Am I overreacting by taking my employer to tribunal over my knee injury and bullying?

I’m in the UK, deputy manager in a chain restaurant, currently signed off with work-related stress. I’m about to start an employment tribunal claim for disability discrimination and harassment, but part of me is worried I’m overreacting.

Last year I badly injured my knee. Since then I’ve had A&E, physio, multiple fit notes, and still have pain, especially with stairs and being on my feet. In August 2024 I had a return-to-work meeting with my general manager where we agreed adjustments: no late close then early open shifts, no stairs, extra breaks, and no heavy lifting. We filled in a return-to-work form recording this.

That completed form has since “gone missing”. The only thing I’ve ever seen again is an incomplete draft I later found dumped in a pile of paperwork. My manager’s story about it keeps changing – from “we never did one”, to “only a draft”, to telling me it should be on the system, but it isn’t and I’ve never had a copy.

After that, my rota shows around 30 close→open shifts, including after I raised a grievance. I complained every time because of my knee and what we’d agreed. In a later meeting with a more senior manager, my GM even admits I complained every time he put me on those shifts and that we’d agreed I shouldn’t be doing them, but says he still scheduled them when he felt it was “needed”.

On top of that, a supervisor I manage started constantly complaining about me behind my back instead of speaking to me. I was told that on a day I called in sick because of my knee, there were comments about me being “lazy” or “f***ing lazy” in front of others. I later confronted my GM and recorded the conversation with his consent. On the recording he denies saying that exact phrase himself and blames the supervisor, but admits there was a conversation about me calling in sick, that comments were made and people laughed, and that he should have stopped it but didn’t. He also accepts she keeps coming to him complaining about me and that he knows she wants my job.

My agreed extra breaks became an issue too. Instead of clearly telling staff these were adjustments, he messaged me saying staff were complaining about my breaks, hinted at possible disciplinary action, and demanded a new fit note – not because anything medically had changed, but because staff were moaning.

I raised a formal grievance about her bullying and how my knee and adjustments were being handled. There were problems with the process: at first HR tried to refuse my recording because he’d “withdrawn consent”, I had to fight to get it considered, my grievance was investigated by my area manager rather than someone independent, and during the hearing he basically told me it was my job to “manage the situation” and get other staff to do deliveries instead of the company adjusting duties properly. The outcome largely brushed off the bullying and downplayed the “lazy” comments.

I appealed. I wanted my mum (who’s a trade union rep) to accompany me, but they refused because I’m not a member of that union, even though their own policy just says you can be accompanied by a trade union representative. At appeal, the senior manager refused to deal with some of my points around disability and adjustments on the basis they weren’t all written exactly in my original grievance, even though they were clearly live issues.

There are data issues too: the completed return-to-work form has vanished, the draft was left in random paperwork, and internal notes about my grievance/appeal were shared more widely than needed. In a redacted email I got via a data request, a senior manager basically says the situation hasn’t been handled well internally.

Since all this I’ve been signed off with work-related stress and getting mental-health support. While I’ve been off, there was a staff Christmas party organised in the WhatsApp group by the same supervisor I complained about. No one contacted me personally to invite me or check in, and around the same time she was promoted from supervisor to assistant manager while my grievance about her was still unresolved.

From my side this all feels huge and genuinely damaging, and I don’t see how I can ever go back. I’m preparing a claim for disability discrimination, harassment, failure to make reasonable adjustments and victimisation. But a small part of me is still thinking: am I blowing this out of proportion? Am I over reacting?