Do I have a case?

[Bob987]

Hi All, usual apologies if Im in the wrong place.

Ive been working for my employer for 8 months. Its a small team of fixers for a large technology company. 3 months after joining my 3 bosses above quit. (turns out quite a toxic place)
I have glowing testimonials from bosses and colleagues, passed probation without a single issue being raised and have the latest testimonial from him before he left a month ago.

Like I say its a small team and they have not been recording their performance, therefore we have no performance review or targets set. But then a month ago it all went wrong. We had a big big issue that cost the company millions. The exec director knee jerked and rained down criticism on us. However, I crunched the numbers, I made no mistakes while my two colleagues made plenty.

I was pulled into a meeting with new boss where he proceeded to make personal attacks, anecdotes and rumours about my performance. No facts, no team performance stats, no evidence or proof.

This is completely out of left field. Absolutely nothing has been said before, about my performance. Im pushing back because my performance is stellar and I feel that this is a personal attack that is sullying my professional relationship.

Other issue include working more than 12 hours without an 11 hour break after. Forced to take other peoples "on call" despite being on holiday and ending up having to work. No thanks, and no crediting my holiday back. UK minimum holiday 20 days and Ive had to work 6 of them.

Friday my 8 year old daughter was rushed to hospital for an emergency operation, my boss phoned me repeatedly demanding that I be on call and therefore working this weekend while looking after my daughter post op.

Lots of other examples of favourtism like making me work over time (I dont get paid over time) so that the other guy who is on call and gets paid, wont get called out.

My life is destroyed, my partners gone and my daughter has told the school that daddy works all the time so Ive got the school on me now.

So Ive got my informal chat with him tomoorow, he doesnt have a leg to stand on, I can prove that he singles me out for the teams mistakes. But if he is unresponsive, do I have a case if I push on to ACAS?

[atticus]

Your rights under employment law are severely limited if you have not clocked up 2 years of continuous employment.

This sounds like a job you should leave.

[Bob987]

Oh
Ah so the above is irrelevant then, they can fire me without warning or procedure if I raise this grievance. Great, I actually thought I had a good chance of forcing an apology tomorrow. Looks like Im job hunting instead now.

I understand the reason but its a bit mean, the company can do anything they like without consequence.

Anyway thanks

[atticus]

The tories kindly raised the qualifying period from 1 year to 2. Another thing for which you may thank them.

[Bob987]

Bastards

[Huxie]

The tories kindly raised the qualifying period from 1 year to 2. Another thing for which you may thank them.

As the OP states they have worked for the company for 8 months then your post has no relevance to the situation.

[atticus]

We may have to disagree about that, Huxie. Did you read posts 2 and 3?

[ULA]

Can we remain with the legal facts to assist the OP please and not enter a political debate.

Bob987
Firstly unfortunately as the law currently stands, up until you have 2 years of service, employment rights are limited and you can be effectively "fairly dismissed" unless you can provide it has been due to a few certain criteria or has been due to discrimination. However, my advice to employers, even if an employee is within this 2 year time frame and they decide to dismiss someone then a fair process should be followed although this quite often does not happen.

My view would be that during this informal chat tomorrow, if you get the opportunity, set out the concerns you have with the working environment and point out your previous positive testimonials. At the moment you do not know how this meeting will go and there may not be any intention by your boss to dismiss you.

It does however sound like this is not currently a good working environment, so even if you remain employed you may want to start looking for a new job but this is always better to do, if you are in one.

If anything happens in the meeting tomorrow and you have any questions you want to ask us just come back to this thread.

In the meantime I wish your daughter a speedy recovery.

[Bob987]

Sorry follow up question, so this new boss has realised their mistake in not keeping any records. Hes now designed his own little spreadsheet where he's asked me only to write my mistakes down, sign my name to it and then tell him how Im going to stop making mistakes.
Firstly, I promise I am a professional I just seem to have accidentally landed in the wild west.

But anyway, such a doc cant really be legal can it?

[atticus]

If I were you, I would be preparing a list of my achievements and positive outcomes, with client testimonials if you have them.

[Bob987]

Sorry didnt see the new messages until refreshed. Thank you, I am pretty certain they wont fire me because Im pretty much all they have. Its so horrendously staffed that they've had to bring managers from different areas but when they cancel their "on call" Im the only one that takes up the slack.
Ive just found out from a company chat that the boss was phoning me while my daughter is in hospital to ask me to cover because he had a party to go to.

Im taking this job out to the shed and shooting it in the head. Cheers chaps

[ULA]

Documents such as you have described your boss has asked you to complete are often used as part of what is called a Performance Improvement Plan or PIP.

Normally these are objective based and set out the improvements that the individual is required to make in their performance, what the criteria for achievement or not of these objectives are and the timescales for improvements to be made with milestone for review meetings to see what progress is being made. A PIP is created as part of a process, which includes meeting with the individual, explaining and discussing where their performance is falling short of expectations and then having the document for recording progress.

It is not a document handed to you to complete in the way that has been requested of you. So, in my opinion, your boss's approach to this is not how I would advise a manager handle the management of a performance issue, if there was in fact one in the first place.

[Bob987]

OK, so Ive been running the SQL report from the back end. I now have the team KPI stats which prove it, Im above the industry standard for this type of function and top performer, which I already knew.
Ive got them nailed to the wall, clearly the boss is panicking and trying to make a scapegoat. My problem is, this is all irrelevant if I have no rights after only 8 months. I will of course make every effort tomorrow to resolve the situation but if it goes badly and I quit Im sending that report and the recording to the entire company.