My boss wants a one to one over lunch, is this bad news?

[Concestor]

I do a part time job based at home mostly, where I work pretty independently. My boss has always said she's really happy with me but I've noticed since Christmas that I haven't been getting the usual meeting links I used to.

Boss has been really busy and not really replying to emails due to some urgent issues she's had to deal with (not just me, no one is ready getting replies) so I mentioned it to a colleague and they were unusually vague - "oh I think the new series of links haven't been set up" but I know these meetings have to happen regularly so I can't believe they aren't being held.

Am I right to think that this lunch is going to be me getting my matching orders?

I'm gutted if so, I love this job and I just have up another job I do to ensure I have time available for this one.

There's no date set for the lunch and now I just feel really anxious and worried.

What could I do proactively to find out what's going on? We have a team day soon so we will all be together to plan next year's workplan.

We do teams links, I would just get an email invitation. I'm not very technical, but no one has ever said about looking at each others' calendars.

Yes I'm in a unique role in the team.

You work for a public body, I’m completely confused as to how you think you can be sacked without warning? Do you have a contract with the department itself or are you employed via an agency? If the latter then maybe it’s possible.

To my understanding, if you are employed & hold a contract with the department then unless you committed gross misconduct, you cannot be sacked without going through a verbal and/or written warning stage first. Even if you did commit gross misconduct, there would be a formal HR investigation on this which you would need to cooperate with.

Are you able to ask one of your colleagues to forward on the next meeting link? If they refuse then ask them why. If they are all on the meetings then the excuse ‘links haven’t been set-up’ doesn’t float.

I'd be printing / usb stick copying anything important and taking that home. Also work I'd done, things I'd written/created, thankyous, well dones etc, and polishing up the LinkedIn and CV. All best for meeting.

If you are the only one doing your role, it is easier to make you redundant by saying they want to restructure the role. They won't need to consider any other role or redundancy pools.

This lunch may just be social. Even if it is work-related of the sort you fear, it is more likely she wants to sound you out to change your role. It could be more hours or doing different work. I doubt she will go straight into redundancy.

If you disagree, only then will it raise the specter of redundancy if the company absolutely needs the role to change.

If it is redundancy, I would expect HR to be present in the meeting.

Just to be clear, redundancy is the absolute worst case scenario. It may not approach anything like it. There is nothing to suggest this is what is being considered here.

Caveat: I am not HR or employment lawyer. So feel free to disregard!

Just in terms of your role, do you feel like you have enough to do? Are your colleagues having to pick up the slack on times you are not working to a disruptive degree? Is there a need in another area that has arisen or change in your department?

@mrscarson that's a good point that they're seasonal. I hadn't thought of that!

I really hope it's good news OP.

If you work for a public body I anticipate it’s unlikely that you will be getting dismissed at a lunch meeting

I manage a remote team, occasionally I meet team members individually for lunch somewhere local and we have an informal catch up / chat. My manager meets me like this occasionally also.

Maybe your manager realises she has not been dedicating enough 1 on 1 time with you and suggested you meet in person.

If she has not indicated a day or time yet for this then honestly I wouldn’t think it’s to let you go.

Maybe she's ill again or worsening and wants to tell you personally as you seem to have a good relationship. May explain cagey colleague too.
Hopefully she just thought it would be nice to catch up and have lunch. Good luck.

This has been helpful, I manage a team and will put in a lunch or a call to catch up when I've not spoken to them for a while but had no idea it could be scary! It is genuinely just to check they're ok 99% of the time and the other 1% there have been obvious signs in advance.

If I suggest a one-on-one with a team member that I manage or set up a call in advance, I always give a breezy reason like 'oh, just a quick catch up to see how you are getting along' because I know some people will fret.

I think either your boss is leaving or there are organisational changes within your department. Definitely not a sacking.

Just say " lunch meeting sounds great! What's on our agenda?"

Outlook > Calendar > Shared calendars > right click > Add.. > from address book

Add colleagues and boss

You're welcome

You’d need to be very close to your boss and I think quite senior for them to feel they had to tell uou one to one and take you to lunch to tell you they are leaving or there is org changes.

op, I suspect she Just wishes to talk about your role , expansion of it etc. it won’t be dismissal as hr would be present for that,

it’s likely your colleagues are not being cagey more they just don’t know.

I'm sorry. I didn't want to give away identifying information but I can see I've just confused things. I'm on payroll but I'm not staff, I don't have a contract and I can be let go at any time, legally. They are unique and unusual roles with absolutely no security at all. I'm effectively self employed except I'm on payroll for tax purposes.

Thanks everyone, this has been really helpful. I am aware of possible restructuring of my role as I'm involved in the national conversation about what that could look like, so I think it's most likely that it's a long overdue review catch-up.

I'm on top of my work and not causing any issues that I'm aware of for any colleagues though I could definitely ask just in case.

I will speak to her at the team day and ask what she wants to discuss, we are very open with each other so I think I'll tell her I'm nervous about what she wants to say.

Re the calendars, thank you to the poster who told me how to add people, I'll give that a go today. I'm also going to email our admin assistant and ask directly about the meetings.

Thank you all for reassuring me and giving me courage.

I work for a large company and can’t see other peoples calendars on outlook by default, we have to give permission in outlook settings for others to view our calendar. (Just incase yours is set up the same, don’t panic if you can’t see anyones!)

Good luck, I always think the worse too but hopefully it’s not bad news!

So I can see calendars, and no one has the meetings in, so I guess they aren't happening although that's weird in itself.
I'm going to try and stop worrying and assume everything is fine.

Wanna bet?
I was, and unfortunately I couldn’t afford to take the charity to a tribunal for constructive dismissal although I had very strong grounds.
It nearly finished me, I have never recovered.

I can see why you are worried, I would be too. Fingers crossed it's positive news for you.

I would certainly be pushing for the meeting to happen soon, ie, next week.

Maybe the meetings weren't happening and your colleagues are wondering why too, hence the vagueness when you asked.