forced to resign

Jacka87

OK, sounds like you feel you have been victimised in the whole time you where employed. If thats the case then you may have a grievence with that.

The fact that you made the choice to resign may have been influenced by this grievence but with the current circumstances it sounds to me like the company have been relativly fair by explaining their policys and iving you a decision.

If you didnt want to resign / felt pressured then you could have said you where staying on and then resigned later after buying yourself some time to think about it.

What I would say is that you seem bitter towards the company and dont seem like you actually enjoyed working there so why dont you use this time to support your family etc and then when you are ready look for an an alternative employer?

SandC

I agree with the others, you see to have a few separate issues here.

Your main concern is feeling like you had to resign from your position because you wanted time off or a transfer and this couldn't be given. Compassionate leave is only really given for close relations (parent, child) - and usually for as little as one day in the event of a death. In the event of illness of a family member you are relying on the discretion of your employer and whether they can or will bypass company terms. In this case your employer has not been unreasonable. When my brother was in intensive care in France some years ago I had to use annual leave to go and see him and my employers were not entirely supportive of the seriousness of the situation either - being 'just' a brother and all.

The other issues are all valid but you should have been making these same steps to address them before this happened. I do realise, though, that the current situation has probably been 'the straw that broke the camel's back'. For what it's worth though, in your current problem I can't see they would have treated anyone else any differently and don't really see how you can bring up all the other stuff as contributing if you didn't bring up grievances at the time.

Finally, and this is going to sound harsh, if you are very concerned about your ill relative and desperate to help out the family then why are you using up your precious time on work issues when the priority on leaving work was your family? If it is serious enough for you to need 2 months off work then I don't see how you can find the time to pursue these employment issues.

smartpicture

If there were genuine grievances, they needed to be dealt with at the time by raising a formal grievance. As you didn't, it is assumed you accepted these things. Whilst you could try for constructive dismissal, they are indeed very, very difficult to prove, especially if you haven't made any official complaint before.

With regard to the latest situation, I think the employer has been more than reasonable in the time off you already had - a couple of days is more the norm, and usually nothing at all for a family member who is not deemed close enough. I'm not sure what you expected them to do - just allow you to not work for a month or two, but keep your job open? The work still needs doing.

Once they explained the leave options to you, you had two choices - agree to go back to work, or resign. Well I suppose you had 3 choices, which is to wait for them to take you through a disciplinary procedure for not turning up at work, but I can't see how that would be in your best interests. Are you saying they didn't allow you to choose to go back to work instead of resigning? Or did they just say you would be expected to go back to work if you didn't resign? In which case you weren't forced to resign, you were given a perfectly reasonable choice, and you chose to resign.

miss_unhappy

smartpicture wrote: »

If there were genuine grievances, they needed to be dealt with at the time by raising a formal grievance. As you didn't, it is assumed you accepted these things. Whilst you could try for constructive dismissal, they are indeed very, very difficult to prove, especially if you haven't made any official complaint before.

With regard to the latest situation, I think the employer has been more than reasonable in the time off you already had - a couple of days is more the norm, and usually nothing at all for a family member who is not deemed close enough. I'm not sure what you expected them to do - just allow you to not work for a month or two, but keep your job open? The work still needs doing.

Once they explained the leave options to you, you had two choices - agree to go back to work, or resign. Well I suppose you had 3 choices, which is to wait for them to take you through a disciplinary procedure for not turning up at work, but I can't see how that would be in your best interests. Are you saying they didn't allow you to choose to go back to work instead of resigning? Or did they just say you would be expected to go back to work if you didn't resign? In which case you weren't forced to resign, you were given a perfectly reasonable choice, and you chose to resign.

to be honest i dont know how much time i will need off and my manager asked me to tell her over the phone how much but i said repeatedly i dont know and made estimated maybe week, month or two...but dont know. yes she has her back covered by trying to do the right thing. the reason why i never stood up to her and went to the head office first place is because couldnt afford to loose my job at the time...thats true...only earning lil each month for bills and food.if i went to head office, they would tell her and maybe thats what they wanted me gone. manager probably used my weaknesses in to speaking up against me...i wouldnt say a thing because needed the job. i enjoy retail work with a passion....absolutely love it and kept asking questions how do i do this how do i do that but never was allowed to do things or develop. im a ambitious person and always try my upmost to work hard. despite whats gone on some of the team there now are great. but i still feel the need to get this done so can move on.i feel they need to know in order to improve standards. i would have enjoyed it more if they did this for me. but didnt. yes my relative is very ill and in im dealing with it. also another situation but wont go into detail. i stand up for my beliefs and morals.

Tankrizzo_2

As other posters have said, I don't think the company has done much wrong. Sorry, I don't think you're going to get anywhere with constructive dismissal as the alleged bullying/victimisation incidents were not why you left - you left because of the time off needed to be with your family, which the company has tried to accommodate.

Emmzi

she is not "covering her back." She HAS done the right thing in the eyes of the law.

Please stop worrying about improving this company's work practices. They clearly do not deserve your help. Go find an employer who does. You could waste months being bitter about this; best to move on to somewhere that you will be appreciated.

Let it go.

miss_unhappy

Tankrizzo wrote: »

As other posters have said, I don't think the company has done much wrong. Sorry, I don't think you're going to get anywhere with constructive dismissal as the alleged bullying/victimisation incidents were not why you left - you left because of the time off needed to be with your family, which the company has tried to accommodate.

everything i did on my last act was done correct...manager asked hr for information dealing with this and i agree it was ok. but she should of given me time to consider it. yes company is business and have to have someone to replace me....it happened so fast i didnt know what was going on...lasted 2hours interrogation. yes my relative ill needed time off...so suggested a place of transfer as on copy of old contract ...i approached my manager. she didnt do much even suggested anywhere in london so can provide for my relative but she only said she looked into one and no one else had vacancies. yes possibility there were none. i accept that. i also was prepared for fact she was going to make me resign had gut feeling....i felt pressured yes to resign. i was also very stressed and made rationale choice....i never do that. but at time she said there was no alternative and company not going to support me. but thats fair. i understand business terms why. i could of quit and temporarily worked at another store for the time i needed to support family. then quit. but because i felt unhappy about how long it took in meeting on final act was pressured to resigning, she even had a sample letter of someone elses ready. which is convinient? fair enough playing by the rules and yes i should of stood up to the company when i was discriminated but when your living with also an abusive partner who begs you to not quit for money reasons you realise why i couldnt say anything.

SarEl

miss_unhappy wrote: »

to be honest i dont know how much time i will need off and my manager asked me to tell her over the phone how much but i said repeatedly i dont know and made estimated maybe week, month or two...but dont know. yes she has her back covered by trying to do the right thing. the reason why i never stood up to her and went to the head office first place is because couldnt afford to loose my job at the time...thats true...only earning lil each month for bills and food.if i went to head office, they would tell her and maybe thats what they wanted me gone. manager probably used my weaknesses in to speaking up against me...i wouldnt say a thing because needed the job. i enjoy retail work with a passion....absolutely love it and kept asking questions how do i do this how do i do that but never was allowed to do things or develop. im a ambitious person and always try my upmost to work hard. despite whats gone on some of the team there now are great. but i still feel the need to get this done so can move on.i feel they need to know in order to improve standards. i would have enjoyed it more if they did this for me. but didnt. yes my relative is very ill and in im dealing with it. also another situation but wont go into detail. i stand up for my beliefs and morals.

I am very sorry for your situation - but I think you have failed to understand something. Nobody has forced you to resign.

You may very belatedly bring up all sorts of things that you weren't happy about (whether or not any of these things was also unlawful is another matter) - but nobody will believe any of this because you didn't complain at the time. You can't just drag up loads of complaints and make them months or years later - it will sound like to are making stuff up to justify your position.

Your employer does not need to care one jot about your ambitions, your opinion that they they need to improve their standards, or frankly, whether you need the job or not - they are an employer and not a mentor or counsellor. You wanted time off for at least a couple of months (and please be clear - this is not an insignificant amount of time). The employer could not do this, and explained to you why they could not. You had the choice of staying in work - you chose not to. Nobody forced you to do anything - it was your choice.

So far, you have not taken this to the next level - you still have a reference from the employer and a good reason why you resigned your job. If you decide to "take on" the employer for something that was not in any way their fault, you will be the looser for it. By the time you have finished you will have no reference. Do you seriously think they won't retaliate? If you wanted to keep your job then you should have looked for compromise or alternatives to your position - not expected that you should be allowed to attend work when you can find time, and the employer just has to accept that.You only work 20 hours a week - it cannot be impossible to arrange your family support time around what is a part-time job. With the greatest of respect - you are being utterly unreasonable.

miss_unhappy

everybody is being really good in advise...i really appreciate your views.....especially some of the opinions. i am taking under consideration everything youve said. thanks

miss_unhappy

Emmzi wrote: »

she is not "covering her back." She HAS done the right thing in the eyes of the law.

Please stop worrying about improving this company's work practices. They clearly do not deserve your help. Go find an employer who does. You could waste months being bitter about this; best to move on to somewhere that you will be appreciated.

Let it go.

yes i can do this. move on and get on. i have worked few places and been very happy indeed. i am not bitter about it, i hold no anger towards them but for two years ive kept my mouth shut because i was fearful of loosing my job if i spoke up. i couldnt afford to loose it...way most companies going now to be honest. i can find new work etc but some reason i cant forgive them making my life hell or forget the things went on. you must understand my point.?it caused me to become ill. it caused me to feel demoralized as a emploee, it caused me to try look for new work whislt at the company...but yes it was the last straw the last day. that stuff lead me to that decision. yes its very hard to accept but i cant sit back and let somebody take mickey out of me as employee, humilated and me me feel like not valued staff. thats wrong!!!!