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Employement terminated because of my autism

Invisible_me

Hi, 

So i made a post aboit a month ago on this job. In short though,  I reached the end of my probation period and they terminated my employment because of my autism,  the meeting and letter blatantly says "due to your autism it can not be confirmed you can meet tgis target consistently", "while you have made progress due to your autism it cannot be confirmed that you will continue to make progress." " Despite the feedback support and adjustments you have failed to meet the essential criteria of the job. ".

New performance concerns are raised on letter which wasn't even mentioned in the meeting.  

However:

  • I started job december/jan. Probation extended in August till november as a manager discretion what all employees entitled to. 
  • Adjustments put in place in may,  since then its not always been consistent. Occ health was requested in October,  report received in end november (not done a shift since them receiving report.
  • No performance concerns were raised with me, in September supervision I was praised and he said theres no reason not to pass.  No supervision since but all other informal conversations have been positive. I had made significant progress since August.and continued on,  i felt happier and enjoyed the work this was praised, recognised multiple times.  .   
  • Due to a upsetting incident at work,  I had an absence,  service manager phoned me in beg November to say i cannot pass probation because I hadn't completed an external referral (completing this cannot be guaranteed due to unpredictable nature of work, my manager said as long as I understand process its fine. They were goung to ask if I can have longer probation.  HR said depending on occupational health report.  They received this hr said no.
  • Invited to firms meeting this week where I was informed of termination for above given reasons.  

In the meeting i raised the inconsistent in adjustments she said the adjustments are no longer reasonable or practical for the service- no discussion was had with me prior stating this.  In conversation id had expressing me feeling bad for needing these adjustments,  ive always been reassured that if o need it to help its absolutely fine and shouldn't feel bad, that they are therr to supprt me.  

Where do I stand?- I feel theyve discriminated against my autism.  Ivd made lots of progress and thvr just used autism as an excuse to say theres no guarantee ill continue making progress. They've also used me struggling to communicate against me- ive really started building a rapport with my manager and communicating to him even uf it is via email ad well as face to face.  I wanted to stay!  

Parents

  • This sucks - I can offer some advice from someone who has been on the management side of this equation before that may help you put things in context:

    Invisible_me said:
    Adjustments put in place in may,  since then its not always been consistent. Occ health was requested in October,  report received in end november (not done a shift since them receiving report.

    It sounds like they made an attempt to put reasonable adjustments in place - can you explain if these worked, were withdrawn or if they were not enough to make  difference for you. The fact OH were involved shows the management were taking steps to help or at least to make it look this way.

    Invisible_me said:
    No performance concerns were raised with me

    Why did they extend probation? They normally need to detail a reason for this which would qualify as a concern.

    Invisible_me said:
    service manager phoned me in beg November to say i cannot pass probation because I hadn't completed an external referral

    This sounds like the smoking gun they can use to justify letting you go If this is the case then you will get nowhere with a discrimination case. I would ask HR to provide the company policies around this to help you and your legal team to understand if it is really the case.

    With the application of "reasonable adjustments" it can be quite hard to prove if they are "reasonable" or not - for examle if you worked in a call centre and you asked to not to have to answer the phone the this is not reasonable. Most situations can be argued in different ways to establishing the reasonableness of it needs a detailed understanding of the role and what they offered / withdrew.

    I know HR teams have legal experts on retainers to work on these sorts of cases so you need to have your own legal representative to chase it and the above info will need to be reviewed by them. We lack the detail to give a clearer opinion I'm afraid.

    Good luck if you decide to persue a claim.

  • in reply to Iain

    Hello  

    Its nice to know from the other side... in response:

    - the adjustments when implemented were helpful however these were not always consistent some operational some was dependent on what manager was on shift. Towards the beginning of adjustments implemented there were times when i felt my manager was trying to push the boundaries to see how id react so he'd turn the volume up, flickering lights switches. 

    Access to work was only approved in November. So this was like month before termination. This allowed me taxi allowance so no more buses which caused stress. Also no meeting held before to say adjustments not practical anymore.

    - okay so it was extended because in may I had 4 weeks off due to stress. I went bavk in phased with adjustments (this is when they were implemented) and had to go bavk to shadowing shifts. So at point of 6month review I'd only just restarted doing sessions on own. He also felt I needed to grow in confidence and communicate to him, team more.  Since then,  ive done sessions independently and to me consistently but to them it isn't (the word consistently is open to interpretation), im communicating to him a lot more now that rapport is built. 

    - okay so service manager called me she said, cant pass a not safeguarding referral,  but this is entirely dependent on what sessions i have through.  I haven't had that need. I understand process and my manager pointed out if this understood he let's it slide. Other things listed was: "you seem anxious on coming in,  more so now- I reassured her not so". " managers anxious around you as thry dont know how you will be,  if they can give you workload, feel unsure how to support you". While your manager has tried to support, we cannot guarantee he will always have the capacity. You have autism and our environment can be difficult for those without autism.  Is this appropriate? Thing is all my otger jobs are widely similar to, which they don't recognise and ive made huge progress. 

    - no the reasonable adjustments are things like extra regulation time, pre identified desk, space to regulate,  allowance of flexible shift time. 

    # my termination meeting was held without my line-manager due to sickness. 

    # middle October we moved base and that meant the adjustments of allocated workplace,  where to go weren't identified and my anxiety was higher so needed bit more regulation time.  But service running wasn't impacted as it was a quiter day.

    Im not sure where I stand??, if I stand a chance?? It doesn't feel fair, feels premature but its their policy. 

Reply
  • in reply to Iain

    Hello  

    Its nice to know from the other side... in response:

    - the adjustments when implemented were helpful however these were not always consistent some operational some was dependent on what manager was on shift. Towards the beginning of adjustments implemented there were times when i felt my manager was trying to push the boundaries to see how id react so he'd turn the volume up, flickering lights switches. 

    Access to work was only approved in November. So this was like month before termination. This allowed me taxi allowance so no more buses which caused stress. Also no meeting held before to say adjustments not practical anymore.

    - okay so it was extended because in may I had 4 weeks off due to stress. I went bavk in phased with adjustments (this is when they were implemented) and had to go bavk to shadowing shifts. So at point of 6month review I'd only just restarted doing sessions on own. He also felt I needed to grow in confidence and communicate to him, team more.  Since then,  ive done sessions independently and to me consistently but to them it isn't (the word consistently is open to interpretation), im communicating to him a lot more now that rapport is built. 

    - okay so service manager called me she said, cant pass a not safeguarding referral,  but this is entirely dependent on what sessions i have through.  I haven't had that need. I understand process and my manager pointed out if this understood he let's it slide. Other things listed was: "you seem anxious on coming in,  more so now- I reassured her not so". " managers anxious around you as thry dont know how you will be,  if they can give you workload, feel unsure how to support you". While your manager has tried to support, we cannot guarantee he will always have the capacity. You have autism and our environment can be difficult for those without autism.  Is this appropriate? Thing is all my otger jobs are widely similar to, which they don't recognise and ive made huge progress. 

    - no the reasonable adjustments are things like extra regulation time, pre identified desk, space to regulate,  allowance of flexible shift time. 

    # my termination meeting was held without my line-manager due to sickness. 

    # middle October we moved base and that meant the adjustments of allocated workplace,  where to go weren't identified and my anxiety was higher so needed bit more regulation time.  But service running wasn't impacted as it was a quiter day.

    Im not sure where I stand??, if I stand a chance?? It doesn't feel fair, feels premature but its their policy. 

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