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I cannot believe they think this is ok.

10 replies

LaurieFairyCake · 10/09/2009 18:36

I work for a local place one evening a week. They sent letters out during the summer to fill in if we wanted to go on the 'absence list' to work if others couldn't.

Apparently they meant that we had to fill it in and go for a re-interview and prepare a presentation before we are allowed to work again (term-time only). It didn't say that in the letter.

And now I have to go in tomorrow (can't as I'm working somewhere else) before I am allowed to work Monday. I have to work Monday as I am responsible for a group who would be very let down if I didn't go.

But I think they are going to 'not be available' to re-interview me on Monday so that I am forced to work for nothing Monday night. This is the same company that didn't pay me for 5 months.

So they called me today for the first time that all the re-interviews are tomorrow. Isn't this just rubbish ?!?

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LaurieFairyCake · 10/09/2009 18:36

and of course they're not paying me for the re-interview time or the presentation time.

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LadyStealthPolarBear · 10/09/2009 18:37

Does the letter say it's for absence cover only? And now they're saying it's to cover your normal position? Which they are re-interviewing for???? Erm they sound on very shaky ground indeed! I assume you're on some sort of temporary contract?

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LaurieFairyCake · 10/09/2009 18:39

Nope, permanent contract.

I have no idea why they're insisting everyone has to be re-interviewed, particularly since I was only employed in January.

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LadyStealthPolarBear · 10/09/2009 18:41

You're on a permanent contract and they're re-interviewing you? That can't be right! Are you sure they didn't send out a letter you didn't receive?

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LaurieFairyCake · 10/09/2009 18:43

Nope they are reinterviwing everyone who does the same job as me.

My own boss didn't know til today and thought it was just an absence covering exercise.

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LadyStealthPolarBear · 10/09/2009 18:45

Bumping for someone who can tell you officailly this is ridiculous!
AFAIK they can't reinterview for your own poisition without lots of notification of possible redundancies!

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flowerybeanbag · 10/09/2009 19:38

This all sounds very bizarre. Bearing in mind you are on a permanent contract, have they said what happens if you/anyone doesn't pass this re-interview?

Had you been there a year, they would not have been able to sack you if you didn't 'pass'. As it is, you have very little protection and if you 'fail' this re-interview or whatever, and they dismiss you, there's not a lot you can do about it; before you have a year's service they don't even have to give you a reason for dismissing you.

But I assume some of your colleagues have longer service? In which case that's slightly different, and in their position I would be pushing for exact clarification about what this interview is actually for, and what happens if performance is not satisfactory.

I don't understand why you'd be working for free on Monday. If you have to work, and they are happy for you to work, then of course you should be paid.

Overall it sounds like a spectacular lack of communication, if even your boss doesn't know what's going on. I would suggest you and your colleagues push him/her to find out what's happening, at the moment it all sounds very bizarre and pointless.

It could turn out to be an exercise in working out development needs or something, or some other fact-finding exercise. But with anyone with longer than a year's service, just conducting an interview and deciding interview performance wasn't good enough certainly isn't enough to dismiss someone, which is why I'd be pushing to find out more about what the interview is actually for, what they are actually looking for from the employees, and what happens if you don't 'pass'.

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LaurieFairyCake · 10/09/2009 20:14

I have just talked to my boss on the phone and he said the following:

this is a new policy that HR have decided to implement because of a new director
if I don't pass on Monday I can't work and I'm effectively fired
interestingly I don't have the skills required to do the presentation on Monday as they start training me in those skills a week later - I am hired as a specialist contractor in my knowledge area.

My boss is currently trying to track down all the other employees and get them to come in for the interview tomorrow and I've already been told that one hasn't passed and they want me to also do Tuesday nights if I pass my interview Monday.

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LadyStealthPolarBear · 10/09/2009 21:04

Would love to know what flowery thinks about this but I wouldn't agree to the interview at all - just keep delaying until you can get more clarification. Difficult as you haven't been there a year though...