Feeling like I've been the victim of a popularity contest

SapphireFlames

A re-structure/selection process has been going on in my department. In the current structure there are 120 employees, but the new structure will have 95 people.

Today I had a meeting with my supervisor (and the senior manager responsible for my area) and I was told that I haven't been offered a role in the new structure and I've been placed at risk of redundancy, although I'm not yet under notice.

I've worked in this department for 2 years, and I've always had good bi-annual appraisals and performance ratings. I've also had lots of positive feedback from internal customers and I've often been praised for my technical skills and the speed and accuracy of my work. Over the past 2 years I've worked in 3 different functions within the department, meaning I have a broad skillset. I've read the role profiles for the new structure and I believe I have the required qualifications, skills and experience.

Furthermore, my supervisor wrote in the manager's comments section of my selection form that he thinks I would be suitable for just about any of the roles in the department due to my strong technical ability. However, team supervisors weren't actually involved in choosing the successful candidates - that was all done by a panel consisting of the senior managers.

That's why I was so shocked that I've been selected for redundancy. Even my supervisor was surprised and seemed disappointed that the panel hadn't selected me for one of the roles.

I'm concerned I may have been discriminated against because I'm quite a shy person, even though I still perform my job well in spite of this. My current role is very technical and involves very little limited interaction with customers external to the department. The roles in the new structure will also be very technical (according to the role profiles).

I'm not a "popular" (read: chatty) person, but I'm always friendly to people and I get on well with all my colleagues. All the people I've worked with seem to like me and they think I'm a considerate person, although I wouldn't consider myself to be really close friends with any of my co-workers. I'm the sort of person who keeps my head down and works hard.

In my appraisals, my supervisor has often said that my communication skills are a development area, but he also says that I work very hard to improve them and that I've made significant progress.

I realise that shyness is a personality trait. However, in a redundancy process, is discriminating against an employee's personality treated the same as discriminating against someone's race or gender? Would I stand a good chance of winning an appeal?

Zazen999

Sometimes they let the best ones go in a situation like this as they have the best chance of getting another job.

Sometimes they are just a-holes.

You need to read up on discrimination law...it is not a recognised case to discriminate on personality - sorry.

Spirit_2

Sorry to hear you news, however you have no legal basis to claim you have been discriminated against on the grounds of "Personality" , as discrimination covers race, gender,disability,religeon, sexual orientation.

With regard to your selection for redundancy, ask why you have not been offered a post in the new structure, so that you know what the areas are in which you scored less well.

Dont be surprised if it shows your strengths and overall it did not look bad . Its just that you will have been ranked relative to others.

There is a belief that employers use redundancy to get rid of staff who are underperforming, it is a statement of fact that you objectively want to retain the best people, however in larger scale redundancies (and in your department it is losing over 20% of its workforce , 25 people) employers do have to let good people go . These are staff who if times were better they would want to keep.

I have been in the position (many times) of recommending redundancy/redeployment of talented staff who we could no longer afford. Nothing to do with personality, but scoring against a criteria/application process and ranking the outcomes.

Good luck
Spirit

anewman

Although I would like to point out it could be argued that if the shyness was part of a condition like Asperger syndrome, then the syndrome would be classed as a disability - although *proving* this is the reason you were selected would be near to impossible. Although my understanding is they have to select those to be made redundant by *objective* means. Therefore something like a points system where every individual is scored on things like work performance, time off work etc. So if they have not done this it may be worth appealing.

p00hsticks

SapphireFlames wrote: »

team supervisors weren't actually involved in choosing the successful candidates - that was all done by a panel consisting of the senior managers.

So how well do the senior managers actually know the people they were judging ? Is it possible that the selection has been done this way to try to avoid personalities coming into it ? If the senior managers aren't very well acquainted with the individuals and are simply selecting on the basis of written reports then it could be argued that this avoids bias based on individual personality traits.

SapphireFlames

Thank you for your responses. I'll have a meeting with my supervisor and senior managers early next week to discuss the reasons for the decision in more detail.

Even though it isn't a recognised case to discriminate against personality (as opposed to race or gender etc), surely it is still irrelevant to a person's ability to do the job? I thought that employers were only allowed to use redundancy selection criteria that are relevant to an employee's ability to do the job?

They did carry out a point-scoring system - we were all told our individual scores even before the panel of senior managers held their selection meeting. My score was of a sufficient level to be able to do the jobs in the new structure, but then again I don't know anyone else's scores.

However, what I find difficult to believe is that I must be one of the worst 25 people in the department, given my previous good appraisals etc. It makes me feel awful. Additionally, I have relevant technical qualifications which several of my colleagues don't have, and I thought that would give me an advantage.

As for the senior managers, what I'm suspecting is that they might have given preference to the people in the department whom they know best. Say for example I got exactly the same score as another employee, the senior managers might have picked that other person instead of me, because they know that other person better. Due to the way the scoring system worked, it's very possible that there could've been several employees with the same overall scores.

p00hsticks

SapphireFlames wrote: »

They did carry out a point-scoring system - we were all told our individual scores even before the panel of senior managers held their selection meeting. My score was of a sufficient level to be able to do the jobs in the new structure, but then again I don't know anyone else's scores.

Then I think you need to a) find out exactly what criteria was used to determine those scores and b) determine if your score was one of the twenty five lowest.

SapphireFlames

I've just had a meeting with my managers (my supervisor and the senior manager for my area) to discuss why I was selected for redundancy. It turned out that it *is* to do with my communication skills. I met or exceeded the required standard for all the assessment categories with the exception of communication skills. I'm not happy with how this re-structure has been carried out as I think it discriminates against people who have good technical skills but below average communication skills, and I think that in this job technical skills are more important. There wasn't even an assessment category for technical skills, but there was one for communication skills. That's why I think the process was biased.

Having said that, I don't think I'm going to appeal now. After speaking to my managers, I've changed my mind. The decision has already been made about who will get the jobs in the new structure, and my managers were pretty much saying there's no way those decisions can be changed now, as the successful people have already been told they've got their jobs. Even if I did win an appeal (which seems very unlikely), they still wouldn't be able to offer me a job in that department as all the roles in the new structure have been filled, so all they would probably do is just give me extra redundancy money. But I don't want money, I just want another job in another department.

At least my managers are supportive for me and they said they would do everything possible to help me find a new job within the same company. They said they still think I'm a good employee, it's just that there aren't enough jobs to go round and there are loads of people in the same situation as me.

My supervisor didn't seem too happy when I said at the meeting that I might consider appealing against the decision. He also hinted that if I did appeal, it could have negative consequences for me in terms of finding another job within the company. He said that my efforts would be better concentrated on finding and applying for a new internal job.

So I think that's what I'm going to do. I'll tell my supervisor that even though I'm still not fully satisfied with the way this re-structure has been carried out, I've changed my mind about appealing and that I want to concentrate on finding a new internal job. I don't think an appeal would achieve anything useful for me and I don't want to jeopardise my good relations with the managers, I want to leave the department on good terms.

Does everyone think I am correct to change my mind about appealing?

Errata

My supervisor didn't seem too happy when I said at the meeting that I might consider appealing against the decision. He also hinted that if I did appeal, it could have negative consequences for me in terms of finding another job within the company. He said that my efforts would be better concentrated on finding and applying for a new internal job

He's gone out of his way to give you the broadest hint he possibly could. Take advantage of it, do something about your poor communication skills whilst searching for a new job within the company so you can demonstrate what practical steps you're taking to improve the area that let you down.

georgehere

appeals/claims etc are very very stressful in my experience, of course this is a personal view, but I would agree with Errata in terms of finding a positive way to utilise your energy looking for a new job