Changes to role and remit - what HR-relevant terms should I use?

[BarbaraWoodlouse]

I have worked for a fairly new, small-medium US-UK company for 18 months. My role was newly created in a certain part of the business and I was essentially head hunted and persuaded to join because the leadership at the time recognized that the needs of this part of the business were different and not covered adequately by an existing role.

It was recognized by all that the incumbent in the other department was not happy with this but both leaders sat down and scoped a slide deck and job description documenting my responsibilities vs his and a generic type statement that we would work together in future to navigate those "grey areas".

Fast forward to this year, the incumbent has moved into a central services role and promoted above me. He presented a slide to leadership without consulting with me which essentially removes a huge scope of what I do and reduces my role in many areas from decision maker (per job description) to SME and requires the same "tool kit" to be used even though it is not directly applicable to my space.

To avoid outing the industry, if we were in the baking his job title would be "Ingredients" and mine would be "Selling Pastries". Our job descriptions both include "Ingredients, baking, decorating" for cakes and pastries respectively. My role has more focus on Selling and his on buying kitchen equipment.

The proposal agreed by leadership has him doing Ingredients, baking and decorating for pastries as well as selling cakes. His argument was that "Barbara is still selling pastries" so no impact and as they didn't know the detail (and HR were on holiday) they appreciate the impact beyond the job title. Hope that makes sense

I have now raised with my manager and HR. HR have been good and want me to document the impact on my role and remit. They indicate they will be looking to see extent of the change. What HR-friendly terms should I use? eg material change?

If it is relevant (and I think it is) my manager and this guy are in the US. I am in the UK - as is our head of HR so there is some learning for the US team regarding UK employment law here. We do have an employee advice line but I have not yet called them.

Thank you in advance.

I think I'd throw in "constructive dismissal" somewhere, if you're that unhappy.

You do like your jargon! You're in sales - he's in procurement. Now he's in charge of all of it end to end? And so he's your boss?

I'm not in sales My current job description (not remit) covers more of the end part of the process. I guess I could have called it "Pastry Eating"

And no, he is not my boss. I report into the the function I was hired into and he now reports into finance. And yes, it's Procurement!

Mrs Fin, yes that is the nuclear option. But rather hoping HR can help folk realise this guy has crossed a line and we can re-state the boundaries closer to what they were.

Unilateral alteration to your terms of employment would be a slightly less direct way of putting it, but you might as well call a spade a spade.

You haven’t been there two years so of course you can use the words all you like, but you have no legal basis on which to claim constructive dismissal absent decisions being made on the basis of protected characteristics

Unilateral and substantial change without consultation.

Can you send me a pastry? I’m hungry now

Hi OP, what is it that you want to achieve? You have less than 2 years service so have little protection. Even if you do have more than 2 years service, most likely from an employment law perspective these changes would be "acceptable" as your terms and conditions appear to be unchanged - you haven't mentioned any impact on pay, benefits, hours / location of work so assume no impact. Employers usually have the right to alter structures and job descriptions and I suspect your responsibilities as outlined when you were hired were not contractual

@MrsFin

I think I'd throw in "constructive dismissal" somewhere, if you're that unhappy.

Don't do this. It's irrelevant with less than 2 years service, and will just get everyone's backs up

You don't need HR friendly terms, as they will judge for themselves whether there have been significant changes to you role (and they will be looking more at what you have been doing in practice, rather than just what is on the job description)

Just be really clear about what the changes are and the impact of them, and that no consultation has happened.

I think it doesn't matter how you were recruited - things have moved on. Speak plainly and avoid the jargon...you are pointing out that your role has diminished to all that will listen...are you asking for reduced hours/pay cut? I would not have gone to HR about this - this is a management issue but it could soon be an HR issue if they realise they are paying you for a job that is no longer needed.

Your descriptions don’t make it easier to understand no. It might (or might not) provide relevant context if you skipped the analogies and simply described the situation as it is.

Organisations consider different structures all the time. I have myself designed restricting proposals numerous times and I would not consult the people within the department at such an early stage.

I am however unclear what it is you are trying to do, are you clear yourself? If you had been there longer and don’t like the role that is proposed for you, then yes if it is significantly different to your existing role you might be able to argue such and force a redundancy. But you haven’t been there long enough, so if you don’t like the role, there isn’t really anything you can do but leave.

So I come back to, what is it you are trying to achieve. I am not asking for my benefit, I am posing the question more so that you have clarity over your objectives yourself before you meet with management or HR to discuss further.

As previous posters have said, it's not clear what outcome you want from this process.

You don't need any jargon either, in fact I would bin the jargon completely! Clear, concise facts about the change to your role is all they are asking for.

I must be old, I don't know what a slide deck is.

Are there any muffins?

No idea what a slide deck is or a SME, assumed a slide was a presentation but who knows with all the talk of ingredients it could be an ice cream typo - sometimes plain language is best used for communication purposes.