AIBU to think dismissal during probation was unfair given autism adjustments?

[SereneRoseRobin]

I’m looking for honest views because I’m not sure whether I’m being unreasonable or whether this was genuinely unfair.

I was recently dismissed from a graduate/analyst role after my probation was extended. I am autistic, and my employer knew this. I had raised the need for clear written instructions, defined objectives, examples of similar work, timelines, and timely/direct feedback. Some support was put in place, including coaching, but I don’t feel the actual adjustments were properly embedded or reviewed before the decision was made.

The difficult part is that the concerns raised about me seemed mainly to focus on communication style, professional behaviour, asking for clarification, Teams messages, and quality assurance under pressure — rather than on whether I could actually do the analytical work. Some recent written feedback said my analytical skills were good, that my work did not contain relevant errors, that I was taking ownership, and that I sought support appropriately. Another person said I had picked up on a complex project well.

The project I was criticised on was not straightforward. I was a first-year graduate with no prior experience in that sector, and I was assigned open-ended/data-heavy modelling work with a lot of ambiguity and short deadlines. Some outputs were expected within hours or by the next day, so there was not much time for structured review. I also didn’t always get timely feedback while I could still act on it. Some feedback came months after the work had ended.
My probation extension was meant to allow support and coaching to take effect, but I was dismissed before the extension period had fully ended. I had submitted evidence of improvement the day before the decision, but I don’t feel it was properly discussed or considered.
The coaching report apparently said the benefit of coaching should be assessed after a longer period, because performance can dip while new strategies embed.

I’m appealing because I think they didn’t properly separate disability-related communication issues from actual capability, didn’t give recent improvement enough weight, and didn’t consider alternatives such as letting the extension run, providing clearer QA/communication frameworks, assigning more standard analyst work, or redeploying me to a more suitable team.

I’m not saying I was perfect. I know there were areas to improve. But I feel like I was assessed against unclear expectations, on complex work, without the timely feedback and structure that had already been identified as necessary for me.

AIBU to think this was unfair and potentially linked to disability discrimination/failure to make reasonable adjustments? Or is this just how probation works, and I should accept it and move on?

Secretly recording a meeting is generally considered misconduct but is not automatically gross misconduct. Whether it justifies summary dismissal depends on whether an employer's disciplinary policy explicitly lists it as gross misconduct, the context of the recording, and the reasons for making it. None of which you know. The company sounds shit and a lot of what the op needed as reasonable adjustments should have been happening for everybody. It may well be she recorded it to aid her work because her reasonable adjustments weren’t happening. Whose fault is that?

Thankfully there are many, many companies that are far more inclusive, some quite big players too.

Taztoy As I said earlier, some people have less experience than others with balancing the competing desires of multiple disabled people.

Magp13 If we want to read ChatGBT generated-text, we can type in text prompts for ourselves, thanks. I don't consent to having my eyeballs polluted with that.

Did op ask for micromanagement or hand holding or for the whole organisation to restructure itself around her?

Were they the adjustments asked for?

Well yes, she pretty.much did.

I had raised the need for clear written instructions, defined objectives, examples of similar work, timelines, and timely/direct feedback.

If you’re lazy enough not to inform yourself I’ll post what I want. It’s hugely relevant and informative to the discussion. You’re going to flounder big time in the coming years if your eyes feel
polluted by chatGBT. 😂

She didn’t even apologise. Using AI for transcription is also a gross misconduct where I work, on top of recording people without permission. That is a huge violation.

Bar examples any good manager should be providing that for everybody. So not onerous requests.

That is where you work.

It is potential gross misconduct to record an internal meeting if personal or customer data is discussed

But OP even if you disagree with posters. (Posters giving honest opinions you asked for) being rude and agressive to them because you dont like them isnt nice and if its a reflection of your attitude at work no wonder you failed your probation

That was not my experience of consulting.

Recording someone without their permission, regardless if the workplace, is a breach if UKGDPR.

Surely they are all considered best practice in consulting, critical for managing high-performing teams, preventing costly rework, and ensuring client deliverables meet expectation.

It’s probably best you don’t tar every company with your poor experience.

If your attitude and communication is like it is in the workplace, they were absolutely correct in sacking you.

If you cannot understand how rude, agressive and dismissive you are being on this thread, there's little anyone here can do to help you.

Well, how about you and the rest of society put in the work to stop me floundering by abstaining from using chatGBT then, eh? You know, as a reasonable adjustment to my autism?

Mmm?

Where I am you can use copilot (with constraints) but you arent allowed to use anything else.

Ah, a Griddlebone-safe workplace that still places some value on integrity!

I’m a lawyer so slightly different. I would aim to do most of this most of the time when supervising but it just wouldn’t be feasible for every piece of work, particularly not for qualified staff. For a trainee or very junior member of staff I’d aim to do it more.

If something is urgent, I want to be able to brief someone in a 5 minute call rather than in writing (and the same might apply if I’m travelling). I will send examples of work when I can but won’t always have one and might not want a junior to just follow a previous example anyway. I might give a junior member of staff “objectives” but, depending on the piece of work, I might expect whoever I’m briefing to work these out from context. I often give specific feedback but I might expect a junior to review my mark-up of their work and work out what they could have done differently from this. Or not have time to give feedback immediately.

If I had to do everything the OP asked every time I asked a junior to support on something it would make my job much harder and realistically I would just use another junior who doesn’t take up so much of my time and where I won’t get into trouble for supervising in the wrong way.

“Entitled” is the right word. It’s entitled to assume that the world has to adapt to your needs. It does not. You are employed for the benefit of your employer, not for you, and they have requirements.

They are required to accept “reasonable” adjustments, but as the OP has shown, some people demand they go vastly beyond this. At that point the right thing for an employer to do is to have them escorted from the building and try again.

And using AI for transcription at my work is actively encouraged and if someone recorded a call that was already being recorded there's no way we'd discipline them for that, assuming they did it on work systems. (Though admittedly I don't know why you wouldn't just get the formal recording and use that instead.) I think it's a bit of an overreaction if the people on the call already knew they were being recorded.

If a probationer did that at my work they would be escorted from the building and have their pass removed.

Having autism does not allow you to commit gross misconduct with impunity. We have a duty of care to all staff, we will not abuse that to accommodate someone like the OP.

There’s a massive difference between recording on internal firm telephone recording systems, and someone recording it surreptitiously on their personal mobile. And the idea that OP’s adjustments are standard requests which would benefit everyone is laughable, sorry. I work in a similar environment - it’s incredibly fast paced, circumstances pivot in an instant, there are immediate short term deadlines. OP’s requirements are not feasible in tier 1 graduate programmes; most people can not keep up with this pace. It’s not specific to autism.

this is not the main point of the chat. i didnt get in trouble for misconduct as i used copilot to record the meeting and it was in internal systems ffs. now help me find a job

how do you know this?

I suspect you'll be dismissed from the thread if you keep swearing at people and being so rude.

This isn’t school and swearing is allowed