Legal question about being fired

creativedrinker

Hi,

I am currently working as a sales assistant (i won't name the organization) for the last 4 months, i have a 6 month probationary period.
I am going to be let go due to my lack of sales of 'insurance on products' i have high sales figures, excellent customer service, and a great knowledge of products but am on a part time 15hr a week contract and I find it extremely hard to meet the standards expected per week with so little hours compared to other workers.
I was wondering do I have any legal leg to stand on? In my contract it does not state anywhere that I have to reach such criteria on selling a certain amount of insurance on products.
I have had managers trying to talk me into quitting but I have declined as I see them as trying to bully me into a corner.
The manager is putting it down to a behavior problem which there isn't.

If anyone would have any advice it would be greatly appreciated on where I stand in my position.

Procrastastudy

Run... retail sales is all about insurance and if you can't sell it you're gone.

Personally I've shown up drunk, called a manager well... phoned in sick and told customers to get out of the shop in my younger days and never got so much as a disciplinary as I was an insurance selling god. Not proud of it now but at the time...

You have a year before any real rights kick in, any time up to that point you can be let go for practically no reason. Only reason they are trying to talk you into quitting is so they don't have to fill in all the paperwork for failing your probation.

As to your contract there is probably something in there about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) if not it's probably in the job description. Those KPIs will be undefined and generally up to what ever baboon in a suit is running your Area. They won't be based on anything tangible just what another baboon higher up the chain chucked a dart at when he was putting together his 'strategic' plan for the quarter.

This isn't legal advise, its probably not even good advise, but if you're looking to move to a similar role I'd quit on the terms of getting a good reference. Manager's of even rival companies may have worked together in the past and the grapevine in retail sales is a horrible thing.

I'd look at non-sales retail like Boots, Tesco etc and expect to be treated pretty badly by most retail employers. If you can reconcile what they actually mean vs what they actually say its not a bad job if you have a good line manager. For the love of god stay out of drapery!

Oh sorry forgot to mention - M&S and Debhamnams (sp?) tend to buck the trend and I have mates who are very happy there. Starbuck's one that is very hit and miss - some people LOVE working for them, others hate it. GameStop - another great place in the past if you don't mind working for peanuts however even they have jumped on the insurance band wagon I believe.

Pkiernan

Do not resign - you won't get any unemployment you might otherwise be entitled to if you quit.

Procrastastudy

That is true but you can normally come to an understanding with your employer where you and they agree you fail your probation if that makes any sense. Technically you're fired but under the best possible 'it simply didn't work out' scenario.

creativedrinker

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Run... retail sales is all about insurance and if you can't sell it you're gone.

Personally I've shown up drunk, called a manager well... phoned in sick and told customers to get out of the shop in my younger days and never got so much as a disciplinary as I was an insurance selling god. Not proud of it now but at the time...

You have a year before any real rights kick in, any time up to that point you can be let go for practically no reason. Only reason they are trying to talk you into quitting is so they don't have to fill in all the paperwork for failing your probation.

As to your contract there is probably something in there about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) if not it's probably in the job description. Those KPIs will be undefined and generally up to what ever baboon in a suit is running your Area. They won't be based on anything tangible just what another baboon higher up the chain chucked a dart at when he was putting together his 'strategic' plan for the quarter.

This isn't legal advise, its probably not even good advise, but if you're looking to move to a similar role I'd quit on the terms of getting a good reference. Manager's of even rival companies may have worked together in the past and the grapevine in retail sales is a horrible thing.

I'd look at non-sales retail like Boots, Tesco etc and expect to be treated pretty badly by most retail employers. If you can reconcile what they actually mean vs what they actually say its not a bad job if you have a good line manager. For the love of god stay out of drapery!

Oh sorry forgot to mention - M&S and Debhamnams (sp?) tend to buck the trend and I have mates who are very happy there. Starbuck's one that is very hit and miss - some people LOVE working for them, others hate it. GameStop - another great place in the past if you don't mind working for peanuts however even they have jumped on the insurance band wagon I believe.

Thanks for that info! I was in a sales job before but they didn't sell insurance and did very well so thought I'd give this one a go, I've been hunting for a non sales job since they have started going over my figures. My friends were saying that what their doing isn't right throwing you out of a job for that so I thought I would ask about it.
Thanks for the help!

Procrastastudy

It certainly isn't right. Unfortunately it is legal though.

Don't get me started on my rants regarding retail and especially retail sales. I wish you the best of luck OP my best advice is to get out of retail completely if possible - took me 15 years to work that one out.