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Please tell me I'm not unemployable

4 replies

RaspberryDoughnuts · 06/10/2017 18:52

I've had to name change for this.
Before DC, I used to work in an organisation managed by the local council. The council was the official employer and did all the HR but other than that, I never directly dealt with them.

As soon as my direct employer found out I was pregnant, they started trying to bully me out of my job. There were "concerns" (which somehow never surfaced before my pregnancy Hmm), meetings, grievances, more meetings and A LOT of bullying from my (hitherto very nice) supervisor and the organisation's leadership. I lasted till my maternity leave and was seriously considering coming back for a month or two before moving elsewhere under the council umbrella. But baby was sickly and I was literally in bits at the end of maternity and really couldn't face having to battle through work again, so I resigned.
This was 7 years ago. At the time I took maternity, I was told there was an ongoing disciplinary against me and it would resume when I came back.

I'm now returning to work. I've been offered a job in a similar organisation under the same council. I've got references from volunteering, so far so good.

I'm just panicking that deep in the council archives (or worse, on their server) my old employee file still sits. That when the HR are processing my new contract, somehow my name will pop up and that nightmare from 7 years ago will come back and bite me. I've tried googling how long councils keep ex-employees' files but it seems to vary widely.
Please tell me I haven't been tarnished forever! I really, really need this job Confused
If anyone on here knows how council pre-employment checks work, please share your insight.
Or if anyone else was steamrolled into quitting your job because of pregnancy and later managed to return to the same system, please let me know.
Hand-holding welcome Grin

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BeeFarseer · 06/10/2017 19:01

I'm going to be very very nice, and nicely tell you that you're worrying about nothing. EVEN IF you had something on file about concerns, NOBODY will give a flying fuck. Honestly.

There is just no way that anyone could bring up 'concerns' from a job that ended seven years ago and try to make them relevant to your new, different job, even if it does fall underneath the same employment umbrella. It just will not happen. I will eat a live tadpole if it does, that's how confident I am.

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JustMumNowNotMe · 06/10/2017 19:08

@Flowery is who you need for this, she's a HR exec but i too think its more likely pigs will fly than this will be dredged up.

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HellsBellsnBucketsofBlood · 06/10/2017 19:16

I work with councils, NHS trusts, etc. Anything they have on you will have been sent to archive and nearly impossible to recover (even if they need it for a lawsuit...)

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RaspberryDoughnuts · 06/10/2017 21:02

Phew! Thank you all Grin Flowers
I wasn't thinking in terms of the disciplinary being resurrected as such. More in terms of, the council HR ringing my new employer saying I'm a rotten egg. Coz at the moment my job offer is conditional, so could be revoked under almost any pretext.
(picturing BeeFarseer trying to catch a tadpole with one hand, wielding a bottle of ketchup in the other Grin)

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