Got sacked. Unfair dismissal? Please read!

Rimnerel

I was a Tarot Card Consultant working for a company in England so basically I was self-employed.

I had work shifts but I often worked overtime because the salary was quite low. The company charges the customers/callers £1.00 per minute. There are two types of calls: a premium rate call which can last up to 30 minutes max and credit card calls which last 20 mins because it's pre-paid by the customer. Which means that if I give them a reading for 20 mins then I've only earned £4.

Anyways, I got ill about 2 weeks ago but I did give a reading every now although not as much as I was supposed to but did it whenever I could or felt better and up on my two feet. So like a week ago my boss phoned me saying that I don't keep my customers on the phone long enough on premium rate calls. She basically said that if I wouldn't approve she'd have to "let me go"..
I apologised for being absent from the tarot phone line as a reader and told them I'd get back to it and do my best. And I did.. but she phoned me up AGAIN *deep sigh* and said: "I give you this week to improve and if you won't improve then I will have to let you go. You had 2 premium rate calls yesterday, both only lasted 6 minutes. I don't think you're doing very well, you're wasting your time like that. Except your credit card calls last 20 minutes but that's what they're supposed to do anyway." I told her I was aware of that but I also said that those 2 premium rate callers had hung up before I even could finish the whole reading.. So she advised me to make my introduction longer and that I should apply more things into my readings such as using astrology or something else I'm good at (but she fails to understand that the people who call don't want to be on the phone for that long!). I thought about it and I made my introduction as long and as sensible as my brain could come up with.. and I was very upset. I felt like she just made me more stressed and nervous.

I pulled myself together and logged on to the phone system since it was my shift yesterday and decided to prove them that I CAN make it 30 mins. And I know I did cause I looked at the clock. But it was really strange because my shift is 6 hours.. yet I only got ONE call..?! During these hours I tried to think what was wrong. Maybe my boss just forgot to put my message on the phone? Or something was wrong with the phone line? Or maybe the fact that I changed my message (every reader has a message the customer can listen to and decide if they want a reading from them.. and since I wanted to improve I changed mine to make it sound better and also because I had applied astrology and new things).
Anyways.. so yeah, I got only one call.. O_o like !!!!!!. It really worried me because I was hoping to prove myself more but didn't really get the chance yesterday. I dunno, maybe people just didn't want to call yesterday? *shrugs* Whatever the case I was pretty worried. My bf called me (he was out in the pub) and asked me if I could come out cause he missed me and I told him: "No, I can't. I'm on my shift, I'm working at the moment." to which he replied: "Nah, c'mon she'll probably sack you anyway. She keeps on blackmailing you or it sounds like she does. Just come out and have fun with me.", me: "No, I can't. I have to do my best, today is my chance, I can't blow it."
Right now I just wish I had listened to him because I didn't get any calls anyway and this morning my boss just decided to sack me BECAUSE I GOT ONLY ONE CALL YESTERDAY ALTHOUGHT IT WASN'T MY FAULT! :mad: I'm just sooooo upset right now. It's not like my fault that people just didn't call this line yesterday.. It's not like I could've done anything about it. She said ONE WEEK, and it was ONE day and she already sacked me. I feel like I didn't even get a CHANCE to show my potential because I know I can be excellent at what I do when I put my mind to something and I thought I had! At least I !!!!!!!g tried. I consoled myself yesterday by thinking that "oh well, probably next days more people will call, I guess it's just today."
Anyways, so I phoned up other tarot readers of that company to see how long their readings are and... guess what, the readings they did lasted like only 5-7 mins and they were premium rate calls! Which made me wonder: if others do readings for that amount of time then why doesn't she pick on THEM TOO? Why me? I think this is unfair. It's so unfair. God, I'm so frustrated right now. I just wish I could tell her what I found out and what I truly think of this. She didn't even believe me that I was on for 6 hours to do those readings yesterday, she said: "You were online yesterday?", me: "Yes, why?", she: "For 6 hours and got only ONE CALL???", me: "Yes, it was my shift so yes I was on.", she: "huh?", me: ".....I said: IT WAS MY SHIFT.", she: "Oh. You were on yesterday?", me: "Yes.", she: "But you only got one call:", me: "Yes, I know. It's strange. I wanted to ask you if you might know why?", she: "Right. I'm sorry to say this but I'm afraid I will have to let you go. But I know some other tarot companies who employ new tarot readers since you're not that experienced so I'll give you two numbers so you won't just sit around you know." Like what the hell? So she thought ALL I did with my time was do bloody tarot readings? No, I had other jobs too you know, I'm not THAT pathetic! :mad: Gosh.
So she gave me two numbers and said: "And just tell them that I recommended you. The owner of that other company has interestingly as similar name to me. I'm Ella and she's Ellie." Me: "That's nice." :rolleyes:
I regret sounding polite in the phone to her and all. I wish I could've just stood up for myself and said to her: "You see, some customers don't give a damn about the introduction part or anything, they just want to get straight to the point - the reading, as fast as possible. Look, NO. The clients DON'T want to stay on for 30 mins and PAY £30 for a !!!!!!!g premium rate call. They just want to get their answers NOW and then hang up because they know this is very expensive." ... LIKE DUH! This just makes me go *headdesk*.

I told my boyfriend and landlord about all this crap. They think it was unfair dismissal. But I'm not sure though... I dunno if I can be assed to put up with these people again and take it that far. Although I am STILL very angry though.

Bleh.... I can't wait to get a new job. I had a job interview today and will have one tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll get one of these.

Do you think I should erase that Tarot Card Consultant thing from my CV? Oh and she also said one more thing before she hang up: "Since you get paid every week then you can still work till the end of this week and get your pay cheque next week." My bf thinks I shouldn't work for them anymore this week or ever again even if I get my last pay next week because that means the boss would get money from me working even thought she actually sacked me. My bf said: "Yeah, but she sacked you! If I was you I wouldn't bloody work for her till the end of the week cause she sacked you so why should you care? Just tell her to go to hell, seriously, even if that means the salary next week won't be as big althought they never paid you much anyway."
I guess he's right.. it's just that I really need the money right now but oh well. But then again I see what he means and I really don't have any urge to work for this company so that they can only give me like 20p a min and keep all the rest in their pockets. Hell no! I ain't giving them that pleasure. No-no.
Also, do you think I should phone up these other two numbers? I'm personally thinking no.. because these companies are probably just as crap as hers, and the fact that the other employer's name is like.. similar to my bosses name.. sounds a bit dodgy and creepy to me. Besides, I just found out about another company that is like WAY better and actually PAY their readers much better.

I dunno if I should be sad or happy that I got sacked. Then again this company wasn't exaclty nice anyway. Not to mention the fact that they could never spell or say my name correctly (although it's quite simple, just Susanna really, that's it, lol!) and even the contract and their website and everything is FULL of spelling mistakes! Also, I hated how she always replied: "huuuh?" when she didn't get it. It just sounded extremely rude.

I really want opinions on this matter. At least I've learnt a lesson now: to defend my rights and stand up for myself!

Mr_Angry_6

Why don't you consult your cards to find your answer? And dont forget to charge yourself a premium rate while doing so.

JimmyTheWig

Let us know what you do, I'm fascinated.

Rimnerel

Mr_Angry wrote: »

Why don't you consult your cards to find your answer? And dont forget to charge yourself a premium rate while doing so.

No need to be nasty here just because you hate premium rate numbers or don't believe in tarot.

PasturesNew

What rights?

If you're self-employed you weren't sacked. That's the nature of the beast.

Perhaps now you could set yourself up in business with a phone line yourself and still provide the service.

Rimnerel

PasturesNew wrote: »

What rights?

If you're self-employed you weren't sacked. That's the nature of the beast.

Perhaps now you could set yourself up in business with a phone line yourself and still provide the service.

I'm fairly new to this so bear with me please.

I was self-employed in the sense that I had to pay my own tax since the company wasn't responsible for that. Although I never got paid enough to pay tax anyway. But still, self-employed or not does what my boss did to me sound justified or right to you? So me having "no rights" since I'm self-employed means that I can just be treated like crap by any company and not be allowed to stand up for myself? Or what the hell??
And I DID have a contract with this company if you didn't notice the fact that I kind of mentioned it in my first post and as far as I'm concerned having a contract means I DO have rights since most people with contracts are known as "employees" if I'm not mistaken although the company called us self-employed just because of the tax thing.. Besides, this was not my OWN business. I was not in charge of this company or anything. I was treated like an "employee" EXCEPT for tax. That's it.

JimmyTheWig

You can stand up for yourself, but you may not have any rights.
If you were officially self-employed then the company in question would have been a customer of yours.
Depending on what contract you had with that customer, generally speaking they are allowed to stop getting services from you whenever they choose.

No, it doesn't sound right. Sounds like you have been treated really badly. I would assume, for now at least, that other companies would treat you in a similar fashion - especially those suggested by your boss.
Were you earning enough to get treated like this, or would you be better off getting a job in another field?

And as for this week, you either need to keep working or your bf needs to support you.

simpywimpy

Unfortunately I think you just need to put it down to experience. There are rogue employers out there and possibly you found one.

As you were responsible for your own tax, then you are technically self employed and as it doesn't sound as if you registered as such with the tax office (even if you werent earning enough you still need to do it) then I think you are better keeping quiet or you could face a fine for late registration

Soubrette

Rimnerel wrote: »

I'm fairly new to this so bear with me please.

I was self-employed in the sense that I had to pay my own tax since the company wasn't responsible for that. Although I never got paid enough to pay tax anyway. But still, self-employed or not does what my boss did to me sound justified or right to you? So me having "no rights" since I'm self-employed means that I can just be treated like crap by any company and not be allowed to stand up for myself? Or what the hell??
And I had a contract with this company if you didn't notice me mentioning that in my first post. And as far as I know, having a contract means I DO have rights since most people with contracts are known as "employees" if I'm not mistaken although the company called us self-employed because of the tax thing.

Most self employed people will have contracts with the companies they do work for - it will be a contract to supply...well whatever, goods, services etc. An employee will have a contract of employment.

You can go to the tax office and ask if, in their opinion, you are employed or self employed. If they deem you as employed then the company you worked for may be liable for any NI payments that they should have paid and may be fined for tax evasion (as well as having the inconvenience of being investigated by HMRC. http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pdfs/ir56.htm is a good place to start with your investigations. However, if you do go to the tax office I hope you were registered as self employed as there is a fine if you do not do so within 3 months of the start of your self employment.

However, there are weird anomolies in the law where you can be seen as employed for tax reasons but self employed when applying for other benefits.

Sou

Rimnerel

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

You can stand up for yourself, but you may not have any rights.
If you were officially self-employed then the company in question would have been a customer of yours.
Depending on what contract you had with that customer, generally speaking they are allowed to stop getting services from you whenever they choose.

No, it doesn't sound right. Sounds like you have been treated really badly. I would assume, for now at least, that other companies would treat you in a similar fashion - especially those suggested by your boss.
Were you earning enough to get treated like this, or would you be better off getting a job in another field?

And as for this week, you either need to keep working or your bf needs to support you.

I don't think I was officially self-employed though. The boss said I would be called self-emlpoyed because I'd have to pay my own tax but as far as I know self-emlpoyed people are those who are in charge of their own business which I wasn't. I didn't start this business, I was working FOR this business/company like any other person does and got paid weekly.

As for the other companies she suggested me - yes, that is the reason why I won't work for them either because my gut feelings tells me they're probably not any more better than my boss' company. To be honest, I am quite fed up with this premium rate thing anyway. I only did it cause I desperately needed money to help my bf. Good thing my bf's boss offered me some work though. I'm a steward now (started last week) and will do this like a few times a month. I also do leaflet distributing with a friend of mine as an extra way to get cash. But nevertheless, of course I'd still love to have a full-time job instead and I really do hope I will get one. I have an interview tomorrow so I'm keeping my thumbs up for that.

You are probably self-employed if you:

• run your own business and take responsibility for its success or failure
• have several customers at the same time
• can decide how, when and where you do your work
• are free to hire other people to do the work for you or help you at your own expense
• provide the main items of equipment to do your work

You are probably employed if you:

• have to do the work yourself
• work for one person at a time, who is in charge of what you do and takes on the risks of the business
• can be told how, when and where you do your work
• have to work a set amount of hours
• are paid a regular amount according to the hours you work, and get paid for working overtime - even if you do casual or part-time work, you can still be employed

According to this I sound more like I was employed than self-employed (just found out about this right now). The only difference was the tax, that's all. So I personally would actually classify myself as "employed" here but I only said "self-employed" since that's what the company claimed I was since I'm no pro at this and assume that my conclusion is probably not as right as someone else's... oh well.

Rimnerel

Soubrette wrote: »

You can go to the tax office and ask if, in their opinion, you are employed or self employed. If they deem you as employed then the company you worked for may be liable for any NI payments that they should have paid and may be fined for tax evasion (as well as having the inconvenience of being investigated by HMRC. http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pdfs/ir56.htm is a good place to start with your investigations. However, if you do go to the tax office I hope you were registered as self employed as there is a fine if you do not do so within 3 months of the start of your self employment.

However, there are weird anomolies in the law where you can be seen as employed for tax reasons but self employed when applying for other benefits.

Sou

Okay.. I see. Well, I started this work in June. It's not the third month yet and I got sacked today. I suppose I could probably go to that office then although it sounds kinda scary, lol. O_o

The company I worked for is in Manchester. They own a shop there and they employ tarot readers to work for them. But aren't self-employed people supposed to be their own bosses or something? Anyways.. it's probably not my business anymore but I kind of wondered why they wouldn't take the responsibility and pay the tax for their tarot readers? Either they're too lazy or can't be bothered to do that or they have some other serious reason.. or something. Or maybe they want their readers to pay their own tax so that they could be classified as self-employed even though they had a contract of employment and are basically treated like employers? Because.. self-employed people can't be sacked can they? Unless they sack themselves, lol.

Ugh.. I'm confused. *shakes head*