Please help - I work in the City and think I was fired today whilst at home - long sorry

[starrystarrynights]

I'm having a total work nightmare, bit long sorry.

Work in the City, previous Head of Dept (A) left in December, I was effectively his number 2 in all but name. A was replaced by B (a peer of mine, which much longer service than me) - I found out quite quickly from a Main Board Member that B was attempting to discredit both me personally and my work behind my back. Without mentioning the name of the informant, I spoke to B's manager (C), (who I know well as I had reported to him for a year previously) who absolutely refused to believe me, B was an excellent manager and what i was saying simply was not true. He believed me only when he corroborated with the Board member involved and then effectively told me to 'get over it'. I mention this purely as the starting position for C is to disbelieve me.

Anyway, myself and my direct reports are totally overworked at the moment and the expectations of us are much higher than similar functions in rival firms in th City, an item highlighted to B and C before, which has impacted team morale. I was called into a meeting with C and HR yesterday to advise that 4 of my 7 direct reports had complianed to him of allegations of 'bullying' and 'harrassment' and overwork. 2 reports are not performing particulalrly with development plans so I can understand they be unhappy with me, but 2 are high-flyers who have seemed happy and have provided positive feedback. C was extremely angry and asked me to explain the allegations, I was so shocked that I'm not sure that I said anything really intelligent. C called a meeting to take place this morning with team and I.

Im not yet with the company for a year (will be a year on Tuesday), and was unwell this morning so advised C that I would not be in the office today. Interesting, both of the 'high flyers' also called in sick so the meeting was cancelled.

At 3pm this afternoon both my phone and laptop were disconnected. I called the firm's helpdesk to enquire who advised that they had received a request at 2pm for both to be disconnected.

Am very concerned that employer may say bullying allegations constitute gross misconduct and therefore can dimiss me on the spot, and, as I am just shy of one years service, I will have no protection or payout. Also my 'exceeding expectations' bonus will not be provided.
can they do this?

Ok, if you would have 12 months service on Tuesday then you are covered by unfair dismissal protection - courts will add your statutory notice ( 1 week) to your length of service to calculate the 12 months. If they are this shitty I'd let them sack you and then sue them rather than drawing their attention to this so that they can follow a disciplinary process and 'fairly' dismiss you. Sorry you're going through this.

How can they dismiss you in your absence? Was yesterday as disciplinary meeting?

Yes as hermione says they don't have time to dismiss you now if your year is up on Tuesday. They sound awful but if they do just sack you definitely consider bringing a claim.

ok thank you all. I might be wrong with my internet self-diagnosis but I thought that the adding one week notice on to make up to a years service would not apply if they were successful in getting me for gross misconduct? (something they absolutely have no grounds for).

Also if I were to let them sack me and then sue them, would I still expect reasonable compensation from them? As a minimum I had hoped that I would go back to work on Tuesday and agree a compromise settlement with them, but this has obviously been superceded by laptop disconnection etc

sorry, one more question, will I get a really rubbish reference now? I work in such a niche field and there is so much work of mouth, its very worrying :( :(

I think you're jumping ahead slightly. You are saying that before your laptop was disconnected you were anticipating agreeing a compromise agreement. Why was that? At the moment all you have is some of your direct reports making allegations against you and a meeting is planned to discuss it. what grounds would there be for a CA?

Now your laptop has been disconnected you have reason to believe they may be considering dismissing you, so more possible grounds now. Assuming you haven't phoned your manager to ask about your laptop, your next step is to go into work as normal and find out.

If they do sack you, you can think then about bringing a claim. Compensation at a tribunal is based on financial loss, and the likelihood of getting a new job would be taken into account. Obviously if there are discussions about settling before it gets that far, the amount is likely to be less. If you do end up settling with a comp agreement, a reference would normally be agreed as part of that.

Hope you're at work today and ok.