Should I be worried about being on an extended probation at work?

[bengal38]

I started work on May 14 and I was on probation for 20 weeks. I work as a General Kitchen Assistant. Two weeks ago I had a quick chat with my Supervisor before my proper 1st review with the Area Manager and she told me that I was too slow at working. Today when the Area Manager gave me a review of my work she told me that there were some aspects of my work which were not up to standard. The Supervisor did say that I had speeded up alot during the last 2 weeks and she was happy with that but she told me that I do not use my initiative when working. Basically she said that I work better with other people than on my own. The Area Manager/Supervisor then said I maybe better placed in a Primary School Kitchen as I have worked there before. I did say to them I liked it where I was at the moment and whereabouts it would be if I was to be placed in a Primary School Kitchen. They said that it would be close to my home. The Area Manager/Supervisor have both agreed to put me on an extended probation period so that when I return in September I have until the end of the month to improve. They asked me if I think I need abit more training and I said maybe abit more. Now I'm really worried that end of September they may ask me to leave. The Area Manager told me that I should think about what has been said to me and that the Supervisor will have another chat with me on Monday.

A 5 month probation period sounds very excessive!! If they want to extend it, you need to get their reasons why in writing along with a specific plan on what needs to be put in place (eg what training/mentoring etc ) for you to be able to close your competency gaps. Make sure you hav regular meetings to review progress!

5 months isn't excessive, especially if the OP works term time only meaning a chunk of that will be lost to holiday time.

Given term ends very shortly, if they have concerns about your performance I'd say giving you an extra month to improve before they make a decision sounds reasonable. Plus offering you more training. They don't have to do either of those things, if they were convinced you'd be no good, they could just sack you.

So they obviously think you're worth keeping and want to do everything they can to get you to the level they need.

I work in the public sector where it's generally thought to be quite hard to get rid of employees who aren't performing. It seems like a culture has developed out of this in which managers are extremely reluctant to sign off on probation until they're sure someone's really on top of everything they need to do the job well. So, I'd say don't worry. This is a cautious approach but if you get written confirmation of what you need to achieve then you can just crack on with upping it a notch next term. Hope it goes well.