Being forced out?

Darkshine

11.40


Hoping you can help. I have tried to include as much information as possible.

I am employed as the Office Manager for a small company that employs 3 other full time staff in addition to the 2 owners and a handful of contractors who bill per the hour for their specialist roles.

One of my roles is to make sure that timesheets for all staff and contractors are collated and handed to the owners weekly.

Another of my roles is to maintain the two websites of the business, and I do work on a customers website adding content on an ad-hoc basis as and when required.

Another of my roles is to take notes at a weekly meeting and circulate the notes after the meeting.

Another of my roles is to produce accurate how-to guides on maintaining the CMS websites above, how to do various other tasks in the business and more or less write down in full, how to do my job.

We used to have someone work part time one day per week who would carry out a number of tasks, such as booking flights for the owners, making stationery orders to suppliers, and some small client work. She left because of family commitments and another part time worker was introduced 4 mornings of the week and all day 1 day a week.

Immediately she was given my timesheet role, which I had to train her on how to use (and how to use the Spreadsheet as she had no previous Spreadsheet experience).

I also had to train her on how to use the CMS to update our own website, which took a lot of time as she had no knowledge of the task at hand prior to this. I was made to write several guides on how to do this task, and I had to make sure the new worker would do updates to the website without making mistakes.

Cut forward one month and she is offered full time employment, which she accepted and is now full time 5 days a week.

As of yesterday she has been given my meeting note role. So I simply have to be at the meeting for an hour or two and not have any actions to do.

I stumbled across a note from my boss from a meeting on Monday and she has been given the title of Office Manager, but nobody has come and told me this.

I do suffer from a medical condition, but I have had one day off sick in my employment here of just under one year so I do not let it stop me doing my work. I have in the past asked for flexible working, specifically to work from home - as most of what I do I simply need a computer and a phone and I have worked from home in the past and have the space and facilities. I would also not require to travel which would reduce the stress of travelling which affects my medical condition. 2 of the other employees in the business work from their home. I have been refused this request each time I have asked.

During the winter I did feel down, my illness was affecting me, I was finding it difficult to travel to/from work without having to stop at least once. I tend to just get on with the task at hand and make sure it is done as timely as possible to the best of my ability and get it back to the person who requested it. I have been criticised for not communicating with people, which I feel is rubbish - I do communicate as/when communication is necessary to get the tasks done. Now the sun is coming out my mood is getting better and i'm still doing the same quality of work that I did a year ago.

Essentially I feel as if I am being forced out. My job title has to all intents been given to this person, she has taken over a number of my key roles and my bosses are making me write guides and train other people on how to do my job. Which makes me feel that as soon as i've trained enough people on enough roles of my job that they'll get rid of me. It is not a good working environment to be in when you hear your boss talking about "having multiple people knowing how to do things incase someone is off" but when you know deep down this is not his intention.

What are the legalities involved here? Is there anything I can do?

I am a long time lurker on these forums, and hope that someone can offer advice.

bap98189

Darkshine wrote: »

Essentially I feel as if I am being forced out.

Why? From reading your post, all I can determine is that there is a new employee who has been trained to do some of the things that you also currently do. It is a poor employer who will have important tasks only one person knows how to do. It makes perfect sense that there should be two people able to do the tasks you mentioned. What would happen if you were on holiday, off sick or left the company?

As for taking minutes - well frankly who cares. It's the sort of mundane job that is normally given to the new starter.

Darkshine wrote: »

I have been criticised for not communicating with people, which I feel is rubbish - I do communicate as/when communication is necessary to get the tasks done.

I'm a firm believer that my staff cannot ever communicate enough. I'm not talking about writing lengthy paragraphs, but if something has happened I want to know, preferably without having to ask about it. Even if nothing has happened it is nice to know. All it takes is a single sentence in passing or a 1 line Email.

But that is me, not you, so back to the point. The point is not that you think that you are communicating sufficiently but that your colleagues or boss feel that you are not. They clearly want/need to be kept updated more than you think they need to be.

Darkshine

I can agree that it is a mundane task, but one that I enjoyed doing and was taken from me with no consultation. I also agree that businesses should have failover incase of illness etc, but this doesn't feel like that. It feels like i'm being kept on for my knowledge, and when it's been taken from me i'll be pushed out.

Also this other person has been given my title, nobody has spoken to me about it. I still maintain the title on my contract, and on email signatures, on my CV etc.

Does anybody have advice on what I can do?

KiKi

Darkshine wrote: »

I can agree that it is a mundane task, but one that I enjoyed doing and was taken from me with no consultation. I also agree that businesses should have failover incase of illness etc, but this doesn't feel like that. It feels like i'm being kept on for my knowledge, and when it's been taken from me i'll be pushed out.

Also this other person has been given my title, nobody has spoken to me about it. I still maintain the title on my contract, and on email signatures, on my CV etc.

Does anybody have advice on what I can do?

Unless you are actually dismissed, none of this matters. What's on your email signature or your CV is of no consequence. They are entitled to create a role, put someone in it, and redistribute jobs as required.

I think it would be very difficult indeed for an office manager to work from home - the role does imply day to day contact with people to ensure the office runs well. Re the comms issue, you may think you communicate enough (as and when needed) but obviously not everyone thinks the same. So you need to ask what more they want. It's not nec just when things *need* communicating, but it could be about consulting and sharing info before decisions are made, or being proactive in keeping people in the loop about things without being asked.

In short, you can do nothing from a legal perspective as you haven't been dismissed. The only thing you can do is share with your manager how you feel, and take a positive stance to ask what you *can* do to perform better in your job.

Show that you're interested, show that you're positive, proactive in making things work. The way you come across in your posts (although I appreciate this is just two posts and not RL) is that it's all a bit hard, all a bit much, no-one's making the effort with you and you'd rather hide away at home and not really have to see anyone. Which may be what they're picking up on and why they're giving some of your work to someone else. Get a positive disposition and take the reins and talk to them about it. Much harder for them to 'force' you out if you're being proactive, than if you're being passive.

I don't mean that harshly - just offering a different perspective.
KiKi

Darkshine

KiKi wrote: »

I think it would be very difficult indeed for an office manager to work from home - the role does imply day to day contact with people to ensure the office runs well.

I don't mean that harshly - just offering a different perspective.
KiKi

What if the "office" doesn't exist, is the business owners home, and there are no employees here (bar the other woman) and like I say, my main tools for my job are a Computer and Phone. There are never any visitors to the home, no customers, no deliveries/collections. I can answer the phone from anywhere in the world. Any communication with any of the other employees is either via email or telephone because they are in their own homes hundreds of miles away.

I think the title was given to imply some level of importance within the business, not that it involves looking after an actual office in the normal scheme of things.

Thanks for the different perspective KiKi, I can see where you are coming from. I just wish my boss would tell the truth and not hide behind smoke and mirrors. I just wanted to give as much information as possible in my post above.

KiKi

Darkshine wrote: »

What if the "office" doesn't exist, is the business owners home, and there are no employees here (bar the other woman) and like I say, my main tools for my job are a Computer and Phone. There are never any visitors to the home, no customers, no deliveries/collections. I can answer the phone from anywhere in the world. Any communication with any of the other employees is either via email or telephone because they are in their own homes hundreds of miles away.

I think the title was given to imply some level of importance within the business, not that it involves looking after an actual office in the normal scheme of things.

Thanks for the different perspective KiKi, I can see where you are coming from. I just wish my boss would tell the truth and not hide behind smoke and mirrors. I just wanted to give as much information as possible in my post above.

I completely understand that - nothing worse than being lied to or not being told what's going on! But ask. And ask what more you can do.

Is your illness covered by the Equality Act? If you really need different hours or time to work from home to help with that then you may be in a stronger position to get some concessions re the home working.

Your job title certainly sounds grander than it is, then, if you're working from their home with no other employees...!!

KiKi

attila_

I would ask. Nothing gets you further than being honest. If it puts them in a difficult position and they squirrm, you know your days are numbered. Take notes of what you do/have been doing during the day and how the owners treat you.

SGina

I would say listen to your instincts. There are things that you are seeing and sensing that you may not be able to communicate in a forum without writing a novel.

To me, it seems as if they are preparing to get rid of you. You can ask out right and they may squirm but they may also lie to you.
This happened to me in a previous job. They brought someone else in and asked me to train the person. I asked out right if this person was my replacement & they looked me in the eye, lied and said no. When the training was over I was out the door (I hated the job so it didn't really matter & I knew it was going to happen anyway, but that's not the point)

What do you want to happen? Prepare yourself for the worst & think how you will deal with it if it happens.

Is there any knowledge that you can keep to yourself? I suspect the conscientious side of you will not let you give less than 100%

Start looking for a new job.

CFC

Darkshine wrote: »

I can agree that it is a mundane task, but one that I enjoyed doing and was taken from me with no consultation. I also agree that businesses should have failover incase of illness etc, but this doesn't feel like that. It feels like i'm being kept on for my knowledge, and when it's been taken from me i'll be pushed out.

Also this other person has been given my title, nobody has spoken to me about it. I still maintain the title on my contract, and on email signatures, on my CV etc.

Does anybody have advice on what I can do?

Why on earth should you think that you would be consulted on part of your role being moved away from you? Nobody has removed your job title, and clearly your title is at variance with your actual job, so the fact she has the same title is irrelevant.

Possibly you are being kept on for your knowledge and after that you may be performance managed which could lead to termination eventually, or you could be easily dismissed with under a year's service. After all your manager is already criticising your communication skills and far from being open to input, you just rubbish his opinion - that doesn't show to me that you are open to change or improvement.

What I think you can do about this situation is - change your attitude. If your employer brings up an issue with you, then start to address it and show you are at least trying. No employer wants to get rid of a decent employee, especially one who is really trying to act on feedback, believe me. It's a last resort. So just make sure you don't fall into the category of 'Nothing works with him but the last resort'.....

This may sound harsh, but it's a wake up call - reality check time. Nobody is irreplaceable.