Boyfriend unfairly sent home from work - help with what happens next?

[sophes]

Hi All,

 

My boyfriend has worked for a Distribution Company as a Goods-In Supervisor since March 2006. He was promoted in June 2007 to fill his boss's shoes (to Goods-In Manager) which his boss recommended him for.

 

In his Supervisor role he was working 8:30am to 5:00 (in line with his contract) fully aware that his boss (whose shoes he would later fill) was working all hours and mega stressed.

 

When he was promoted he was thrilled to have been given the chance. The Interview was a mere formality, it was advertised internally, but he was the only applicant, and he was successful.

 

After One Week in the new role of Manager, his boss pulled him to one side and said he wasn't putting the hours in, and needed to pull his weight more. My partner was a bit taken aback, considering he had a team of 2 working for him, when he was MEANT to have a team of 4 working for him, but agreed to put more hours in.

 

So for three weeks he has been in at 7am every morning, sometimes working till 6pm and has worked one Saturday morning.

 

On Tuesday 17th july (last week) one of my partner's friends died suddenly. He was completely heartbroken but continued working all the hours. He applied for annual leave for the funeral, it was authorised and he went yesterday to pay his respects.

 

When he arrived in work this morning his boss has pulled him into a side room and told him he was sending him home for the day on full pay to 'reflect if he thinks he can actually do his job and how he's going to improve all the things he's currently not doing properly'.

 

He was heartbroken and has been very upset and angry since this morning when this happened.

 

Besides the obvious that a formal process is not being followed here, I've advised him to write down everything he feels he has done to benefit the company since being instated in the new role, how he has achieved targets when he has, and why he hasn't when he hasn't. (Two team members instead of four, etc).

 

He has later rang his HR Dept at work to confirm he will be paid for today and the HR lady knew nothing of the discussion or his absence.

 

Please can someone give me some advice on what he should do tomorrow?

He doesn't want to go in gun's blazing to attack the processes they've obviously not followed to resolve this, but does not want to be out of work. He will be looking for another job depending on the outcome of tomorrow.

 

Does anyone else agree that there should have been an HR member present at this meeting? and that there should be one present tomorrow when he has to meet his manager again to discuss the issue further?

 

He feels that he's being set up to be pushed out on his ear.

[bed32]

At the moment they haven't done anything wrong - but it may just be a preliminary to something more serious. However the fact that it is totally informal is almost certainly a good thing.

 

No one can give definite advice without knowing all the details and personalities.

 

My suggestion would be certainly not to take an aggressive attitude at this stage (or at any stage for that matter). He should think about going in and asking his boss explicitly in what areas he thinks he needs to improve and then discuss practical steps he can take. At the same time he should point out what he has achieved in the time he has been in the role.

 

Similarly I would say he should not try to get HR involved or take another person into the interview - he should work on the assumption that this is a genuine effort by his boss to resolve some issues and treat it as such.

 

One of the key things to learn in any management role is that "perception is reality" - it is no good being brilliant at your job if your boss doesn't know. So as a manager if your boss doesn't think you are doing a good job then you are partly to blame.

[Sidewinder]

A clear breach of procedure. First of all, has your boyfriend had an outline of his duties and hours of work. The Working Time Directive places him under strict limits on his hours of work, and although extra hours may need to be worked 'due to the nature of the business' or in order to fulfil exceptional working needs, this should not be the norm, and he is entitled to know that if it becomes so then he will have resources available to shoulder the burden.

 

As far as his treatment goes, then he should immediately raise a formal grievance. Even an informal discussion about his conduct or work should be recorded by a good employer, but what has happened here is tantamount to a suspension, and should have been dealt with in the correct manner. That means that he should have been notified in advance of when the manager wanted to see him and for what reason. He should also have been given the right of accompaniment (not neccessarily by an HR person, but a work colleague or Trade Union rep) and advised what courses of action the boss was considering - these are legal entitlements.

 

I would strongly suggest that you write a letter of grievance addressed to the manager concerned and copied to the HR Manager. In the letter, you should express disappointment that after loyal service and having been promoted that you consider the treatment to have been insufficient and not in accordance with correct procedure. You should also state that you feel that the company should give a more detailed expression of what is expected insofar as the main duties are concerned, and how his hours should be apportioned to get the job done to the required standard and in a reasonable time. Ask that if there is a complaint with the quality of work, that it be dealt with in the correct manner with mutually agreed areas where it is felt that an improvement could be made. Do not be confrontational, but certainly leave no room for doubt that you are aware that there has been a breach of correct procedure.

 

Good luck - hope everything goes OK.

[Sidewinder]

Sorry - didn't read Bed32's post before mine - I agree with most of what is said there but do think that you need to be very wary. The informal nature of whatever has been done so far may well be in your favour, but I would maintain that in his position, the boss needs to be careful and you should make sure that any response is by the book. Without knowing the boss concerned it is impossible to say, but from what you have said it is entirely possible that these may be the first steps in trying to say that your BF isn't up to the job. Was a probationary period discussed before his new role is confirmed for example?

[bed32]

My concern with formalising things in any way is two-fold.

 

Firstly, if this is a genuine informal attempt to sort out a performance issue and he goes in all guns blazing and raises a formal complaint then that will harden the positions on both sides and he will almost certainly end up losing his jobs, whether or not it is unfair.

 

Secondly, if it is not genuine then drawing attention to the lapses in procedure at this stage will only give them the chance to correct them before they've gone far enough down the line to make it unfair dismissal.

 

Once you get into any form of Management role, if a company wants to get rid of you they can and provided they follow a reasonable procedure then you stand very little chance of proving that it is unfair.

[Sidewinder]

Sophes - just wondering how he got on yesterday?