r/HumanResourcesUK

Hi all, what’s the difference in job roles and duties
?

Thanks

Just for context — I’ve returned to work after a period of time off sick and I am curious what reasonable adjustments I could ask for to help cope with the return to work. I feel really stuck. Two days a week I’m out with clients, and the other two days, I’m WFH doing customer service calls and data entry (it’s a split role). Last week I had light desk duties but I’ve been expected to return to my full duties this week which makes me feel nauseous and is affecting my mental health. All I’ve had are panic attacks all weekend. Does anyone have any ideas of reasonable adjustments I could ask for to help facilitate a gentler return to work? Maybe one client a week for now? I really don’t want to have to go back on sick leave. Thank you.

I (23F) have those 1 narcolepsy and am prescribed modafonil to keep me awake during the day. Everyone including my boss is aware. It’s highly regulated and took many years of back and forth to get the meds due to its medical risk.
Modafonil is a popular ‘smart drug’ sought after to stimulate excessive concentration for those who don’t have a condition.
Late on Friday night (drunk) my manager text me asking if I could “help out a friend” by letting him purchase some of them off of me. Saying he needed to write a long essay. I obviously said no.

It was a message sent to me on WhatsApp rather than our normal regulated conversations on teams.
It made me extremely uncomfortable and angry.

My question is whether this is a serious issue or whether it would get swept under the rug by HR.
My frustration towards him is clouding my judgement but what he’s asking me to do is illegal and messaging outside of working hours is also extremely unprofessional.

Do I bother contacting HR or will it just be dismissed.

Hi there, I was wondering if I could get some clarity and peace of mind with an issue I’m dealing with.

Long story short, 2025 was a horrible year for me; myself and my partner bought a flat together in April of last year and while she was struggling with her own physical and mental health I had to organise everything around the mortgage and all the practicality with the move out/in date. Her mental health continued to deteriorate over the summer of 2025 to the point whereby she became suicidal which subsequently adversely impacted on my own mental health and on my ability to carry out my job in a professional capacity.

At the time, I was working within a local government authority within social work resources. I had been employed by them since June 2023 and have never had any issues at work prior to last summer. My partner at the time was also engaging with the addiction services provided by the local authority. She had asked me if I could check whether there were any updates on her file etc. as she knew I had access to these things given my role.

I was going through a lot at the time and through a lot of pressure and stress, my mental health was in the pits and my professional judgment severely clouded. Before anyone jumps to conclusions, the time of this incident I didn’t have the wherewithal to see that me accessing her file without a business requirement was a total no go due to GDPR and breach of council code of conduct - I simply thought I had a duty of care towards my partner. I don’t dispute what I did was wrong and I take full responsibility and accountability for my actions.

Anyway, all this led to a lengthy investigation, with me being on sick leave for 3 months due to my mental health plummeting down the drain with a mortgage on the line and I was eventually dismissed for gross misconduct 2 days before Christmas.

I have since managed to pick myself up and regain some kind of normality to my life. I was recently offered 2 separate jobs within two different departments at a different local authority which I accepted. I’m currently in the process of going through the pre-employment checks. What I’m most worried about are the references. They have asked me to provide at least two references one of which should be from my most recent employer/line manager - I’ve put down her contact detail and I should say I really got on with my line manager and never had any issues in the office with either her or my work colleagues. I have also provided another 3 references instead of the minimum of at least 2.

I am worried whether the reason for leaving my previous employment would be mentioned by the referee. I know that references have to be factual and an employer can and has the right to mentioned if I had been dismissed for gross misconduct. I have currently been offered a conditional offer from my prospective employer; I don’t have any criminal convictions and I have not been barred from any regulatory bodies as I’ve never been a member of any as such. I’m worried if the gross misconduct is mentioned in the reference, will my prospective employer automatically withdraw their conditional offer or seek to clarify things with me before potentially withdrawing said conditional offer.

Any help or clarity would be appreciated on this. Thanks.

In short, I was found to have (inadvertently) been in breach of our company's expenses policy and was told I'd be investigated. This had a severe impact on my mental health to the point where Occupational Health declared I was temporarily unfit for work, but I agreed on their advice that I should still cooperate with the investigation to get it solved as soon as possible and not prolong the situation.

A month has passed, the investigation is still ongoing, and I'm still signed off due to worsening mental health symptoms. Members of my family are trying to persuade me to return to work because they believe being off sick is either impeding the investigation (even though I've given them my personal contact details and the investigation meeting took place while I was signed off sick) or my prolonged absence will influence the decision on how I'll be disciplined (I.e. he took so much time off, let's sack him)

I believe neither of these to be true but would appreciate someone who knows a lot more about this stuff than I do to give me their take please?

I am looking for advice regarding my employment situation and my rights under UK employment law.
Background
I have worked as a Facilities at a university for approximately six years. I am employed by an external agency that provides contracted services to the university.
My main role in Facilities rather than a dedicated security role. Although I hold an SIA licence, the licence is an additional requirement for aspects of my work rather than the main purpose of my position.
SIA Licence Issue and Suspension
In January 2024, I received a conviction for battery and was given a 12-month community order, which ended on 3 January 2025.
I did not notify the SIA at the time because I genuinely misunderstood the notification requirements. I accept that I should have checked the rules and taken responsibility for informing them.
During my SIA licence renewal process in 2026, the issue came to light. My licence application was affected, and my Licence Dispensation Notice (LDN) was subsequently cancelled.
My agency then suspended me without pay, stating that I could not perform licensable security duties without valid SIA authorisation.
I am engaging with the SIA process and seeking a positive outcome regarding my licence application/appeal.
Upcoming TUPE Transfer
I understand that the contracted services are due to transfer from the agency to the university at the beginning of December 2026 under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations).
I am concerned about whether I will transfer to the university while my SIA application or appeal is still ongoing and while I am suspended without pay.
Questions I Would Appreciate Advice On
Is my agency legally entitled to suspend me without pay in these circumstances, particularly when my main role is Facilities Assistant rather than a dedicated security officer?
Could the agency be required to consider alternative duties that do not involve licensable security work while my SIA issue is being resolved?
If I remain employed but suspended without pay when the TUPE transfer takes place, would I normally transfer to the university with the rest of the transferring workforce?
Could the incoming employer refuse to take me across, or could the transfer be affected because my SIA application or appeal is unresolved?
Would TUPE protect my existing employment terms and other contractual rights, and what would happen to any ongoing suspension?
Is there anything I should do now to protect my employment rights before the transfer?
I would particularly appreciate advice from anyone experienced in UK employment law, TUPE transfers involving contractors, or cases where an employee’s regulatory licence is pending or under appeal.
Thank you for any guidance.

I used to work at the same place as my wife and on Friday, my ex boss who is still my wife’s boss called me at my new employer.

To put some context on it. Our daughter was sick so under school rules she has to be off 48 hours after being sick.

I was unable to look after her Thursday, so my wife did.

My wife’s employer believes she was at a job interview saying “you were seen at (the location”

My wife told her employer she looked after our daughter Thursday and I was looking after her Friday,

Essentially her boss (my ex boss) did not believe her and called my direct line (not sure how she got that) at my
New employer as she knew were I worked now.

After I hung up she called me employers reception asking for me claiming to be from a cleaning company. As I work as a premises manager she may think I’d call back or take her call. The telephone number however was the number for my old employer not from a cleaning company.

So essentially my old employer was calling to see if I was at work to see if my wife was lying.

Now my location is of no concern to my former employer. Her employee (my wife) was at work. No investigation was opened at my wife’s work and/or she was not notified at least.

I believe she has breached professional and privacy laws and am looking to take her down for it however I’m not sure.

I’m waiting to hear from my union rep to see where I stand.

We are both in England.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

I've been in my current role for four years. From December last year until the middle of May this year, I was on shared parental leave.

My company's promotion cycle works like this:

• Self-evaluations and manager reviews take place in June.
• Promotion decisions are announced in October.

Before I went on leave, my line manager told me I was getting close to promotion level. He suggested that I set goals and demonstrate my capabilities in the months leading up to my leave so that I wouldn't effectively lose a year of promotion progress while I was away.

Based on that conversation, I put a lot of effort into delivering against those goals before going on leave.

Last week, I had my promotion feedback meeting. My manager told me I had performed well, but I wasn't promoted. Naturally, I was disappointed because I believed I had done what was expected based on the guidance I'd been given.

To be clear, my manager never said that taking shared parental leave affected the decision, and I know that explicitly penalising someone for taking leave would not be acceptable. At the same time, I only worked for part of the review cycle because I was away for five months.

What makes this more complicated is that I knew I was in a strong position for promotion before taking leave. Even so, I decided to take the time off because the opportunity to spend those early months with my baby is something I'll never get back.

Going into it, I understood there was a chance that taking a lengthy leave might affect my promotion timeline, and I tried to prepare myself for that possibility. However, now that the decision has actually been made, I find myself more disappointed than I expected. Part of me wonders whether I'm being unreasonable or contradictory: I consciously prioritised family over career progression for a period of time, yet I'm still upset about missing out on the promotion.

Am I being reasonable in feeling disappointed given the expectations that were set before my leave, or was it unrealistic to expect a promotion in a year when I was absent for nearly half of the review period?

My company has informed me they're going to make me redundant and offered me a settlement agreement lieu of that (they specify 'risk of redundancy' but essentially they are saying we will make you redundant if you don't accept this).

They've offered me 3 month PILON plus 1 month wages ex gratia. I did some research, spoke to a lawyer and was informed the average tends to be a fair bit higher than that, so I countered for 4 months plus a few others bits. They've come back offering 2 weeks more pay and rejecting the other pieces.

I've worked there for 5 years and earn £115k at director level (basically middle management).

I can obviously keep trying to negotiate, and clearly I am getting lowballed. They do want me to stay and do a handover pre the notice period for a few weeks, but other than the threat of potentially a poor handover (which I don't think they'd feel is the end of the world), I don't really see what cards I hold from a negotiating standpoint. I'm happy to negotiate hard, but you have to actually have some cards in hand, and potentially I'm ignorant of cards I do have from a legal or HR perspective.

Any thoughts on how, or whether, I could actually get a better deal?

So I have been at my job for over 9 months and they normally have this whole probation process which should wrap up in 6 months. My line manager was off on mat leave so nothing got started until month 2 and then despite filling out a self assessment form and my line manager filling out something and sending it to HR... We've heard nothing. Been chasing for months and it's nothing.

For further context, they've completely changed their probation process between me starting and my probation stuff happening, as well as a load of staffing stuff which has taken up a lot of their time.

Of course as I haven't heard anything, I'm in the dark about policies around sick leave etc or even where I stand at the moment with notice either side can give.

I've had such an awful time that I have started job hunting and there's a decently paid mat leave contract which would give me 12 months for my non compete to pass but the shorter notice will definitely give me a much better chance of getting the job as they need someone to start ASAP.

So I guess the question is... As I've not had the official word yet and so the out of probation stuff hasn't kicked in, could I get away with just giving them a week's notice? Or would they be able to claim that 9 months is enough time?

I was dismissed for gross misconduct (described as theft/dishonesty) after a disciplinary hearing. I have less than two years' service, so I know I cannot bring ordinary unfair dismissal. I am pursuing a wrongful dismissal claim (breach of contract – notice pay).

My question is: in a wrongful dismissal claim, does the tribunal look at how flawed the investigation was, or is it only interested in whether I actually did what I was accused of?

Here is the situation roughly without going into too much identifying detail:

The dismissal letter says they considered my explanation that I believed the transaction was mine, but still concluded it was theft and dishonesty. They never made a finding on whether I actually had dishonest intent.

They never interviewed the colleague whose name was on the transaction, the one person who could confirm or deny whether I knew it was theirs.

There were two versions of the hearing minutes. The original omitted my explanation for why I did not speak to a manager before making the change. The amended version added it back. The manager accepted the omission and corrected it.

The dismissal letter was sent to a suspended work email. I did not receive it until 10 days after the stated termination date. The manager then re-dated the letter but left the termination date unchanged. I was suspended with pay at the time.

My appeal was directed to someone who was on annual leave, with no alternative contact.

I know wrongful dismissal is about whether I actually committed gross misconduct, not whether the employer's process was fair. But do tribunals take any of this into account when deciding whether the employer has proved their case? Or is it only about the facts?

I’ve already started the process with ACAS

Any advice from people who have been through this or know employment law would be appreciated.

Hi all,

Looking for a second opinion on a tricky situation as I feel like I’m going a bit crazy and would be interested in other perspectives.

We have an employee returning from maternity leave in a few months. Their role pre-leave was an executive assistant to one of our C-suite and it regularly requires out-of-hours working across evenings and weekends and in-office hours linked to their executive’s schedule. This can vary based on a number of factors but it has been included in the job description since day 1.

A few months ago as part of a scheduled KIT day the employee wanted to discuss their role on their return to work. They shared that they had concerns about out of hours working and childcare responsibilities and time with their little one. They also raised concerns about career advancement opportunities and the ability to work on new projects (their existing role has no further career progression prospects or time for new projects).

We took this feedback on board and offered them a suitable alternative role with a similar title, same rate of pay, job level, stable working hours that could fit flexibly around childcare, career progression and new projects. The employee turned it down, confirming they will return to their pre-leave role.

In a follow up KIT day meeting, the topic of out of hours working was raised as a requirement and the employee became quite upset, saying that it would be unfair to ask them to work in the evening during their time with their child and that they aren’t the first person in the company to have a child so why are they expected to work. They said they expect their boundaries to be respected on their return.

This leaves us in a tricky position as the role requires out of hour support and we have already considered job sharing but for a number of issues won’t work. It feels like an incredibly sensitive topic and we want to do the right thing but need to manage expectations.

How would you approach this situation?

Hi everyone,

I've fractured my spine and am on week 5 of recovery.

I have a manual job and need to be a bit more careful when returning to work as a result.

The consultant was quite laid back when I last spoke to him 2 weeks ago and said I could start phasing my return at week 7 and didn't give me any more guidance other than 'see how you go and how you feel, only you know how it feels'

Yet to speak to my employer but I'd like to suggest a phased return like this:

- Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, mornings only for the first week

- Monday - Friday mornings only for 2 weeks following

- back to full time on the 4th week

*My questions to you all:

- Do I need to get a sick note to state I need a phased return or can me and my employer just discuss and agree to that between ourselves?

- When I'm phasing back, am I still entitled to any SSP or does that stop as soon as I start working in any capacity again?*

Thanks everyone!

Hi all,

I need advice in regards to this I am currently going through a workplace investigation this investigation has taken around almost 4 months. Since this time I have observed incidents of my rights being breached and my hours/opportunity for overtime has been reduced, including my rights being breached during the investigation process.

I have whistleblowed under company policy, but I wouldn’t want my claim to be treated as a personal grievance. I have also put in a grievance against a number of people that have made vexatious allegations against myself and it being raised in bad faith.

What are the general facts of constructive dismissal and why is it hard to prove & make a claim ?

I couldn't really find a similar scenario so thought I'd ask for advice on my own situation.

I'm in my 50's and have been doing IT technical support for 25 years, also have a degree from back in the 90's. I'm fed up with IT and would like to cross train, I have 0% knowledge of HR or management experience.

Is my best option CIPD3 or should I go directly on CIPD5. I would struggle to do an online based course, so would prefer in person / hybrid and I'd be funding by myself and doing it around my current role

thanks

Hey all. I feel like I've been stuck in the admin side of HR for a while now, 3 years to be precise. I've noticed when applying for jobs, the difference in salary between admin and officer/analyst is substantial but all required casework or ER experience.

What's the best way to make the leap? I've tried asking internally but they also want someone with casework/ER experience so I feel stuck.

Thanks