Furious at ds work dismissal

[OneGreyBiscuit]

This is more has my 19 year old ds employers been unreasonable. He's just been sacked for being unreliable. For context - he accepted a new job about a month ago. He informed them of where he lives which is about a forty minute train journey away. He is a few minutes late everyday because of the trains and they said they were ok with it. He's just come off holiday (which he informed them of) and went back today. He was sent an email before today telling him to get an earlier train so he's on time. Fair enough, so he did and would've continued doing. At 9 he was called into a meeting to tell him his contracts been terminated for unreliability. He was only informed of getting an earlier train from today, so how can they dismiss him like this? If he continued to get the later train and continued being late then I'd understand but they've not even given him a chance. I'm absolutely furious. And to add insult to injury he still had to pay for his waste of time and money train fare this morning.

I’m sorry he’s lost his job but the first time he was late should have been the time for him to decide to get an earlier train so it didn’t happen again. Being late for every shift would indeed make someone unreliable.

Plenty of places require an exact start time, retail, hospitality, transport to name a new. And some places just expect people to show up on time or follow the proper channels and request flexible working. Your view of the working world is very limited

But if there was an earlier train why did he ever even need to ask if it was ok to be late to work each day, this is what i dont get.
Surely when planning for your first day you look at the train schedule and you get whichever train gets you to work comfortably on time

Not cutting it fine! And yes that might mean getting the train which means you are 25 minutes early for work and have to hang around, rather than the one which means you get there 5 min late. I dont get why he ever tried taking the later train and asked if it was ok that in itself was taking the piss and will have looked pretty poor in a new starter.

Millions of us take the train to work OP it doesn't make it ok to be late?!

Did he really need to be told to get the earlier train so he could be on time? I would have thought that would have been an assumed inconvenience that he would have considered before accepting the job.

When I started your post I assumed he was getting the earliest possible train. I’m not really understanding why, if there was an earlier one, he wasn’t getting it in the first place. What if the few minutes late train was then delayed or cancelled, he’d be even later. I think you are only hearing DS version here, I can’t believe an employer would be okay with someone being consistently late when there are other options that would get him there on time. His version of them being okay with it may not match their’s, and he may have already been warned about his timekeeping prior to today despite what he’s telling you.

very bizarre that he didn't think to get there earlier in the first place. especially as new starter, he hasn't built up any goodwill yet.

I suspect that when your dd was late they just sort of said well it’s ok you are hear now. But then it went on and on. Your ds has probably taken their comments the wrong way and genuinely thought it wasn’t a problem. The employers should have been clearer about expectations but equally it was wrong for you to ds to assume that repeated lateness was ok.

Yes, I've worked shifts, but as there were as many as ten of us on duty at once, it wasn't really a problem if one or two people were late.

Good point

Indeed - monkey see monkey do. Come on op.

I think he's been a bit hard done by, if they told him it was fine. Plenty of places are flexible, after all.

Having said that, I can't see much to be done from a legal point of view. It's just a shame for him. Still, he's 19, it wasn't the right fit, hopefully onwards and upwards.

What work does OP do?

Or say to him I don't care what they said, as your parent I am telling you that it will not hep your career to have that attitude - get the earlier train.

Most of those aren't worth it for an entry-level, low-paid job. Joining a gym and learning to drive are expensive. Moving house won't be worth it if you live with your parents and pay minimal rent.

Wrong!

Covid changed the working conditions in some jobs and some sectors.

Teachers and nursery staff have to arrive on time

retail - especially of opening up

Blue light services

lifeguards. Swim teachers. Leisure centres. Any attraction. The arts - cinema and theatres etc.

transport providers. Ferry, train, plane, delivery drivers.

In fact very few jobs overall have flexible working except those that can be done at home and/or hybrid.

Even them if you’ve arranged a 9am meeting you’d expect to be there ready to host or be present at 9am.

My job is flexible with regards outside my core hours when I must be onsite.

DS job is flexible in tech as long as he gets the job done and attends meetings on time - and of course works his paid hours!

Then just sit at the station for hours reading a book unless you want to be stuck in an entry level job all your life

and many kids living with mummy can afford a fair amount of luxury on a minimum wage job because they budget carefully

If we take it as correct that he was told being a few minutes late every day was fine so he didn't have to catch a train that would get him in too early, then I suspect what actually happened was he went away on holiday and his supervisors and colleagues discussed his general work attitude while he was away, decided he was a bad fit with the company and gave him the time keeping excuse because it was easy and wouldn't result in questions needing any further explanations.

I wouldn't be shouting about this if I was him or his mother.

Spot on.

He needed them to suggest he get an earlier train so he could arrive in time...seriously OP? After being late for just one day he should've started taking an earlier train.
He is unreliable and you are supporting this.

Some are flex but some arent a fan of persistent lateness, and thats ok. Particularly as its usually one of about nine things the employee is being a further PITA about.

They are not being unreasonable. He needs to get to work on time. And with one months service he has essentially no employment rights.

Eh? Loads of places require staff to be there on time. I work in live TV. We cannot be late, routinely, or the programmes won’t go out. It’s an office job, still.

My workplace has just ended a probationary period with a young guy for similar reasons. He was scheduled to work several days over a very busy period (we are in the hospitality industry). Out of 5 shifts, he turned up for two because he didn’t have reliable transport. He even asked one of our supervisors if they could take him home because he had no other means. It was about 5 miles out of the way for the supervisor.
It may seem harsh but young adults need to learn to be responsible & reliable.

Lesson learnt for your DS. I am a line manager and would not be happy with a new employee turning up late every day (even if it’s only 5 minutes), having to be told to get an earlier train shows complete lack of initiative and entitlement. It doesn’t matter to me how far away or what method of transport a hire uses to get to work, they chose to apply for a job here.

However, I am not a complete dragon. If I found out a good employee who had proved themselves to be very good and dedicated to the job in other ways and had been there for longer than a month, was getting a train in an hour early or had the option to get a later one and be 5 minutes late (presuming it was only 5 mins), I would tell them to get the later train.

But I would not be happy for a brand new employee to presume this would be a given. How early would the earlier train have gotten him in? If I knew it was the difference between 20 minutes early or 5 minutes late I would be very annoyed.

Come on, you know that's not ok. Getting to work on time is fundamental.