Am I going to fail probation

The vast majority of employees will have battled childcare and managed. It's an excuse and a poor one.

It's not about kindness or being human. Kindness and humanity is shown to those that deserve it. You have to earn respect. She has zero respect for her employer, her colleagues and the contract she has signed.

The most frustrating thing about this is her sense of entitlement will get her fired and then me and the other responsible, hard working tax payers will end up paying the benefits she ends up on through entirely her own fault.

Sorry but childcare is your responsibility. Any employer will take a dim view of someone who is not organised enough to sort out reliable childcare. You will not be the only employee with children. As for colds - unless it is a really nasty virus, you should be able to go into work, even if you don't feel 100%. If you were worried about spreading germs, you could wear a mask as in Covid times. Was your "flu" really flu or a bad cold? I think you should start looking for somewhere else to work as you will certainly not pass your probation. If you are able to secure other employment, please take all the excellent advice from people on this thread and smarten up your attitude as it is coming across as very flaky at the moment. However, we can all learn from our mistakes and I hope you are able to.

Being a mom is hard is not an excuse to show up when it works for them, not answer emails, and call in sick frequently.

There's kind and there's enabling an unreliable employee. No business is going to keep someone who's shown they can't fulfill the basic job responsibilities during their probationary period. That costs the business money they could be paying someone reliable.

You don’t think a ‘nice’ employer would consider the team as a whole & what’s going to work long term? What sign has the OP shown so far that she can be a reliable employee?

There are only two of us on my team who do 5 days a week - the rest are all parents & do 3 or 4 days. And it’s fine because it’s all been thought through & everyone, working their agreed hours, pulls their weight. In emergencies we’re willing to cover for each other because we know nobody takes the piss.

Yep. As a line manager I'd be hoping you'd be let go before being made permanent as I doubt we'd see much improvement

Hope you don't display this attitude at work!! If one of my employees thought turning up on time and doing the basics (answering emails) wasn't important, they'd soon be out.

shes half way through probation. So she’s been employed there for a max of 3 months. Possibly a lot less.

nice employers who don’t tackle 3 sickness absences, 4 lates and several work mistakes in this short space of time won’t stay in business very long.

We have 10 vacancies at the moment in my office for entry level positions that we can not fill. As soon as we get someone in they either leave to get a better paid job once they've been trained up or they move up the ladder within our service. The pay is atrocious for the complexity of the job. I wouldn't get rid of someone that I thought could do the job longer term for the reasons mentioned.

I have no control over pay but I can give people some flexibility around childcare if they need it.

All the other Mums in the workplace who put plans in place to make it work, shouldn’t have to pick up the pieces when OP is off sick with colds/late/forgetting to reply to emails

Maybe some human kindness…

Being a mum is hard, they are usually doing most of the unpaid childcare (pick ups and drop offs) and I think a nice employer would understand that.

I got ill a week into a new job. I went in anyway and luckily my boss found me and sent me home. Most importantly for me, they’d seen that I was willing and trying. This is where I think it doesn’t look good @Greenraintoday. You don’t seem to have gone out of your way to try and make it work.

Using childcare as an excuse for lateness is poor; millions of parents have to juggle that daily.

Why on earth would you not check emails? Surely that’s the most basic and easily done part. It’s all self-inflicted OP so I think your only chance would be to hold your hands up and admit you’ve seriously fucked up but are willing to do x, y and z to make it work and ask for an extension on your probation.

So as a manager in the public sector, you have an employee who isn't performing, has taken 3 sets of sick leave in the space of a couple of months, when she does come in, she's late and she thinks all of this is ok and that some random employee rights will back her up, you're still thinking you might extend her probation. That's the public's taxes you're wasting there. It's little wonder the public sector has a reputation for being so poorly managed!

Better luck with your next thread.

This would be a real red flag to me. It's often easier to deal with long term sickness than unreliable workers who are guaranteed to to have a few days off each month and who take it for granted that's the norm. Several colds in a few months would ring major alarm bells

As for childcare issues - have you discussed this with your manager and asked whether your hours can be adjusted?

OK so I think with this you've fully outed yourself. At least I really hope you're a troll, you cannot be this entitled? Sadly, even if you're a troll, I don't think this attitude is that unusual these days.

Childcare issues are the employee's issues. Not the employers. You are being paid to start at your contracted time and finish at your contracted time and work hard in between. If you can't do that, you're not grown up enough to be paid.

Flexibility is earned. If an employee demonstrates that they are a competent, committed employee then flexibility around contractual terms is often happily given. But if you start a role being consistently late and then start claiming employee rights you don't stand a chance in this job or future ones. Whether you're a troll or just entitled, grow up.

Probation is probation for a reason. You need to perform exceptionally during it to prove you’re the right person for the job . Lateness and an inability to perform to the required standards is definitely a deal breaker. There are huge amounts of people unemployed who would gladly fulfill the requirements that you’re not doing. Hardship I know but true . Probation is your time to shine .

It depends what the job is. I'm a manager in the public sector and we are desperate for staff who are emotionally resilient and have a certain personality type to do the work. If I felt that you fitted the bill I'd extend your probation period to see if you could pull it round.

Sorry but they absolutely are deal breakers. If you can’t organise childcare during your probation then you are giving the message to yojr employer that you will be unreliable and always late, flakey and off for childcare issues. Also not responding to emails js a definite red flag and off with a cold….really? Get your arse into work. So yes, you’ll fail this probation amd no manager in their right mind would give you an extension when they can go back out to recruit someone more reliable.

don't I have more rights now under the new workers bill anyway

Oh and there we go. Nope, I'd get rid of you in a heartbeat for that comment alone. You've just shown that you're a taker and not a giver.

Millions of women have childcare issues. It's no excuse. You don't seem to consider the responsibility you owe to your employer.

These are garden variety life issues that a huge majority of working people have to manage. Doesn’t meet my definition of “a lot going on” so trying to play that card wouldn’t get you very far, if anything it would further highlight you as being unreliable!
Can’t see that you will pass from what you’ve said, assuming your employer is actually on top of things (I’ve worked in environments where probation periods were so woefully unsupervised people passed by default because of poor management). In their shoes I’d be unlikely to extend it either, unless you came to me with a robust plan for how things were going to change, and before your probation ended

I’ve had real flu twice in the last 20 years. You should be going in with a cold during probation unless you’re asked not to

I wouldn’t be bothered about sickness, but being late and not doing the job is the bare minimum.

I'm not saying this to be horrible, but childcare issue are not your employers problem. They have employed you to work specific hours which youve agreed to. Its on you to make it work.
Being off for colds, my work would not be impressed sometimes you need to dose yourself up and get through.
Add in illness, being late and not answering emails why do you think they'd want to keep you on?