Can he withdraw her job offer on this?

[wishesandkisses]

Obviously I can't go into too much detail but I work for a small team and we have one bad team member. She is manipulative, lies and has made numerous problems since starting. Her stats show she is doing between 1/3 and 1/2 of the work the rest of us are doing. Personally, I think she's getting away with it because she has been having a 'special relationship' with our boss.

Me and my team have been told individually that she has got a management role. Our current management know the problems we have all had working with her and we are all devestated and don't want this change to happen. We have shared this with management and they don't know what to do.

legally, can they withdraw this job offer? We have all said we don't think it will work cause tension and impact on work ethic and trust within the office and raised our concerns about her ethics and behaviour. Can they do anything?

If the offer has been officially made then they'd be on dangerous ground to withdraw it.

They could possibly start investigations and a then disciplinary process against her, but they'd need strong grounds to do so.

I disagree. A job offer can be withdrawn and it's not difficult to do. Potentially, if she has more than 2 years employment she could explore whether this constituted an unlawful action, but it probably wouldn't fly.

BUT I see no reason why the employers would want to and I'd be very concerned if management really didn't know what to do. Knowing what to do is managements job, so I suspect that what they mean is they aren't intending to do anything. After all, you say they know what your problems are with her (which, just to note, is not the same thing as agreeing with you about those things) but she was still offered a management role.

Employment is not a democracy - employers don't hold votes about who you want appointing to a management position. I would be surprised if any employer allowed their staff to dictate recruitment policies based on popularity. If you had valid workplace complaints that you could evidence (because "ethics" isn't generally a performance issue) you should have raised those formerly in the past. Leaving it until now just comes across as sour grapes.

thanks so much for your replies.
Jalisco- they have been raised in the past by most of the team in discussions and complaints but its less than a slap on the wrist which is the outcome.. now this!

Maybe they can but they don’t seem to want to

Even if they could do something they can't talk to you about it, it's a private matter between your colleague and her boss/your Hr team.

The managers shouldn't be engaging in any discussion with you around this other than to take on board your feedback and action it as a performance matter.

If you want to raise a formal complaint through your grievance procedure then you could do that and your employer will be required to investigate and provide you with an outcome but that outcome wouldn't include any private discussions around performance management that have been taken with your colleague.

'taking time to think' is the motto now... we will have to see. They have agreed with us that shes been out of order but I don't know if they have said something different to her

The more I talk about it the more I can see how incestuous and unprofessional this all is

You cannot force the employer to view things the way that you do - regardless of who is "right". They have made a decision to promote her, despite knowing that some of you have complained about her. That tells me that they either don't care what you all say / think, or that they agree with her and not the rest of you.

The bottom line here is that she has the job, and you have the choice of sucking it up or leaving.

To be unbiased, and not taking sides with either position here, if I have run a recruitment process and made a decision based on that process, I also wouldn't be taking a vote on whether people like it or not. I don't know many employers / managers who would.

I agree.. They should of appointed her and told us all together and we would have had to suck it up but some have literally been asked..

It sounds like your managers, collectively, are unable to manage! I do listen to my staff, and I do consult with them or ask them things. But I do not consult or ask them about things that I have already decided. In the end I am paid to make decisions, I take that seriously, and I own the decisions even if they don't work out. And I would never, ever discuss an appointment, before or after, with staff in the way you describe. It is unfair to the person involved, and is undermining them before they start. They are hardly making her job any easier if they send mixed messages all the time, which is what you seem to be saying.

When I opened the thread, I assumed it would be somebody posting about their friend or daughter who had had a job offer pulled from them!

Your question seems moot to me. They have just appointed somebody into a role, they are not going to reverse that decision because you don’t like it. If I had made this appointment it would have been after a careful selection process and I would not tolerate objections such as this.

@wishesandkisses @Aprilx
Was there an advertised job? Was there a fair selection process, or was the person just dropped into the role? If others had no chance to apply then it’s unfair. If no one else applied, snd no one even knew there was a job, I would complain. Loudly! Was a JD and Spec available to all for the job? Or just this person? You might have to suck it up but you don’t have to stay there!

Irrelevant. It might be "unfair", but there is no legal requirement to advertise a job or have a selection process. It might be wise. But it's not required. So yes, they could complain loudly. What will that achieve?

But I'd agree that nobody has to stay there.

The reason jobs should be advertised is to ensure the best candidates apply snd to avoid discrimination claims. ACAS recommend employers advertise jobs for these reasons and not advertising could be against company recruitment policy. Might not be illegal but it’s full of pitfalls. I would still complain. Nothing to lose! Crappy company.

The no actual evidence that the job wasn't advertised or competitively recruited. That said, yes there may be risks, but "should" and "advice" and "recommend" mean nothing. And the OP isn't complaining that they didn't get the job. They are complaining about who did. That's tough luck.

ACAS take a more robust view. It’s clear that advertising does prevent issues of perceived unfairness. I’ve tagged the OP to ask. Clearly good practice is important in well run companies and it’s a shame this standard is not upheld everywhere. If it was not advertised there’s possible discrimination on a number of counts. That’s why I asked and why ACAS is clear on good practice. It might not be tough luck if the op or other employees are disabled!

The OP has not expressed any dissatisfaction with the selection process though and that does not seem to be the point of this thread. The OP is complaining because they don’t like the person that secured the role.

If there was a complaint about process then it could serve a useful purpose as it may make management resolve to do things better next time. But I would highly doubt that it would achieve the OP’s desire, which is not to improve process, but is for somebody to have an offer rescinded.

with management comes responsibility and she will answer to a different chain of command
also there’s the grievance procedure for anything she does to the staff
TBH the step up could be her downfall

You seem to be asking "should a job offer be withdrawn because of information that was available before the job offer was made?"

I know the recruitment process is not what was asked but it is pertinent to the dilemma. If an employer can be so lax regarding appointments what else does it not do fairly or accordance with good practice?

That's a pretty huge assumption. There is no evidence at all that the employer made the appointment without a proper recruitment process. The only thing in evidence is that some employees have been unhappy about an appointment, and the employer is not holding a vote on whether they want the person as a manager or not, which is actually good practice.

We have no real idea what is going on here. With the best will in the world, we have the OP's word for all of this. There will be another side to the story. What if the person is just very direct - perhaps neuro-diverse - and has upset people, but the employer knows that and is making reasonable adjustments? What if this team actually don't perform well and don't like being pulled up or managed to improve?

As things stand we have one side of the story, and I do agree that management could have handled this better - they should not have been "apologetic" about a decision that they had made. It undermines the person appointed. They made a decision, they presumably believe it to be the best decision they could ahve made, so they should then stand up for that decision.

All posts on MN are from the poster’s point of view! It’s generally how it works. No, we don’t know the full story and the OP hasn’t come back. But things are rarely black and white as you say!

Sounds far too gossipy and it might actually backfire on you if you raise it. What are you actually claiming, they are in a relationship? Is it allowed or not? You have to go to them with facts. Not catty comments in quotes. You’ll end on your arse for bullying op. Sorry if that sounds harsh bu it’s true.

Jalisco did not say that it was black and white. The advice they gave was based on the facts presented by the OP. Yours was based on making stuff up.
“You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”
― Daniel Patrick Moynihan