To think work are trying to get rid of me???

[ray81]

Ok i am 25 weeks Pg and have been working for a company for 8 months, anyway i have had exceptional performance in all but one area all the time i have been there. Basically they call it Sales through service and i have not been doing so well getting the sales for one product, i do pretty well on getting other sales though.
When i fell pg i had this feeling they would try and fire me before my ML would start but i have still done my job very well and put this feeling to the back of my mind. So yesterday i am called in by the manager and told i have a formal review on Fri and they may terminate my contract due to my poor performance in this area depending on how the fomal review goes. They have been monitoring me and i was told that it is clear that i am trying but they want to lnow why i am not getting them. Ummmmmmmmm because people dont want the product and i am NOT a pushey person !!!!!!

I find it odd that this has suddenly come out now, as you can imagine i am very upset, we would not cope if i lost my job now, have a morgage etc and we are struggling as it is.
So AIBU and reading too much into this?

I don't think YABU. You might want to post this on the employment board and get some specific help for how to deal wth the review and the steps they have to go through.

YANBU. Definitely check with those on the employment board. Rather silly of them to let you go just before your ML, as I believe if you work for them for a fair amount of the pregnancy, even if they let you go, I think they still have to cover ML for you. Those on the employment board will have more info for you. Also might help to look up statutory maternity leave benefits and look through it as well.

You have a lot of rights, I believe, as pg person, so do take some proper advice. Might be a good idea to fire off some preemptive strikes, eg memos saying this one thing you are meant to be selling is deeply unpopular, detailing just how many calls, visits you have made and yet it's still not selling so is not your fault. I would get some proper advice from employment lawyer, a fee to them now would be worth it rather than losing some/all mat pay.
My dh has been running a struggling company this last year and has had to make people redundant. Is a nightmare. One thing he has had to be v careful of is mixing up discipline with redundancy - 2 very different things. Either someone is not up to job, in which case you discipline, then ultimately fire them. Or the company cannot afford to keep someone on, in which case they are redundant, through no fault of their own. Your employers want to watch it, I reckon you could take them to the cleaners.
Be strong, must be v upsetting but you will soon have lovely new baby anyway. I've been made redundant 3 times over the years, you always come up smiling in the end...

YANBU

I agree you should get some legal advice. I also suggest you call you home insurance provider as your policy may well cover employment-related legal action but they like you to tell them before approaching a solicitor.

Also write everything down - dated notes written at the time are very useful to help you remember who said what when if you do end up in litigation.

Unfortunately as you have only been with them for 8 months you do not have many rights unless you have evidence they are terminating you because you are pg....within 12 months you can pretty much get fired for no reason. Discrimination is still illegal but may be difficult to prove.

Good luck.

Don't know if this helps, obviously I would check with someone in the know, but this is from the SMP info on the direct.gov.uk site.

To satisfy the continuous employment rule you must:

have been employed by your employer for a continuous period of at least 26 weeks into the qualifying week
The qualifying week is:

the 15th week before the week in which the baby is due
This period must include:

at least one day's employment in the qualifying week
Although continuous employment usually means employment by the same employer without a break, there are some circumstances when breaks in employment can be disregarded. The employment rule may be modified slightly if your baby is born prematurely.

Sorry, I can't give you any legal advice, but if I was you, I would be making every effort I could to do something about the area that I was failing in. I'm sure you are, but it does sound like you're a bit dismissive of it.

Is it really a product that can't be sold? How are other people going about it - assuming that you're not the only one selling it? And as has been said here, make sure that you are documenting any issues about the product. Position it as 'research' for internal purposees - results coming from all the work you have been doing suggest that .... , etc.

And it's no use saying you're not pushy - sales people are supposed to be able to sell!

(Sorry, that sounds harsher than I meant it to!)

Good luck.

A few things;

Can I ask if it is a bank you work for as something you have said sounds like somewhere I used to work?

Were you on a probabtionary period? Has this been passed? Have you been on a contract with the company for the whole 8 months?

Post on the emplpyment section, there are HR experts who can give you some excellent advice.

"They have been monitoring me and i was told that it is clear that i am trying but they want to lnow why i am not getting them. Ummmmmmmmm because people dont want the product and i am NOT a pushey person !!!!!! "

I'm guessing you do not work in a sales environment? If you work in sales then this is never an excuse that will be accepted.

If not, then why is so much emphasis being placed on this one thing? Is it a key thing that is part of your job? Is it something you have been talked to about before for not meeting required targets?

Becauseimworthit,

Beleive me i am not dismissive about it at all, i know all i can about the product and try to sale it to people who it applies to, it just i get NO i dont want it thankyou, of course i ask why and normally get an ear full but there we go.
My job is not infact a sales job it is customer service job, it whats they call sales through service, we have to sell to people that the produact applies to and beleive me thats not many people.
Other people in the job are getting sales for this product as well but not as much as the company would like, however i would admitt for some reason i am not so good.
I have asked to sit with other people and listen to their calls so that i can get an idea of how they do things differntly and have been asking for some time and i only managed an hr last week, as they didnt arrange time for me to do it until then. Beleive it is not through lack of trying, or changing the way i do it as i have several times its just i think customer need money for other things at the moment not for this product.

Lovebeingamum., Its not a bank but from what i gather very similar enviroment.
I am currently on a temp contract, probation etc but i realy have been doing very well in all other targets, exceeding them infact, the problem is i know others that have not had alot of sales overall, loads of sickness etc anmd still got their permanant contract thats why i thinks it about the pg not realy about my performance.

I am going to do a write up of what i am going to do to try and improve so they know that i want to and maybe that will help. who knows.

IMO listneing to other peoples calls will not get you there (I used to work in a call centre and would ahve been the person holding the meeting ) the best thing is for the person you would have listened to come and listen to you. Then they can tell you what they would ahve done instead, feed you diaolgue etc.

Lovebeingamum,

I have replied to you on the employment thread as well .
I have had people sit with me too and listen to my calls and they cannot realy tell me what i am doing wrong in particular, i have tried to change my style several times and its not helped so i am at a loss for what to do realy.

I think you need to separate your pregnancy from your performance issues. There is no reason why you can't have your contract terminated due to poor performance whilst you are pregnant unless (a) they haven't handled the performance management side properly or (b) you have made it clear that your pregnancy is causing you issues in which case they should be making some reasonable adjustments to your work.

Since (b) isn't appropriate here, you need to focus on the performance issues. As someone else said, document your sales vs targets and compare them to others. Do you have an idea of which are the most critical? The product you are not selling so well may be very critical to the business ... maybe has a big margin, or is in a new sector/area etc? How well are your targets communicated to you? Do you feel sufficiently trained? Who have you asked for help from? Is that documented? Basically document EVERYTHING ... keep emails, note down content of conversations, everything. And do everything you can to improve your performance in the problem area. And tell your boss what you are doing to improve. In fact, ask to sit down with manager to plan out a performance improvement plan.

You want to be in a position where you can demonstrate that you have excelled in majority of areas, the one area that was lacking you have made a concerted effort to improve (hopefully with positive results). If it comes to it, you want to be able to demonstrate that your performance wasn't sufficiently bad to warrant your contract ending, therefore it HAD to be due to your pregnancy.

Not really what you want right now I know.

And go and see the Citizens Advice Bureau. They are brilliant with this kind of thing. And remember if ever you did need to sue them, you will most likely have up to something like £50k of legal cover on your home/contents insurance that will cover you for this.

The one thing I would add to all the advice you have been given is that, if you are on a temp contract or still in a probationary period, then you will find it very hard to show that your company are trying to 'get rid' of you deliberately, just because you are pregnant, esp since you admit there's a performance issue. It's utterly, absolutely irrelevant what the company has done with other members of staff unless they've absolutely always taken everyone on permanently regardless.

From the sounds of things - flagging the issue, oragnising meetings etc - your company may well be following protocol okay.

Just a couple of questions, which may make a difference:

How long is the temporary contract for, when does it 'naturally' end?

And, have you informed your employer in writing that you are pregnant and given them your Mat B1 form?

Both of these are critical factors in whether there's anything dodgy going on here.

ICertainly, though, I would be phoning Acas or CAB and getting some expert, formal advice. If nothing else, CAB will be able to assist you in applying for mat pay or mat allowance, whichever is most appropriate.