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Good morning, a plea for advice.....
My Wife has worked for her employer (very large company) for more than 10 years. Recently there has been a lot of talk of ‘raising the bar’ and improvement etc. in general terms in team meetings and the like.
She has never had any previous performance issues but has, somewhat out of the blue, been told that she needs to go on a formal performance plan and has been told, in writing, ‘you’re the weakest in the team.’ This is despite recently having had a half year review (the company’s performance year is April to March) that she prepared for diligently, produced materials etc. but with her line manager stating ‘I don’t want to look backwards.’ The line manager spoke at that meeting more about the general ‘raising of the bar.’ The news about the performance plan was conveyed in a 10 minute off-spec call.
A few questions if I may to aid my understanding of the situation?
I presume that if the last annual review was fine then the period of time open for debate is from April this year forward only?
During this year she has had to have time off in July for a couple of weeks for illness that was recorded with the Doctor. Additionally, she has had an operation that meant she was off work for the whole of September and half of October. It was the type of operation only a female can have and was preceded by a long period of time where she was in significant pain and discomfort. When she returned to work in mid October the line manager did not make contact for several weeks. Admittedly for one week my Wife was back on pre-arranged leave, however, at no stage was a back to work meeting held or plan formulated.
When you add in 3 more weeks leave since April too, she has clearly been away from the workplace for significant amounts of time this year on fully authorised and appropriate absence. My Wife isn’t a fan of her line manager and has worked on the premise that ‘no news is good news’ and doesn’t initiate contact with her if she can avoid it.
Where do you think she stands here? Frankly speaking she would jump if they made the sort of offer you would expect for 13 years service. She is worried that they are trying to remove her without any compensation. Is this possible?
Finally I would add that she is only 1 of 2 part time employees in a team of 12. She has been working from home permanently since the first lockdown and, again, she is only 1 of 2 employees in the team who had to contribute to the home schooling of children. The overwhelming majority of the time she has been at work since April has been during the period where schools were closed.
I’d be grateful if anyone could offer any help or suggestions with this. Obviously we are both upset at the way she has been treated and think that, morally, it is very, very poor. Whilst neither of us are well versed in Employment Law I think we both recognise that morals and the law are not particularly relevant to each other.
Thanks for reading
My Wife has worked for her employer (very large company) for more than 10 years. Recently there has been a lot of talk of ‘raising the bar’ and improvement etc. in general terms in team meetings and the like.
She has never had any previous performance issues but has, somewhat out of the blue, been told that she needs to go on a formal performance plan and has been told, in writing, ‘you’re the weakest in the team.’ This is despite recently having had a half year review (the company’s performance year is April to March) that she prepared for diligently, produced materials etc. but with her line manager stating ‘I don’t want to look backwards.’ The line manager spoke at that meeting more about the general ‘raising of the bar.’ The news about the performance plan was conveyed in a 10 minute off-spec call.
A few questions if I may to aid my understanding of the situation?
I presume that if the last annual review was fine then the period of time open for debate is from April this year forward only?
During this year she has had to have time off in July for a couple of weeks for illness that was recorded with the Doctor. Additionally, she has had an operation that meant she was off work for the whole of September and half of October. It was the type of operation only a female can have and was preceded by a long period of time where she was in significant pain and discomfort. When she returned to work in mid October the line manager did not make contact for several weeks. Admittedly for one week my Wife was back on pre-arranged leave, however, at no stage was a back to work meeting held or plan formulated.
When you add in 3 more weeks leave since April too, she has clearly been away from the workplace for significant amounts of time this year on fully authorised and appropriate absence. My Wife isn’t a fan of her line manager and has worked on the premise that ‘no news is good news’ and doesn’t initiate contact with her if she can avoid it.
Where do you think she stands here? Frankly speaking she would jump if they made the sort of offer you would expect for 13 years service. She is worried that they are trying to remove her without any compensation. Is this possible?
Finally I would add that she is only 1 of 2 part time employees in a team of 12. She has been working from home permanently since the first lockdown and, again, she is only 1 of 2 employees in the team who had to contribute to the home schooling of children. The overwhelming majority of the time she has been at work since April has been during the period where schools were closed.
I’d be grateful if anyone could offer any help or suggestions with this. Obviously we are both upset at the way she has been treated and think that, morally, it is very, very poor. Whilst neither of us are well versed in Employment Law I think we both recognise that morals and the law are not particularly relevant to each other.
Thanks for reading
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