Unfair Dismissal?

LegacyUser

Hi guys, sorry for the length below but I have wrote this in as great a detail as possible to give you the full story. It’s been on my mind for quite some time and feel hesitant writing it but it feels like a burden has been lifted even writing it.

I had been working for an IT company for 12 months and this was my first job after graduating from college. The job was a junior position and I joined the ranks of the director of the company, 1 production manager, 1 designer, 1 digital marker, 1 sales executive and 2 other junior developers and 2 students on placement. Although a growing company, the operation was small and a lot of work had fallen on us in the junior department to churn out projects to a given time frame and budget. This type of job was results based, complete a project, move on. Each project had a different valuation depending on the project specifications, and the total price of projects complete throughout the year was a reflection on your work rate. Being my first job in the industry, I was in zero position to negotiate on the salary, which was minimum wage, due to my lack of experience, which the director had directly indicated. I had asked if there would be any wiggle room on this, and he had stated after my 6 month probationary period it will be reviewed.

Things were going grand, on the job training was provided (pick it up as you go mainly), mostly by the other junior developer I sat beside. The production manager was a great with me and he would deal with the top projects, which would use a different software package only he would have used in the office and had told me I would soon be learning it. Within 2 months I was learning heaps, was developing harder projects than the other junior developers who had been there longer. Because of the additional learning, and lack of experience I was completing less projects than the others, but still on time and in budget.

Two months into the job, one of the two other junior developers (who had only been there 3 months) had been called into the director’s office and had been told he was let go. It seemed out of the blue. When I had asked him what happened he said he was training a client to use the software we create and they had complained about his presentation, stating his lack of knowledge was not worth the money they had spent for the training. I had mixed feelings about this, he had 3 months under his belt and was dealing with 1 specific software application which I thought was ample time to learn the nuts and bolts of it. On reflection, this guy had little confidence in his own ability, was constantly asking me questions and apart from myself was the least experienced in the office. I thought the decision to have him train client was wrong, and there director made a rash call having him do it in the first place. Whether he would have lasted is another story! As he was also in his probationary period he could have been let go without any prior warning. 3 weeks later the director had called in the sales executive in the same manor and let him go also, I was unsure as to the reasons for his departure. As he was still within his probationary period there was nothing he could do either.

Roll on the end of my probation period (6 months as per the contract I had signed) and I was expecting the director to have a date pencilled in for a chat about my performance and my salary. I had been naïve in thinking he would email me or have it in the back of his head to have it arranged so waited an additional 4 weeks for this, as I didn’t want to seem to be pushing the issue of money. I finally made first contact, got a date later that week and discussed my work and more money. Having researched what I should be getting for my job roll, I was taken aback when he offered even less than what I feel I should have got when I walked in the door. Again the lack of experience was his playing card when it was discussed, and I reluctantly agreed. Apart from that he was happy with my output and work and raised no issues. That week he then initiated a bonus scheme in the office to supplement which I can only assume the low salary everybody else was on. In paper this looked good, in practice in my remaining time nobody ever received a bonus, as the terms of it were widely skewed.

Shortly after this the director had tasked me with looking after server management of the business. Something I had never done before. I did not feel comfortable with this as it involved navigating around linux and then transferring documentation and databases to a Windows sever. Again I didn’t want to give the wrong impression on my attitude so accepted (I honestly didn’t feel I could say no). This in turn had led me to focus less time on completing projects and more on this.

Within my last several weeks with the company the production manager had called me aside and stated that the director was asking about my project output and that it needs to increase, a friendly warning if you will. The director then had called me up to his office two weeks later and we talked about my output, what it should be and why another junior developer has made more overall than me. I then explained that comparing me and him was not fair as he has had to only learn 1 software package, has been there 16 months longer and was comparing his second to third year working in the business to my first and didn’t have the added distraction of dealing with server management as I have. On top of that 3 of my projects had stalled on the client’s part which was not included in the figures he was comparing, which would have pushed my own output figure higher. My honesty seemed to irk him as I had a reasonable excuse for the question he was asking.

Shortly after that I received an email from him stating that I was underperforming and that there would need to be an improvement in my output. Although this was not labelled as an official disciplinary warning, I took it as such. Two weeks later I was called to his office and told I was being let go. He then cited business costs as the reason and that he could not afford to keep me on. I simply stated the writing was on the wall with the previous message he had sent me, to which he bluntly agreed. Although I had half expected it due to his previous talk and the email, I was still shocked it happened.

Reading through my contract it clearly outlined the terms of dismal from the company, formal warning in message format, followed by disciplinary meeting, followed by dismissal, which were not followed in my eyes.

There was other stuff that I could have mentioned but I felt this was the main things!

It’s been several months since and I have been unable to get a job from my lack of experience, and my confidence in my own ability is shot to pieces as a result. I felt ashamed that I had lost this job and that I let my parents down. I think about it every day, thinking what if anything could I have done differently? Was I there solely to put money in the director’s pocket and nothing more? What did I really take away from the job? And where/what do I do from here?

Stheno

If you were there less than a year there is nothing you can do about it.

You need to draw a line in the sand about it and move on.

davo10

The terms of dismissal you outline are those associated with dismissal due to disciplinary issues. As stheno said above, the duration of employment is important, was it less/more than 1 year?

_Brian

Did you make formal appeals at each stage and have paperwork proof of same.
You won't make any progress with and unfair dismissals claim otherwise.

Also, most discipline procedures have a clause something like " at any stage of the discipline process the company may move straight to dismissal of it feels it is warrented on any instance"

gandalf

TBH I'd chalk this one up to experience. You have got nearly a year of experience. If you are unemployed try and go on one of the Springboard courses that compliments your skills. Also some of them have decent placement programs as well.

With regard to your former employer it sounds like he's a cheapskate and also I wouldn't be surprised if there is a history there of hiring junior staff at below market level salaries, working them hard and then finding a reason the let them go before the year is out.

Mango Joe

Please don't measure your self worth against a metric set by these highly unpleasant and unprofessional inbreds......

I've been working in IT for a long time now and the good news is that your next job is going to be a hell of a lot better, chin up and keep battling.

PS your parents just want you to be happy and do well in life, not to toil ceaselessly for ignorant, profiteering, smalltime pigs....

It's also obvious from your post you're going to do just fine in the long term, you'll be valued eventually trust me