I work at a state university, and we've got a couple of employees in my group that are making everyone elses lives hell. They're smart enough to just enough to keep themselves from getting fired. Worse than that, they're constantly filing grievances over either overblown or made up conflicts that they initiate. They're trying very hard to get me and my boss fired. While I'm fairly sure they'd have a hard time getting me fired after what we've been through (HR audit, reclassifications, etc.), my supervisor keeps getting the shaft with these folks because he can't do anything without them running to HR. To make matters worse, it would be very difficult to fire these people on performance, because they can automatically say that they're being retaliated against because of the grievances. I'm about at whit's end. I've been told that the best chances we have is if these people quit, and I don't see that happening. As soon as the market recovers a bit, I'm gonna start looking for other work. I'd hate to give up the comfort and stability of a state job, but this is too much. Just today I filed a complaint with our department head because I witnessed two of the jerks coersively discussing their next grievance. I swear, I get more and more Republican each day I work here....
are you and these pesky employees part of a union? I don't understand why they can't just be fired? Are you not in a Right-to-work state?
Nope, state employees are not allowed to unionize by law. Also, while this a Right to Work state, most state agencies, in education especially, have very progressive HR guidelines. While this seems good for employees, people abuse the system like crazy. Not only that, they assume that people fired will sue and get in the papers, which means they'd rather keep the problem in the department level than have it affect the entire University. HR makes its money by creating problems to fix.
