Furious at ds work dismissal

Im laughing at you thinking that this was a one off for me. Have you been getting trains lately?

The last six times that I have taken a train, they have either been cancelled or delayed

So? That’s doesn’t mean this guys early train would have also been late every single day. Everyone expects things like your issue to crop up from time to time, that doesn’t mean getting the early train doesn’t make sense.

People saying get an earlier train.

I got an earlier train than I needed to for work last week.

The train was stopped on the track for forty minutes for 'signalling issues'. i was late for work

You’re part of the problem here. Indulging him, treating him like a young child and reinforcing the idea that your little darling has been wronged.

If he’s old enough to have a job, he’s old enough to have enough common sense to know that he should have caught whatever train got him there on time to start his shift!

It's not really a debt is it. It's a graduate tax. It's not useless in many cases. Maybe a gender studies degree is. But not so much maths degree, physics degree, engineering degree or an economics degree. All that open the doors to high paying and exciting careers.

All the data shows graduates earn more.

What's he going to do?

All he needs to do now to complete the Holy Trinity of money smarts is stay with Mum and tell the landlords and money lenders to fuck off, if he can get another job he will be saving massive amounts of money every year.

Not remotely smart. He couldn’t even work out that he needed to catch the train that got him to work on time; his manager had to tell him.
That’s not someone winning at life.

Being late for work but avoiding 50k debt for a useless bit of paper, he is obviously smart in some ways.

It's a life lesson. They may have been okay about him turning up late once or even twice if the train was late (trains can be rubbish) but if consistent he needs to get an earlier train. I live in a city where everyone uses public transport and the rule when dc were at school was they could be late twice a term with no consequence but after that they needed to get an earlier bus or train to avoid detention.

OP has probably gone, and I agree that she seemed to be the nasty one. The question that wasn't answered was 'did he offer to stay late to make up for it'. As you havent answered it I suspect not. The reason people are acting with incredulity is that, rather than be told it is unfair (lots of things may be unfair), you dont appear to be teaching him a life lesson around it. Just for future, staff can now request flexible working from day 1. So in future, if your son wants to change his hours, he should put in a formal request. that way he, and his employer will be very clear on expectations. I know that if it was my child, I wouldn't be 'furious' or saying they should have discussed it with you. I would be saying: did you get it in writing? No well tough then. Live and learn.

lol this cannot be true. He is not the only person getting public transport to work?! Most people can handle getting the transport that gets them in on time.

This has to be a wind up, no-one can be this obtuse.

It's a lesson learnt the hard way, hopefully he won't make the same mistake again.

I can't say I have ever been consistently late for work, it's a pretty basic thing getting yourself to work on time, I'm not surprised he failed probation, he shouldn't have needed to be told he needed to catch an earlier train! If you rely on public transport to get to work and have a fixed start time you have to make sure you arrive early to allow for delays, it is rubbish but you can't be consistently late for work.

A lot of companies including the council offer a flexible working shift, that may suit him better. It means he can start when ever he arrives and finish at a later time. Obviously it has to be within a certain time frame. This suits my friend as he is often “late” to work but makes it up at the end of the day, using this system so it is never an issue. Just a thought as he relies on public transport which can often be delayed.

The employer had to email him to tell him to catch an early train! Incredible.

He's 19. What is he doing with life then?

As he has less than 2 years service, his employer was entitled to dismiss him without any disciplinary process. It sounds like that is what happened, so the right to be accompanied to a disciplinary hearing is irrelevant as there was no such hearing.

I can't believe that someone who's supposedly capable enough to be trusted with a job needs to be told to catch an earlier train to get to work on time.

If you can't work this out by yourself surely you won't be able to make any informed decision at work.

Or alternatively you’ve assumed that the comments were meant to suggest a lack of intelligence on the part of supermarket workers. It’s just a fact that a supermarket and an office are two totally different working environments, requiring different working practices and ethics. How is it rude and patronising to point that out ?

I would imagine that if this had been the case, he wouldn’t have been sacked.

Did he get anything in writing or were other people present when he was told it was categorically ok to be late? Any discussion of (say) adjusting his start time by 15mins?

I'm with the majority, sorry OP (who won't be back)!

He should have been getting the earlier train. If there literally wasn't one, and he'd said to them at interview upon being told the start time, 'Oh sorry! My first train is at 07:30 and takes half an hour, so starting at 08:00 I'll always be a few mins late, they could have worked something out if they had margins to. E.G 'That's fine, do you mind taking a 55 min lunch instead of 60?' or, 'No problem, start at 08:30 instead' but the fact he COULD get there on time via an earlier train, and chose not to without discussion is the issue here. It illustrates a bad attitude and poor work ethic. And most employers aren't going to sack someone if there's a public transport problem or traffic issues or any problem that makes them late on occasion, because, well that's life. but not every day. Even people with prestigious long-standing jobs are expected to be respectable to their employer and not totally take the P like that!

Evidently, the OP doesn't understand.

There's nothing rude about either of our comments.

🙄

ND aside, by the time someone is a teen they should be capable of getting themselves up and (unless they rely on a lift to school) out of the house on time.

But in any case this is a grown man who is responsible for his life.

I rely on public transport but I also know I don’t owe my employer a single second of time since I never work just my contracted hours,

To be ‘furious’ at the employer is ridiculous - OP should be furious at her son if anyone

I think you have to be extra squeaky clean when you start a new job, especially as a new grad/junior level. You've not proved your worth yet, maybe later you can be a bit looser with timings if the culture and management allows. Goes both ways though, sometimes you work past your finish time etc.

How rude and patronising by both of you.