Meeting at work

Stressedatwork

Just a brief history:

I have worked in residential childcare for 7.5 years and not had a day off. Recently our company has been going through a rough patch and has turned over many of its staff 40% in a year and some staff have walked out of their jobs with no new job. I work as a deputy manager and have seen my job role change and my workload kept increasing to the point where I could not cope with it though have been very successful in the role for a few years. I think the stress is caused by the pressure on staffing, the inexperience of new staff meaning the experienced staff take on more responsibilities (In which I include my new boss). I have a meeting next week with the company and I have lots of evidence but my conscience is bothering me. I told my new boss that I was stressed and unhappy at work and was considering looking for a new position, I repeated this several times, my boss then questioned my commitment to the team and said he wouldn't out up with it. I did get a job interview so I arranged annual leave up to date got my colleagues to cover and brought all my work up to date. My boss telephoned me to ask why I was taking annual leave at short notice and I panicked and told him I had a hospital appointment, this led to a couple of e-mails where I tried to clarify my position with regards to taking annual leave, in short I thought that if I had the shifts covered and the work done then there would not be an issue. My boss said I had to follow procedure or there would be chaos. I know this is going to come up in the meeting as I again mention my stress levels in the e-mails that went between us, I am usually a truthful person but I felt backed into a corner by his attitude towards me and normally wouldn't have had a problem in telling him I had a job interview but he is so defensive about the whole thing I thought he would stop me from going as he has been quite controlling with me and this has also been a source of conflict. I am quite emotional about the whole thing and just need someone who is outside the situation so I can feel ok enough to handle the meeting.

Thanks

Southend1

Who called the meeting - you or management?

What is the purpose of the meeting? Is it a disciplinary hearing?

Did you follow company procedure for booking the annual leave?

Are you a union member?

Stressedatwork

Management called the meeting after I attended a welfare meeting to discuss the problems that exist between me and my boss which are too numerous to mention, basically I am doing his job as well as mine, but he will be mega defensive because work have asked me to bring in a list of specific problems with evidence. It is an informal meeting and work won't let the union attend, I have informed my union but they have not got back to me after weeks and when I chased them up they were understaffed. I didn't follow procedure for booking annual leave but I am in charge of the rota and staffing and I thought just running it past my boss would be ok, it has been with other managers in the past that degree of flexibility and he ok'd a similar request from a colleague. He responded to my request with a highly defensive e-mail stating while he can be flexible to my request he needed to know the reasons behind it, i told him initially something come up that was important and I needed to take leave, it is not something I normally do, but I was reluctant to divulge given the circumstances....

Southend1

Beware the "informal" meeting.

You really need to get union representation sorted even if management won't allow your rep to be present at this meeting.

Sounds like you're going to find yourself on a disciplinary for failing to follow the correct procedure when booking leave.

You will need to base your case around mitigation as it sounds pretty clear cut that you didn't follow the procedure. The fact that you were allowed to book leave in this way by previous managers may go in your favour and you can also think about your previous good conduct and the pressure you are under currently to cut corners due to staffing issues. Ultimately you may find that eating some humble pie and apologising is what's needed here. Your union rep will be able to help you prepare your case and represent you at any disciplinary.

Stressedatwork

I'm not sure it will be a disciplinary I am just trying to cover all angles. I think my boss will try and lash back out at me because I have him on so many angles, i.e. breach of a court order etc. So this is the only ammunition that i think he has, so I will be asked to explain myself. I did write him an apologetic e-mail at the time.....do I have to explain myself and justify why I need leave? It was this really that caught me off guard because I wasn't expecting that. Another colleague booked annual leave at short notice for a holiday and was accepted....

Southend1

Regardless of the reason why your manager is making an issue out of the annual leave booking, you did not follow the correct procedure. This is a disciplinary issue and if your manager feels threatened by you he may well try to push this as far as he can to "eliminate the threat".

Any evidence you may have that your manager has done wrong is completely separate to the issue of your annual leave booking so don't focus on this at the expense of defending your own situation.

agrinnall

Now you know their attitude then in future you should tell them nothing about taking annual leave other than the dates you want off, they have no right to know what you do when you are not at work.

Stressedatwork

I agree with you agrinall. however I was only notified of the job interview at short notice, so it will turn out that if I get another interview that coincides with my shifts then I have to turn it down? I agree that it is absolutely none of their business. I also gave my boss the opportunity to say no to the annual leave before I went off shift and documented that and he said I will see you when you get back. If he had said no, I would have come into work......

Stressedatwork

I think the policy is a month's notice to take annual leave, is there any way around this for future interviews?

ohreally

Stressedatwork wrote: »

I think the policy is a month's notice to take annual leave, is there any way around this for future interviews?

At worst the notice period should be twice the length as the holiday period.

hoo

ohreally wrote: »

At worst the notice period should be twice the length as the holiday period.

Not always ours is one months for A/L even just for one day (unless it's an emergency) and one week for lieu time and no more than one shift of lieu time per week!