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getmore4less

freakyogre wrote: »

I wouldn't make any bad comments, it's really not worth the hassle.

Will they not query why I worked there for 2 months, but won't list them as a reference? Or is that something I could then explain? (not in full detail )

Sorry to ask so many questions, i've never been in this situation before and my work record has always been really good before now.

Its a job did not work out situation, pick a reason.
I think the not enough work so not sure why they hired is a good one.

As for the reference the previous longer term employer provides a better base for any new employer, it is still recent enough, if asked just say you thought they would be more intereted in hearing from the recent long term job than a short term one.

sharkie

Freakyogre, I hope you are a young person as us older ones have also found this out the hard way. From what I read into your post, you do not seem to understand what is happening around you. Performing your duty is only a small part of doing 'the job' and office politics and fitting in can be far more important in certain situations.

Secondly, working hard and long days makes the rest of the staff look incompetent as your output will be higher. You said that your colleagues were finished by 2pm, there is always 'something' to do, so you made them look bad, your manager look bad and yourself look bad for not finding that 'something', and then you admitted it and even then rubbed their face in it to boot. Your manager would definitely not tell her boss she could not find you anything to do. You have to use your initiative - keep a low profile, cause no waves, defend your position and tell them it is hard, but you are winning.

Please realise are always jobs to be done, and if they are not then you are of no use or value and you may not want to advertise this out loud, or make it obvious unless you really like claiming JSA. Take a book in your handbag to the toilet and read - if asked questions, just say "womans troubles", smoke breaks, tea breaks, lunch breaks, computer eye strain and rsi breaks, if religious time - go to afternoon mass, but be careful of surfing the net though!

Ask the company for a reference and you may find the reference is not as bad as you may think and forewarned is forearmed.

Only work your hours and if you want to work longer hours then get a second job elsewhere.

GotToChange

sharkie wrote: »

Freakyogre, I hope you are a young person as us older ones have also found this out the hard way. From what I read into your post, you do not seem to understand what is happening around you. Performing your duty is only a small part of doing 'the job' and office politics and fitting in can be far more important in certain situations.

Secondly, working hard and long days makes the rest of the staff look incompetent as your output will be higher. You said that your colleagues were finished by 2pm, there is always 'something' to do, so you made them look bad, your manager look bad and yourself look bad for not finding that 'something', and then you admitted it and even then rubbed their face in it to boot. Your manager would definitely not tell her boss she could not find you anything to do. You have to use your initiative - keep a low profile, cause no waves, defend your position and tell them it is hard, but you are winning.

Please realise are always jobs to be done, and if they are not then you are of no use or value and you may not want to advertise this out loud, or make it obvious unless you really like claiming JSA. Take a book in your handbag to the toilet and read - if asked questions, just say "womans troubles", smoke breaks, tea breaks, lunch breaks, computer eye strain and rsi breaks, if religious time - go to afternoon mass, but be careful of surfing the net though!

Ask the company for a reference and you may find the reference is not as bad as you may think and forewarned is forearmed.

Only work your hours and if you want to work longer hours then get a second job elsewhere.

sharkie - your point is totally valid (I say this an an older version...) but the solution you suggest may not always be viable.

In my last post (part-time and still not enough to do, a power-thing with the line manager who recruited me !!!!!!), each time I actually got up from my desk, comments were made a soon as I left the room - be it to the loo or anywhere else (i.e. "why is she taking her handbag? whisper whisper). I would be tracked down and told to return to my desk (to "do nothing"), the only annoying thing for them when I was in the room was that they could no longer shred every single thing about me (I have them on tape doing it - including to clients). This was not a call centre, it was a bleeping golf club.

I think - regardless of her age and life experience - freakyogre has been treated appallingly and stood up for herself very well. The shame is that she is the one who must carry this experience with her and the climate at the moment is not so kind that she can move on swiftly and drop this experience into the black hole where it belongs.

sharkie

GotToChange, Ah, you are the tall gorgeous once blonde girl with whom worked with the two "femail dogs" and rationed chocolates/biscuits. Are you happier in the new job?

You often can't really stop other from treating you badly. You do however not have to keep working there and take it. While she should not have been treated this way, long term wise think they did her a favour, rather than continually undermine her or treat her the way you were treated.

GotToChange your problem I understood was more of a personal nature, a nasty two there were! freakyogre I'm sure think is more of a fitting in one.

freakyogre

mizzbiz wrote: »

What an awful experience for you - I really feel for you.

You sound like a good worker and it reads to me as if others in that office (particularly your boss) were threatened by your intellect and your efficiency - it makes them look bad.
The only law I know of where you get comeback withing 12 months of employment is "Wrongful dismissal" - i.e. breach of contract. This would apply where the appropriate disciplinary action wasn't taken - it sort of merges in with constructive dismissal - which is clearly the case.

On the other hand - is it worth your time and effort for having been there only two months. I think the crux of it is (and you find it in all incestuous offices) is that you didnt spend the obligitory 4.5 hours of your working day talking about shoes and men - cliquey, awful women are very threatened by this.

If I was you I would either say you got the job but it didn't work out as it wasn't as advertised or just not put the job down at all.

I don't want to create a massive fuss, I wish they'd just admit that the reason they have given, is not the real reason. It was clear from the minute I walked in that they'd already made their decision and any argument I put forward was ignored, so they didn't seem to want to 'give me a chance' or even solve the problem.

I've calmed down a bit now anyway as doubt I will pursue it. It still doesn't seem right that with no prior warning (except the chat) that within an hour you can be told to basically !!!!!! off and be gone.

GotToChange

sharkie -

Yikes - what a memory you have (and despite my slight name change). No new job I'm afraid - too afraid of it happening again..........

You are probably right about freakyogre - but you know? fitting in is a two way thing - esp if her colleagues/managers are older; if they were determined that she wouldn't fit in, it would not have mattered what she did - less easy would be if they had done everything they could to enable her to fit in and she rebuffed it all. I don't think that was the case - it does seem that she was maybe a little too good for the job; hard to remember that when in the dole queue though...

freakyogre

GotToChange wrote: »

Even though you are relleived to be out of there - I do have to say "you poor thing" as I can understand TOTALLY how you must have felt. Seemes to me these days that cr***y employers can do pretty much what they want to people regardless of the impact it had on that individual's life and prospects. It makes me want to scream - and sounds so similar to an experience of mine that I almost wonder if it's the same employer - who is notorious for it by the way. As an aside - for future interviews itr may be worth asking why the previous post-holder left (not that dodgy companies would to be honest).

Anyway -

As for your CV - a lot depends - I think - on what precedes this job - is it a long strectch of unemployment or is it a job that you left under good circumstances. My inclination would be to leave it off - rather than have to explain what happened after two months into a role. No matter what you say as an explanation, you will feel wrong-footed in the interview and the interviewer may well (wrongly, in my view) think that there's no smoke with fire blah blah. So - in a nutshell, if your CV lends itself to it, leave it off and use your previous job for reference.

It isn't breaking any law to do so and anyway, people can have gaps on their CV for any number of reasons.

As for JSA, you should make the call to claim as soon as possible. They may well say that it has to be after your notice period but that's not true, you are officially unemployed from the first day you aren't working (even in the notice period), it is their choice that you not work and are paid in lieu.

Whether or not you actually get JSA may - sadly - depend on a decision maker; fair enough, you have been dismissed (morally unfairly but of course that doesn't mean diddly in terms of law etc etc), but it is a grey area when it comes to JSA. (It has happened to me though and I did get JSA - but they did contact the ex-employer(s) to find out why .)

I really hate to hear stories like yours and each time I do, I worry that I can never re-enter the workplace because it's everywhere.

x

I've only had 2 previous jobs. The first I went straight into after leaving 6th form, I was there for 18 months and the company went into administration. The second, I started the following day and was there for over 4 years and got promoted in that time. They also went into administration (earlier this year). I'm hoping this will look good as i've never left a job or been 'dismissed' previously and never had any issues when working.

The previous girl left to start a new career. She was there for 2-3 weeks with me before she left and didn't mention anything other than when she started she didn't get on with the boss, but now did and that some days were quieter than others.

I will ring the Job Centre on Monday and see what they say. I'd rather not claim anything, but sadly after being made redundant in March and only working for 2 months, I haven't got enough savings to last very long.

GotToChange

freakyogre wrote: »

I don't want to create a massive fuss, I wish they'd just admit that the reason they have given, is not the real reason. It was clear from the minute I walked in that they'd already made their decision and any argument I put forward was ignored, so they didn't seem to want to 'give me a chance' or even solve the problem.

I've calmed down a bit now anyway as doubt I will pursue it. It still doesn't seem right that with no prior warning (except the chat) that within an hour you can be told to basically !!!!!! off and be gone.

Yep. In this case, they were trying to tick at least one box - what you said or how you felt mattered very little (it's horrid but true). They just wanted you to not be there with minimal fuss.

They were technically at fault though as - regardless of the length of time you had been there - they should have followed an official disciplinary process and you should have been offered the chance to "improve" (= change - but God knows how). Be glad though that they didn't because that would have just ground you down beyond belief and the outcome would have been the same.

They are qute simply s****y employers and you will soon be glad that you dodged the bullet.

x

freakyogre

getmore4less wrote: »

Its a job did not work out situation, pick a reason.
I think the not enough work so not sure why they hired is a good one.

As for the reference the previous longer term employer provides a better base for any new employer, it is still recent enough, if asked just say you thought they would be more intereted in hearing from the recent long term job than a short term one.

I think i'll stick with listing that I worked there, put the reason as leaving as 'role not challenging enough' but not list them as a reference.
I have previous references who I worked with for 3-5 years, which to me is better than 2 months anyway. If asked why I haven't put them done, I will then explain. That way, i'm not lying, but not making it a problem from the start.

GotToChange

freakyogre wrote: »

I've only had 2 previous jobs. The first I went straight into after leaving 6th form, I was there for 18 months and the company went into administration. The second, I started the following day and was there for over 4 years and got promoted in that time. They also went into administration (earlier this year). I'm hoping this will look good as i've never left a job or been 'dismissed' previously and never had any issues when working.

The previous girl left to start a new career. She was there for 2-3 weeks with me before she left and didn't mention anything other than when she started she didn't get on with the boss, but now did and that some days were quieter than others.

I will ring the Job Centre on Monday and see what they say. I'd rather not claim anything, but sadly after being made redundant in March and only working for 2 months, I haven't got enough savings to last very long.

So, I agree with myself - you should leave these losers off your CV - from March to now is nothing in terms of a stretch of unemployment. It will be fine (esepcially at the moment); your previous job is the one you should quite easily be able to focus on in any application and interview.

I am not advocating the benefits culture - but you should make your quite legitimate claim for JSA; here's hoping it won't be long-term but should that happen, you will regret not starting your claim sooner. (Besides, more unemployed = more jobs at DWP; don't want any more people losing their jobs..........)
x