Please help at risk of redundancy and HR issue

[anonymous1975]

Please bear with me here i shall try and make this short but with all the detail, but i need help ASAP as there is limited time allowed for this process.

I have been with my company 4 years and have advanced through the technical ranks to my current position, we have an annual report which goes from 0-4 and for three years i have never scored lower than a 3.

I was promoted to the role i am in now as an area quality assurance lead and the location was for the NE ( i live in the NW) eventually a similar role became available for another role in the NW. I asked my line manager if he minded me applying for it and he had no issues,

i applied, sat the multi stage interview and was given the role. My role is now classed as "at risk" of redundancy as we are moving from 4 regions to two which means they are also moving from 4 roles to two roles in my position. Two people are considered safe and myself and another at risk,

my question is

what is the criteria to separate safe from at risk. In the documentation received from my company it is below, i have zero issues and i know cv against cv mine wins, i was even selected by the company as a company mentor because of my experience in engineering and leadership. This is a closed group of maybe ten people and i am the only non senior executive included. 

·         Performance and Behaviour : I have zero behaviour issues, no issues with performance from my current line manager. 

·         Performance Improvement/ Disciplinary Records   : Zero disciplinary's and no performance issues, in fact my line manager on record has said I'm forthcoming

·         End Of Year Rating : Issues explained below

Now my line manager was leaving the company and he did tell me "there was some politics involved with you getting that role, the city build manager and head of area build had promised it to their lead engineer (something they had no right to promise as it has to go though the process ), from day 1 it became very clear that i would not be accepted for this reason within their community although i did just try to help them achieve quality and specification as that was my role.

After a few weeks it became very apparent as to why the role had been promised to their man, i found issues where properties had been signed off as ready to accept subscribers when they were not ready (for bonus and stat reasons) and several quality issues i discovered which we could remedy and improve our productivity (unfortunately this would highlight that these issues had been there and not dealt with)

My new head of area build (part of this trilogy of him, city build manager and lead engineer)  clearly did not want me there (for the reasons stated) but paid lip service, i had highlighted that i needed to walk off some structured with our canter of excellence counterparts ( as this was part of my role to link in with them for national issues) and he responded by saying i am not to walk them off, and that we have sufficient engineers to do that task (by saying this he could make sure that the engineers would take them round to structures that are A not the ones i have highlighted, and B would have very minor issues)

This battle went back and forth over the months where i tried my best to build up the relationship with  them, my attitude was ok you have made some mistakes here, but we are all a team and even though you have hidden issues i can help you remedy them and hopefully we can do so and keep them off the radar,  but they just never did,

In October last year (2023), this is getting near to annual review time,  i had helped the company out massively by working a substantial amount of weekends and nights to fix issues, and i said i would take most of the time as TOIL ( as agreed with by my previous head of area build) this was 30 days. My current head of area build said i needed to put my leave in as it had been flagged as having a large amount.

When i did input the leave (it would result in me taking all of December off), he was unhappy with me and was extremely curt in his responses as he could find nothing on the system for my TOIL , i explained the situation, my line manager would ask if i could work the hours, i would, and when i wanted leave he would authorise (we had an good working relationship, he was an excellent manager)

he ended up going to HR to ask their advice and a teams call was set up with myself, head of area build and HR, it was confirmed by HR that it was a company error, when you want to input TOIL there should be a dropdown option in the leave menu and one of the options would be TOIL, this had not been setup on mine.

the company authorised the leave explaining that this should have been done and hadn't, i did say that this is the way it had always been and pretty much everyone on my team then operated this way, TOIL had never been discussed and none of had this option available. i entered my leave from 4th December - 2nd January,  My line manager was an outside contractor and was leaving the company on the 15th December.

On my return i found that we had a new head of area build, it would be a temporary position as they were not going to fill the position permanently and he would be covering his role (Scotland) and this role (NW). I contacted him to say that i had not received my end of year report yet and when would this happen as i had not sat with my line manager nor mine.

A little over a week later my HoAB and i had a teams call, it was a introduction meeting and end of year report, he said that he had received feedback from the outgoing manager and he had given me a 2 (i have as explained before never scored lower than a 3) he asked how long i had been in the current role (just over a year) as this grade can mean you are new to the role and need a little supervision, haven't built up relationships with stakeholders etc.

he explained what my grade and bonus would be and if i had any feedback, i explained that this was unfair, i had proof that i had not met my targets (i say targets as there were never really any set, but going from emails and conversation we have had, and the job description) i had even created Powerpoint presentations which were very complex into how our network works from beginning to end  as there was distinct lack of knowledge here and i am a lead trainer / assessor (this btw he was extremely impressed with) He did say he had spoken to people in the centre of excellence which o believe was the head of operations, and he did look confused as to the disparity in feedback from them and the original manager that wrote my report.

I contacted HR to raising my concerns that i had not sat with my line manager to go through my report,  had i had the chance to do so, i could have rebutted anything said as i had proof of my achievements even though he had set no defined targets, i could prove that i had been extremely active in identifying and remedying issues, HR did come back to me and these are their comments 

1) "Your rating was submitted by your manager at the time xxx xxxxxx and he should have carried out an EOY review with you. The rating would not have been provided in this review but feedback should have been shared" [this never happened]

2)  Initial ratings where then discussed and reviewed during a calibration process (for your team) this will have included HOABs and RDs. During this session ratings can be challenged and changed. I can confirm that your rating was not changed as a result of this session and it remained at the rating that xxx submitted.

3) xxx did provide thorough feedback to xxx xxx in a handover so if not already done so it may be worth speaking with him to understand that feedback further.

4) In terms of reputation and the concern you share – ratings are not made public and are private to each individual.

5) And this first line obviously is incorrect " As far as i can see this would be the only separator they could have measured me on to separate safe from not safe, and if so the company did not follow its own procedure. My current line manager said " an error had occurred as you had not received the option to sit with your manager for your review, and the company needs to make sure this error does not happen again) Well then they are admitting there was an issue and it needs remedying not sweeping under the carpet. All of this is documented.

To remind the rating of a 2 is not a concerning grade. Please see descriptor below

Generally, needs little supervision but does on occasion require direction/supervision.

Does not always anticipate changes to the work environment and could adapt more quickly.

May be seen as a strong performer in certain situations or by some audiences but may not perform at that level in all situations.

May need some development or guidance to carry out some elements of role.

May not consistently demonstrate the right behaviours.

May have been on Performance Improvement during the year but has since shown strong improvement

 

 

 

[fkofilee]

Do you work for a Fibre provider? I recognise some of the terminology. 

I know this seems irrelevant but would be interesting to know. I am still reading this but it does seem to resonate quite well. Might be able to offer some advice 

[Emmzzi]

Hello,

I am sorry this is happening to you; it feels like the new region has not been a great match for your ethics, and you haven't had the support you deserve.

Unfortunately you would really need to have appealed the rating following any internal processes at the time (grievance?). It seems, given their response, that this would not have changed their minds. Several months on, the rating is now being used as a selection criteria - that's legally valid.

Do you have a union who can support?

Have they asked for volunteers for redundancy and do the other 2 maybe want that? That would be a standard way to avoid compulsory redundancy.

Have they discussed alternative employment with you?

 

[Emmzzi]

Sorry, I should also have said: you are allowed to ask for the selection criteria.  So please, do, and report back.

[anonymous1975]

On 24/05/2024 at 14:51, fkofilee said:

Do you work for a Fibre provider? I recognise some of the terminology. 

I know this seems irrelevant but would be interesting to know. I am still reading this but it does seem to resonate quite well. Might be able to offer some advice 

Yes i do, 

[anonymous1975]

On 24/05/2024 at 18:41, Emmzzi said:

Hello,

I am sorry this is happening to you; it feels like the new region has not been a great match for your ethics, and you haven't had the support you deserve.

Unfortunately you would really need to have appealed the rating following any internal processes at the time (grievance?). It seems, given their response, that this would not have changed their minds. Several months on, the rating is now being used as a selection criteria - that's legally valid.

Do you have a union who can support?

Have they asked for volunteers for redundancy and do the other 2 maybe want that? That would be a standard way to avoid compulsory redundancy.

Have they discussed alternative employment with you?

 

I did as soon as i received the grade, i was on annual leave over December and my line manager was due to leave on the 15th December, i did not receive the review until i returned to work. SO i never had the opportunity to have a review. I challenged it straight away and raised a complaint to HR, who never responded to me,

[Emmzzi]

"Dear HR, I refer to my correspondence of *date* in which I challenged xxx, copy attached.

Clearly this was a grievance, and yet does not seem to have been heard under the grievance procedure.

I am exceptionally dismayed that this 'review'. which never took place, seems to be being used as a criteria in redundancy selection proceedings.

As this is time critical, please advise asap."

 

 

 

 

 

 

[anonymous1975]

Please accept my apologies for the delayed update, but i have been trawling through emails for supporting evidence, you see we are in the consultation phase and there will be three meetings during the process. So as i have said  my role is at risk due to the scoring and mine being low. As explained i never received my report as my line manager left during December and i was on leave. So i was not afforded any meeting, i received no feedback at all, so how am i meant to know any areas to improve or to attain a higher grade.

So with this in mind i gathered my supporting evidence, i found the email from my then line manager and the objectives that he set out and we agreed.

 

I then supplied 20 emails that  showed that not only did i reach the targets, i smashed them, highlighting areas that i had saved the company a considerable amount of money, idented issues  implemented process and solutions with ongoing support. All emails are verified and prove that i should have received the highest possible grade going by their criteria.

I also included the email from HR when i challenged  the score and they replied with " the outgoing manager supplied thorough feedback to the incoming interim manager who should have provided this (this was never received, and report i received was blank with just a score. Highlighted was the email from HR stating " a two is not a concerning grade"  well clearly it is as less than a month later it is what was used to decide i was at risk. I have supplied this information to the line manager and the external HR rep that was on the call as i have 48 hours to supply this.

Had i had a proper and fair review like everyone else had then i would have been able to provide this evidence when he issued the score, he could not argue with the sheer volume of evidence that i had. This proves what was said to me when i took this position, " there was some politics in me getting the role, their line manager had promised the role to one of his guys, they cant really do anything but watch your back" He should not have promised this anyway as two interviews were required in the process *which i sat) so i earned the right to the role. This was because the three of them knew there was a lot that would be uncovered and they wanted it covering, i started to see this after two weeks, had i not said anything then it would have looked as though i was incompetent or stupid. I did try to work with them on this to remedy but sadly they went the other rout instead.

 

 

[Emmzzi]

You seem to have this well documented and covered. Have you asked what the selection criteria are? And have you checked this to see if you should have a rep?

 

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