'Chat' about performance-First step to redundancy?

bob_dob

Hello. About three months ago i was called into a meeting with my boss and the manager of the company for a chat about my alleged dip in performance.

Apparently i had been monitored for one day and my output wasn't what they thought it should be (although this is an extremely vague accusation as there are no targets or 'count' of what the employees produce).
Luckily i had an idea that this was coming so i had noted what i had produced for that particular day.

To cut a long story short, after a discussion we got it down to a window of 5 hours. I explained how many i had produced (what we produce vary greatly in size so times vary wildly) and their opinion differed from mine and nothing ever came of it other than a request to speed up.
There were no minutes taken in this meeting.

What i haven't mentioned is the fact that 2 years ago i made a valid complaint of bullying and harassment against the manager's friend. The other two people who had these meetings are known to be 'wanted out' by the manager and their performances have also never been in question.

I have read that during a redundancy procedure, meetings such as those i have stated can be used as a criteria/criterion against an employee.

My concern is that this will happen to me even though the meeting was not waranted or deserved or even proved.

Please can someone give me an idea of where i stand?


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Jarndyce

Yes it is true that having been 'spoken to' about your performance can influence your score in a redundancy selection process - providing it is proportionate, and the process is fair and reasonable overall.

You could have objected or raised a grievance at the time if you did not think the 'speaking to' was warranted.

That said if they wanted to get rid of you in a genuine redundancy situation a savvy employer can usually contrive reasons for doing so anyway.

buel

Thank you for that.
Please may i ask, how long would one of these 'chats' stay on record?

Jarndyce

How long is a piece of string?

Obviously the longer the time period covered, the less reasonable it becomes to base a redundancy selection on a chat that happened n years ago, but whether or not it was reasonable would depend on the facts of the case and the fairness of the overall selection policy and process.

buel

Thank you for that.
The only reason i asked about the length of time is because at least with a warning (verbal or otherwise) is that there is a time limit before they run their course.

Jarndyce

buel wrote: »

Thank you for that.
The only reason i asked about the length of time is because at least with a warning (verbal or otherwise) is that there is a time limit before they run their course.

True - in fact that is a good point for arguing that the currency of the 'chat' remaining on your record should be time limited also.

buel

Thank you for that.
Please can i ask your opinion on how i should phrase this question as im going to put it in letter as opposed to verbally asking.
Im after something better than 'Being as warnings have an expiry period, do informal performance meetings havr them too?'.
I would also like to know if the chat IS actually on my record/file.
Thank you in advance.

Jarndyce

I'm confused - have you got two logins?

Its not so much that they should have an expiry period - after all they cannot undo the fact that they have spoken to you, more that they should be disregarded for redundancy selection purposes after a reasonable period, and you should have been given the chance to improve and provide evidence of having done so. Three months is probably not long enough to argue that yet though.

whitelabel

thats def a 2 person log in....

It wouldnt have to be a redundancy but it could be a step towards performance managing you out of your job, a step Ive witnessed personally having been asked to do it to an employee and have also been on the receiving end of

Jarndyce

whitelabel wrote: »

thats def a 2 person log in....

You mean a two log-in person!

buel

Sorry for that, i've tried to keep one log in for me and one log in for friend's problems/queries and i've muddled them up lately, sorry again.

Yes, that makes sense- should i write to my employer asking at what point it would stop being relevant for redundancy purposes?

Also, Whitelabel, please may i ask if the situation where you had to use performance to help make someone redundant was really that the company 'didn't want' that employee there?