Felling like i am being forced to quit my job

yema2009 · 3 October 2009 at 9:26PM

Recently at work my boss has singled me out for criticism when i feel i have not done anything wrong.

i work for a quite large highways company and have done for 18 months now, things have been going great i get on with people i work with including my boss or so i thought i did. It all started a few months back when i took some leave (and told him about it) but he forgot and left a snotty message on my phone at 10pm at night saying why am i not in work? And about how i am always late (when I’m not) and i need to sort it out. i seen him about a week later and he didn’t say anything so i thought he must of either forgotten of just left it. then a couple of days ago i made a mistake whilst on night shift and came to work the next day and had the most unbelievable email from him, basically saying that i don’t know how to do my job, i am the worst out of 10 people that work there and with our 6 month review coming up there is definitely food for thought. Now what is that meant to mean? Am i going to get fired? Because it feels that way. He has had plenty of opportunities to talk to me if he feels that i am under performing but what can you do if there is nothing to be done?

There are people that work in our office that can’t do anything wrong even though other people can see faults. i travel 1 1/2 hours to work every day and sometimes cant help being a little late because of traffic, but i don’t stroll in like an hour late every day, but i just don’t feel like i deserve this and its causing me to get stressed whilst at home. I have a 2 year old daughter and am living with my girlfriend; i don’t really want to be stressing out over work whilst i am on my rest days. It’s really all i can think of.

If this goes on for much longer i feel like i am going to quit because i can’t be bothered with the hassle from him. i also feel like i am going to get sacked because he seems to be adding things to the initial problem to make it allot bigger than what it was.

Yet he doesn’t have the decency to phone me or sit me down whilst he is there.

Am i just being paranoid? Can he really make me quit my job, is that even legal?

Any help with this would be great

DCFC79 · 3 October 2009 at 10:07PM

Course he cant make you quit, you will then have grounds for wrongful dismissal

hothothot_3 · 3 October 2009 at 10:21PM

slam your fist on the table strongly and say "listen, its easy to insult me by email but if youve got a problem talk to me face to face like a man" - preferably do it with no witnesses.

elsien · 3 October 2009 at 10:31PM

Do you have regular supervisions (outside of reviews) where you can raise these issues and have them recorded? If you ask for leave, is there a form to fill in so you both have a record of what's been agreed?
And if you are regularly late (even if not by much), what do you do about it? Make up the time elsewhere, (and is there a record of this) or just say it was traffic and leave it at that?
It's your responsibility to be there on time, regardless of the traffic - how long you have to travel to get there isn't your bosses problem, it's yours, so how often is this actually happening.
Sounds to me like there's issues on both sides and a real lack of communication going on. You need to arrange to sit down with the guy and get some of this out into the open, and have an agreed plan of action as to how to stop some of these things arising in future.
Sitting stewing about it isn't going to get you anywhere, it's just going to make you feel worse. He should be speaking to you properly not firing off snotty emails, but there's nothing to stop you from approaching him calmly and sensibly and trying to sort things out.

yema2009 · 3 October 2009 at 10:59PM

Thanks for getting back to me.

He is my LM and people "outside" our little office probable dont even know our names its like "us" and "them" so they probably couldnt care less but they are higher up and the General Manager sits with his back to us. We tell him when we want leave and he says thats fine and thats it but we have discovered that sometimes he doesnt keep a record of all the leave and sometimes we have to remind him that our leave dates are coming up. We start work at 8 but aim to get there for around half past 7 to quater to 8 late is meaning before 8 but later than stated so its not technically being late its just other members of staff moaning but it swings in roundabouts and other people say there stuck in traffic whilst in Macdonalds Drive-Thru its pathetic really. I try and get here as early as i can sometimes i leave at half 5 to get to work for 7 so im making time up but no-one says thanks they just get annoyed when i turn up at 7:45 or mabe 7:50. :mad:

The other people that work here live maximum half an hour and a few of them go drinking with my LM and are friends outside of work.

Thanks Again

elsien · 3 October 2009 at 11:31PM

Why are they annoyed about you turning up at 7.45 if work doesn't start till 8? Do you have enough time to dump your stuff and be ready to start at 8, or are you still getting ready and not at your work station when you should be?
If you're ready in time, then I'd start keeping a record of when you arrive so you can show it to your LM if he makes more comments about your lateness.

Try not to get dragged into an "us and them" type scenario, otherwise it all gets a bit silly. Even if your boss and colleagues are being unreasonable, the fact that they only live half an hour away isn't really relevant. You chose to take on the job knowing the travelling involved, so as I said before, that's your issue not theirs. All you need to do is show you are doing your job as specified.

I still think you should ask to speak with your LM and ask him directly if he thinks you have any performance issues. Then draw up a plan to address these. So if you made a mistake, was it a one-off lack of concentration that you should hold your hands up to, or do you need more training in that specific area?

Bottom line is, you can sit and fret or you can do something about it. And if you can show you've done everything you can, and your LM is being unreasonable, then hit them with the constructive dismissal! Life's too short to let it get to you. Wherever you work, there's always going to be office politics, people sniping behind each other's backs, and the workplace brown-nose. It's how you deal with it that makes the difference.

Felling like i am being forced to quit my job

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