Why bring a colleague to a consultation?

Legacy_user

Hello
I've been offered the chance to bring an colleague or trade representative to a redundancy consultation. Are there any benefits for bringing a colleague? I'm not part of a union so no trade rep.

Comms69

user9876 wrote: »

Hello
I've been offered the chance to bring an colleague or trade representative to a redundancy consultation. Are there any benefits for bringing a colleague? I'm not part of a union so no trade rep.

they can take notes and can remind you of something said afterwards as it can be quite stressful.

marlot

My colleague stopped the meeting for 5 minutes when I got upset. She also took notes, and reminded me of some things I'd forgotten.


She was (is) wonderful.

vacheron

I've performed the representative role for seven different people over the last 5 years.

As others have said, the representative may have more knowledge of the redundancy procedure or rights of the employee than they do. They can ensure that the person isn't bullied or mislead, and are also less emotionally involved so can record the events more objectively.

It is akin to what people say after they have just been told they have a terminal disease... that often everything that comes out of the mouth of the person on the other side of the table just becomes background noise after that.

In at least 50% of the cases I have been involved with things had been said which the person I am representing has had absolutely no recollection of when I later mention it to them.

As a general rule, the longer the employee has been employed and the less familiar they are with dealing with higher/upper management, the more useful a representative can be to them.

SensibleSarah

I've also been the colleague in this situation. The person I was representing was really upset by the whole thing and wanted to make sure there was someone else in there to make notes on what was said as they didn't think they'd remember. I also prompted my colleague to ask specific questions they had asked me to remind them of beforehand if they forgot during the meeting.

I think it's also just nice to have someone in the room who is 'on your side' for moral support even though I obviously had no real influence on anything that happened.

Peelerfart

Nothing more to add, it's all been said above. Choose wisely and you have nothing to lose.