A Victim of HMRC Bullying Writes

A loyal reader and HMRC staff member has asked me to publish this account of his treatment by HMRC.

I have redacted the name of the HMRC manager, so as not to prejudice any possible future criminal trial.

"....provide You with an account of the bullying NAME REDACTED was responsible for, the human impact which I have wanted to do for a long time. You could publish this and get the folks on your site to share it a bit. I am one of many.

I suffered at his hands for 4 years. Here is how it went:

Imagine work so bad, being so undermined, so utterly demeaned are You by one person and back by senior colleagues both privately and publicly You can't sleep at the start. You can't talk to Your wife as You are so demeaned you feel she'll think less of You. It has to be me doesn't it?

You hide it. You are alone.

The sleep and the harassment get bad, they are poring over minor things, they are constantly moving the goalposts, they are publicly criticising You in front of Your colleagues. The bad word is put out. 

NAME REDACTED and cronies start to make the visible impacts of their behaviour on You public. His senior and junior management back him and spread the word.

You can't concentrate. You lose what little confidence You have left. Resign? I have a mortgage. Who else would employ me. I am letting My family down. I am failing My wife. I am failing My children. These are My life. I have to hang on.

You hide it. You are alone.

The sleep gets worse. You are shaking all the time. You can't look Yourself in a mirror as You see inadequacy looking back. The harassment gets worse they are questioning your professional integrity to anyone who'll listen. Friends and colleagues are told by NAME REDACTED and his senior manager to dis-associate themselves from You. They do. You walk out of the office for a break, they walk away when they see You.

You hide it. You are alone.

You go home. You cuddle Your son. He asks: 'daddy why are You shaking so bad'. You are afraid to cuddle him after that. You wife things You are on drugs because of the shaking and that sleep and worry has left You with zero concentration. The sleep gets worse. You try to speak to NAME REDACTED to end this. You try his manager. You are told You are failing, You have failed the team, that the 'word out there' they instigated is deserved. There is no where to go in HMRC. They have destroyed You.

You hide it. You are alone.

You travel in on an underground train into work sweating and shaking at the dread of another day with NAME REDACTED and his managers doing this. A kind soul gives You a card on their way off the train for a drug rehabilitation support centre. Heroin withdrawal? Never touched drugs in My life. You are humiliated to Your core. It is now blindingly obvious.

You can't hide it. You are alone.

You take a sick day. Know You'll get panned by NAME REDACTED and his manager. Wife is at work. You line the pills on the counter. Lorazepam (30 should do the job) they gave me them to sleep. You take the first two then bottle it. Not leaving son with the smear of a suicide father. ......Do it day by day. Try to carry on managing Your team, try to escape the bad word. This goes on for 3 years. Every day.

You hide it. You are as alone as anyone can ever be in life.

You put the pills away for good... You move on. Then You pour this out at the enquiry when You are asked like a good boy. HMRC not interested.

You hide it. HMRC make sure You are alone. It was only bullying.

You read the Guardian article with no warning and realise that however bad this is there are sexual assault victims who must feel much worse. You question Yourself even more. They can move on. Why can I not?

Picture this going on forever.

Do with this what You will Mr Frost. There are those worse of than me and I live for My son."

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Report on the Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination Interviews – Report issued January 2016

Large Business 2014 People Survey: 

Report on the Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination interviews – Report issued January 2016 

Large Business 2014 People Survey Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination 

Interviews Large Business Leadership Team Message 

This report is a response to the concerns the Large Business leadership team had about the bullying, harassment and discrimination results in the 2014 People Survey.

We wanted to get a better understanding of what lay behind those responses and more importantly what action we need to take to improve things. We therefore commissioned an independent team to gather your views in a confidential environment and provide an anonymised report to allow us to take this issue forward.

We are very grateful to everyone who took the time to take part.

This report does not make comfortable reading and we were both shocked and upset by the findings .

However we are determined to take action and have already taken some of the steps needed to address the issues raised.

Please do discuss this report in your teams and share your thoughts on how we can make improvements for everyone in Large Business .

Kind regards,

Judith Knott and LBLT


Our anonymised report details the feedback f rom LB staff who took part in that interview process . The headline results from the People Survey 2014 figures for LB are:

Number of people who completed the survey - 1403 (response rate of 63%)

- Staff who had experienced bullying and harassment – 11 %
- Staff who preferred not to say – 9 %
- Staff who had experienced discrimination at work – 15 %
- Staff who preferred not to say – 10 %

At the time of writing this report we feel it is important to note the results of 2015 People Survey as they reaffirm the need for action on these issues .

Number of people who completed the survey - 1715 (response rate of 70 %)

- Staff who had experienced bullying and harassment – 14 %
- Staff who preferred not to say – 7 %
- Staff who had experienced discrimination at work – 18 %
- Staff who preferred not to say – 10 %

Read full report here.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Rigs Staff Survey - By Threatening Office Closure

My thanks to a loyal reader who dropped me this wee note below:

"I just thought that your readers might be interested to know that at least one office in HMRC has found a way to improve the engagement results of the 2017 staff survey. 

Staff in one of the many offices ear marked to be closed in the next few years have recently been advised at team meetings that too many negative comments on the 2017 survey may result in their office being closed earlier than planned!"

Loyal readers are aware that HMRC has an "issue" with staff surveys, wrt lousy results and poor response rates. Indeed it has been noted before that certain managers try to manipulate staff into making positive comments.

However, to threaten the closure of an office is lower than disgusting!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"