probation extended . help needed please !

melymay

Evening all,

I work for a large major retailer and have worked there for the past 10 months. On 24th December, after 6 months I had my probation extended citing 4 issues - 2 incidents (3days) of absence, failure to fully join in project work, further systems knowledge - advanced and being proactive rather that reactive.

Over the pat 3 months all of these areas have been addressed and concidered not to be any further isssu. I have made reapeated requests to finalise the probation period from 24th March. . to no avail. This morning at 10 am I was asked to attend a meeting at 2pm, leaving me no time to prepare - but had some ongoing information to add to the meeting. The result being that I was informed that there were now 'concerns' about my general attitude !

Anyway , to cut a long story short, been told today that I will asked to attend another meeting on Thursday with the site manager to acertain one of 2 outcomes - ethier extended for another month or dissmisal for failing probation.

I am well aware that as I have not completed 12 months continuous service this limits me from approaching the situation as regards to ET, but wondered if anyone has any ideas, or a potential way to enter into this ?

Many thanks for reading,
MM

Emmzi

it is my understanding that if they missed the date of your probation expiring to extend it further, it's like you passed - a month would certianly indicate this. Everywhere I have worked we have had the probation expiry dates firmly in the diary so we don't mess it up if we have tto let someone go.

So you should probably be on standar performance improvement procedure.

Got a union rep handy? It'll be a tough one to argue on your own.

melymay

Thanks Emmzi for the reply,

I should add that I am am pobation for senior management position and have never been place in this position before. Hence my position I do not have access to a union directly but do however have a close friend who reps for unite . .so do have an outlet to get advice.

I khave sopken with ACAS twice and they have said they employment law does not entitle you to pass probation by default. .ie not seeing you the exact date. They have said that I would have a case (ish)if, after 12 months continuous employment my contract was ended ,as my employer had not supported me in passing probation.

I have documented all conversations with my senior management team and am hoping that the way I have been treated will be seen with lack of parirty to my peers, both on probation and in permenant roles.

thanks again,

MM

melymay

BTW . .just wanted to apologise for the spelling mistakes . been a s**tty day and need to get things off my chest . .

thanks again !
MM

Emmzi

tbh its a bit different for a management position in terms of expectations.
- did you have clear targets, both "hard" and behavioural?
- did you get regular feedback on them?
- have you always acted on that feedback?
- have you sought feedback for yourself instead of waiting until it waas given to you? (the proactivity bit)

All of these are factors in the keep/ fire decision...

Emmzi

plus, see if you can find the company policy.

for example, here is Oxford uni's, which is very clear on what happens if no review meeting is held..

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/ps/managers/appoint/probperiod.shtml

melymay

Emmzi, thanks again .
met all the target set, didn't get the feedback but had to request it, did everything to the letter and some more ! and as a comment have always siught feedback. .

have mailed my mgr 9 times in the past month to get some dates/times sorted and just came out of the blue today.

Have loads of evidence that all managers are not being treated the same or with any sort of consistancy.

The main picture is, 7 new managers were taken on last year due to increased business, about 25% extra than before, business now has some 'issues' I feel that this is not a competency issuse, but a 'who can we lay off easy issue'. Hence not too sure where I stand.

Some of the 'old school' are so much more complacent and gets a bit wearing after a while when nothing is being done about the situation !

thanks for letting me vent !

Emmzi

hope you are wrong and I'd think about how not to be the easiest target.. gonna have to stick up for yourself!

good luck, let us know how you go.

getmore4less

melymay wrote: »

The main picture is, 7 new managers were taken on last year due to increased business, about 25% extra than before, business now has some 'issues' I feel that this is not a competency issuse, but a 'who can we lay off easy issue'. Hence not too sure where I stand.

If that is the case then they can just make someone redundant.

They would need selection criteria anyone else still in probation?

terra_ferma

It sounds rather straight forward to me, if you did not perform in the way they wanted, maybe your face did not fit in, they did not like your attitude or whatever, they want to get rid of you.

As a senior manager I would forget about unions, ACAS, ET etc etc, I would get proper legal advice from a specialised solicitor (£100ish for a consultation, but well worth it as they can help you save your career and perhaps get a pay out).

I bet their advice would be to go for a compromise agreement to save your career, with good references and possibly some £££. How much you get would depend on how much hassle they think you could give them and how much business sensitive information you take away with you.

Pete111

Emmzi is correct in that there was some case law a couple of years ago where it was ruled that someone going past a probation end date with no confirmation of extension/failure was deemed to have passed by default.

I'm afraid I don't agree with Terra Firma (Sorry TF!) re your chances as you are still within your first 12 months of service and realistically you are going to struggle to make any claim stick as you have no right to unfair dissmissal.

It's possible you could find a lawyer to argue there was a breach of company process but without unfair dismissal and unless there has been discrimination against you (ie race, sex, age etc), most are simply not going to be interested.

As such you may be on a loser here I'm afraid. The one thing I would add is that in some companies (inc mine) your notice period increases after probation. If this is the case with you (check your contract) and they do dismiss you, it is worth arguing that you are owed the longer period of notice pay as your probation had already 'ended by default.' At least that way you might get a bit more cash.

P