So i work in a profession where most people are self employed. However this is a grey area and most “contracts” are employed contracts with an added bit about paying your own tax and not being entitled to any employee benefits like pension etc.
Anyway I started a new job which is a big company which is part of a health chain. So they have various health people working in a part of the building as well as a gym etc. When I met my manager she explained the hierarchy of staff and I was given general contact details for all but was told she was my manager and who I would contract with issues etc. All good no issues there.
So in order to access the area I work in you need a pass. I was told I would not be getting a pass as I wasn’t “staff” but it’s fine because either reception would let me in or another staff member from the various other sections would let me in.
All was generally fine for the first few months. But there seemed to be very few staff around to let me in at times which was stressful. Then I turned up for work one day and there was absolutely no one in the building who had access to the health area. Reception hadn’t arrived and the health area was in total darkness so no one inside. I waited until 5 minutes before my client was due and I rang my manager. No answer. I left her a voicemail and sent a text. Still nothing. I went to other parts of the building to see if anyone could help but was told it’s an independent area so nothing to do with them. I had to send my first client away. So after half an hour my next client arrived so I tried to contact my managers manager and left a voicemail. He didn’t respond either. I sent my second client away.
An hour after I was due to start a receptionist arrived and I could actually get in and do some work. During the morning my manager rang me back and left a voicemail and was LIVID. She said I was out of line contacting her manager and unless it was an absolute emergency I was never to contact them again. She was reiterating that SHE was my manager and I was only to speak to her and her manager was now angry with her that I contacted him. I rang her back at lunch and explained that I had tried to contact her but with no success and seeing as I had no access to my area of work I considered that an emergency as I had no one else to ask. She got even more angry and told me that she does the school run at that time and this is allowed so I need to be aware in future not to call her until past 10am as she will not answer. I asked her what I should do if this happen again. That I need a back up plan should no one be available to let me in. Or I need an access pass (my preference). She said it would be “rare” no one was there to let me in so I wouldn’t be getting a pass as they are for employees only. She then said I just needed to be “more resourceful” at dealing with these issues when she was unavailable. I asked her how could I be resourceful in getting access to a locked building!
The next day she emailed me to say they would be deducting an hour from my pay for the 2 clients I had to turn away and also giving me a verbal warning for not following procedures. I’ve now quit. (Which also was ridiculous as she misread my contract and was insisting I needed to give much more notice than I did). I told her to get a solicitor to read and explain the contract to her. She eventually backed down and I have my final date of work.
Sorry that was long. I always struggle to condense things.