"at risk" and the "suitable alternative role" doesn't seem suitable

grimsalve

I was told that my role is "at risk" due to downsizing and restructure last week and attended my first consultation with HR this week. I'm currently an IT manager and the "suitable alternative role" they want to apply for is some sort of customer liaison/performance type of role (no mention of technical abilities in the job spec, seems to be more about squeezing more profit out of customers).

I mentioned my concerns about the "forced" job change in the consultation meeting and HR said that if I refuse the interview then they would view this as a resignation and therefore not pay any redundancy. Is this right?

TBagpuss

refuse the interview, or refuse the job?

If you go to the interview, then you can ask questions about the role, and how your skills meet (or don't fit) the job description.

One of the considerations as to whether a job is a suitable alternative is "the employee’s skills and experience (ie do they have the right skills and experience for the new role?)"

It may be worth your putting in writing to them that you do not think that the job put forward is suitable as it does not appear to be comparable to your existing job, and the job description seems to show that it is different work, and inconsistent with your particular strengths, skills and qualifications, but that without prejudice to your position that this is not a suitable role you are willing to attend the interview in order to determine whether or not the offer is in fact suitable.

You can lose your redundancy rights if you *unreasonably* refuse *suitable* alternative employment

FBaby

Do have a redundancy policy? If so, what does it say about suitable alternatives?

getmore4less

If it is a suitable alternative they are offering then you could ask for a 4 week trial.

A direct question of "if this is a suitable alternative why do I need to interview"?

You need to make it clear that any interview is not an "application" for the job but to do a mutual assessment of suitability.

grimsalve

Getting a straight answer from HR seems really awkward at the moment and my interview scheduled for this week has been postponed so I've no idea where I stand at the moment - I'm not sure if HR are just messing me about in the hope I'll just resign

Fireflyaway

A similar thing happened to me. Any roles within 2 grades of the one I was losing were deemed 'suitable' so long as I could do it without the need for specialist qualifications. It was made clear to me that failure to accept would mean I had resigned.
I would take it - better than being without a job and then start looking for something else.

grimsalve

I have my "suitable alternative role" interview scheduled this week and also some sort of assessment and evaluation interview by HR (I guess the first interview is to see if I'm suitable for the role and the second to see if I'm suitable to work for the company?).

First thing I will ask at both interviews - why are they doing this if I'm already an employee and it's them who have already decided that I'm suitable for the role? :huh:

It does seem strange that my employer are doing this to everyone in my team - making us all jump through hoops and dance for their amusement one minute and then asking us if we're motivated and happy the next.

PasturesNew

grimsalve wrote: »

First thing I will ask at both interviews - why are they doing this if I'm already an employee and it's them who have already decided that I'm suitable for the role? :huh:

I think the best thing to do is stay quiet and lick their 4rses..... then, if you get the alternative job, and if not, be looking for a new job anyway. It's better than getting their backs up, then not getting the alternative ... and ending up on the dole for even 2-3 months. It'd be even more galling if, in that time, you discovered the person that got the job ended up doing something quite exciting that they were keeping quiet about at this stage.

grimsalve

I had my "suitable alternative role" interview - it was mostly a role-playing exercise with the interviewer acting as a customer that had a problem and I had to pretend to care ... I've still no idea why my employer think that this a suitable role for me.

Hopefully I've failed the interviews so fingers crossed the next step will be redundancy... if they do say I have to do this new job then legally what are my options? ie. If I refuse then would HR say that this is a resignation? Is all of this just a way of them getting out of paying redundancy?

PasturesNew

grimsalve wrote: »

I had to pretend to care ... I've still no idea why my employer think that this a suitable role for me.

I can see why you consider the new role unsuitable. As a stereotype/sweeping statement, people in IT are factual/process driven types and not customer-facing caring types.

Think "IT crowd" and that's close to reality for a lot of very competent IT workers ..... it's not that we don't care, we can fix the problem, but we're just unable to do it with that "caring face" style

All the best to you.

getmore4less

grimsalve wrote: »

I had my "suitable alternative role" interview - it was mostly a role-playing exercise with the interviewer acting as a customer that had a problem and I had to pretend to care ... I've still no idea why my employer think that this a suitable role for me.

Hopefully I've failed the interviews so fingers crossed the next step will be redundancy... if they do say I have to do this new job then legally what are my options? ie. If I refuse then would HR say that this is a resignation? Is all of this just a way of them getting out of paying redundancy?

4 week trial may be an option if it is a bluff to get you to "resign". and they don't actualy want you in the job.

and/or take the sorry this is not a suitable alterntaive route and back it up with your reasons, as time goes on making it clearer you will go to ET if they terminate your employment without redundancy.

Ultimately they have to terminate your current employment.