Furious at ds work dismissal

It’s usual for employers to ask at interview if there are any planned holidays, and to honour them if they take on the person an an employee, so he may not have taken unauthorised holidays as some posters are assuming. But I think you make a good point in that he likely won’t have accrued all of the leave he took, so in the event that it wasn’t treated as unpaid leave, it will be taken out of his final pay.

He’s also used holidays he has no yet accrued. I remember in my early working days you had to accrue holidays before you could book them. After a month he would have around 2 days leave to use, and he’s taken at least 5, maybe 10. I wonder if they were unpaid or if they will come out of his last pay.

You son has got no legal come back about this. He was late every morning, they certainly can sack him, there and then. He has to be working for the same employer for two years before, he could claim unfair dismissal

Yes. Next year…not now

It is very simple, he has failed his probation period, so yes they can let him go!

This

On what planet is it ever ok to be late? If it were ok, it wouldn't be described as late would it?

I'm pretty sure no one in management has said "yeah, just rock up whenever you like"

Who told him it was ok? Did he get new start times in writing? life lesson here - when you get a new job, you don't act like you're not particularly bothered about it. Even if you're not!

Are you serious? You think his employer should have to tell him to get an earlier train to get him to work on time?

He needs to get to work on time?? He accepted the job. He gets himself there. This isn’t rocket science. If he lacks the initiative to understand what time to start work, it was never going to end well was it.

He probably needs to stop taking employment advice from you too. Have you ever actually had a job.

My mind is completely blown. WTAF

I love how many mums posting on this site cannot fathom their child ever being in the wrong or making a mistake. Hundreds of people then say your kid fucked up and they just double down and don’t listen. Why bother posting?

No wonder your kid thinks he can rock up late and it’s fine when he’s been raised to never be in the wrong.

was he a few mins late or was he 15 mins late and stretching the truth? Most people
know it’s better to be early to work than consistently late. If his train had been cancelled or delayed he would have been very late and adults need to mitigate for this.

OP said he wasn’t happy there, that it was a terrible place to work, in less than a month. Seeing as it’s his second job, either the employers are no good or he isn’t any good. Regardless, being late and taking holiday which may or may not be approved is no excuse. The company don’t want to carry useless employees. And it’s not an easy job market now either.

There is a very good chance here that you are not being given the full story by your son.

I DO feel your son's employer should have spoken to him first before dismissing him, given him a warning, but .....

That said, there is no way you should arrive for work late and then repeat that behaviour every day for a week. If you are late once you should realise you need to leave earlier / get an earlier train and not let it happen again.

I do not believe for 1 second they agreed to him being late and then let him go because of that. Not a chance.

I'm sorry to say, because it's never nice hearing negative comments about your child, but if he was ok with being late every day and not doing something about it, this speaks volumes for what he was like in the rest of his work / his attitude in general.

It's also interesting that you can't see that yourself.

No way on god's earth my children would be late for anything, and if they were, they would be profusely sorry and it wouldn't happen again, I can tell you that for free! My 20 yr daughter, home from Uni, had to be somewhere new, for training, yesterday for 9am. It meant getting 3 trains and she had to be there at 9am. She didn't get in from work until 12.30am for the past 5 nights and was still 10 minutes early for training. That's how we roll in our house!

This was a conversation he should have had at the interview. Being prepared is part of that. We had a new employee who expressed he could do any hours on a 6-5.30 job working anywhere in between and got the job.
on day one he rolled up, manager was walking him him up the stairs when he said “oh about my hours, I can only do, and rattled off like 9-2” boss stopped on the stairs and told him he may as well walk back down, he was finished there and then.

I am not sure getting a train is an excuse for being late. I used to take 90 minutes to get to work using two busses, tube and a train to cross London and have never been late.
You obviously know your son best but I wouldn't necessarily take it on blind faith that his employer was indeed OK with him being late every single day. Regardless, they are within their right to let him go during probation period for any reason whatsoever. There may have been other issues with his performance or not.. I guess we'll never know. He is an adult and I don't think you should be getting involved in this at all.

But the point is they hadn’t agreed to it - that’s obvious from the fact that the employer had to email DS to tell him to get an earlier train.

Good point. I'd have went in early, had a tea or coffee, and got prepared for the day ahead. It's astonishing what you can get done in the peace and quiet before the rest arrive and the phones start going.

l don’t think being late for work every day because you can’t make the effort to get an earlier train can be called a ‘mistake’. And if the ‘pampered prince’ OP is to be believed her son had a very strong wok ethic to start with. Which seems to be what’s lacking here.

OP’s DS will have made a good impression at interview - and didn’t get to interview through nepotism - or wouldn’t have been given the job. He’s made a mistake here but smug comments about how he could learn from someone else’s pampered prince are not helpful.

He probably wasn’t doing a great job either. I had a job when I was young and was always being late due to transport links, but I worked extra hard and stayed late to compensate. Did your son do those things? Honestly, to the best of his abilities?

He’s only telling you half a tale.

I hope your son is ok op and gets a new job soon.

i expect they weren’t happy with his work and used the lateness as an excuse. You don’t throw away a good worker for being a few minutes late especially if they had already agreed it.

I'm sorry but he should have got the earlier train from day one. I get that he is new to the world of work and employers are not so forgiving about lateness as school/college is. So if it didn't occur to him that being a few mins late each day was a problem then I'm afraid that is on you. If it was my son I would have had a discussion before he even started about how he was getting there and pointed out to him at that point that he needed to get an earlier train. So, yes, YABU

To be fair, I don't disagree. It's good to be flexible. But it's also good to be efficient, show you have strong and clear boundaries between work and life, and show that you respect yourself and your time.

Common sense isn't common.

Mummy’s little prince really can do no wrong, can he?

This is completely insane and is exactly what's wrong with the working environment now. The fact that your a fully grown adult parent and your coming on here to claim he's been treated unfairly is wild. An employer should not have to put up with someone turning up late everyday. A 40 minute train journey is a standard commute why on earth was he not getting an earlier train?! And why are you trying to justify that this behaviour is ok? You should of said you cant be late every day not now try to make out that behaviour is acceptable