HR are lying? Aibu to be worried?

[ijustwanttodu]

So HR have fabricated an entire meeting. I had a meeting with them and they said we discussed this issue with you a year ago.

They claim I was taken into a small room and talked to by someone who has since left. 3 weeks into me starting there. I was taken aback and said what date was this and she got quite flustered and tried to change the subject and then gave me the vague answer of what month it occurred. And then she said all this bad stuff about me, how I kept coming into work late during that time.

I don’t know why she would do this.

It sounds more like the manager that left perhaps had a different version of events and recorded this on your file, not HR being deliberately malicious. Where is your current manager in all this? Have you had an issue with timekeeping?

They need to show minutes or an email record of you going for the meeting x Sounds like they don’t have a leg to stand on

It wasn’t a manager that left, it was someone who worked in HR. Someone I’ve never heard of and had no recollection of having a meeting with. And 3 weeks into my new job I’m sure I would remember a meeting with HR because I would have been worried about not passing probation:

I know it’s very unlikely we work for the same company but will they be able to produce this if the person I had the meeting with is no longer working there?

YANBU unreasonable to be concerned about having no recollection whatsoever about a meeting HR insist happened. It sounds quite Kafkaesque!

Any records of meetings of that nature (performance concerns, probation reviews) should be kept on your personnel file rather than in an individual HR team member's file. I'd be asking for a copy of relevant notes, dates of meetings, names of those involved, a copy of their retention schedule and a copy of the grievance procedure.

Grievance procedure?

It should be on your personel file and if there was a cause for concern they would be often have you sign to say the discussion has happened. Ask for the date and notes of the meeting as you do not recall sch an event. It is your right to see this.

They have probably confused you with someone else

Honestly I know this is dramatic but it’s making me think about leaving.

A long time ago I worked somewhere where they would just sack people for fun. They picked someone they didn’t like and would do whatever they needed to get them gone.

I don’t want to work for another company where certain people abuse their position of power to get people sacked for their sad kicks. I’m single and have just my salary to rely on so this feels like I’m highly at risk.

What was the purpose of this NEW meeting, and what exactly are they saying is the issue.

@Gliblet has laid out very well what you need to do.

This is spot on. If they are trying to rely on a meeting that never happened or they claim happened but have no record of, then you should consider putting in a grievance.

HR are awful. They always side with the managers even in bullying and sexual harassment cases.

I remember at the start of my career (40 years ago) being told that HR were not to be trusted; that they were not your friends... and after have seen them mistreat co-workers, came to experience it myself many years later.

This!

Is it possible they are making up this other meeting so that they can say you have had 2 verbal warnings?

Who knows. But that is my concern.

Why did hr want another meeting with you a year later, did they follow a complaints or disciplinary process or just call you in, has your line manager spoken to you about time keeping or have any concerns, it seems strange to be called into an hr meeting without any discussion, what sort if company is it, do you have annual appraisals,

In a previous job I had (over 10years ago now) I was able to access all email and calendar information on any employee who’d worded for the company, every email ever sent was stored, I regularly retrieved ex employees emails and calendar entries.

Why has this come up now?

What's the other half of the story?
Have you had a recent meeting with HR?

It does sound a bit like they've mixed you up with someone else, but without knowing what triggered the meeting you just had it's difficult to say. Have you been poor at time keeping? Is it critical to your role? Where is your manager in all this?

Regardless, if you really don't remember it happening, I would think you are entitled to see what's held on file about you, under gdpr if nothing else.

A bit frustrating OP that you havent said why they've called this recent meeting and if there have been issues with timekeeping.

People could then advise accordingly.

Appreciate it's stressful.

OP, be wary. This happened to my partner.

He had been told he could leave early by manager on a few occasions as work was done and the rest of his team were going to the pub anyway (partner never went to the pub).

He then got pulled up for leaving early by a different (lower in the rung) manager and he organised a disciplinary.

They entirely fabricated him having had an "Informal discussion" about his leaving early, He'd never had any discussion about it - he had no idea there was a problem. They did a disciplinary and he got a final warning.

He raised a grievance about that, but despite there being no record of this fake meeting/informal warning, the investigating seniors upheld that he had gotten a meeting/prior warning based solely on 2nd managers word (lied through his teeth saying he had conducted the fake meeting) and upheld the final warning.

He got out of there as soon as he could. The first manager who let him leave early and took his team to the pub actually seemed to feel awful - he couldnt stand up for my partner without admitting he was actually taking the rest of team out to the pub from 3pm. (Gave my partner the most glowing reference Ive ever seen.) In contrast, my partner had gotten a final warning for leaving at most 15 minutes early (sometimes 1 or 2 minutes early!) on half a dozen occasions after being told he could. They didnt pick up on the rest of the team leaving earlier inexplicably because "it was an invasion of their privacy to check their clockout times" - perhaps they knew theyd have to discipline the whole team if they did.

We think they were trying very hard to get rid of people and it fell on him, as 2nd manager simply didnt like him and HR ran with it. Dead fucking dodgy. He has a much better job now thankfully...

Just be careful. Theres always a reason for these things.

Was this latest meeting a disciplinary meeting or just a conversation to highlight areas of concern? If it was just informal, I wouldn't worry too much. Highlight that you do not recall any such meeting and advise that you have taken the concerns on board and will rectify going forward (if of course they are valid).

If it was a formal disciplinary meeting and you are worried that there may be further action as a result of it, then ask for all documentation that is being used to evidence the allegations of misconduct. Normally any previous warnings will not be taken into account after 12 months.

In cases of alleged misconduct, an investigation should be carried out to determine that the facts sufficiently support the case to be heard within a disciplinary hearing.

You should then be invited to a formal hearing, in which a disciplinary hearing manager will review this and determine any relevant mitigation. They will then make a decision as to whether the misconduct warrants a formal sanction such as a written warning. In my experience the only sanction that should be active, and could be considered during a recent disciplinary would be a final written warning which normally remains active for 12 months, you would need to check your companys policy to confirm that this is the case.

If within the following 12 month period you have then committed further misconduct, which again will need to be documented through an investigation and then subsequent disciplinary, then this previous written warning could be taken into account to contribute to the decision on the outcome of any disciplinary you are currently part of.

If this was just an informal conversation nearly a year ago that wasn't documented, then it cannot contribute towards a decision on any current misconduct allegations. If there have been some recent concerns, then the meeting may have just been a chance to informally address this with you before it gets to the stage where they need to look at disciplinary action. The HR Advisor may have been informed that someone had spoken to you previously and was pointing out that, as this had already been discussed, any expectations set should now have been implemented.

I appreciate different companies have different approaches to HR but they should have a policy and will need to follow that.