Hello all, I was wondering if any of you knowledgeable people could help me out with an issue I’m having regarding a previous place of employment please?
(I removed potentially identifying details here)
After three months I had a successful appraisal and was actually given a pay rise and a permanent contract… and then I was fired a couple of weeks later. Out of the blue. No disciplinary, no discussion, nothing. I was called out of the office one morning by a feared manager, who dragged me into a spare office with the HR lady (a long story, she was hired it seems to find any way at all for existing staff to be punished) They told me they were giving me four weeks’ notice and I had to leave the building immediately. When I asked why, she told me ‘I don’t have to give you a reason why, you’ve not been here long enough. It’s your conduct that’s the problem.’ I asked her to define her reasons; she was literally shaking with anger, and told me again she didn’t have to tell me why. I remained calm (which seemed to infuriate her further), while she fumed and the HR woman smirked. They then escorted me back into the office, and I was shocked to see it had been emptied of all the staff! It was so overly dramatic. They stood over me as I packed my things, and escorted me off the premises as though I’d committed some terrible crime. Of course, after this event I went straight to the jobcentre for advice to be told that as I’d been there for less than a year I had no rights (but they were very eager to get me onto their trial of universal credit!).
My phone blew up with calls and texts from my colleagues completely baffled as to what had happened, telling me they’d all been told to go to the upstairs office and then told that I’d been ‘let go’. No reasons were given to them. They were left very scared it could happen to them too.
Thankfully, I had been looking for another job in the evenings and had secured a new one that I started a few weeks later (the job that fired me had no idea about this as I was not using them for references, and I hadn’t shared this information with anyone else), otherwise it would have left me in a terribly difficult position of having to explain why I’d been fired for ‘conduct issues’ when I didn’t even know what they were myself! Couple this with my previous disability (which they were fully aware of when they employed me), and they would have made finding a new job incredibly difficult for me (as well as forcing me back onto benefits).
They paid me the four weeks of notice and outstanding holiday pay (I’m sure they’ve taxed me far too much but that’s beside the point).
I’ve now scrubbed that job from my CV and have been very happily in my new position for a few months. I’m still in contact with most of my previous colleagues who have been filling me in on continued issues in my absence. SO, to finally get to the point, I believe that there is little I can do about the way I was treated there due to the length of time I was employed by them, but is there anything I can do for my colleagues that remain? Can I report them somewhere? What would I even report them for? Even though I’ve moved on, I’m occasionally gripped by anxiety for what could have happened to me if I didn’t have another job to go to. I’m angry, of course, but more concerned for those I’ve left behind.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all for taking the time to read this, I hope it made sense.