Gaslighted at work

[tidesley]

I have been in my job for several months now and will be coming to the end of my 6 month probation next month.

During that time, I have been told that I have made some errors. I am 99% percent sure that these errors are not mine. But I cannot prove it.

It is a large organisation and my team have all been working together for over 10 years. There has been no formal training, and they have all been too rushed off their feet to show me the ropes. Perhaps my face doesn't fit.

I have never had a single complaint about my work or me in my 20+ year career. I am merticulous in my work but my confidence is blown, and I find myself doubting what I've done and checking and double checking my work. They're now telling me that I am not working fast enough.

I am concerned that it will look bad on my CV if I leave too soon. I am also worried that they are trying to gather "evidence" to get rid of me.

I have tomorrow off and want to use it to take some positive action as I don't want to spend the final bank holiday weekend feeling like this. Any thoughts?

Thanks for reading.

I don't think six months in a job looks bad on a CV as long as it isn't a succession of six month jobs. Have you highlighted the lack of training to your manager ? Most importantly do you enjoy the job and do you want to stay. If not look for another - life is too short to stay in a job you are unhappy in.

Thank you @Hello1290

Yes, my manager knows that I've asked for SOP but he hasn't managed to produce them -I don't think they exist- and I've asked several times.

But you're right, life is too short. I don't enjoy the job, so tomorrow I'll start putting my escape plan together

Can you get details of the errors and explain that you haven’t been trained properly. I left a job last year after 6 months as I hated it, been in my new job since…I lied a bit and said it was a 6 month fixed term contract. My reference was just a statement that I had worked in x job in x office from date to date.

I feel your pain this is happening to me too but my probation is 3 months and I've only been there 8 weeks. I have already decided to take action and ive just left a job of 5 years and 17 yrs before that. This has never happened to me. I feel miserable too on a bank holiday weekend

Ask for a meeting.

Tell them you want to improve. Can you please demonstrate where I went wrong and what I need to do to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Ask for specific examples. If training isn’t forthcoming make sure you follow it up with an email. Thank you for meeting me to discuss x, I note that you are unable to provide y etc etc

If you're not happy then I think that there's nothing wrong with moving on, realistically, they're not magically going to improve their processes! Would be good to even be a bit cheeky and say that it was a six month contract.

My previous job was a bit like this, a tiny company with one person dictating the standards and it was terrible. If you didn't do things exactly the same way as her you were wrong, even if you achieved the same results. She would literally dig you up for not putting a full stop in somewhere she thought it should be, even if it didn't actually make any difference to the context. I stayed for a year and a half but I honestly wish I'd left earlier, it really did as absolute number on my self esteem and confidence as I started second guessing myself so much that I just didn't trust myself at all!

Long term maybe start looking for a new job. In the short term speak to acas. Your employer can't just turn around at the end of a 6 month probation and extend it. They needed to have had regular updates with you and any concerns put forward to you in a support plan to develop your work and help you achieve your probation. This is what a decent employer would do. Because they're not doing this look for somewhere new. However on a point of principal I would (and have done!) argued through HR that probation should not be extended as they haven't worked with you and put support plans in place. It is possible your face doesn't fit or they're managing you out. But that's their problem - get a case for approving the end of your probation then look for somewhere else to work.

I worked for an employer who tried to "manage me out" in a similar way after 6 months Unfortunately I had already undergone a 3 month appraisal with my line manager where no issues whatsoever were raised. This was their first mistake. They tried nebulous reasons such as that I had been "negative and dismissive" about the company and the project I worked on. I was able to produce statements from the managers of several companies I had visited stating that I had been very complementary about the abilities of my colleagues to provide expert services to assist such companies. In effect I had a paper trail that the organization had not followed its own procedures.

Fortunately I was a member of a union and they provided a solicitor who got me a 10 grand payoff without going to tribunal. I was near retirement age anyway so I used the money to start my own business.

Not having the correct paperwork to sustain the accusations and having failed to follow a logical procedure (where the employee is offered further training, mentoring etc) looks very bad for the company at tribunal level.