Lost job due to mental health issue - advice required

Dox

OP - have a read of: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2042

Then give ACAS's free helpline a call. They may tell you that there is nothing to be in this situation, but be able to give you some guidance on how to handle a similar situation if it arises in the future.

Do hope things improve for you soon.

xapprenticex

Sorry to hear about your situation BUT they dont have to do as you asked. I think you would be hard pressed to find an employer who would comply unless you had been there long enough or the boss was very soft.

Why dont you volunteer (all the hours you want) till you are better then go for a normal job again. I advise something like the CAB if you want to use your brain, id rather that than moving furniture and dusting books.

nicechap

AdviceSought wrote: »

So, about 2/3 of the way through my initial probation period, I've had my employment terminated.

My workload has been very light, and I've had a recent relapse with depression, and my GP and the psychologist I've been seeing for CBT appointments believe that has been down to having very little to occupy my mind.

When I've asked for other stuff to do, there's not really been anything forthcoming.

After my most recent CBT appointment, I made a proposal, based on the discussions with my GP and the psychologist that, in the interim, I work part-time, which would still allow me to get through my workload and build the hours up over the next two or three weeks to full-time again.

My employer has rejected this out of hand, not offered any alternative options, and came back with this...



I realise that I'm unlikely to have any legal rights here due to being in the probationary period, but it just seems wrong that an employer should actually be allowed to behave like this...

AdviceSought wrote: »

I proposed 50% hours next week, and scaling up over rest of the month to be back full-time by the last week of the month.

Given some days, I'd literally only had a couple of hours work to do...

And no, they'd not previously raised any issues with me.

You've been there less than 3 months (Asda if you're other posts are correct).

You are working nightshifts?

What kind of intellectually challenging work were you expecting when you applied?

Why do you think Asda have a responsibility to give you work to occupy your mind?

As k3vlc suggests, their response appears strong - can you share what you actually said/ wrote to them so we can understand the tone of it?

They are quite at liberty to refuse part time working request if they wish, and, terminate your contract.



As it stands, you have almost no legal redress based on the information you have supplied. And any legal redress is likely to be an awful lot of hard work for you and cause you untold stress and money to achieve.



Somehow, I suspect there's more to this than you're sharing with us.

Les79

Seems a bit of a bad situation to be in....

Entering work, finding the duties to be "very light" and ending up in a position where this work causes you to be signed off and lose your job (which means that you have even less to occupy your mind with).

Sounds like a vicious loop to be honest, whereby if the stars aren't aligning in your favour then you'll never get anywhere.

I can't really add much except to express a bit of sympathy really.

Out of curiousity, though, but did those "very light" duties come about through a request you made? Or do they just not get much work? I've managed people in the past and handled the odd person with depression etc. Treated them fairly and we rarely axed them, but some people had this (odd to people without experience of mental health issues) habit of asking for certain things one month (lighter duties, for example) to accommodate and then, a month later, asking for something completely different (different shift patterns, for example) to accommodate. Was quite annoying/tough dealing with that sort of thing and the question as to whether they were taking the mick did crop up.

shortcrust

nicechap wrote: »

Somehow, I suspect there's more to this than you're sharing with us.

One thing that's occurred to me is that staff who complain about being under occupied can be very draining.

[Deleted User]

nicechap wrote: »

Somehow, I suspect there's more to this than you're sharing with us.

Yes of course there is and a bit of fools rush in, I'd like to understand what happened to the OP when they had a very similar situation in Dec 16 and I do love how depressed people always make sense.

Sorry OP I've found and learnt when I feel bored at work I should really have appreciated the length of shift 10 hours when in a team and you're fighting over who should send the email update round to 5.5 hour days when you are in the department on your own with a daily target say of 8 sales per day, this tends to help focus. Written by the one who would have been sluggish and should be in a coma right now! Do I wish I'd got my medical problems sorted on light duties of a job, well yes.

Sir_Robin

If an employer wants rid of you, they will. To be honest most wouldn't give you a chance if there's any hint of mental health issues.

The reality is your just a tool to be picked up & dropped by the employer and it's going to to get worse as the government strips away the little remaining rights and glorifies the casual work sorry 'gig', economy.

Develop a mercenary attitude to deal with this extreme capitalist environment and don't expect to be accommodated as we still don't take mental health seriously.

FBaby

The problem is that the job might have been boring because you were not carrying out all the duties they were expecting you to, even if these were not obvious and explicitly explained to you.

Your request to reduce your hours didn't seem to have come as linked to you pointing out there wasn't enough work for you to do but as having to reduce your hours to cope with your medical conditions. Even though the company need to consider any request for flexible work, I believe they don't have to do so legally until you've been in post for 6 months.

They were therefore probably concerned that this was raising flags that you were not coping and end up going off sick leave and they decided to prevent this by sacking you first.

I too am shocked if indeed, that's the advice you were given by professionals, but then again, it very much depends how the issue was formulated to them.

Masomnia

I think depends heavily on the nature of your illness. If your condition would count as a disability under the equality act then your employer has a duty to make reasonable adjustments regardless of your length of service.

If that's the case are they saying they absolutely cannot have a part timer doing the job? They can't hire someone as a job share? No one else works shorter hours? They can't accommodate that for one month?

Whether your case is particularly strong or not is something you should take professional advice on, but I think your employer has taken a massive risk in just letting you go. If you do work for Asda then they really have no excuse.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

They have not been fired for wanting to go part time or having a mental health issue; they have been been fired for taking time off sick with depression during their probationary period and clearly indicating to the employer that this would be an ongoing theme.