New job problems. Help.

Good Fortune to you, MrRobert123...

There is a "take" upon your own situation(s), which I was going to suggest here, yet thought better of it. I began  new Thread, to see what may be made of the digression...

http://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/12297/employed-temporarily-only-to-fulfil-a-legal-condition

It has nothing to do with my previous Post at that other person, here. But I wonder if this is what happens to you, and to how many other people, and it may explain any "funny" business which other people do to myself and to anyone else at times. 

Please stay strong and vigilant and be as yourself. Stay calm and logical and factual. 

Those people seem completely and utterly incompetent and dangerously so. It sounds like an accident waiting to happen and guess who will get the blame if it does, when they basically just leave you to do stuff you're not even trained for. I retract what I said before, which was that you should stay and try to make the best of it. It just doesn't seem worth the trouble. If you complain or write a letter to them it'll just get ignored, but I wonder which authority you could send an anonymous letter to in order to complain, in order that the people they care for stop being endangered by them. Maybe even a news agency or something.

The whole situation is a mess.

Firstly I'm not even sure if I'm employed by them?

I am two weeks into a six month probationary term.

I have not signed any contract of employment which specifies terms and conditions of employment.

I have not been paid a penny.

Contact with them has been by phone ( voice and text message). Asking me to start work at this address on this time and day.

I can cope with the work.  It's the politics, personal agendas and  management bullying that gets me down.

It started to go wrong on the first day.  I was shadowing a senior support worker, when the task was to bathe one of the female clients.  

She is wheelchair bound with physical/mental problems and on a cocktail of drugs.  Two care workers are always needed to move her using mechanised hoists and supports from the wheelchair to the bath etc.  It's all move this loop to this hook etc etc etc.  Some loops are colour coded, some different lengths.....  This goes here, that goes there.  I can't remember it all.  

When they started to wash her, I walked out of the bathroom to give her some privacy, thinking that it must be awful for her to have some complete stranger standing there watching her being bathed.  I knew that personal care that includes bathing and toileting is part of the job.

But the mistake I made was walking out of the bathroom.  I should have offered to join in the bathing/washing.

At the review this was the big issue.  Why did I walk out of the bathroom?  That I am not a hands on person!  What was my motivation for applying for this job?

I could almost see the humour and double meaning in this questioning. ( Hands on!!!!!!!  Washing a naked woman!!!!!)       I was being told off for not joining in the washing of a naked woman, two hours into a new job.  As for my motivation.  ( It's money).  If my motivation had been anything else!!!  I should have been sacked on the spot!!!!

A week later I was involved in bathing her with a different support worker.  This again worried me.  The written instructions in her customer care plan explicitly stated that she needed two workers to move and hoist her in and out of bed and bath and wheelchair.  There was only one worker and me shadowing.  And I was left alone in the bathroom to bathe her.  This included everything, groin, breasts etc.

Then there other trivial complaints.

Be sure to write a detailed resignation letter of exactly why you are leaving and all the breaches of their own rules there were, etc. Then you will potentially be able to claim for constructive dismissal if you decide to go that route.

Edit: Additionally, you can provide a copy of the letter to the benefits people should they complain that you left the job.

Do you think it was criticism because they felt you would never be good at the job?

Or could it be constructive criticism for you to consider during the course of next week?

The training and getting to know the team may be hard. If you look beyond that to the job itself and the client relationships - is that something you could be comfortable with? 

I've decided to leave.

I cannot cope with an atmosphere of bullying and intimidation and backstabbing colleagues.

Working there is a case of I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't.

And I only see things getting worse with a two faced management in charge.

No CCTV? Sounds like another place that'll be in the news in the not too distant future, then.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/08/somerset-care-home-staff-bullied-autistic-residents-review-finds

There is no CCTV.

I did receive a staff handbook on my first day.

But no contract of employment nor ID badge.  Although the handbook states that all staff will receive a photo ID badge which must be worn by all staff at all times while on duty.  In two weeks, I have not seen anyone wearing a single ID badge.

My main problems are with my co workers and the management.  Not with the clients we are looking after.  I can feel sympathy and empathy with people who are disabled both physically & mentally and are on a cocktail of drugs to control all types of conditions including epilepsy, antipsychotics, antidepressants etc.

@California is right, don't quit without something else to go to.

Do look for something else though. Get a job offer that is better, and then jump ship.

w.r.t. "sleeping on the job", how long was the moment that your eyes were closed? 10 seconds? Assuming you were not actually asleep, but merely collecting your thoughts after dealing with a challenging client, I think it would make sense to "grab the bull by the horns" and actively seek a few minutes with HR to put your side across - after all, I assume there is a CCTV recording somewhere that backs your version of events? You could ask HR what they thought of the recording. If they have even half a brain they'll see that your eyes only closed for a moment, but someone else was stood nattering for ages.

If HR haven't seen the CCTV recording, you could state your version of events and politely point out that if they have no other sources of data that it is their word against yours.

You can also make the point that briefly closing your eyes posed no risk to the client who was engrossed in the TV (if there had been a risk, the qualified support worker would not have been able to stand there nattering, right?).

Unfortunately, if you have just started a position, most employers are able to let you go within your probationary period without even informing you of a reason - and this is why it's rather surprising that you are receiving quite so much attention. It is almost as if they want you to quit rather than have to fill out the paperwork required for a termination.

There are also lots of clear rules and regulations in a written staff handbook which I followed but others ignored.

Main ones are clear warnings about not doing specific tasks unless one has received clear training and has been judged to be competent.

Yet they expected me to get hands on involved straight from the start without training.  Like using mechanical lifts and hoists to move clients from bed to wheelchair to baths and toilets etc.

Then there is the rule about being left alone with clients in a flat.  Two days ago while shadowing a senior support worker.  He made it clear that as an untrained beginner, it was illegal for me to be left alone with vulnerable clients in a flat and I had to leave a flat with him whenever he left.

Yet,. Before that, I had been left alone many times for 5 or 10 minutes at a time,  while staff went to other flats as required.

I feel quitting is the best option.

I'll never understand why people behave like this. Isn't that also making it all feel like a really unsafe place to themselves, where you have to be on your guard constantly because otherwise you may be the one that gets stabbed in the back by their colleagues?

I haven't quit yet.

But it's getting worse.

This morning I was called into the general managers office to explain my behaviour over two incidents from Monday.

One is serious the other almost laughable.

The existing staff are openly critical about pay, working conditions and changes to working conditions and bureaucracy.  But I was overheard commenting about being surprised about the loudness of the buzzers and how frequently various people keep coming in and out of the flat.  The general manager in charge of the complex demanded to know what I meant about the buzzers and people coming and going.  And that I was reported to have said it within hearing distance of one of the clients.

The second incident is more serious, I have been accused of sleeping on duty.  After an eight hour shift dealing with a disabled woman who has challenging behaviour, she likes to shout, sulk, head butting, sniffing people, licking my arms etc. At change over time we were sitting down watching TV.  The client was quiet engrossed in the TV show.   The qualified support worker and her replacement were deep in a gossiping session (of no interest to me).  My eyes closed for  a moment and straight away she shouted at me that sleeping on duty is a sackable offence.

Today I was formally warned that a report about my sleeping is being sent to HR and the offence is very serious.

DragonCat16 said:

Get everything in writing or record everything.

I support this advice. It is the best defence, add dates and as much as possible. Argue your case, yet try not to be hostile about it and stay logical and focussed about everything.

To Rachael...

You finally replied outside of your own Threads!

Good on you, very much.

Please reply to others more often.

Be brave and strong, and be yourself. Not easy, but keep trying.Please not just here, but to others. 

Thank You for any SUPPORT, Rachael.

Better neurotypical for better job well . 

This is what NTs don't understand about our lives. Everything is made more difficult for us because of the way they automatically treat us, without even realising why they are doing it.

Why is your manager expecting you to be perfect when you are only being paid minimum wage, anyway? That's totally ridiculous. It sounds as if you are in training, if you are just shadowing other workers. It is unreasonable to criticise you after only one week. Being reserved shouldn't be criticised. If you were failing to do as you were asked, that would be one thing, but they seem to be assuming that you should know exactly what you should be doing when you obviously haven't been told.

Try to find some relief in the fact that you are drawing a salary right now and that you are applying for other work, so you will soon be able to take charge of your own situation and have the option of leaving.

Make sure you disclose your disability and ask for reasonable adjustments as necessary. That will make them think twice before they give you another bad review or fire you. Then at least you will keep getting the salary that you need.

Ask exactly what you can do differently that will result in better reviews. Ask for it in writing, perhaps in the form of a checklist, and then you can tick off the items on the list as you accomplish them. Then they will have a difficult time giving you a bad review again. Get everything in writing or record everything.

I know how it is to get an unfair negative review. You shouldn't have to put up with that kind of treatment, and, from my own experience, I am almost certain it arises from the fact that you are on the spectrum and your colleagues have picked up on the fact that you are different and vulnerable, even if you haven't disclosed your condition.

Robert how long will you have to shadow? You are happy that you will be ok when you are not shadowing aren't you? That being the case i would stay on. 

're the answer changing advisor, I would have to report them to some one. They are not doing their job and are ultimately putting you at risk.

I have been following your posts for a while. To me you seem to be a nice man.

It is so unfair that you have to go through all this nonsense.

It is really good that financially your situation is improving.

Please do not mask your hidden disabilities. It is exhausting. You will lose yourself. Will become miserable and won't enjoy life. I know this from my experience. It is not worth it.

Always be yourself and only do what you are comfortable to do and learn to say NO, if you are not comfortable or do not want to do something. You are the most important to yourself.

Please always think about yourself. 

The job may be making me miserable.  But I had some good news financially.

The job centre gave me a monthly bus pass worth £88.

The lying employment agency advisor gave me £30 worth of gift vouchers to help with buying work clothes.

The city council approved my application for discretionary housing payment ( DHP).  And sent a cheque for over £800 to my landlord, wiping out my rent arrears.

I really understand you.

I struggle in the workplace a lot.

Do not quit.

The worse that can happen is that they will let you go. Never leave yourself. That should help with the benefits applications.

You need to ask for reasonable adjustments.

Contact the Access to Work, the Government scheme.

You will need a workplace assessment.

You also need to complain about the people who pushed you to lie to the organizations. Write and send complaints.

Put in a grievance and/or go to the Employment Tribunal.

But do not quit, even if you are giving up. I am not saying that you should carry on being miserable. Simply go there and do nothing if you cannot do anything. No one can force you to do more than you are comfortable to do.

Do not worry about the reviews. They mean nothing.

And also keep applying for all the available benefits.