Workfare experience at Tenovus

When Learn About sent me to Tenovus in Whitchurch Road to complete six months of workfare I didn't expect to become the victim of bullying.  Then to discover that my complaint was going to be taken lightly was again surprising considering Tenovus have provided lip service against bullying in the past. Then to be kicked off my workfare placement because I put online my experience of the bullying at Tenovus in the Whitchurch Road charity shop in Cardiff was again a surprise.   The bullying was not in the form of physical but more of an assistant manager thinking he can make someone do what he wants them to do even though it was a total waste of time.  I have put in detail the events that occurred on my news page  so the events are all recorded.  The bullying took place during my eighth week at Tenovus and after seven hours of steaming clothes that had to be crammed back on the rails so they got creased again I decided to complain about it.  After my complaint the next four weeks appeared okay.  Then the assistant manager told me to find some space in the bric a brac room to put  while the donations built up.  It was a pointless task as the room was full but I was able to create a space about a foot square after an hour.  He came along and put a few plates in the space.  I didn't even bother commenting as it didn't make sense to have me waste all that time.  If I hadn't decided to go back to opening the donated bags and sorting the place would have been filled to the rafters with bin bag donations.  Looking back the assistant manager who had tried to bully me was having a second attempt at making a fool of me so he clearly knew that the regional manager Sue Hayes was going to kick me out the next week.  That second attempt to waste my time was on a saturday and on the monday I got a text from Learn About informing me that Sue Hayes had arranged a meeting with me for thursday and that's when she ended my placement. So instead of completing twenty six weeks I completed twelve weeks of my workfare placement.  If I had responded to the assistant manager then I would have been kicked off my placement and risked a sanction from the Jobcentre.  As it was I still had to answer a sanction doubt even though it was Tenovus who ended my placement.  My placement was for twenty eight hours a week that included saturday from 9am to 5pm and I never once took a lunch break.  I was fortunate that the Jobcentre allowed me to give my reasons why the placement ended and I didn't receive a sanction.  Learn About and Tenovus did not give any reasons apart from the fact that I had put my workfare experience online as the reason they ended my placement.  How disgusting is that, a charity that uses free labour cared so little that they made me face a sanction doubt and all the stress that goes with it just to get rid of me rather than deal with a bully.  In fact for my accusation of bullying to go ahead I had to agree to work alongside the bully while Sue Hayes investigated.  The day before the meeting with Sue Hayes at the Tenovus head office in Llanishen she was in the charity shop in Whitchurch road all afternoon and was polite to me saying the odd nice thing knowing full well she intended to get rid of me the next day.  That day even the manager got involved, she asked me if I would be prepared to work alongside the assistant manager over the christmas period and I said that I would work alongside him.  She was clearly hoping that I would refuse to so Sue Hayes would have more ammunition to use to justify getting rid of me the next day.  My experience at Tenovus has taught me that while the volunteers are in general decent people that doesn't mean that the people who work for Tenovus are.