Hi,
I work in the IT industry and I have just appealed against a decision refusing my part time working request where no sensible reasons where given (ie employer just copied reasons from website without explanation). ACAS pointed out this is totally unacceptable. However in my appeal meeting I asked my employer what he thought of my appeal document and he refused to answer!!! I had thought the appeal meeting was meant to allow me to challenge my Company's objections to my part time working request but they clearly don't see things the same way.
I am asking for just a tiny bit of flexibility that I feel I can show is justified.
Not only that but my employer is implying that I will have to travel up North more often that I used to. They keep saying I was 'lucky' not to have had many overnight stays in the past. However the real truth is that when I took the job there was a dedicated team up North which appears to have slowly disintegrated. However this didn't affect me. All of a sudden now I want to come back after having a baby my employer is desparate to make the point that I need to be aware of the fact that I may be required to work weeks on end in a location where I am enforced to stay overnight. This seems incredibly harsh considering I never used to do that and considering that last year my boss told me 'he would make every effort to reintegrate me into the workplace'... I was even told that I should expect that the very first job I work on may require overnight travel...
I can understand of course that my Company's situation may have changed since I went on leave but I see this tactic of making overnight travel such an issue (when I hardly ever had to do any in the past) as a bullying tactic to try and getting me to resign. At the appeal meeting they actually refused to talk about my appeal document or even a role change I'd requested previously (as an alternative) and just kept pushing me with this travel issue...
Its making my life a nightmare. I want to get another job but haven't started a search because I honestly didn't think my work would be this difficult with me as they indicated last year that they would be accommodating. The situtaion obviously has changed and it is pretty clear to me they don't want me back and I am upset that they are not being upfront with me....
This has had me in tears... It may be that my employer is calling my bluff and will back down but in the meantime they have really hurt me and causing me to feel really depressed as I cannot afford not to go back to work and I feel that they don't really want me back. It looks as if they are going to decline my appeal but then surely at the appeal meeting they should have at least been prepared to offer their opinions on my appeal. I personally suspect that they just want to exploit what they see as my weak spot (ie change in circumstances) and try to convince me to resign.
I am planning on seeing an employment law specialist at some stage on this as I don't feel I can let my Employer get away with the way I am being treated as it is starting to make me feel ill. At the very least I feel my Employer must be upfront with me and offer his opinions and explain the difficulties he has accommodating my circumstances. But I keep hitting a brick wall. I have found that there are still avenues to explore so we'll see....
I am still awaiting the result of the appeal but given that my employer refused to discuss my appeal document in the meeting I feel I should preempt a second refusal. Any advice on what I can say to my employer to try to be just a little bit more accommodating. I have done everything ie offered a trial period, offered to be negotiable on my exact start date, offered to change my role but still nothing back at all!!!
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Worsening relations with Employer - Advice required
9 replies
Varanasi · 08/02/2008 23:11
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