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.

He's 19. What is he doing with life then?

The employer had to email him to tell him to catch an early train! Incredible.

A lot of companies including the council offer a flexible working shift, that may suit him better. It means he can start when ever he arrives and finish at a later time. Obviously it has to be within a certain time frame. This suits my friend as he is often “late” to work but makes it up at the end of the day, using this system so it is never an issue. Just a thought as he relies on public transport which can often be delayed.

It's a lesson learnt the hard way, hopefully he won't make the same mistake again.

I can't say I have ever been consistently late for work, it's a pretty basic thing getting yourself to work on time, I'm not surprised he failed probation, he shouldn't have needed to be told he needed to catch an earlier train! If you rely on public transport to get to work and have a fixed start time you have to make sure you arrive early to allow for delays, it is rubbish but you can't be consistently late for work.

lol this cannot be true. He is not the only person getting public transport to work?! Most people can handle getting the transport that gets them in on time.

This has to be a wind up, no-one can be this obtuse.

OP has probably gone, and I agree that she seemed to be the nasty one. The question that wasn't answered was 'did he offer to stay late to make up for it'. As you havent answered it I suspect not. The reason people are acting with incredulity is that, rather than be told it is unfair (lots of things may be unfair), you dont appear to be teaching him a life lesson around it. Just for future, staff can now request flexible working from day 1. So in future, if your son wants to change his hours, he should put in a formal request. that way he, and his employer will be very clear on expectations. I know that if it was my child, I wouldn't be 'furious' or saying they should have discussed it with you. I would be saying: did you get it in writing? No well tough then. Live and learn.

It's a life lesson. They may have been okay about him turning up late once or even twice if the train was late (trains can be rubbish) but if consistent he needs to get an earlier train. I live in a city where everyone uses public transport and the rule when dc were at school was they could be late twice a term with no consequence but after that they needed to get an earlier bus or train to avoid detention.

Being late for work but avoiding 50k debt for a useless bit of paper, he is obviously smart in some ways.

Not remotely smart. He couldn’t even work out that he needed to catch the train that got him to work on time; his manager had to tell him.
That’s not someone winning at life.

All he needs to do now to complete the Holy Trinity of money smarts is stay with Mum and tell the landlords and money lenders to fuck off, if he can get another job he will be saving massive amounts of money every year.

It's not really a debt is it. It's a graduate tax. It's not useless in many cases. Maybe a gender studies degree is. But not so much maths degree, physics degree, engineering degree or an economics degree. All that open the doors to high paying and exciting careers.

All the data shows graduates earn more.

What's he going to do?

You’re part of the problem here. Indulging him, treating him like a young child and reinforcing the idea that your little darling has been wronged.

If he’s old enough to have a job, he’s old enough to have enough common sense to know that he should have caught whatever train got him there on time to start his shift!

People saying get an earlier train.

I got an earlier train than I needed to for work last week.

The train was stopped on the track for forty minutes for 'signalling issues'. i was late for work

So? That’s doesn’t mean this guys early train would have also been late every single day. Everyone expects things like your issue to crop up from time to time, that doesn’t mean getting the early train doesn’t make sense.

Im laughing at you thinking that this was a one off for me. Have you been getting trains lately?

The last six times that I have taken a train, they have either been cancelled or delayed

I’m laughing at you thinking it’s relevant here. Like OPs son should have been late every single day on purpose because random stranger on mumsnet uses an unreliable line 🤷‍♀️

I don't understand how you are failing to see the connection.

Trains are terrible and unreliable all over this country.

You can try to get an 'early' one and they will still be cancelled,

In my workplace on our team chat, people are always texting in it in the morning saying 'sorry i'll be late my train is delayed' etc

I did a twenty year 90 minute commute from Kent to London and I can count the number of times I was late on the fingers of one hand.
I cannot believe some people making excuses for a 19 year old, being regularly late for his first job.

I was once sacked for being repeatedly late. It definitely taught me a lesson. Do you think your son is being honest with you about his employer saying ‘it was ok if he was a few minutes late everyday’? A start time is a start time, not a suggested time!

if its a few minutes i don't see the problem. People are often late to my workplace by 5 minutes. they also often stay and work 30 minutes late

Of course I see that trains are unreliable. It makes no difference here. He should have got the earlier train to at least attempt to be on time to work.

It depends on the employer. People are regularly ten minutes late to my workplace.

Yep, but his employer, who the thread is about, obviously wasn’t ok with it.

I suggested this too.

The people who think life is to be endured didn't like it at all.

Apparantly they told him they were okay with it.

Anyway he was only there for one month, it was harsh. He should have been given a verbal warning.

My thought is : they wanted to downsize staff anyway and so let him go.