So much for "doing the right thing"

[draco664]

Background:
I'm an Aussie living and working in the UK. My family and I have been here for nearly a year; I work for a large construction company in a IT/project co-ordinator role.

This past winter in the UK has been pretty harsh (for the UK). However, my youngest daughter is under 2 and is having quite severe breathing issues made worse by the cold.

So, my wife and I have decided to head on back to Australia. We checked our lease and decided to take an early break and go back in mid-June.

I gave my boss notice that I intended to leave around then. He thanked me for giving him so much time to replace me, and said that he was sad that I was leaving.

Fast forward two weeks. I got called into his office today to be told that they couldn't justify keeping me on for that long, so I've been given a week's notice.

Wonderfukl. Now we either need to pay 600 quid to bring the tickets forward or work out how to pay two months rent without an income.

Last fscking time I give any more than a single minute's more notice than my contract requires.

Anyone in London want to buy a nice, well looked after 99 toyota celica?

[Summerfly413]

I'm sorry! That's terrible.
I know exactly what date I'm putting in my two weeks at work, but I'm not telling anyone because I'm afraid what happened to you will happen to me.
I hope everything works out ok for you.

[Mystic]

Can they let you go for that reason? Not sure what laws there are there to protect workers in that situation.

Sucks though...

[dendawg]

They can in america, but this is the UK we're talking about here. Not up on their labor laws.

[Aethian]

I would talk to your boss and let him know what a bind this has put you in. Perhaps he will do the right thing even if HR are being butts.

[draco664]

I would talk to your boss and let him know what a bind this has put you in. Perhaps he will do the right thing even if HR are being butts.

Oh, he knows. As a contractor, one of the drawbacks is that my services can be dispensed with at a week's notice for any reason. HR have nothing to do with it. It's my boss's call.

That said, how's this for timing. My wife (after panicking for a bit after suddenly having our only income disappear) has already booked and paid for our adjusted tickets.

I just got a phone call from a recruiter asking if I was interested in a short term contract starting next week.

He was a bit bemused when I explained that my answer would have been yes had he called about 21 hours earlier...

[Rapscallion]

Generally speaking, the UK has far more stringent worker protection for permanent contracted workers than the US. None of this 'at will' business.

However, that only applies after being there for twelve months. It's hard to get rid of someone useless after that point, and even if you dot the I's and cross the T's in documentation, the Employment Tribunal system will still sometimes side with an employee who is proveably a liability.

Rapscallion

[draco664]

I meant to post this on Thursday, but was busy packing house.

One of the things I tend to do when working is to make myself useful. I'm exceptional at what I do, but I'm pretty good with Excel, Access, VB macros and all the rest. I developed several tools for my coworkers to use that made their job easier in the ten months that I worked with them.

It took until Thursday morning before one of them called me asking for help.

Three and a bit days between "sorry, we have no work for you" and "Shit, this isn't working, how do you fix it."