Weird reason for ending contract

Precedens

Hello everyone. I was working for McDonald's for three months, which ended fairly fast. Today's at work I was told that my contract will not be prolonged, because I did not meet certain aspects of the job.

They said, which i quote

"You don't seem to work well with everyone (don't say hi or bye when you starting/leaving work). We can't see any initiative or interest in the job; communication is very poor".

Please do not speculate if it is true or not, in terms of hard work I can say I did not work less than any other employee. I just do not know, if anyone can say *thank you*, because you did not say hi or bye couple of times, which by the way I did, or always tried if situation was good for that (eye contact, other person was not occupied so much).

I have also unsatisfied them, because I did not smile that much. Now, I know work is game of pretending, but I just can not force myself to smile if I do not feel to.

I do not need a hug, just semi legal advice about what can I do about it, if anything. I am waiting for interview, and have already spoken with manager from McDonald's, so it turns I will have good references after all, so I do not want to go to citizen information yet, since it can heat up this matter.

foxinsox

You were most likely still in your probationary period/trial.

You can be "let go" without any reason by your employer at any stage within your probationary period and the employer does not have to give you a reason.

Mc Donalds is a smiley happy place

What you say about a job being "pretend" is true.. especially in the service industry.

I have worked in retail for years, it all about customer service, I can smile and sell my soul even if I feel crap and hate the job.

I think in fairness to Mc Donalds they gave you a reason, so maybe you can learn from it and think about what they said and maybe pretend more and interact more with colleagues in the next job.

Best of luck

CatFromHue

It's an awkward one to be honest, group dynamics are pretty important in the work place. I know in one place I worked a guy being interviewed got the job as he came across as someone who would fit in with the other staff better than the other candidates.

Interesting to hear of your plight. Do you mind if I ask was the McDonald's in question staffed primarily by people from a specific country? Possibly they didn't like you and made things awkward for you to stay there.

I stopped using my local McDonald's as they seem to have a bias against hiring Irish people. As it is their choice to staff it with Polish people, I guess it is also my choice to never use it. I could see this environment being particularly difficult for an Irish person to enter and work in now. Too many Irish businesses seem content to allow a workplace be taken over by one ethnicity. there should be some kind of happy medium. I won't support any of these kind of establishments anymore, as studies have also shown that they are sending huge amounts of money out of the country.

I've heard all the arguments about Irish being too lazy to do this kind of work etc., frankly that is a load of bull. I'm not racist in anyway but people shunning Irish people for this kind of work might be responsible for internal racism.