Refuse to provide a reference

[ByMyName]

I own a small business and we provide employment to a small team.

Last year we took on a junior member of staff through a government backed scheme. The scheme reimbursed the business the cost of employing someone who was on UC and at risk of long term unemployment. In turn we provided training and work experience. Win-win.

This particular employee is on a fixed term contract. If it was not a government backed scheme, we would not have kept her for a week.

She was working from home as most of our staff do since covid. She had no childcare provision and her children would scream during staff meeting. She is constantly late and unavailable during working hours. She also had many sick days. Her work is poor and she has shown no improvement despite training and coaching.

Her line manager has had several informal conversations with her. I asked not to push to a formal warning as it was a fixed term contract anyway.

Can I inform the employee that we will not provide her with a reference?

@VelvetChairGirl

When we found out that childcare was an issue, we offered to reduce her contract hours. We gave her the option to work part-time for when she has childcare in place. It does not work out at 30 hours as she needs time to drop off / pick up. We offered to revise her contract and offered her pro-rata hours and pay. She REFUSED!

The scheme representative will be speaking with her today anyway.

You've been an unnecessary hard time OP. I fully agree that you've done everything you can, and she's taking the biscuit a little bit.

For what it's worth, I work FT, have a DS 7 and pay for a childminder around school hours. Before he was at school he went to the CM full time so I could work. UC credit pay up to 85% of childcare costs, and on UC the more you earn the better off you are. There are too many excuses being made on here as to why she can't pay for additional childcare - there are options out there and it's entirely financially doable, she just doesn't want to.

[quote ByMyName]@VelvetChairGirl

When we found out that childcare was an issue, we offered to reduce her contract hours. We gave her the option to work part-time for when she has childcare in place. It does not work out at 30 hours as she needs time to drop off / pick up. We offered to revise her contract and offered her pro-rata hours and pay. She REFUSED!

The scheme representative will be speaking with her today anyway.[/quote]
But she cant work part time the scheme is 25 hours a week thats not part time to the JCP, part time is 16 hours or less (My JCP claimant agreement is for part time), to be eligible she has to work 25 and god alone knows what the advisor has said to her half of them dont know their arses from their elbows anyway.

maybe she doesnt have 30 hours free childcare a week as I said it depends on demand maybe she can only get morning sessions.

She's probably terrified of being sanctioned, it sounds to me like she is trying and I am not surprised she didnt mention/lied about kids when she applied that in itself shows she wants to work.

I always write on cover letters I am looking to work during the school hours due to childcare commitments, but many advisors do not advice you give reasons not to be employed (i.e telling employers you have kids) I only do it now because I got such a bollocking from a interview for co-op a few years ago, but they didnt state the hours and days on the job advert only the total number of hours a week so they had no right to bitch at me like that.

my my have the interviews dried up since I stated honestly on the applications, but such is life.

Fucking hell I wish I had a boss who offered me choices like you have. She's not interested in helping herself and from the sound of it is just biding her time until she can leave
Such a shame if that's the case as there are so many people who would jump at the opportunity
But yes, I'd give her a basic reference

Refusing to give a reference at all is too harsh. Just give a factual reference saying that she was employed by you on a kickstart scheme for 6 months and the dates she was there till. Thats all it has to say.

Having childcare issues that affect performance during the pandemic is hardly crime of the century. Its not gross misconduct, and the government paid their wages for the 6 months so while youd have hoped it would have worked better you werent left out of pocket and you werent forced to keep them on after the 6 months.
The kickstart scheme has finished now anyway despite it being a really successful scheme for many young people. I think refusing to provide a reference at all is really petty and shitty. Your free employee wasnt as good as you hoped because of her childcare issues. Thats all

My father deals with this issue as an employer by simply stating that they have worked in this and this job title during an X period of time. He does not provide any further information. When HR from another company calls and asks what he thinks about them as an employee/ the work they did he usually replies with ‘no comment’. He tells them this way they weren’t a good employee without actually saying it.

I don't actually think your business is cut out to take part in this type of scheme.

I only do it now because I got such a bollocking from a interview for co-op a few years ago, but they didnt state the hours and days on the job advert only the total number of hours a week so they had no right to bitch at me like that.

@VelvetChairGirl there is no need to tell potential employers you have children, you just need to find out the hours and if they don't suit you say they don't suit you. They are actually at fault for not telling you that they expected you to work at any time.

Even before I had a child there were employers who took the piss on how long they expected staff to work and with shift patterns.

She's probably terrified of being sanctioned, it sounds to me like she is trying and I am not surprised she didnt mention/lied about kids when she applied that in itself shows she wants to work.
She isn't trying though.

There may be good reasons why she can't make up work in the evenings when her children are asleep but she can tell her manager.

There may be good reasons why she is sometimes late e.g. dropping of children at the nursery, but she can tell her manager.

@RedWingBoots

I only do it now because I got such a bollocking from a interview for co-op a few years ago, but they didnt state the hours and days on the job advert only the total number of hours a week so they had no right to bitch at me like that.

@VelvetChairGirl there is no need to tell potential employers you have children, you just need to find out the hours and if they don't suit you say they don't suit you. They are actually at fault for not telling you that they expected you to work at any time.

Even before I had a child there were employers who took the piss on how long they expected staff to work and with shift patterns.

She's probably terrified of being sanctioned, it sounds to me like she is trying and I am not surprised she didnt mention/lied about kids when she applied that in itself shows she wants to work.
She isn't trying though.

There may be good reasons why she can't make up work in the evenings when her children are asleep but she can tell her manager.

There may be good reasons why she is sometimes late e.g. dropping of children at the nursery, but she can tell her manager.

They all take the piss even the ones that want people for as little as 4 hours a week want someone who can be available at opening and closing times. I think the worst one I applied for was the local Vue, part time job but expected to be available from 9am to 3am all days of the week.

they all want the moon on a stick.

I dont think Kickstarter is a job I think thats the main issue here, its a training scheme, a 25 hour a week training scheme to teach skills/give work experience, they are not expected to be employees, they are not expected to hit the ground running and be on a par with experienced staff, if they were there would be no point in the scheme because the people being put on it will already have no barriers to work.

Talk about drip feed!

I dont think Kickstarter is a job I think thats the main issue here, its a training scheme, a 25 hour a week training scheme to teach skills/give work experience, they are not expected to be employees, they are not expected to hit the ground running and be on a par with experienced staff, if they were there would be no point in the scheme because the people being put on it will already have no barriers to work.*

This 100%

It's an awful scheme with many employers running their hands with glee at the prospect of free labour & no thought or consideration of the actual purpose of the scheme.

Agree that kick-start is a training scheme. And the op said that she provided lots of training and support.

It seems that the issue around working without childcare wasn't addressed adequately.

Op felt that everyone would understand the workplace expectations not to work with children around.

When that wasn't understood then op didn't follow through correctly.

She.should have insisted on hours being cut to only those when childcare was provided, and that they could increase if childcare was arranged.

Instead, the worker was allowed to carry on working with her children around. And because she was doing it, she probably thought that it was OK to do it.