r/HumanResourcesUK

I’ve got a member of staff who received some feedback from a colleague on a minor error they made on a process driven admin task. Their response to this person (who has same role, not their line manager) was essentially, ‘I don’t care, it’s not important to me that I do a good job as I don’t like it here’.

I’ve not seen the message, they aren’t keen about going on the record in terms of whistle blowing about their colleague but im keen to know what i can do about it.

Message was over Teams, using work account. It’s not a massive surprise to me to hear that they dont care about the job. Obviously as the business owner i dont want someone who feels this way to be here. They are more than 6 months in role, not yet 2 years.

Thanks!

One of my HR colleagues has recently left the company to move onto a new role. At this company, she managed a lot of the new starter process and documentation, in particular collecting their right to work.

Since she left, I've recently noticed that some of the right to work saved to file doesn't meet the full criteria for right to work checks. Some of the older copies on file are in black/white and a bit blurry, some are slightly cropped at the edge of the document on file, and quite a few are missing a record of the date it was checked and by whom. We have the documents for all, but there's clearly been a few where it feels like the process has been rushed and not done correctly.

Is the only course of action for me to go every right to work we have on file, and ask for any of the affected employees to bring in the documentation again so we have a fresh copy on file?

Am I right to assume that without doing this, there is a risk that it could be checked by the home office and leave us without a statutory excuse? Would that also apply to all the documents we have without a signature/date of check attached to them?

A candidate has been in touch, prior to shortlisting, insisting they get interview questions and test questions in advance of the interview. They have stated that they will communicate in the interview via laptop rather than talking. Their emails cite various legislation and the tone is quite threatening. They have stated that they also expect an unconditional job offer. The description of the role makes it clear that strong verbal communication skills are required.

How would you deal with someone like this please? This isn't my role but I'm about to advertise a similar one that they may apply for.

Hi all, I’m currently employed on a FTC with the public sector, have been in my role for over 4 years. Currently my team is being restructured, it’s not a big team but a wide variety of roles. We are in a 30 day consultation period, where the new structure of the team has been revealed, my role was one that was going to be unchanged except for being made a permanent employee, so I was really pleased when I was told this by an exec in a call last week. Some other similar roles were to be reduced by 1 so someone would have their role lost and they would enter into support for new roles etc. My role is quite separate from the rest because I deal with one specific area unlike others who are more spread out and less defined in their duties.

After being told by the exec last week that I was to be made permanent I was really pleased but kept it to myself apart from my line manager to not upset any other colleagues. I have been told in the last couple of days however that one of the colleagues in another role has raised my role as one they should include in the reduction so I have been called by the exec, apologised to, and told I will now have to apply alongside my other colleagues. I have been given a slot for HR meeting next week , but right before the bank holiday it’s a bit of a shock. I’m wondering what my rights are in this, whether I have any course because it has been quite distressing to have the change made suddenly. Thank you for your help

If I produce a 2 week fit note to prove a reason for a recent absence but don’t want to be off for the full 2 weeks, can I be forced to?

Don’t want 2 weeks of SSP absence when I don’t need it and certainly prefer to work and get my normal wage

I have a hybrid desk job

Edit. I had a procedure. I’m ok but can’t drive and getting round not the easiest at the moment but otherwise completely fine

Thanks

Hi everyone

I’m negotiating a settlement agreement with my employer and they’ve included a warranty stating that I do not have another job offer (I have signed with another company). If I ask for this warranty to be deleted, will they revoke the settlement offer?

Any advice will be appreciated

Hi, I'm currently having an issue with my employer accepting a fit note. Just to give a bit of background info, I have a workplace adjustment in place due to a health condition, which only requires me to attend the office one day per week.

During a recent GP appointment relating to my condition, my GP gave me a fit note recommending that I work completely from home temporarily for two months. My work are not accepting this and are still expecting me in one day per week. What are my rights?

Hi. England, employed 2yr 1 mth. I've had lots of positive feedback from my team and clients, things haven't been perfect but been ok. I was very loosely managed until now by a series of different managers and had no written job description.

Recently ie late April-

1. A new Line Manager (head of dept who joined after me) has taken me on. We have worked together on projects with some friction involved, as we are both very experienced people with different views of what good looks like

2. Company has issued a new 5 point impact rating as part of the appraisal process

3. Line manager has provided me a written job description

4. LM has written up an overall favourable review based on gathered feedback. It identifies some areas of improvement. The issue I have is she has also given me a low impact rating which pretty much spells out under performance. The impact rating language seems totally at odds with what is written in her review. She says I am not meeting the job description which apparently is her reason for scoring me so low.

I have emailed her and HR spelling out exactly how the impact rating description doesn't match the managers review/feedback and asked for it to be realigned correctly to a higher score.

I suspect I will receive a double down response by email saying the score cannot be undone.

What process can/ should I otherwise take? I can't stand for this. It's totally unfair.

Thank you.

I am appealing a probation dismissal. I was verbally dismissed on Monday. On Tuesday my colleagues messaged me saying they had received an email from my manager that I was dismissed. On Wednesday (today) I received the official letter via email, which stated my last day on service was Monday.

Is that grounds for unfair dismissal / worth including in my appeal letter? Surely that is a confidentiality breach?

I work for a small company of around 35 people. The owner (CEO) is in her 70s and has almost daily tantrums, in which she will hurl abuse at employees, threaten to sack people and close the business all at the top of her voice.

She is also very touchy. There have been more instances than I can count where she has touched me inappropriately (backside, squeezing my upper arm, stroking my back with her nails).

I've now seen part of an email chain where she (I assume jokingly?) told a customer that she is "going to pick up a stick with a big nail in the end and beat [me] to death". I was not CC'd in this, but found it after a customer replied and I was added in. This has deeply unsettled me, specially after she bragged about her attempted murder of her ex husband as if it were a fun anecdote.

I have looked into support that I can get and it seems that because of the company's size, they are not obligated by law to have an HR department or even a dedicated HR person. They have taken advantage of this and made her the HR person.

I also know about ACAS, but they are only an advice service and can't actually help me in this situation.

Other than leaving for another job (I'm trying!!), is there anything I can do? I feel backed into a corner. My direct boss is the COO (also happens to be her best friend) and is very unreasonable. Most other employees are either massive brown-nosers or scared to contest her behaviour.

Hi! I hope this post fits here.

I am just starting out in my (hopefully) career as an HR assistant. I don't have any formal education besides unfinished psychology and communications degrees, but the job fits me well and I learn fast. However, I want to put some time into learning outside of my daily tasks as well and hence my question.

My bigger goal this year is to read more so I thought to combine the two - are there any HR-related books that you could recommend me that would be good for a newbie?

Ideally they should be applicable in the UK environment, since I work with my company's UK office (I myself am from another EU country so that adds a layer of difficulty sometimes).

Thank you!

I’m looking for some guidance on getting into HR. I’m just starting out and have a background in mental health and admin, plus a Psychology degree, and I’m hoping to make the move into the field. Any advice would be really appreciated.

i am a master’s student here in the UK. i am graduating from university of manchester in september 2026. before this year ends i need to find a sponsored job or else i will have to apply for PSW visa, which i am very reluctant to do as its very expensive. i do see all these reels on insta on how to get one but these companies dont respond back after u apply.

i came here on a loan which would be easier to pay if i worked in the UK which is why its necessary for me get a job here.

please tell me any tips or tricks on how to get a sponsored job before this year ends.

The HR department at my employer was victim of a phishing scam. They sent my payslips to a scammer and manually changed the bank details on my HR account to reroute my pay after the scammer requested an update.

Luckily I caught the change to my bank details before payroll ran due to an automated system notifcation. But the payslips were sent as an attachment to the scammer. They were password protected, but the password was my date of birth. HR told the person who sent the email that the password was my DOB, so if they were able to find that, they would have been able to open the attachment. My payslips include my name, address, last four digits of my bank account, and my UK national insurance number.

What do i need to do to protect myself?

What are my rights in this situation?

We’re a small but growing UK team and payroll is starting to get a bit messy alongside HR and finance ..

At the moment we’re still using a mix of spreadsheets and separate tools, but it’s getting harder to keep everything consistent, especially when it comes to staff costs and making sure payroll data actually matches up with finance without loads of manual checking.

For people doing HR and payroll together, did you find it better to integrate everything into one system or keep things separate and just sync reporting across? Also curious what actually helped most when scaling, was it better reporting, payroll accuracy, or just less back and forth between teams?

thanks in advnce!

I know this sub can be a bit brutal, but please be kind or at least as kind as you can be in your replies, as I am majorly struggling mentally at the moment.

**ETA: I struggle with anxiety and depression and have done for a long time, on and off. My symptoms fluctuate depending on my stress levels, and environment is a huge trigger for me. My workplace are aware of this.

Based in the UK.

Please excuse the long story -

Been with my company 3.5 years. I know this isn’t a particularly long tenure, but in my company and role, it is considered to be 😅

Had two weeks off work at the end of last year with severe work related stress - prior to this I have no history of long term / continuous or intermittent absences. I have literally worked through migraines, food poisoning, flu, everything. I have been available all hours of the day if anyone needs anything, often logging on over the weekends despite this not being a written expectation of my role but feeling pressured to due to a cultural expectation.

When I was absent, I did raise some concerns around wellbeing, lack of adequate line management (I now have a new line manager- what’s confusing is my line manager is someone different to who I provide support to) and worries around job security (I wouldn’t have been the only one to raise this). These were not addressed, and I wasn’t offered a return to work meeting when I came back.

Skip to January - returned after Christmas to find out that the person I work with (I am in business support) had removed the majority of my role from me and was now working with someone else. I literally have barely anything to do at work now. This was all discussed and agreed without any involvement from me. I have worked with this person continuously for over three years, and we had a good working relationship, this has severed it. I was told this was temporary due to business needs, but it’s now been nearly 6 months.

A lot has happened between then and now which has resulted in me raising a grievance. This was really scary and nerve wracking to do considering the nature of my role and the company - for context, I work closely to the leadership team and have seen others face retaliation when raising concerns etc. people mysteriously disappear and then a month or two later comms is sent out saying they have “stepped away” from the business.

I was persuaded by my cousin in law who is a judge and solicitor to raise this grievance based on what I shared with her- what has happened at work and how it is impacting me. In short, I mentioned things which she said could equate to bullying and harassment, role erosion, and potential breach of contract and discrimination. This gave me the confidence to raise the grievance but ofc still causing me anxiety whilst I wait for the investigation.

Went off sick in March again with work related stress and ended up being off for longer than I had planned, in total six weeks which I know could be considered an extended sickness absence. I am not someone who frilly nilly takes time off, and my working history can attest to that. I took the time because I was suffering with severe physical symptoms of stress and anxiety including chest pains, migraines, nausea, and insomnia and I couldn’t function day to day.

During my absence I received no check-ins from anyone at all. I had zero contact from my employer. I returned at the start of this week and met with my “line manager” who said he is happy I am back and happy to provide me with any support I might need - I have been advised by my GP to wfh as I phase back into work and he is happy with this. This made me feel supported and happy to return, but the underlying issues surrounding my wider role and working environment are still present (my line manager is not aware of the details as my grievance is confidential and doesn’t involve him).

Today I was told that I need to attend a sickness absence review meeting. I was told this applies to anyone who has more than two weeks off work but when I located the sickness absence policy, this conflicts with what is written. It also appears to be very formal and says things about absence being a cause for concern, capability dismissal and more. This has really worried me and I have asked for further clarification.

I want to be clear that I am more than capable of carrying out my role, my absence is directly caused by work related stress and anxiety which until my grievance has been heard and an outcome decided, I don’t see changing. That doesn’t mean that with reasonable adjustments (such as wfh, phased return) I can’t carry out my role.

I’m worried that because I raised a grievance I am facing some sort of retaliation where they are trying to set me up for dismissal based on capability. But as I said I am more than capable and what happened in January hadn’t happened - plus what followed over the last few months - none of this would be happening now.

Please any advice that is useful would be so appreciated. Thank you so much for reading.

Apologies if this is the wrong sub....

My current employers have a bit of a funny set up. I'm based in the UK, the parent company is in the US and has several 'subsiduary' companies in different territories. There aren't many of us in the UK and when I joined nearly 3 years ago the systems and process in place for the subs were not exactly robust.

Before I started I was told by my boss at the time to purchase a laptop and expense it back, which I did. Since then they've started to bring the subs a bit more into the main company and now we have proper tech & HR support that we didn't before.

I think it's probably best that I have an actual company laptop, registered and set up by the company, rather than the current set up. However, I'm not sure if I request a new laptop, will I be required to send the existing one back? I've ended up using it for personal stuff as well as work and would ideally like to keep it.

I started a new job this year, and am coming to the end of my probation. Due to concerns around efficiency, this has already been extended.

In fairness I’m not surprised by this. I’m autistic and adhd so certain aspects of the job are challenging, but I persist and get them done, it just takes me longer. Thankfully the actual content of my work has never been an issue and I do actually enjoy the job.

The problem is my efficiency, I’m not meeting my target most days and when I do, I’m always uncomfortable bc I know it’s not my best work, it’s just about fine enough to pass.

My managers aware of my diagnosis and has always told me I can go to him for help, but in all honestly, it comes across more like a tick box exercise than genuine support. Whenever I have told him what type of support I need, he’s done it, but in a passive aggressive way.

Like I’ve asked for training sessions but they’ve never been with the people I’ve requested (who are in my team) and instead with people who aren’t all that supportive. He’s aware of that as well bc he knows they’re quite blunt and not very informative, yet he still schedules me in with them.

Or when he told me I could ask for regular scheduled breaks, and when I did, he told me it’s fine for me to take a couple minutes of personal time each day instead.

I’ve wanted to ask for my target to be lowered as a reasonable adjustment to ensure my work quality isn’t affected, but I’ve been terrified of asking bc of his weird behaviour.

Idk if I’m overthinking his actions but there’s more examples, and bc of how literal I am, I find it hard to imagine that someone just ‘accidentally’ keeps behaving like this.

I’ve now reached a point where if I don’t ask, I’ll end up failing my probation so idk whether I just finally ask? The worst thing he’ll do is see it as an excuse, but surely he’ll have to do something?

Or is it too late for me? My probation ends in the middle of June and my last 1-1 with my manager is this week. From a HR standpoint what can I expect?

Any advice is appreciated!

i realise that this may sound really silly but i have horrible anxiety

i’ve been offered a job but they won’t proceed with giving a start date until they get two references. My job gave them a reference when they asked yesterday but my other reference hasn’t responded (on holiday). I would have offered an alternative reference but they were down as my references when I applied two months ago and I didn’t consider potential holidays.

I apologised and offered an alternative reference (academic), as ive never had another job (i haven’t lied about my work history by the way).

I know this sounds silly but i’m really anxious that they’re going to take the job offer away from me over this, I know that they will give me a good reference but im worried that the new job will think i’ve lied and that it’s a huge red flag that i’ve had to give an alternative reference. I’m also worried that they’ll think that it’s taking too long.

Sorry for sounding so ridiculous, just want to know if my fears are real

Hi,

I am HR director in a call centre type workplace (250 people), part of a huge company. I sit on the site's senior leadership board, with all other directors. Our finance director has always been a "character" and not one for political correctness, but over the past 2 years or so he has clearly been influenced more and more by far right rhetoric. This has become more and more obvious.

He doesn't cross the line of saying actual racist/islamophobic things, at least not in a way that we can actually intervene. For example, we may get second or third hand comments long after the fact that he said that the UK should sink or shoot at small boats, but nothing anyone can actually corroborate.

He does however create an uncomfortable climate for some employees by openly talking about his love of certain figures such as Tommy Robinson. This is also combined with a generally poor management style (ordering people around, micromanaging, giving negative feedback in public, talking to people in an unpleasant tone in general). People working for/around him are in disbelief that nothing is being addressed.

Truth is, this was partially addressed in writing as part of a formal grievance where he received clear feedback on his management style, but also clear guidance that as a director he should not be discussing polarising topics in a public setting. This was effective for a short while. Following another report (not a grievance), he had a strong "talking to" from our superior. That was 2 weeks ago, and this week he is talking again about how this weekends far right rally in London with Tommy Robinson was great etc, for the whole office to hear. this has been reported informally.

I'm unsure how to address this. I don't think it meets the requirements to be addressed under our harassment policy. I don't want to be accused of curtailing free speech and find MYSELF on the receiving end of a grievance. I also don't want him to continue making people uncomfortable, setting a bad example, and making the rest of the leadership team especially myself look like we don't care about inclusion and diversity. Currently, everybody thinks we are letting him "get away with it" when we should be acting.

Any tips?