Thank you for the links. It is not happening, but it has been commented that I am on more than those of the same grade. This just lead me to wonder if they could reduce my wage, or stop the annual rise for living increase. The main thing is I am looking for a mortgage and if my wage is held for 5 years or reduced it will cause serious problems financially. Cheers

Apologies... It has no bearing on my other post. I am just wondering if a contract can be changed and can cost of living increases be cancelled for myself whereas someone doing the exact same role can receive the increase. Question on employee law etc... rather than something specific to me. Cheers

I guess you are starting to partly see me as an inquisitive member of the community. Very true as I like to learn and understand, especially whilst being in a very uncertain industry (construction). Hopefully this will help others that are in issues and clear things in my mind. Prior to a merger my salary was taken to that of a senior position. Having 14 years experience and involved on the larger projects within the company whilst training the younger staff made me feel I was making a difference. I did not receive the title senior, but I am not one of these people that take a title over hard cash Anyhow... Now that I work essentially for a new company I have been revalued under a scoring system and deemed non-senior. The projects I am now on are of a lesser size and in terms of responsibility I have gone backwards, BUT least I have a job. Where I am finally going with this is two-fold. Is there any way they can reduce my salary that was agreed pre-merger? I am assuming not, but guess there are ways and means to reduce benefits or pressure for unpaid overtime etc... to feel they are getting value (you know what I mean). Can I be singled out for not receiving a cost of living allowance or does this increase go against roles/ titles. i.e. If I work as a finance analyist as well as my friend, but I receive 5% more salary. Is the company able to increase his salary and keep mine the same until we are paid the same? Sorry for the theory and querying. It will come about, and interested to know what can and can't be done. Thank you for your time. Roj

One of the hardest things is that you realise no-one is safe and everyone is replaceable. We have 4 new graduates that qualified from university last month and I myself as a graduate replaced a more established member of staff with the poor engineer having to perform his role whilst trying to teach me how to work in the real world rather than in a text book. Rough justice? Quite possibly and what goes around comes around. I am glad you have found a position Sidewinder albeit in difference to your original position and upon an improvement in the industry wish you well in taking the experience forward to excel as you clearly show. Honeybee>> I hope your OH is able to relax once he leaves the door from work. A hard task I might add! I have friends still whre I am (although downhearted) and a family that support. We have to believe There is always something to hold onto and always a dream and new direction waiting to be grasped. Roj

Hi all... This is just me wondering rather than actually raising a problem for assistance. As with most companies where I work has lost employees (friends), but in addition we have been through a merger with new faces and new managers coming into play. Protocols have changed and forms that we used to complete in the old company have been replaced with those of the one we merged into. Further redundancies are hanging over the company and all in all there are no positive people in the company. We have taken the roles of those made redundant in addition to what we already did and now are expected to do unpaid overtime to keep on top of projects. The stance is that noone is safe hangs on, so you fear that you will lose your job if you are weaker than those of the equivelent grade. Morale is rock bottom and my friends just comment that least it pays the bills. Is this the employment world as a norm now? I missed previous recessions and guess this will go on for another couple of years until new people are brought in to lessen the workload. Wow... I sound depressed! I would be if it wasn;t for the fact that a good summer has allowed my family and I to do day trips out Hopefully I have not brought you down and thank you for any comments to help me understand employment in 2010. Roj.

I asked the question about an employee and manager being related or very good friends and the situation that in an agreement the employee could intentionally cancel holiday and have it authorised by the manager as a favour. I think it struck a cord and no doubt my manager will investigate. Thank you for walking with me and helping me to be calm and rational. Kind regards

Cheers as always and an update. Met with the manager this afternoon whom did not beat around the bush and passed his verdict and what is happening - I will be receiving a formal first warning which will remain on file for 12 months rather than 6 months due to it severity and I will be sent on a Code of Conduct course through work. I assume this would class as a disciplinary to the same degree as a final written or misconduct charge should a marking scheme for redundancies arise (possible as work in construction). Will wait for the letter for better particulars. Thanks guys

Honmeybee>> The evidence I was querying was in response to the above on having someone support my playing with systems to test and see what they can do. No response again today and wondering if I can get to 7 days without word and the hearing being nulled if I am reading ACAS correctly. Regards

In what sense please as the full story is on page 1 of this thread. Cheers

Utterly bizarre... Worked a little with the boss.... Calling me matey and chatted about the football. No letter through email and no idea if it is written or not. Mind games? Bah! Given I have had a meeting with minutes taken is it too late to introduce new evidence and how do I broach the subject? Cheers

Thanks again for the reply. There definately was no glitch in the software, and only I have access to the program as logged through each step on the net at work. Full audit trail on actions. Keep thinking the situation over and over... The final button reads Cancel Holiday. Trying to reassure myself that if gross misconduct was to be the answer that I would have been told on the day and the manager would not be thinking over it for the weekend unless playing games. I doubt there are any games involved. Babbling again, so going to head off. Cheers

When I say history I mean with Excel, Access etc... to see what can be done. Self taught on these (not to programming standard though). Every application/ program etc.. Has to be proof tested and I need to know what can and can not be completed and how they work on a result level (not programmed level).

My_Spirit_Soars_Free: Thank you for your response and that is the situation I find myself. I had entered the system to book holidays and had come upon the screen unintentionally. Spur of the moment rather than pre-conceived so no-one else was aware. I have a history of pushing computer programs to their limits to see what is achieveable/ not however, and had not realised the request was issued to comment to the manager. Settling for anything except gross misconduct now as although I am not a fan of my company; beggars can not be choosers in this environment,

To lemmyshat : The information age and beaucracy created by the larger businesses has completed exploded over the years. The OP does not state his age or time in his given industry. Where I am employed holds employees that started in the industry late 60s/ early 70s and at the time were no doubt trained by senior staff that served their time in the 40s. What was acceptable then as opposed to now is competely differently and for the older generation to change overnight or even in a fixed time is very difficult. You know how to perform and what to do in that era and it was accepted. In construction having a project manager swearing and throwing things around was still in practice in the late 90s when I started out. Now it is anything but acceptable, but it is still there on occasion. We do not know why the argument arose. We do not know what the OP classes as an argument. If the Client was being derogatory to the OP then human nature is to defend and it can easily escalate. That said it is in practice to not rise to the master that feeds you. With reference to the anti-depressants. My personal opinion is to not raise this in a meeting as they would see it as hiding information that could impact your job and furthermore impact on the company for not having protocol in place to protect themselves and you should side effects/ mood swings occur. A whole new can of worms would be opened there, but please await better particulars from other posters. Roj.

Thank you Honeybee for the offer. I would be virtually impossible to second guess what my manager is thinking and to do so would either raise or destroy hopes for me or others following this in a similar situation. Really hoping on a final written warning at worst and hope there are no redundancies planned in my department for the next 12-24 months. More worried that it will be suspension pending further investigations. Least there was not an instant decision made so at least thought is being applied. That said; I am more than aware it is faces that fit over anything else and should my job be lost, it would only have been a matter of time anyway. Will try and stay positive. Dread the letter!