To think DH might have lost his job?

[greenpjs]

A few issues which have been building for a while now have come to a head today. He works in a small team, they have been understaffed for months now and the workload is just too much for that amount of people.

He very rarely finishes on time because the work is just never done by 5. So that means he's pretty much gone 7:30-7 every day if he doesn't finish when he should, because of the commuting time and the fact public transport near us is very unreliable. I try to offer lifts where I can, but sometimes this is not possible and I'm left with a lot of the load of looking after DC when I work FT as well. Financially, it's not really possible for us at the moment for him to take driving lessons and then get a car either. We are both exhausted with it and I've lost patience. He's been working weekends as well over the past few weeks, although he is contracted to do this it seems ridiculous just so they can have the Bank Holidays off!

Anyway, tonight I offered to pick him up at 5:30, I was sat in the car waiting until 6 with no sign of him. I asked him where he was and he said he was waiting for another colleague to provide sign off for something so he couldn't leave until then but they were taking their time. I was obviously annoyed and next minute he comes out and says he basically told the manager he had had enough of doing overtime every single night and that it wasn't feasible anymore, that they should hire more staff, review current working processes to make them more efficient etc etc. He said he wasn't staying a minute longer and stormed out. The only suggestion the manager had was for him to change shift to finish later which also doesn't work, and why should he have to anyway?

Obviously this is not ideal, but I can understand his frustration and why he has basically just exploded at them. Realistically is he now going to lose his job?

They can’t sack him without going through a process. At most I’d say swearing in frustration might lead to a warning or a disciplinary. He not going to get sacked for calling the boss a dickhead. It sounds like they need all they staff they can get and he seems pretty irreplaceable atm

It doesn’t sound like they’d sack him!! His behaviour sounds perfectly reasonable, he should brush up his cv and take some stress leave due to being overworked…

The boss he had the argument with wasn't in today so nothing has been said. Expect tomorrow she will probably pull him for a chat. He had told his line manager that he'll no longer be staying past his contracted hours

Big deep breath.

He has over two years service, which means yes they'd have to go through a process to dismiss, and if they didn't he'd have a case for unfair dismissal.

Even if they chose to discipline, never in a month of Sundays would I class what he's done as Gross Misconduct - so if it's the first time he's done it (and there was no unacceptable behaviour) it shouldn't amount to a dismissible offence.

If I was their HR support, and his manager came to me to say 'you'll never guess what so and so has just done,' the first questions I'd be asking is
(1) Why do you think he did that?
(2) What's his value to you/ the team / the organisation
(3) Has he raised this to you before?
(4) Why do you think it came to a head today?
(5) Do you think the hours / ways of working he's been undertaking are fair / reasonable / sustainable?

And I'd be holding firm on informal action in the first instance as we obviously have a struggling employee (with no apparent prior outbursts) on our hands, and we need to support them.

Tell him to get ahead of this, write down his concerns, apologise for walking out with no notice, and ask for a meeting to discuss. I give massive kudos to anyone who can hit stuff like this head on, and be the driver for their own change - but of course as a business they should have been on the front foot to ensure this didn't happen in the first place!

If it continues after he addresses it, and he has documented requests / promises for improvements etc. he could then argue that his role has become untenable to the point he has to leave for his own health, and he could pursue constructive dismissal.

I've blown up like this at work... a few times. So far I haven't been fired, though I'd have welcomed it at the time. When I get that angry, it's when i'm most desperately needed and they can't afford to lose me.

Goodness, I hope the first thoughts of the management aren't "has he been here for more than two years? No? Great, I can sack him!"

If someone in my team did this I'd be taking them for a coffee to talk about it all and see what I could do to help. Assuming he doesn't do this sort of things regularly, I'd very much see it as an indication of a wellbeing issue and it wouldn't cross my mind to take any sort of action.

Mind you, I'd also not expect my staff to do regular unpaid overtime as a way to get the day to day work done.

He won't get sacked OP - an apology to the person on the receiving end of it will smooth it over and he's reasonable to say he's only going to do his contracted hours.

Unlikely he'll loose his job straight away if they are that short staffed. He will be managed out so I'd expect him to look for something else

The question should be why has he stayed in this job so long...

Short-staffed, expected to work unpaid overtime everyday and not even well paid? This sounds like an awful environment.

Your husband need to start looking for another job with better conditions/salary.

If I was your husband I would arrange a meeting with his manager to explain the working conditions are not sustainable any longer. More professional than sounding off, although I understand why he did.

They'll make sure he gets a shit pay rise so he looks elsewhere

Agree with this. Like car or medical insurance, they often don't give protection for something that arose before you joined, so he could be wasting money by joining, but why not check your household insurance, OP, - that may offer some legal advice as part of the policy.

I think sometimes in organizations they will push it like this until someone melts down/resigns/goes off sick. So I doubt they will sack him - I do hope he sticks to his guns though, and does not let them talk him round when he is feeling calmer.