Furious at ds work dismissal

A few minutes late every day. Without the initiative to take an earlier train. He proved he could get to work on time when he responded to the email sent by the employer telling him to get an earlier train. He shouldn’t have had to be told. That lack of initiative was probably evident in other areas of his work and taken together resulted in them sacking him.

@MNLurker1345

Had he approached his employment with the requisite seriousness and punctuality, he would not now find himself unemployed.

He has to acknowledge that his present circumstances are, at least in part, the consequence of his own error and may it yet serve as a useful lesson.

The OP appears not to appreciate this fundamental point.

@BlueFahrenheit , it really is absurd and all this talk of flexi time and his right to flexi time, he wasn’t on such a contract. Even suggestions of him offering to work late to make up time. If that was in available, maybe, but ideally be on time.

If it was my DD, I would be furious at my DD but I would expect her to own it. My DD has learned some hard lessons in the real world of work. We all have, it’s called experience.

It is difficult to credit the notion that any employer would assure a new starter that habitual lateness was entirely acceptable. That proposition is, frankly, absurd. A new role is precisely the moment to make a favourable impression.

The OP appears to have only a partial account of events, beyond her son’s assertion that the job was not to his liking.

Ah well I've nothing more to add.

The thing is we don't know how often he was just a bit late. As per my example, if he was getting a train that arrived at 8.57 for a job that started at 9 then he would be late every day. The way it's been presented by the OP is that he was told being late was ok. The issue I think is down to how the son communicated with them - was he actually late each day due to bad timings of trains or was it that he chanced getting a later train without leaving much leeway? Did the employer believe that he meant he might be occasionally late if the something happened on the train that morning, rather than the timings of the train not matching the hours?
Also how many minutes is just a bit late? Again I think OP said something about 1-5mins, but I guess it's probably more like 5-10mins which in a month if happening multiple times a week is quite obvious and other staff have probably noticed too (especially if he didn't say anything about making up the time/apologising when he arrived).

Again it's not a consistent thing day to day thing. It's something out of your control that happens infrequently.

Don't be obtuse.

I highly doubt you are arriving at your workplace two hours late each day.

What would your employer say if you were late everyday for a month, and it wasn’t because of train cancellations.

Your case and the case in question are two very different situations.

Yes he could have been given a written warning but he hadn’t been employed for long.

Now you have done some speculation here - “My thought is : they wanted to downsize staff anyway and so let him go” - so let me have my turn, My thought is: there may have been other issues on top of the lateness that finally the employer said “Do you know what, it’s not working” and so let him go.

Companies downsize all the time and its often 'last in, first out'

Quite.
They’re hardly downsizing mere weeks after taking on new staff. Supermarkets don’t downsize anyway, unless a whole store is closing.

I have been late to work more than once due to train issues.

All of my colleagues have been aswell

After one month? For being a few minutes late.

Why not just give him a warning to improve. It will take time to hire someone else.

Jesus I'm thankful for my employer then. i was once two hours late due to a train cancellation. I told them what happened. They said 'that's fine, just make up the time' which I did

He was not a reliable asset; therefore, he was fired.

The scenario hardly requires rocket science.

🙄

That's a one off that can be explained

Apparantly they told him they were okay with it.

Anyway he was only there for one month, it was harsh. He should have been given a verbal warning.

My thought is : they wanted to downsize staff anyway and so let him go.

I suggested this too.

The people who think life is to be endured didn't like it at all.

Yep, but his employer, who the thread is about, obviously wasn’t ok with it.

It depends on the employer. People are regularly ten minutes late to my workplace.

Of course I see that trains are unreliable. It makes no difference here. He should have got the earlier train to at least attempt to be on time to work.

if its a few minutes i don't see the problem. People are often late to my workplace by 5 minutes. they also often stay and work 30 minutes late

I was once sacked for being repeatedly late. It definitely taught me a lesson. Do you think your son is being honest with you about his employer saying ‘it was ok if he was a few minutes late everyday’? A start time is a start time, not a suggested time!

I did a twenty year 90 minute commute from Kent to London and I can count the number of times I was late on the fingers of one hand.
I cannot believe some people making excuses for a 19 year old, being regularly late for his first job.

I don't understand how you are failing to see the connection.

Trains are terrible and unreliable all over this country.

You can try to get an 'early' one and they will still be cancelled,

In my workplace on our team chat, people are always texting in it in the morning saying 'sorry i'll be late my train is delayed' etc

I’m laughing at you thinking it’s relevant here. Like OPs son should have been late every single day on purpose because random stranger on mumsnet uses an unreliable line 🤷‍♀️