My boss decided he doesn't like me after 6.5 years and kicked me off site

illu2

Wow - thanks for all the replies - you guys are great.

stator - yes I mean being on call / on standby. I will look into the ACAS Helpline thanks


Gavin83 - Company B who I was loaned to have no problems with me whatsoever. The problem is a personality clash with my boss who is also employed by my Company A, but he runs what we do at Company B.
And yes - your line
"Is this standby payment mentioned in your contract at all? I'd imagine it's only paid when you are actually on standby and even while staying in a company it could be removed at any time. It's effectively a bonus payment."
is pretty much what the situation is.

The company have a load of engineers and they loan them to other companies.

I had got used to the on call money having been there 6.5 years and the contract looks like it will last another 5 years and as everything was going well, I treated it like my wage and that it was going to be a continuous income. But my boss put paid to that!


getmore4less - I am going to dig out my contract and have a look at it again thanks. At the moment it looks like my boss has the power to choose who he has in his 10 man team, but because of the way I have been treated, I am starting a grievance against him.


TELLIT01 - "As you are discovering, it's an extremely bad idea to assume that any additional payment over and above base wage is always going to be there. I do realise that many people do so, and then find themselves in the same difficulties that you are in."

Yep - I totally agree, it was a bad idea and it has been a really tough lesson to learn! But after 6.5 years, and things going well, you kind of assume that things will continue how they are, and we were due to carry on doing what we are doing for the next 5 years or so, so I'm gutted that just because my boss has a personality clash with me, my life is temporarily in a bit of a mess.


TBagpuss - the boss works for my company, company A. He just runs the day to day things at Company B. Company B have never had a bad thing to say about me, they are the customer and thankfully I have a good relationship with them.
As you recommended, I had already had a look at my company website and I am going to start a grievance case against the boss because my work has been good, and I was ejected out of the blue.
I think the way the company works is that we are expected to go to wherever we are needed at the drop of the hat, but the reality is that sometimes we stay a lot longer on site. This booking was my longest at 6.5 years, and if you are working well, you don't expect the rug to be pulled from under your feet.

TELLIT01

Apologies for my confusion over which company the 'problem' manager is employed by. As the individual is the OP's manager, and an employee of the same company as the OP, I would have expected normal disciplinary processes to be required, not just being able to boot them off a team because of personality clash. That needs to be taken up the line at company A.

Regarding the assumption that an additional payment would always be there, maybe I'm in a minority but I never assumed any additional payment would be permanent and budgeted accordingly. I do know plenty of people who worked the same way as the OP and got burnt.
One organisation I worked for paid at least 10% annual bonus every year I was there. Shortly after I left there were some 'issues' and the bonus was no longer paid. You may have heard of them, Royal Bank of Scotland! Banks can't fail can they!! There's a moral in there somewhere.

getmore4less

illu2 wrote: »

getmore4less - I am going to dig out my contract and have a look at it again thanks. At the moment it looks like my boss has the power to choose who he has in his 10 man team, but because of the way I have been treated, I am starting a grievance against him.

obviously I have no idea of the business relationship but one thing you do as employee in any business is understand the pecking order.

it is all about making sure the right people know you exist and need to approve you going missing.

As a contractor on site your allegiance is to the customer first if you want to stay on that site, you make sure that the customer wants you on the job in preference to as many people as possible.

You need champions in B that have an influence with people in A that are above your boss in the pecking order.

get them on the case before a formal grievance.

stuart30

Its quite simple as Adrian Cronauer once said.

Seeing as how the V.P. is such a V.I.P., shouldn't we keep the P.C. on the Q.T.? 'Cause if it leaks to the V.C. he could end up M.I.A., and then we'd all be put out in K.P

Glad thats cleared that up...lol

FBaby

So if the issue is with your boss who is employed by the same company and you think he has not been treating you in accordance with the company policies you do have the option to raise a grievance.

illu2

TELLIT01 - yep, thanks, I have started the grievance process with HR. And Royal Bank of Scotland, it sounds like you got out at the right time!

getmore4less - I like your advice about pecking order. I will pay more attention to it in the future. I do have friends in company B, and the 3 of them could make a fuss to try and get my job back as they are the customer, but after being out of the environment for a whole week now, I think this whole thing might be a blessing and I am going to look for another job that pays better and with a boss that is nicer

FBaby - yep, I am going down the grievance route, I reckon I won't get my job back and I am fine with that now, but I won't let this bully get away with it, so at the very least the company will be aware of how he treats people.

Thanks again everyone. Just putting my problem out there and listening to your good advice and sharing it helped me a lot. It has opened my eyes, I've learnt some and I feel like a weight has got off my shoulders.

Hopefully everything will turn out good in the end. Cheers.

getmore4less

6.5 years in the same job is a long time in IT, you nearly always come out better moving.

Remember to keep that network active it is a very small world and a lot of jobs get filled through the network.

As you have had time to consider, how big a fuss you make and how you approach it is important in the small world as people remember and you will bump into the same people over the years.

Mersey_2

TELLIT01 wrote: »

As you are discovering, it's an extremely bad idea to assume that any additional payment over and above base wage is always going to be there. I do realise that many people do so, and then find themselves in the same difficulties that you are in.

Whilst that's good practical budgeting advice, thee is also caselaw that where a payment has been received habitually over a period of years, the employee has a reasonable expectation to rely on that and it can become an implied term.


Notwithstanding the above, the behaviour of the 'manager' certainly warrants a complaint - as whilst belittling of employees in front of others does go on, it's in fact behaviour which is in breach of most staff handbooks re bullying, as well as breach of privacy if a purported disciplinary that would usually result in the manager facing a disciplinary rather than yourself.



OP - definitely worth raising a grievance as you've said you will, as fundamental terms of a contract (written or implied over time) such as place of work or pay, cannot be changed unilaterally by an employer. Yes, they can suggest or give notice of proposed changes, but you cannot just discover a change without notice as this would almost always be breach of contract.


Bonus payments are discretionary and difficult to ever crystallise or 'enforce', but where you are carrying out regular work for regular remuneration at the behest of your employer, they have to comply with statutory (the NMW etc) and contractual (eg notice) provisions.

bluesnake

If you do not move jobs in IT, you commit job suicide... I can can vouch for this many times over.

Go on your terms to a better job, not by leaving in hate, spite and malice.

If your boss told the other engineers on is team, they could be the ones that have an issue with you, as such information is normally kept confidential.

yvonne13_2

illu2 wrote: »

Hi all,
I'll try to be as concise as possible.
I work as an IT Engineer at Company A. They loan me out to other companies in London. I have been loaned to Company B for 6.5 years.
I'm not perfect and last year I had a few issues with some admin being behind and slight lateness, but the important thing is that these issues were resolved (or so I thought).
For the last 3 months of the year, everything was perfect, but just before the Christmas dinner, my boss shouted at me in the office for a few minutes in front of 6 of my colleagues, when I was doing nothing wrong, I was doing my job, IT problem solving.
He then sent an email to his boss basically saying that he could not work with me anymore and made up a few reasons, most of them being lies/character defaming.
I got kicked off site with no advance warning last week.
There was then a conference call (that I was accidentally invited to) and my boss was laughing a few times as he told the other engineers I was off the team.

My main concern is this:- At Company B I was earning about £500 a month on top of my salary as a standby payment. I have got used to this money after 6.5 years and rely on it.
I still have a job with Company A, but I am now out of pocket and may be sent somewhere else where I don't get that standby money. Since I was booted out through no fault of my own, what rights/entitlement do I have that the company keeps my wages+standby the same?
I have basically been given a £6,000 per year pay cut overnight.

I will also be putting in a complaint about the boss.

Any advice appreciated,

Thanks

1.I think you have a cheek to be honest.
2.You're not out of pocket as you got the standby payment in line with your contract.
3.I find it odd how you managed to rub along with your boss for ex amount of years without putting in a complaint about him.
4.You messed up the admin and you were late so for all you know the company didn't want you back and your boss simply agreed.
5.Never vouch for a company as you never know who really pulls the strings.