Cherry takes the reins

HairyHandofDartmoor

It sounds like DH is being treated very unfairly by his manager. I would definitely mention it on the employment boards. Is DH not going back to work or is he still on leave?

The list of things that need doing in the house always seems never ending doesn't it? But as long as you chip away at it each day it keeps it in under control .

Onebrokelady

My house currently looks like a tornado has been through it as the result of DGS being here,I'm looking forward to tomorrow when I have the house to myself for a few hours at last

redofromstart

Sorry to hear of his problems, read the employment forums with the usual caution. I rarely do because the odd bit of the 'advice' is rather random, especially on my specialist subject. True of any of the boards obviously. There are a couple of helpful union reps who post.


My thoughts,

1. Redundancy is based on length of continuous service as LL has said, so only in the role for x time doesn't really matter.
2. If the role ceases to exist, or the work is 'restructured into other roles' then it might be potentially fair subject to them following processes. On paper this should have nothing to do with his performance, and they have to consider him for suitable alternate roles. If it starts, talk to ACAS.
3. Perfect mgmt is them not happy with his performance, and is a slow process, not an overnight exit. The appraisal would be a challenge for them, but sadly isn't unusual. Once a discussion takes place, however unfairly, then they might make him an offer to go away quietly.

My advice is usually to tread carefully, don't give them an excuse. Follow the rules, even if no one else does. Keep diary notes, and track anything where they don't follow procedure. Follow up discussions with emails. (Thanks for meeting today, I thought it was very productive and appreciated your positive feedback about X. As we discussed, I will chase Y, etc).

It's not a nice situation to be in, and I feel for you both.

Unions generally don't cover you for pre existing problems, and I think there is a three month waiting period, although my experience is that they may help if you sign up. Worth asking if they have a strong presence on site.

Hope this helps.

redofromstart

Also, do they have a HR department and are they involved? I have had to undo messes created by 'managers' with tedious frequency where they just ignore process and statutory requirements and just haven't checked with us. A phone call to say 'this has happened, but not to process and I am confused' can be very helpful if you just want to keep things informal.

Cherryfudge

Thank you for all the replies, HH, OBL and Redo. Much appreciated and helpful. I'll try to pick up on everything...

I've started reading on the Employment Board though it's going to take a while.
DH is back at work after being off sick. He has a meeting with his manager at the end of this week: he's not yet had a response from her about the lack of written warning. Good advice to keep a written record and so forth, thanks.
I can't remember offhand how much I've posted but this is about performance management not redundancy - interesting that there could be a possibility of it being manoeuvred towards redundancy, if I've read you right, redo?? I think she will try to take it through capability as it would cost a lot to make him redundant. HR isn't involved at the moment but I'll mention it to DH: they do get involved but are not necessarily the most sympathetic department! Union membership isn't strong in his workplace though I'm thinking of it for myself as a savvy colleague let on to me that she's joined after seeing the way the wind blows in our workplace. I don't know if DH would consider it: as you say it's a pre-existing problem but he might be able to get some advice.
My assessment of his job is that it's not been tried before and his manager thinks it should be possible because she says so. I'm not convinced: even if she's right about the aspects she's homed in on, I don't see how there are enough hours in his post to spend the time that her suggested changes imply.
He's a very diplomatic person (I would have flared up before now!) so I'm not worried about him putting himself in the wrong. I will mention ACAS to him though: could be very useful.

Okay, I had better do today's summary and get some sleep as I have work tomorrow.
I didn't do the ironing or the fish tank but I made the banana bread and ran most of the errands, though I went to pay a cheque in and realised it was still at home. Other than that I made good use of some vouchers for groceries and got quite a lot of steps in too. I've also done more in the garden, though as ever at this time of year it's growing fast.

Spending:
2 ebooks £3.98
Housekeeping £8.34
MS:
10th coins saved: 2p
Wombled 10p
Used vouchers on groceries for more loyalty points
Made banana bread
Decluttering:
Some brambles and nettles from the garden, oddments of paper, 2 broken plant pots and various ingredients finished up into the banana bread.
Today I'm thankful for you lovely lot who give support and advice , progress in the garden and a new flavour of fruit tea.

Cherryfudge

NSD. I went into town and had another go at some errands but the bank shuts on a Thursday, the pet shop had run out of pond weed and the chemist was busy. I dropped a prescription in and I told them I'd pick it up when they were ready. It isn't urgent. So the useful bit was that the blood tests confirmed my medication needs a bit of a tweak and I'm to go back for a review in six to eight weeks.

Not much movement on DH's job situation today apart from his manager saying she feels justified in going down this route (despite not following procedure, but she didn't say that bit). He is going to attend the meetings and listen to what she has to say.

The weather has definitely remembered it's supposed to be 'April showers' but it went over the top and produced a violent downpour about tea time. The car park at work practically had waves flowing over it - but I'm happy to say the new ceiling to the bay window at home has absolutely no sign of the leaks it used to get.

I haven't managed to do the financial things I listed the other day apart from checking one account, so I might just try to make a few notes and see if I can move things in the right direction before I go to bed: I need to work out what this month's contribution to savings and mortgage overpayment will be because if I don't get it in tomorrow, it may not clear in time for the month's end.

The good news is this month's pay slip is out and we can see what our pay rise looks like! The waters are muddied slightly (in a nice way) by additional hours but things are definitely improved. Next month probably won't show additional hours as I sent the timesheet in late but that means two lots in June. It's not enough to bridge the gap if DH ends up jobless, of course, but it will come in useful for mortgage and savings in the short term.

In sum:
No spending
MS:
Made four portions of soup for meals at work.
Didn't need to go shopping as that was done yesterday.
Decluttering:
DS2 decluttered a toy cockroach in the direction of J and L's room (cue feminine squeals and masculine joshing about)… okay so that doesn't count as my decluttering, and neither does me giving DS2 permission to chuck out a cup full of oddments of goodness-knows-what (plus rubber cockroach). I donated an out of date credit-type card to DS2 as he uses them to make guitar plectrums, but that doesn't count either really, does it?

Things I'm glad of today: white blossom from the cherry tree, nice soup for tea, free medical care.

Cherryfudge

I think I need to keep receipts for longer... I've paid off the straightforward bits of the CC (the ones I can identify easily and which come off the account DH pays into) but the supermarket ones...! Few of my notes on here seem to correspond with the monies going out. Some of this will be due to different categories of spending coming on the same receipt (e.g. if I buy a gift and groceries at the supermarket I'd need to add those figures together to get what shows up on the CC statement) but I've been trawling through looking for a £27 payment that I just can't see.
Possibly I should leave it till I've caught up on sleep. At least DS1's birthday and our summer theatre trip are paid off, they were the biggest items.
I've gone through the mortgage figures and worked out that in March I overpaid by £288.51, which I'm glad about. I must pop over to the mortgage overpayment board and ask them to add this to my line on the spreadsheet. It will be less this month but until I've sorted out the supermarket aspect of the CC bill, I don't know the total.

No more for now.

Sun_Addict

That sounds like a very unfair work situation for DH, I hope it's dealt with properly, I assume he's taking notes at the meetings with the manager.

I often have receipts with several categories of spending on them. I record them on my spreadsheet under the categories so I know where the money's gone.

Cherryfudge

Sun_Addict wrote: »

I often have receipts with several categories of spending on them. I record them on my spreadsheet under the categories so I know where the money's gone.

Ah, Sun Addict, so obvious when I think about it! Thank you. I confess I have neglected my spreadsheet woefully, as I entered all categories on here, but it occurs to me that I could look at including a column that I don't total for receipts, showing total spent at each place and another to show if it was paid in cash, CC or debit card.

No news yet on DH's meeting. I have just realised I've not had breakfast and it's nearly lunchtime: I was going to have another go at paying in the cheque before work so I had better get a move on, put some laundry in etc.

Cherryfudge

NSD again.
Paid that £27.00 off the CC, having traced it to DH's prescriptions when he was poorly. Now DS2 has the lurgy: a temperature and feeling very rough. He has actually made himself an appointment at the surgery for Monday and taken paracetamol, so he must really be feeling it.
I've just decluttered 5 small pieces of paper - lol.
Today I'm thankful for a quiet shift.