Just been fired....

LegacyUser

Hi All,

This is a long one, I was recently fired from my job,

Its particulay freaky what happened. I started working 3 months ago as a technology manager in a particular industry.

From a very early stage things were not right with my arrangements, my direct report was based in the UK, and due to personal reasons was not in the office all the time, and could not be contacted. I had a dotted line to a local director who was yet to start. My direct report had a very big argument with the main director of the company before I had even started. So I was loosing before I even began IMO.

Over the next few weeks I discovered that the director who hadnt started yet, had some of his former collegues hired to work with him, nothing wrong with that. It turns out that one of these people (who at the time was doing some meaningless work for the company), was earmarked to do "some" of my work, as they had previous experience of how a particularly complicated system works in this setting and I did not.

They didn’t realise how fast a learner I was, I had mastered this particular system after a couple of weeks, and was fairly good at it, despite never getting any help / training etc.

I was working up to 15 hrs a day, doing my day to day stuff and training myself after hours, without extra pay and without assistance/help.

I was working in a fast paced environment and the business was growing at a large scale. 70 people had started recently and I had ruffled a few feathers within management, about how the business was coping with just me doing everything. This pressure between management is normal in a start up operation I presume.

Recently I was starting to see results, things were calming down and I had cut down my hours to normal, which was great as I was already starting at 7am, so I got to see my wife and kids again.

My direct manager visited me a number of weeks ago and we were happy with how things were going. He told me that for personal reasons he would be out of the office for a couple of weeks coming up.

He rang me on the Friday before he went to tell me he was off for a couple of weeks.

Got into work on the monday and was called into my dotted line manager who told me that I wasnt doing a good job and that I was being let go. There was no evidence to suggest I was doing a bad job, they were basically bullying me into leaving but its not like I had a choice.. So I left.

Do I have a case for unfair dismissal, it was a week before I was due to be made permanent.

Deadeyes

Re-read your contract, given that you were only there for three months, it's probably considered a probabtion period during which time either of you could walk away with little notice. It's a terrible situation to find yourself in, especially after putting so much effort in. Best of luck finding a new job.

mydogjack

legal route. all the way.

DenMan

Sorry to hear about that OP. You were doing a great job and had familiarised yourself with their procedures. Cruel ba**ards. You may have a case for unfair dismissal. However I am sure they were aware you had one week to go on your probation and may use that against you. They should have provided you with a valid reason as to why you were being let go. If it had gone on another week they may have had to give you a week's notice. Hope you find something better soon.

jimmycrackcorm

It's a bummer but there is nothing you can do. At least get a good reference from your direct report. Probably your good work never filtered up the reporting line.

LegacyUser

Unfair dismissal require at least 1 year in the company so that is a no go. Most likely what they are letting you go on is the probation contract which honestly they can do because they don't like your tie but told you they don't like your shoes (i.e. no reason required).

Jo King

You need to be a year in the job before you can claim Unfair Dismissal. Your only legal option is to sue for wrongful dismissal. This is a tricky area of law and could be costly.

Mr. Presentable

Know your rights before you go down the legal road. I am pretty sure you have none due to the short term of your employment. Some employers are s***s!

LegacyUser

Thanks All,

The thing about this is they still haven’t given me my P45, they're leaving it until my last pay run, which would suggest I’m technically still employed by them.

Am I not supposed to be paid in full handed a letter plus my P45.? This is what I'm very suspicious about. My direct line manager would have to clear everything, and I think they are doing this without proper authority.

HashSlinging

http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/hagettingfired.htm

pauldiv

Just put it down to experience because as was said earlier you were there for three months and that gives these people the legal right to lay you off.

You did a good job and it did not get noticed. That has happened to lots of people and it is a common problem. They might realise their error when things dont run so smoothly at a time in the near future.

By that time you will have learned your lesson and moved on.
Work 8 hours and make yourself less available. That way you are telling them that your family comes first and if they want you working all hours then they will need to make it worth while.

the_syco

Get in contact with your (ex) direct manager, and find out where you did wrong, so it doesn't happen in the next job. If he doesn't know what you did wrong, you'll know it was BS, and you'll know it won't affect you again.

On the other hand, if something you did was wrong, it'll be too late for the job to find out now, but it'll ensure it doesn't happen again.

RangeR

the_syco wrote: »

Get in contact with your (ex) direct manager, and find out where you did wrong, so it doesn't happen in the next job. If he doesn't know what you did wrong, you'll know it was BS, and you'll know it won't affect you again.

On the other hand, if something you did was wrong, it'll be too late for the job to find out now, but it'll ensure it doesn't happen again.

Is it not possible that the OP's direct report KNEW that this was coming, didn't want to do it himself, so said he was going to be out of the office for a few weeks. Op gets fired, Direct Report never actually goes away so doesn't have to deal with the sh!tty situation.

Eoin

nipplenuts wrote: »

Know your rights before you go down the legal road. I am pretty sure you have none due to the short term of your employment. Some employers are s***s!

As Jo King says, the OP can't claim unfair dismissal because the OP was still on probation. However, if wrongful dismissal is applicable for people on probation, but I think you have to prove breach of contract. But as Jo King also says, this will most likely be costly and could be hard to prove.

70 people had started recently and I had ruffled a few feathers within management, about how the business was coping with just me doing everything

OP - how did you ruffle feathers?

LegacyUser

Basically I was doing some work which was supposed to be done by someone else. So I emailed their manager with a complaint, and they took it fairly bad (personally etc) but got the guy back to do the work himself.