Son's awful experience in first week of job

[ArmyofMunn]

Sorry this is long but I wanted to get it all down!

My 18DS started his first full time job last week. He has A Levels but is not degree educated and was taken on as one of four, the other three being in their mid-to late twenties and two of them with degrees. It was with a financial services company and paid £4K more per year plus commission than another job he’d also been offered, so he was very pleased.

He spent last week and the first two days of this week completing training for the job and he's been coming home each day saying how much he loves it - the training, the people, the office, the role etc. The training has been intense, involving two powerpoint presentations per day to prove he understood the training, but in which he said he kept coming second from top.

This week, following the training, he’s had to do three mock calls to a fake customer (his line manager) and he apparently made three ‘breaches’ in total, all involving not noticing that the customer had used some wrong letters during the security checks of emails and addresses etc. He thought he’d done well though as he was confident and affable and just thought next time he’d get the breaches right. He was shocked therefore to be taken into a room after his final call by two managers and told that because of the breaches he hasn’t passed his probation week and would have to leave and couldn’t appeal!

He’s completely shocked. The company didn’t tell him that his first week was probationary and he also remembers reading clearly that breaches by employees in their first month should not be regarded as breaches. He unfortunately read this on their own system so he can’t access it now, and his employer has his contract, so he can’t check that over either.

I just think this is an absolutely terrible way to treat an employee and my son is struggling to understand how the breaches he made were so serious as to warrant being asked to leave. He did ask to opt out of their employee life insurance and pension scheme, so I’m wondering if that just didn’t go down well with them!

Does anyone on here have experience of this type of thing? Are companies allowed to treat people like this these days?

Welcome to the world of work. The things you do best, or consider important, may not be the things your employer cares most about.

I think the way to reframe this for yourself and your son is that the culture of this firm is just not right for him. You can imagine how stressful his life would become.

Somebody incapable of understanding why breaching data protection rules is an issue after the first incident really shouldn't be working in that environment.

if my data was shared with someone who wasn't entitled to access it, I really wouldn't care how affable or confident the person was.

He failed one of the most important parts of the job three times. I'm sorry but it does sound like he wasn't up to the role and they were fully within their rights to let him go.

You have just reminded me that a lot of my contracts and others I know are PDF documents sent by email which you have to sign electronically. You then have to download to have a copy once both parties have signed it. You normally have 7-14 days to do this otherwise you can't access the contract without asking you them to send you a link.

They also give you your payslips this way. If you leave the company on good terms they allow you to access the area for a period - up to 3 months - after you leave if they block you before you get your final payslip.

It would have been explained during the training how critical these security checks are to for the firm to comply with the laws and financial regulations in place.

Nobody likes being told that they are not doing the job well, so of course he'll be shocked. There is really no point in asking for his contract, it's time to move on. Is the other job he was offered still available?

I’d wonder whether he a) properly understood and reacted appropriately when the breaches were explained to him and/or b) whether he’s actually conveyed the real reason for being let go correctly to you.

If the former, and he came off as unconcerned or blase, it may well have been the attitude which led to him losing the job rather than the mistakes: it’s more difficult to teach conscientiousness than it is to help people learn their mistakes.

I agree with virtually everyone - I think you're downplaying the seriousness of this OP. Data protection is huge in every industry but particularly in finance and accessing private financial records.

You say he did 2+ presentations and scored well - but he clearly didn't take the information on the presentations into account lol it's such a basic but major f up he made

Imagine your bank account got drained cause John at Barclays didn't bother double checking the security answers provided by a scammer were correct

Imagine your horrible ex gets details from the NHS of your medication, appointments, new address and contact details cause the call handler thought he replied to the security questions with 70% accuracy and that was "good enough"

Or that some random called your kid's school and the receptionist gave them details about your children because the email address they provided as part of the security question vaguely matched?

The ramifications to the clients and the company reputation means your son is a walking liability. It's harsh to immediately sack him but it isn't against the law

Sounds like your son underestimated the key needs of the role.

He seems to think being "confident and affable" balanced three errors his employer considers significant . He was expected to demonstrate close attention to written information in the client's details.

Perhaps "confident and affable" came across as " cocky, sloppy and casual".

.

No advice but wanted to offer him a sympathetic pat. I imagine he is gutted and mortified. Poor lad.
If nothing else it’s a sharp learning curve. He’ll recover from it and likely go on to do very well.
Aww x

Sounds like it will be a good learning experience for him. He was too cocky about being able to relay the PowerPoint information but couldn't actually put it into practice.

I feel sorry for him but the job was all about attention to detail and getting it right first time. When you are dealing with security data you must be responsible for data quality and accuracy or you make the job of a scammer really easy.

No, they’re not in breach of any employment law or regulations.

he thinks he saw something about errors in the first month not counting as breaches, but can’t find it again. Even if that’s what it says he has no recourse because he wasn’t dismissed for breaches, he was dismissed for failing his training and being completely unsuited to the job.

I know it’s hard to see your kid feel sad, but the best thing you can do for him is point out it was a direct result of his lack of care and attention to detail. These things are important in most jobs (particularly while he’s building his career) and he needs strategies to be better at them.

Why are people calling the company shit? He got three chances!

He thought he’d done well though as he was confident and affable and just thought next time he’d get the breaches right.

The first breach could have been excused but after being given feedback after the first and second time and then doing it for a THIRD time, then it's very much on him. Even if they breaches didn't count for the first month, that doesn't mean he gets to ignore security and do the bits of the call he likes.

Legally you can be dismissed for anything non-discriminatory (in the legal sense) within the first 2 years, regardless of probation period. There is nothing to be achieved here by asking for policies or documents.

Being confident doesn't outweigh being competent. Tough way to learn that, but better it is learnt now.

It sounds as though they just didn't feel he was a good fit for the job. It's also possible he hasn't told you the whole story. It could be because he's too embarrassed to, or he's arrogant about his own abilities and has dressed it up in a way that suits him or he hasn't listened and understood correctly what was expected of him. If he has more than one job offer, he'll find something else. He just needs to be capable of learning from his mistakes and not repeating them.

I have DC your sons age and really feel for him.
It sounds a bit preemptive after just 3 mock calls. Personally i think probation and training should have been extended, however clearly security details have to be accurate.
It's a steep learning curve.
What did his contract of employment say?
They don't sound like a good company to work for anyway, they should have made the length of probation and terms of employment very very clear and sounds like hes had conflicting information.
I wonder if they decided they only wanted 2 people not 3 and were looking for a reason.
Gutting for your DS particularly as he turned down another job but
onwards and upwards!

The company spent a lot of their time and money training him up, why do you think they would let him go without good reason?

Getting something critical, but such a basic skill as recognising letters 3 times in a row, with prompts in-between he is getting it wrong, is absolutely incompatible with that role.

The company did nothing wrong, the job is not for him, he needs to accept it, learn from it and move on. tbh I would have let him go too, better for everyone all round instead of drawing it out when it obviously isn't going to work out.

He failed to pay attention to basic and critically important detail three times in a row, having been told of his mistake twice. That's not being new and not yet trained, it's being totally unsuited to the job. They could never have put him on a live call with a customer, ever. Game over. That's the lesson of the working world, the company are there to get a job done not serve you.

Yes actually they can. There is no legal code back. So even if something (possibly a "contract", possibly guidance or something else ) says they shouldn't consider early errors in training there is no legal case. If he's paid whatever notice he's due - which may be none - that's the end of the matter.

I'm afraid it's sad that this is his first work experience, but that are serious errors and so no, it isn't unreasonable.

And for the future, even if he can't see what is going on in the world, you need to impress upon him the importance of insurance, pension - and union membership. He won't always be 18, and these are hard lessons to learn about poverty too late. At 18 you are invulnerable. At 67+ with no pension to speak of....

He didn't pass his training, because he kept making the same serious mistake and didn't listen to or apply the feedback he was given. If he was sloppy when he should have been trying to impress, what would he have been like if they had let him loose on the phones?

From what you say it kind of reads like he didn't really care because he thought it wouldn't cause him a problem, but that neglects the fact that he should have cared because he wanted to get it right and do a good job

Yes they are required to send him a copy of his contract, terms of engagement etc.

This.

I bet he did a presentation on the importance of security details.

And then failed to be adequate in checking them. In financial services.

Yes they can

It would be a good idea for me to sit him down and show him this thread, or some of it, as many of the replies have hit the nail on the head I think.

Poor chap - he was so excited but just missed the fundamentals!

His other job offer paid £4K less so he'll be looking elsewhere now.