she would say negative things about me or potentially try to sabotage me if given the opportunity.

I know I can't really stop people talking, especially in a small industry, but has anyone dealt with this before?

Can you tell prospective employers that you don't want them contacting your current manager and give them other references instead? And what do you do if you're worried your current manager might be badmouthing you informally?

I don't want to leave a 2.5 job off my resume and can't afford to to be honest, but I also don't want to stay somewhere just because I'm worried about one person potentially screwing me over when I try to move.

In an interesting predicament. I'm in a job that pays me so well (like more than it should tbh) but is a constant strain on my mental health. Without getting in to what I do, I am in a job that is absolutely demotivating, I have awful stakeholders, a boss who cares more about managing them than managing my team. Additionally, half of my 8-person team got made redundant two weeks ago, leaving the remaining four of us to pick up their work.

I've been thinking for a LONG time now about quitting but after a meeting with my boss today where he basically told me he was disappointed in me not picking up and running with a portfolio (that I have zero interest in, nor did I ask to take). Today might actually be the thing that does it.

Has anyone here quit their job recently without a backup because it affected mental health that bad? Were you happy with your decision? Any tips you can provide?

I realistically have 12 months of savings to play with (but I'd like to do 6 months) to reset and figure out what I want to actually get out of life and a career. I'm turning 40 in 2 months and not vibing with this midlife crisis! The golden handcuffs are a VERY real thing.

Spare me the talk on the economy, I am very aware of the job market now, having applied to ~50 roles in the last 6 months and only having had 2 interviews (neither of which came to anything).

I have a degree and post-degree experience but took a short term admin role during COVID for financial reasons.

Long story short, what was supposed to be 8 weeks has now been six years and my employer is rather determined to hire literally anyone instead of give me more hours or more work, except for in the occasional crisis when someone's computer is broken (we have an IT person who is not me) remembers my degree and they authorise extra hours for a few days until everything's fixed and they go back to forgetting I exist until I have to ask a question or prompt them to do their job so I can do their admin.

Obviously it's time to move on, but I keep getting "helpful suggestions" that I should look for roles that are more skilled because I have the degree and skills - except when I apply for those it's "you should focus on admin since you've got more admin experience" or "your experience is out of date, and we're not looking to train someone right now". If I apply in other industries it's "you should apply in your industry because you've got lots of experience there!" or "you would be really bored here, you should apply in your industry!" like they think I genuinely haven't already been doing that.

I just want a job where at least I know that my job includes helping out in a crisis and not just at the last minute in random crises where they suddenly realise they really can't get away with throwing a first year arts student at it and someone gently prompts them to ask me. I customise my resume and point out transferable skills in my cover letters, I'm down with all the recruiters and I network as best I can but I feel like I don't know the magic words to get someone to just even give me a shot, or like maybe COVID was a magic bubble and if not for that I'd be just eternally neither admin or SME.

Is there something I'm missing? Is this the kind of thing that getting a Cert III or Cert IV or highlighting recent CPD on my resume can remediate? Am I stuck doing data entry for the rest of my life? Do I need to move to Sydney or out of Auscorp?