My Employment postion

MalMonroe

Hi, when you were told that you were underperforming, didn't anyone also tell you why that was and how you could improve the situation? It seems a really poor company who only criticises and penalises staff rather than actually supporting staff if they are struggling. And were there ever any official notes taken at any of the meetings you had?

I know it's a really awful time for anything right now but you could start looking around for a better job with kinder employers. From what you say there is definitely bullying in the workplace, directed at you - but it's covert and not easily proved, which is why people on here are saying that you probably wouldn't get any help from acas.

However, having said that, I do believe that it might make you feel better if you did have a chat with someone from acas, link here - https://www.acas.org.uk/contact
because you do have some rights in the workplace. Even if your employers seem to think you don't.

It must be very demoralising and upsetting to have to work in a place where you do not feel encouraged or supported in anything you do, and feel that you are not even liked by management. If they don't feel you are doing a good job then they should be arranging to help you by at least giving you extra support or training. And they really shouldn't be treating you differently to your colleagues.

Reading through your OP, it seems to me that they want you to give in your notice and leave. Well done for not doing that yet but I really would have a look around to see what else is out there. And I'd ask my employer to give me a reasonable reference too, given that they haven't supported you in any way whatsoever to retain your job with them. They sound really awful.

redped

OP - what exactly is you're looking for?  Your posts aren't the easiest to follow, and (as others have said) any points you have about how other members of staff have been treated (e.g. being given a laptop) aren't things HR are going to discuss in detail with you.  Likewise, it doesn't matter at all what other people earn, that's outside of your control.

The bottom line is that you've got 4 disciplinaries in 4 years, which really doesn't look good.  If you felt they weren't valid then you should have discussed them with HR each time you were given one.

You have several options:

(a) look for another job

(b) stay at the current one, and work as hard as possible to show your employers you're actually a good worker

(c) stay at the current one, and wait for the company to have "the chat" with you.  They may put you on something like a Performance Improvement Plan, which will allow you to demonstrate you're actually a good worker (although PIPs are also a notorious way of pushing someone out of a company).

MalMonroe said:

Reading through your OP, it seems to me that they want you to give in your notice and leave. Well done for not doing that yet but I really would have a look around to see what else is out there. And I'd ask my employer to give me a reasonable reference too, given that they haven't supported you in any way whatsoever to retain your job with them. They sound really awful.

I disagree - if they had wanted the OP to leave, they'd have pushed him out by now.  The employer is under no obligation to give a "reasonable reference" - a lot of companies give basic, factually-correct references, e.g. "Mr. Smith was employed as a <insert job title> from date X to date Y."  The best the OP can hope for is that the reference doesn't mention the disciplinaries.

Marcon

aayush said:

why taken 4 years to bring this up and not advised earlier is another question 
you say not to go HR then who to go to as management eg FD has not got balls to tell other staff re the issues but wishes to remain within the 4 walls as wants to look good with directors as they not in the same building

IF I go without a fight seems they have won when other can get away with not doing the duties for 3 months  

Marcon said:

aayush said:

Now in my last 2 meetings told I am underperforming. why is taken them 4 years to find this out or is this another way of saying no rise till next year ( CAN I ASK HR THIS BUT NOT IT WISH COME BACK TO MY FD )

I was on 2 furloughs in the pandemic when around 6 to eight people were working from home thus am sure they got a pay rise or bonus 
I asked d if could work from home and told no laptop to go round 

Just before furlough, my son got covid symptoms thus I and wife had to sell isolate because the results to a long to come back I had my ssp taken back by the company even though I advised them they could claim from Government and they would get back,thus a tough 2 months making ends meet 

I have seen other members of staff say they have covid and laptops are sent t their house so they can work from home  or if the family visiting lap top sent or allowed to take them so they work from home,  thus this favoritism I think but dismiss by management (CAN I ASK HR RE THIS BUT NOT IT WISH COME BACK TO MY FD  ) 

I come t know a person who joined 6 months before me and left recently was on £6kmor then I am 

I am on 24 plus £250. month bonus if I hit targets 


What can I do 

Await your response 

Employees aren't machines, so their performance is likely to vary from time to time. Maybe your performance was satisfactory at various points, but is currently not of the standard your employer expects. 

You are focussing far too much on what is happening to other people, whereas you need to look at your own position and your own performance. Everything in your post suggests that your employer isn't exactly delighted with your performance - four disciplinaries in four years doesn't sound encouraging - so looking for another job might be in your best interests.

If you re-read my previous answer, posted here for ease of reference, it answers both the points in your most recent posting.

Ath_Wat

To be honest it sounds like they are just showing "favouritism" to the people who they consider to be more valuable members of staff.  This is not only legal, but sensible.

TBagpuss

OP, I agree that I think you are getting a bit bogged down in what happened during lockdown tc,

I think you are also going to hav to decide whether you are willing to talk to HR / your manager or not, as they can't address things if you are not willing to discuiss it.

Subject to that, I would suggest asaking your line manager who I assume is the person telling you that you are underperforming, what specifc areas of your work they feel youneed to improve and whether they can give any guidance or additional training in order to meet their expectations. 

Make notes of what they say and if possible, confirm it via e-mail (e.g. "dear Jim, thanks for taking the time to chat with me earlire- I just want to confirm my understanding of the outcome, you told me that you feel I need to improve in [specifc areas] , in particualr, by [specific examples] and that we'd discuss again in 2 weeks ")

Then follow through, Then if, wither he won't tell you any specifcs, you can arrange to speak either to HR or to whoever is the next person in the cahin of command, to ask explain that you have been told by your manager that you are underperforming , met with him on [date] and asked for specifcs and guidance on what needs to change and he has been unable togive any specifc guidance or examples and ask about accessing training or calrifying what specifc steps you need to take to improve. 

IT may be that nothing will happen, it may be that if you actually ask, your manager will give you specifcs whch you can work on, , it may be that he won't but that someone else will look into it if you bring it to their attention. 

Mean time, start looking around for another job so you have the option to leave if things don't improve.

It sounds as though you are in a fairly isolated team ordepartment - is there any scope to move departments / locations so you work under a different manager? 

Fianlly, think about the discuiplinaries, what has been said about your performance, and your work generally. Forget what others do, consider whather you could have done things differnetly or been more diligent about following the processes etc, and see if you can change how you deal with things moving forward. I didn't find your explanation very clear but for instnace, if a customer has said 'can you send the invoices to a differnet addres' then normally the approach would be yes, give me the new address (and then do whatever is needed to get that address on the system) it soundsas thoguh you didn't do that and maybe had a bit of an attitude about it, which isn't great - sure, they should have made sure they gave the right address / had systems to get mail forwarded, but it's in your businesses interests to get paid which means making it easier, not harder, for customers to pay, so you may have been technically correct / not broeken ny rules, but you weren't helpful and didn't solve the issue. 

I wouldnt have formally disciplined someone for something like that but I would be making it clear that it wasn't the appropriate way to deal with the situation - andthen if the person did the dsame, or something similar, again, I might feel that dsiciplinary was the appropriate response. 

Also, this is the kind of situation wehre saying ,something like "I didn't think we could send an ivoice to an address not already in the system, how would I do that, if it comes up again" would probably hve resolved the issue, or to the client "give me the address, I will need to check as I am not sure we can re-issue an invoice to a different address, I will check and get back to you"