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?

It’s very tough dealing with the rejection. Jobs don’t really care about your extra needs, they’ll become frustrated when things aren’t going smoothly. Start searching and a new role, maybe enter at the lowest end of the role and build up your confidence level.

The recruitment team are not gods - they are not all seeing and all knowing. Recruitment is not perfect and isn't that a pain in the arse for everyone involved. You get people who are brilliant at interviews but pretty awful at the job and you get people who are poor at interview and amazing at the job - it was ever thus - recruitment is imperfect - no one screwed up.

All autistic people are not the same.

It sounds like you needed A LOT of extra support & most workplaces just don’t have the capacity or time for that. They gave you a chance but it didn’t work out. You have to move on.

The recruitment teams for graduate early careers at the “big four” are usually outstanding.
Something has gone wrong here

Yeah but employing any grad can have a positive impact on business - if an employer is choosing between two employees and one requires lots of adjustments that are going to cost resource time to implement, and the otger grad can work to the same standard without needing those adjustments its a bit obvious which one the business is going to wantbto hire isnt it.

Its really naive to imagine that businesses run for profit will happily put in place these sorts of adjustments out of the goodness of their hearts.

They'll only be so willing if the grad requiring the adjustments puts out better work than everyone else so that the adjustments are worth the effort the company has to go to, to make them

"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."

They're all important aspects though OP.

Go somewhere else.
Aint worth the stress.

@SereneRoseRobin .
Go and work with animals.
You will have a better time.

Im not sure the adjustments the OP requested would be considered reasonable in a fast-paced high performance environment, where part of what you're paid the high salary for is being able to cope with tight deadlines and having the initiative to figure stuff out for yourself.

I employ three people, all with degrees, two of the three have significant adjustments, all of which were expensive but worth it 100X over for the amazing colleagues I have.

for the size of my business, this thread and some of your others indicate I wouldn’t be able to afford the manpower of assistance you’ve needed over 9 months in order to do the work, I would literally have to turn down contracts to give this amount of support, which in my book doesn’t come under reasonable adjustments for someone who is a graduate.

it wasn’t a good fit, something will be, that’s the point of probation.

I think that shows where the problem lies. Not hearing what she wants so scattergun threads all over the board to try and get a more ‘acceptable’ answer.

I can see OP getting feedback and just arguing back. No one has time for that.

Adjustments are to enable somebody to be level not better.

Under the UK's Equality Act 2010, employers and service providers must make "reasonable adjustments" to ensure disabled individuals are not substantially disadvantaged. This legally required duty covers physical barriers, workplace practices, and accessible information, and applies across employment, education, housing, and public services.

Why did you think it was ok to record a meeting without permission?

apart from anything else, how did you transcribe it?

Have you tried doing a reflection based on the Gibbs Cycle of Reflection about the entire experience? It may help you process and learn from the role. It helps structure your thoughts to avoid jumping to conclusions.

https://reflection.ed.ac.uk/reflectors-toolkit/reflecting-on-experience/gibbs-reflective-cycle

@SereneRoseRobin id be interested to know your timeframe for what you’d consider to be ‘timely feedback’?

I’m really not sure about this.

We don’t know exactly what was disclosed or agreed upfront.

OP had never done this job before, so she couldn’t have had a perfect view of how she would approach it or the help she might need.

If no employer is able to take a risk on a candidate who might not fit the mould without being forced to employ them for ever more, they just won’t hire anyone who doesn’t look perfect on paper.

That’s why the gvt was forced to acknowledge that ‘day one’ rights were nonsense, and allow a 6 month period for letting people go.

In future, someone like OP would have been let go after (just under) 6 months, not the 9 that she had.

It seems like you are expecting a massive amount of adjustments.

This isn't school, where the adjustments are partly there because you are required to go go school & entitled to an education, and needed those adjustments to manage it. Its not university either, where you are a paying customer who needs to be retained.

It's a workplace, you are not entitled to any job, and you are paid to be there and deliver.

What is "reasonable" is very different in this context.

There will be other workplaces that suit you better. Consulting is competitive and cut throat, other environments are likely to work better for you.

They'll only be so willing if the grad requiring the adjustments puts out better work than everyone else so that the adjustments are worth the effort the company has to go to, to make them
This, sadly in RL, people who are discriminated against have to work twice as hard to be recognised.

Hi OP, I work in HR and reasonable adjustments are just that.....reasonable. The level of adjustments you describe wouldn't be considered reasonable in many workplaces. Some of them perhaps, but not all and clearly not in this role at this particular company.

Extending your probation was fair of them.....they could easily have let you go at the 6 month point but they clearly wanted to give you an opportunity to improve. Perhaps improvements were made but if it is clear that the required standard isn't going to be met by the time the extended deadline is reached then an employer has a right to call it a day. You also have the right to appeal, which I understand you have done and that will mean the decision and the written evidence on your file will be reviewed by another senior manager.

I have to say though that recording a meeting without the participants giving consent and being aware would be misconduct in my workplace and would be at a minimum a written warning. Conduct is given equal weighting to performance so even if someone can technically do the job, if there is misconduct they can be let go.

I understand it must be difficult but I really would try to chalk it up as a learning experience and move on.

I’d be doing a misconduct hearing for recording without permission and if AI tools were used to transcribe it, you’d be in seriously hot water.

It was a company-wide meeting that would be recorded anyway.

Maybe it was. But where did you record it to and did you use AI to transcribe it?

Do you know this for sure?

in the company's internal systems

Can you try to be a bit more fulsome in your answers please. And answer the questions I asked.