New employee - got lied to in interview

[msagile2605]

I got lied to about flexible working in my new job during the interview.

On my 3day in the job i thought I would try having a decent chat with my manager, but it was pointless as he was unhelpful and abrupt.

In the interview, they said it was one day on site, and it might sometimes be two days. I was okay with that. When I started a week ago, I was told that has now changed, and I need to be on site three days a week.

My question is that I physically, mentally, and emotionally can't do three days with a 4-hour commute both ways. I haven't signed the contract which says 8 weeks' notice. Suppose I want to leave, will I have to stay 8 weeks? And if they insist I stay 8 weeks, will they force me to do the 3 days in the office? I can only do one day commute at a push, alternating with 2 days.

I have had to think thru this and i dont think i want to raise grievance as this people are liers plus it going to ruin my relationship with them

Please help.

You don't have to give notice - you've not signed the contract (and I presume they didn't give it to you until you'd started, which is also not acceptable- as well as probably because they knew their terms and conditions were different to what they told you at interview).

You can just email them saying that now you've seen the contract and been told that the working pattern is nothing like what was said during interview, you won't be returning on Monday.

Good idea the downside with that i have there equipments i.e laptop monitor etc. Plus i will appreciate to get my wages of the time i have worked which is a few hundred pounds.

This is so dodgy of them to do that...

I has something a bit similar: applied for a part-time role, made it clear I was moving somewhere that would be at least 2 hour each way from the office and was assured everyone worked mostly remotely and usually only travelled to the office every 3 months for staff meeting. This was crucial to me taking the job. I also declare a long term health condition which qualifies as a protected characteristic and the fact that home working helps me manage my condition.

Everything went fine until I passed my 6 month probation, as soon as that was done I was asked to come in once a month which I said I could just about manage.

Then I was told the month after that to come in once a week. I was absolutely furious and refused.

They have badly affected my physical and mental health and they are now trying to push me out in subtle ways (as to avoid me claiming unfair dismissal, disability discrimination). I am looking for a new role and will then try for constructive dismissal.

I absolutely hate employers who lie to get staff and then hope that once they are tied up they will just have to stay on and put away with their bullshit...

I would drop off the equipment and forego the wages to be honest. Walk away.

They have to pay you for the work you've done, so that shouldn't be an issue (unless they're real cowboys).

You really should give one week's statutory notice if you've not signed your contract.

I agree and that sounds like a good plan - one week notice

It's a good idea, but in this economic climate, letting go of a few hundred £££'s is a lot of money - apprciate your input

With a week to go, I would be tempted to wfh until the last day when I went in and dropped the equipment off.

That's crap of them though.

I'm unsure how you'd even manage 2 days a week if its an 8hr commute per day! Is that correct, or is it 4hrs commuting a day? Even than is bonkers IMO.

They should have made you sign the contract BEFORE starting! And I wouldn't have started before seeing it! What does the contract say in terms of working in the office? How many days does it stipulate? If its not documented or says office based, they could just change it again to 5 days a week!

How did they get the equipment to your home? Courier? I'd ask them to collect it and leave the company. You'd likely spend more money on petrol returning the equipment than the money they owed you in pay.

It's irrelevant whether you've signed the piece of paper or not, as soon as you accepted the job offer you had a contract.

https://www.gov.uk/employment-contracts-and-conditions

As @atticstage says, whether you have signed the contract is irrelevant. Those posters advising on the basis that it doesn't apply are wrong although, as it happens, it makes little difference to the advice.

If you leave without serving your contractual notice they can, in theory, take action against you for breach of contract. However, such action is unlikely to succeed. The courts are always reluctant to support employers in this situation. As they have significantly moved the goalposts since interview, it is highly unlikely that any action against you by your employer will succeed. Indeed, I would be surprised if they even tried. The worst that is likely to happen is that you won't get a reference from this employer, but I doubt you will lose any sleep over that.

I’d tell them that the unilateral change in conditions is not acceptable to you. Tell them you will be sticking to the agreed arrangements, and if that doesn’t work for them they will need to give you proper notice and arrange to collect their equipment. Remind them you should be paid till the end of the notice period ( probably a week if nothing else has been agreed- check with ACAS.

Commute is 2hrs one way 4hrs to and from. I been in office 3days. I was given the equipment day 1 on site.
Thanks for your input - definitely not hanging in there

They can arrange a courier to collect the stock from you. Alternatively you can go in, work the whole day and 15 minutes towards the end leave your equipment there and say you won’t be back in, that way you are paid for the day.

You’ll need to have been there for 2 years to go for constructive dismissal.

This is what I would do

The employer can let the OP go for absolutely no reason. They can also change their hybrid working policy (slightly harder if written into a contract in absolute terms but it doesn’t sound like this is the case.)

I assume OP can afford to lose the job with a week’s notice based on your advice.

Even if you haven't signed the contract, you've started the job so technically accepted it.

However you must surely be in your probation period, which has been 1 week for the first month in all the places I've worked.

I'd hand in my notice and leave within the week as that commute sounds horrific, and I would definitely not do it 3 days a week!

Honestly OP run and don’t look back. The same thing happened to me. I was told at interview that everyone in the team worked two days per week from home. When the recruitment agency phoned and told me I was being offered the job, I asked for the two working from home days to be put in writing and was told by the agent that they’d placed lots of people in the organisation and the norm was that everyone had two days at home so no need for it to go in the contract. Biggest mistake ever! Your new manager, he told me, is a decent guy and he won’t renege on that. Except that when I started I discovered that whilst my manager was amazing there was a wider political thing going on where the new dinosaur of a man CEO had done a 360 on working from home and had said no new joiners could have home working. My manager couldn't do anything. I was stuck with a five hour commute each day and it made me so ill which I ended up doing for several years. I will never, ever, make that mistake again.

Give one week notice on account that they have broken their verbal agreement.
WFH that week apart from the last day where you drop back the equipment.

You stayed for years? How about your health?

Dont give any notice?

Its two hrs one way therefore 4hrs

How long has it been since you had your interview? Has company policy changed in that time and everyone is required to do 3 days in the office? Or is it just you?
How much do you need a job? What other interviews and offers did you have? How much will you need a reference from them? It's not as if you can obliterate them from your CV as you'll have to provide your P45 to your next employer.
Have you had any more conversations with your boss?

I'm in a similar position. I too I'm a job 2 hours away and was told I could work 2 days on site (which was confirmed in an email) and 3 days from home. My plan was to stay over the one night a week (which I've been doing, at my expense). Two weeks into the job and my line manager looked at my Outlook diary and said he'd noticed that I was only down as being on/site the 2 days and he insisted it was 3 and that he needs me there 3 days. Other people, who live in the same town, do 2 days from home and 3 days on-site so he said I had to do the same.

I was not going to accept the job based on 3 days on site and we'd come to an agreement (in January, when I had the interview) that I could do 2 days on-site as the job was autonomous and could mostly be done from home. The job is ideal. It's my background and profession and it is where I belong, career-wise.

However, the costs of staying 2 nights a week and being away from my teenage daughter 3 days a week are making it impossible to continue. I have spent £200 a week on hotels since this change. It's affecting my mental health already. I told him I couldn't afford it and that we'd agreed for me to do 2 days on-site and he seemed to have completely forgotten what he'd said. He has interviewed a few since I was appointed. I worked 12 weeks notice at my old job (7 miles away) so I am really annoyed.

I have started looking for another job and won't work any notice but I am really down about it as the job is ideal and the people that work there are lovely. I don't mind the drive over there. It's beautiful scenery! I was looking at getting a microcamper to stay in but I am not willing to do this for 2 nights a week due to the effect on my home life (I no family, apart from my daughter and a son at uni; also going through a long divorce). My divorce has cost me thousands and the house is now up for sale but I'm going to have to pay back what I'd put on credit cards (my solicitor charges £300 an hour!!). So, with this and possibly a new mortgage soon, I couldn't afford a second night at my work location.

I have emailed HR so awaiting to see what they say but this is very devious of employers to do this, especially when the person has left a perfectly good job (although mine wasn't in my field).