Constructive Dismissal

lincroft1710 · 9 July 2018 at 5:10PM

It would be interesting to know why the company offered the job to the external candidate, before interviewing OP. I do have an opinion on this.

LilElvis · 9 July 2018 at 5:23PM

lincroft1710 wrote: »

It would be interesting to know why the company offered the job to the external candidate, before interviewing OP. I do have an opinion on this.

My guess would be that they have offered the job to someone who has more experience in the role than the OP who only has a few weeks of shadowing the current incumbent.

steampowered · 9 July 2018 at 6:18PM

There is no legal requirement on an employer to give priority to internal candidates.

Generally speaking, an employer can hire anybody they like for a particular job and follow any hiring process they like.

he only exception would be that the employer can't have a hiring process which breaches law - for example they can't follow a recruitment process which discriminates against a protected characteristic such as age, race or gender.

It doesn't sound like you have any legal comeback. The employer is perfectly entitled to decide it prefers the external candidate. You are of course entitled to take that up with your manager or to search for another job if you feel that you should be considered for promotion.

[Deleted User] · 9 July 2018 at 6:19PM

It is bad manners and sorry for you OP but I am going to come at from another angle if I may.

I found myself on rather short notice last week and would have needed to let my trial day go, for a role I had gotten quite far with, on calling the company when learning what was going on and to benefit both parties I was straight away offered the job. Dumping the trial. I was very appreciative in the situation as imagined, so perhaps in your case they couldn!!!8217;t turn down someone unemployed and ready to start, for example, knowing you would turn into a replace and if that isn!!!8217;t easy to get signed off in these times...

Could be the external candidate needed a job quickly and they have simply beat you by notice period. They may not not even like the job or find it!!!8217;s the right fit for them, you never know.

Furthermore, I was told a couple of weeks ago by the client intimating I wasn!!!8217;t going to be around for much longer in the present job when really it should have been up to my employer to tell me, but no do you really think I could air that one. Without a lot of grief. After writing my notice I was then thanked for my understanding of the situation when I!!!8217;d asked them about no less then 4 times previously to get to the point of finding out was I going and how long had I got so sometimes there are things you have to let go.

Employers can change the recruitment process anytime, would you rather have gone through an interview and then !!!8216;be let down!!!8217;? Another one was a company got me to interview and then hours after, released to the press, that ohhh, there was to be 60 redundancies so again glad I was an unsuccessful candidate to right! One of those times when things happen for the best.

lincroft1710 · 9 July 2018 at 6:41PM

LilElvis wrote: »

My guess would be that they have offered the job to someone who has more experience in the role than the OP who only has a few weeks of shadowing the current incumbent.

You have put it slightly more politely than I would have done

marliepanda · 9 July 2018 at 6:56PM

It maybe that the external candidate performed very well at their phone interview, and you performed poorly in comparison.

Then took you both to face to face just in case external person flubbed the face to face and you did well. Then external person did well at face to face so they knew you would never stack up as external did really well at both, so saved you the hassle of interviewing for a job when you were too far behind based on your phone interview.

sangie595 · 9 July 2018 at 7:11PM

mantic70 wrote: »

Hi All
My first ever post, looking for some guidance if possible.
A colleague of mine is leaving the company, he has been working 2 months notice and i was asked to shadow him for 2 months to learn the role and take it on when he goes.
I was asked to apply for the role internally which I done, I noticed that it was advertised externally too, one of the external applicants had their telephone interview the day before me which I found strange. I was told that my telephone interview was successful and would progress to a face to face interview, I was then told 3 days before my face to face interview that the external applicant was successfull and no need to attend interview. wow that cant be right can it?

Wow, yes it can.

You can't be dismissed from a job that you don't have. Since you never had the job, it's not any form of dismissal.

Given that you had been shadowing the role for two months, and the employer decided to go to external recruitment anyway, then I'm afraid the writing was on the wall in rather clear writing. They had no intention of offering you the position unless they had no other choice; and they had, after those two months, no confidence in your ability to do the job. I can't comment on whether that is a fair assessment or not, but it's a rather clear one. You may wish to consider your future with this employer if that is their assessment of you, as it might suggest that your chances for promotion may be rather limited. Sorry to be blunt about it, but the circumstances don't leave a lot to the imagination. If they needed to rush the interviews, you are an internal candidate- they could have called toy in with virtually no notice, and given the fact you'd been shadowing at their request you should have aced an interview. The fact they didn't even give you an interview and appointed without doing so, even though you'd been offered one, suggests that they already knew they didn't want you in the post, and you'd have been a last choice. That may not be a fair assessment, but there aren't many ways to interpret this course of events - so if this is how they think of you now, that may be how they continue to think of you in the future.

The best way to "get them back" is to get a better job and then succeed at it.

stator · 9 July 2018 at 8:27PM

marliepanda wrote: »

It maybe that the external candidate performed very well at their phone interview, and you performed poorly in comparison.

Then took you both to face to face just in case external person flubbed the face to face and you did well. Then external person did well at face to face so they knew you would never stack up as external did really well at both, so saved you the hassle of interviewing for a job when you were too far behind based on your phone interview.

Pretty stupid in my opinion.

Cancelling the interview with the internal candidate is obviously going to annoy them, it's a huge snub and not the way you should treat your staff.

It would have been much better to hold both interviews and then just explain to the internal candidate that they decided to go with the candidate with more experience. That way there are no hard feelings. That's the professional way to do it.

marliepanda · 9 July 2018 at 9:12PM

stator wrote: »

Pretty stupid in my opinion.

Cancelling the interview with the internal candidate is obviously going to annoy them, it's a huge snub and not the way you should treat your staff.

It would have been much better to hold both interviews and then just explain to the internal candidate that they decided to go with the candidate with more experience. That way there are no hard feelings. That's the professional way to do it.

We get a lot of people on here complaining they wasted time and energy on interviews they had no chance of getting.

Now you’re saying companies should just waste everyone’s time even when they have no hope of the job so there’s no hard feelings...

I’d rather someone be straight with me than string me along.

Brynsam · 9 July 2018 at 10:18PM

mantic70 wrote: »

Thanks for that
No I have not quit...yet
I thought the following procedure had to follow points

advertise internally and if no suitable candidate then advertise externally
Complete the interview process before informing candidates.
maybe I'm just old fashioned

Certainly shows no tact on the part of your employer and I can see why you're miffed.

What you are describing is how things often used to be done - but the march of equal opportunities meant employers who wanted to claim they were equal ops (it had a different meaning before all the anti-discrimination legislation) could no longer favour current employees and had no choice but to advertise externally as well.

If this is going to go on rankling - which I think it will, from the tone of your posts - for goodness sake talk to your employer as calmly as you can, not along the lines of not fair/you said/grrrr but by asking for feedback. Hopefully that will give you a chance to convey how you feel and also get an idea of whether you have any future with this employer.

Constructive Dismissal

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