Harsh working conditions in run-up to redundancy date

Basil1234

The long hours I refered to was in a different company and office based.

more mug you for doing it and by the sound of your posts a job change is something you could do with at the moment you sound quite unhappy where you are tbh!

ceridwen

grey_lady wrote: »

Employers (like banks) are not your friend.

Ain't that the truth:cool:

I now have a "working rule of thumb" - it reads: "If THEY seem to want it - then it must be against MY best interests". Cynical - but true in my experience.

Whatever happened to being able to work together in a co-operative manner? But it doesnt seem to be that way from what I can see....:mad:

...goes off muttering "The sooner we are all able to work on a self-employed basis or in a co-operative the better......"

SapphireFlames

Thanks to everyone who has given me advice. I think I will speak to HR about potentially having a day/half-day off per week to look for a new job.

As it is, I haven't been given much time to prepare for interviews. For example, if I have an interview at 2pm, I am allowed to leave at about 12.30pm to travel to the interview, then I am expected to go back as soon as the interview is over. So I have been using up my own holiday allowance in order to get time off to prepare for interviews, but I'm now starting to run short of holiday (I think I've got about 5 days left).

ceridwen

Hmmm....thats a downright mean allocation of time for interviews. 1hr 30 mins to have your lunch, change into interview clothes, travel to the interview and arrive in plenty of time for said interview.

YOu do have the legal right to reasonable time off for interviews in the event of a redundancy.

The thing that I find astonishing is they apparently dont need you any more as the job has ceased to exist - hence the redundancy. Yet you are still working - and flat-out at that.

Think the American phrase "go figure" comes up at this point....

How on earth are they justifying this redundancy - in view of the fact that the job obviously very much does exist still - or is it literally going to vanish overnight the day after your notice period expires??:rolleyes:

I wouldnt dream of using MY holiday time to cover for THEIR vanishing (or is it?) job necessitating me going for interviews to find a replacement position.

Is there any way you can claim back the holiday time you have used to date to suit them (eg by taking sick days to claim that amount of time back)? (and - yes - I know you will be concerned about sick leave days showing up on your record - but I think any reasonable future employer would accept you pointing out that they had been during your notice period and that you had had a very good record before then). You could say - if pushed - that you had become so tired and rundown because of the pressure of work and not having any holiday time off (as you had used it for interviews). Gold Star to you for having used your own holiday time for said interviews in the eyes of future employer-to-be (when they will be well aware of your legal right to reasonable time off for interviews) and that Gold Star should cancel out any Black Mark for a few days sick leave right at the end of the previous job.

ceridwen

Check out:

http://www.tuc.org.uk/tuc/rights_main.cfm

I imagine there will be "chapter and verse" on there somewhere laying down the details about right to time off for interviews.

Should hopefully make you less of a "sitting duck" for that employer - who, by the sound of it, is walking right over you and back again.

Good luck with those interviews BTW.

grey_lady

"...goes off muttering "The sooner we are all able to work on a self employed basis or in a co-operative the better"

Funnily enough, that's exactly what I did after a very stressful redundancy which had me at the doctors as I'd actually had large boils appear. Luckily enough the doctor was excellent, pointed out that yes stress could cause physical symptoms and I didnt need tablets - I just needed a plan to move on.

I was so angry/upset at the time that I said I'd never work as a permenent employee again and I've been self employed ever since. I used the redundancy money to see me through the first few months and worked hard and it worked out well - maybe not for everyone but so far it's worked out very well for me.

SapphireFlames

I haven't yet talked to my manager or my HR department about time off for interviews (my manager was on holiday all last week anyway) but I did have a look at the company's redundancy policy.
It is rather vague, as it just says that you are allowed "reasonable" time off work to look for new jobs and go on training. The training bit sounds good, as I wouldn't mind starting a course this year. However, I think "reasonable" is a very wishy-washy, subjective term. What would constitute reasonable time off? In the company's redundancy policy, it sounds as if it is left up to team managers to decide what is reasonable. So I will speak to my manager next week, but how much time off do full-time workers at risk of redundancy normally get?

proplusplus

Reasonable is specifically 'wishy-washy' becuase it depends on your interview and where it is. If the interview is in a different area of the business and therefore a 5minute walk away, it would be 'reasonable' to offer you say 15-30 mins to prepare. If the interview was the other side of town and you only have bus transport, it would be reasonable to offer you sufficient time to get there - say maybe 2-3 hours depending on distance etc. It's specificially vague and subjective for that reason.

I don't think it's intended for you to have a little break at the same time, unless you're incorporating your lunch, but it is intended to allow you to get there in plenty of time and hopefully have a few minutes to compose yourself so you're not too stressed. If you feel it's reasonable to have more time, you can discuss this with your line manager and let them know your feelings. If your request is reasonable, it's unlikely they'll refuse.

From the sounds of it, you're affected by a relocation of an office where a specific department is not being renewed (hence the continued need to work until the redundancy).

You part of the Orange Service area in Bristol?

proplusplus

SapphireFlames

Thanks. I'm not part of the Orange Service area in Bristol. The main reason for my redundancy is that a lot of my team's work is in the process of being automated, so there won't be much left for people to do after a few months. Some of the work has already been automated, but we are still very busy as there is a lot of manual work to be done for the time being. The plan was to automate the vast majority of the workload this year, so then they would be able to get rid of most of us.

proplusplus

Well - best option is to discuss with your line manager / HR dept. Especially if your current work is stressful and hard i'd say you have grounds to have your breaks and time off to look for work elsewhere. Don't forget, there's no point working yourself into the ground if you don't feel you're being fairly compensated for it.... especially if you're being made redundant - there's no need to impress anyone if there's no possibility to progress.

One thing i've learnt is that the nicer you are, the more collected and well-structured your reason is behind a request, the more likely you are to be successful.

hope it goes well

proplusplus