Am I going to fail probation

[Greenraintoday]

I'm getting worried, half way through probation, have had 3 unavoidable bouts of sickness ( all different cases and not disability related) been late in to work 4 times and have been reminded to answer emails that I forgot several times

In my defense I have had alot going.on in personal life and this has impacted me

AIBU to think I should be given another chance ?

This post says it all.

Buck up, take some paracetamol and get to work like everyone else does.

How do you tell that virus you have already been sick twice in the last 20 months, and more to the point does it listen. A really bad policy.

Time to pull socks up. Get rock solid childcare and cold doesnt stop you working, you dose up and carry on

Yes. A lot of us have responsibilities like those, definitely me. I had childcare to sort when I was younger, no family to fall back on, worked around it- hard but managed. I now have different (I'd say even more demanding) care responsibilities but again everyone has stuff to deal with. I'm telling you now OP that the workers rights bill doesn't come into it. You are paid to do a certain level of work and if this job doesn't fit around your other responsibilities that's not your employers issue, its yours. Within probation, to me, its even worse.

Just saw the update about 'your rights'.

This is not a productive attitude for you to continue if you want to get on in life. This workplace owes you nothing.

I think you will be lucky to be kept on, purely from the perspective of not being able to do your job wholly independently vis a vis the emails. You probably have targets to meet or a standard of work they expect you to be performing at, and if you're borderline or not where you need to be at, you'll likely either fail probation or have it extended.
With regards the colds etc and being off, unless you are working with immune compromised people (in which case I would have sent you home if you'd pitched up clearly full of cold etc), a lot of employers expect you in.
As for childcare problems, once I would be sympathetic. Twice I would be telling you to get it sorted. A third time, I would be wondering whether you were reliable and able to organise your life adequately.

Colds and flu, 3 times already, that would be a no from me if showing up was a requirement of the job, ime having multiple "colds" rarely goes with reliability

What grace do you think they owe her, exactly?

She can't be arsed to turn up on time, doesn't respond to e-mails and has had three periods of sickness before she's even passed her probation.

I'm sorry I don't agree. I work for a charity, a really flexible, accommodating and understanding employer and I know for a fact that this scenario in probation would be too much even where I work- the first sickness, the first one, maybe two lateness due to childcare issues they would have discussed, tried to help etc but this has gone beyond that particularly if work itself ie the emails- job performance- are an additional concern already.

This is precisely what the probation period is for. I would definitely let you go for the reasons you’ve stated op.

How many emails do you receive in a day and is responding to emails your sole task. In a workplace where you are working on cases, meeting people, have urgent unexpected tasks daily and are spinning lots of plates, 4 emails missed isnt a huge deal. If you only deal with emails and this is integral to your business and all hell broke lose when one was missed, I would expect not to see a 2, 3 and 4th missed email.

How long were you off sick for?

How late, what impact did it have on others, did you apologise and notify someone when it became clear you would be late and did you make the time up? (If you cant stay late due to care commitments did you work lunch breaks to make up and explain you were doing that).

I think its about showing willing despite your personal circumstances. If you havent already done so, apologise and make up for it with your time and explain what remedial steps taken to ensure you dont miss emails again or reduce lateness.

I personally would not expect staff to make up for sickness but if i were in my probation period i personally would push the boat out to make some of the time back - and tell them.

Taking remedial action shows you in a good light and may help you to persuade them to extend probation.

Good luck

(Didnt read the full thread)

It’s unreasonable to expect a second chance when the issues are lateness, repeated sickness and forgetting emails, that’s reliability. Everyone has personal things going on, but it wouldn’t be fair on others or the team to ignore it, and it sets a precedent. Employers are usually more understanding once you’ve consistently performed well and passed probation. Realistically, it’s likely to be an extended probation or being let go.

They don’t care if you have things going on in your private life. Being reminded to respond to emails is poor when you are new.

The sickness might not be an issue if they were genuine. People sometime have periods when they catch everything going, it's not their fault and better to stay away from others rather than pass it on
But the lateness and forgetting to do tasks is a problem. Have you improved since they spoke to you? What is your performance like generally apart from the forgotten emails?

I think this is a reverse from an employer or manager who is not happy about the Employment Rights Act.

I used to do probations in a pub so it’s different from your job I’m assuming and to be honest I wouldn’t keep you on. If I really really liked you and had sympathy for your situation I would extend your probation, but I wasn’t really supposed to do things like that, I just did them occasionally for certain people I really wanted to help.

I can partly agree with childcare problems although @Greenraintoday hasn't explained what they were but it's simply not true to say that parents of young children all suffer from constant illnesses

I can't possibly the only person who didn't experience that with any of my children and I certainly dont remember working anywhere that had a noticable level of staff absence.

Is this a covid effect?

Yeah, good shout actually 👍

Anything more than 2 sickness during probation would have your probation extended by another 3-6 months where I am as a best case scenario. We would try to do that where possible. If they sensed any attitude that may become problematic, or performance issues, they'd likely air on the side of caution and not extend.

There's massive acknowledgement people get ill which is appropriate, but day off for random colds vs. appropriate time of for flu, high fever, and/or portraying it more like it's a right without acknowledging responsibilities, is now being very swiftly recognized because we've had such issues in the past with people thinking we are a good employer with lots of benefits. We are, we should be. People deserve good employers, but it really really got out of hand.

Whether it's a reverse or not I don't know but it certainly has all the hallmarks of one of 'those' threads...the ones that lead to pages and pages of debate, started early in the morning, no previous posting history under this user name, a long involved opening post then very little engagement after that.

And the final line 'AIBU to think I should be given another chance?' just has an air of insincerity and inauthenticity about it.

This is not the employers problem. The sickness cannot be helped, but basic things like not answering your e mails is just lazy. Also before long your colleagues will resent you. I would not pass you, that's what probation is for , to weed out people like you.

I would start looking for another job snd buck my ideas up. Also also cut out looking for excuses. The employer is running s business.

They are deal breakers for many though regardless of what you think. Lateness, multiple sick days and missing something as basic as answering emails, I’d not pass you OP.

Sickness and lateness don’t bother me too much, aslong as there is a good enough reason and you’re happy to make up the time on the lateness.

The emails would annoy me the most, if I need to remind someone (several times!) to reply to an email then there is no point in employing them. I would also be concerned as to your attitude of ‘these aren’t deal breakers’.

I am a senior manager and I'm afraid you would have already failed your probation with me.

The sickness isn't ideal. On its own, it wouldn't necessarily be showstopper, though colds are something you should try to power through, you're not at school anymore. How many days off in total are we talking and in how many months?

The lates are not good. How late were you? 5 minutes is different to an hour. Did you apologise? Did you offer to make your time up? How did this impact the rest of the team and did you acknowledge this impact?

The being reminded to answer emails that you had forgotten about 'several times' comes under capability and I would terminate your contract for this alone. I have 4 direct reports and many indirect reports, I simply do not have time in my day to remind them to do basic aspects of their role.

All 3 things put together show me you are unreliable and incapable. Issues in your personal life do not come into this, you're being paid to do a role and you're not fulfilling it.

Can you reflect on the posts made by everyone on this thread, even the harsher ones? These posts are by people who also have childcare responsibilities and manage not to be repeatedly late or have very poor attendance. I firmly advise you to look for another role before you lose this one and approach your next probation period with a much better attitude to work.

"In my defense I have had alot going.on in personal life and this has impacted me"
That's not a defense. It's an inability to prioritise.

And no, you're not "doing your best", doing your best would mean your childcare would be solidly arranged with emergency backups prearranged, you'd take some decongestants for your cold and have hankies in your pockets and go in to work, and you'd answer your bloody emails!
Seriously OP - your employer does not exist to pay you a wage for nothing. They pay you a wage to get stuff done, and you're not getting stuff done. You don't turn up, or you turn up late, and even when you're there you don't get stuff done.

Do you really think employing you is in their interests? Or would they be better letting you go and bringing in somebody else who wants the job enough to actually do the job?

You need to give your head a shake and prioritise. Get your childcare sorted. Stop considering a cold as reason for not to go into work. When you are in work - do the work. Ask yourself - why didn't I answer those emails? Did I forget, was I waiting for information - what was my reason? Is my memory the issue, or my initiative (e.g. not chasing for information)? Is there someone I can talk to about support? Additional training, maybe? Do I feel equipped (training / knowledge) for this job?

If you want to keep this job, you're going to have to be a better employee than you have been to date. Bring your professional self to work, not your unmotivated self full of excuses.