Hi! Somehow it seems the fates are out to get me! I applied for an Electronics Repair job in the Industrial Sector which I'm skilled at, with a large American Employer which had a UK Repair facility 35 miles from my home address. I was interviewed for the position, given a theoretical and practical test and later told my application had been successful and I was to start work on the 18th February. The morning I arrived (Monday of last week) I was taken upstairs for an "induction" which consisted solely of a great many forms to fill and sign, all based totally on US Laws, plus being issued with three company-logoed work shirts. Back downstairs I was shown to a bench and left to my own devices for the rest of the day, being told "you're not entered on our Job Booking System yet so we can't give you any work to do!" Tuesday was the same and it was Wednesday before I was able to access the Job booking System and pick up work to do, which consisted of large and complex electronic boards that can only be tested in specialist fixtures made for them. The company had these fixtures but the workshop supervisor sat on his backside all day without making any attempt to show me the operation and use of the test fixtures, instead jerking a thumb in the direction of the Production Manager with "Ask *******!" I asked ******* the Production Manager who said "All our test Software is in the United States and we haven't got it installed here yet!" Although I have the technical knowledge to fault-find and replace components on boards like these, the only thing that can be done is to book them out completed once I'd evaluated them and carried out any work thought necessary, and either return them to the Original Customer for test in the machinery they came from, or test them in the jigs, which as I stated, was not shown or had them demonstrated to me. On Friday at 3.15 pm I was called into an upstairs office and told by the Production Manager and the workshop supervisor that they were sending me home and they didn't want me to attend the premises from then on, they stated "we were looking for an average of £900 invoiced work/day from every technician and you're not suited to our immediate needs - we wanted someone that can replace components on a large processor board and test it and book it out in an hour or less!" As regards their job booking system, all I got was "we expected you to know that!" - how am I supposed to have intimate knowledge of every company's different database system and be expected to use it with no introductory training? The Recruitment Agency that put me forward for this post assured me that "the Production Manager will come over from the States specially to give you the training and support you need to get up to speed on our products", but as you can read above I was offered none whatsoever. The workplace itself was very poorly equipped - a lot of the technical equipment I would customarily expect to find in an Industrial Electronics Repair Centre wasn't even there, I could see NO written documentation for the test fixtures, (unless it was solely on the company's US servers, and I was given no oppurtunity to see it whatsoever - I even had to ask the chap on the bench behind me to show me how to use their job booking system!) I'm sorry for such a long tale of woe again, I applied for this position in good faith on the assurance of the agency that recruited me for it that all product training would be available and a reasonable 90-day probationary period would be allowed - how can you call three days reasonable? Have I spoilt my chances in getting a good reasonably paid electronics job in the future from this episode? I informed the chap at the Recruitment agency what went on there as soon as I left the bulding, but as this was only yesterday naturally he's not got back to me yet! Also was the fault mine in applying for a job that needed more skills than I had experience with, or totally this employer's? I have worked in the Industrial Electronics Repair sector for 11 years with very similar products for a local employer in the past up until 2010 and they said I'd given them every satisfaction and they were sorry to have to make me redundant!

Hi All Sorry if this seems long winded but I just wanted to make sure you have all the facts. Just after a touch of advice - I think you are going to to say its just tough but.... I applied for a new permanent job through an agency and after 2 interviews I was offered the role of office manager. I insisted on getting the contract and signing it before I handed in my notice as Ive been with my current employer for 8 years. After working a months notice I started my new job on Monday The MD wasn't in on Monday so I spent the day with the Operations Director giving me an oversight into the business where I sat in a training session for another department, but he advised the MD would be training my directly so my role would really start the following day. I went in Tuesday morning and when the MD came into the office he said hello and asked me to give him an hour to catch up on emails etc then he would be with me for the day. As 12 noon he called me into his office and said he had discovered some problems in the business he needed to resolve and it wasnt feasible for me to just sit around without any training. He asked if I would go home, taking Wednesday and Thursday off and he would be in touch on Thursday afternoon to speak to me with details about attending a sales conference with him on the Friday as this would be a brilliant insight into the company. Then proper training could commence the following week. Thursday evening, at 5pm Id not heard from him so I contacted him asking what the travel arrangements were for the following day. He text back around half an hour later advising me the agency should have been in touch to tell me they are unable to take things any further at this stage. Many issues in the business mean they are unable to look at a manager at the moment. I have spoken to the agency today who confirm they have not heard a thing from the company. In a nutshell, I have left a career of 8 years to move on to something I thought was bigger and better to be simply discarded without even allowing me to do any work. Is this legal? Whilst I know it is my probationary period, would it not be necessary to look at my work and appraise me to make the decision Im no longer required? Its not redundancy surely? Any advice ??