Tuesday, 27 September 2022 – Lose a Bet, Win a Job

On 23 August, we had our Team Start-of-the-30-day-redundancy-consultation Meeting in which I asked the HR representative leading it why those of us in the team who are the only candidates for our jobs on the basis that we’re already doing them have to be interviewed for them rather than simply assimilated into the “new” roles.  Friday 23 September marked the end of the 30 days.  We in the Employment and Skills Team have been told previously and separately by our manager that, in the week following the end of the consultation period, the process would be that we would submit a written expression of interest in our respective jobs, then be interviewed by him in a “light-touch” approach and then be confirmed in post for Friday.

By the end of yesterday, we had heard nothing from HR about their conclusions from their consultation of us, even if this was just to provide an answer to my question.  We had also not heard from our manager.  Today at noon, we had our regular weekly senior officer team meeting set up by our manager four months ago in which he has now attended three and didn’t turn up to this one.  Nor did anyone from the Business and Enterprise Team so it was just me, our Policy Officer and the team’s graduate (on a six-month cycle of working in different services so not affected by the team restructure).

“Have you heard anything from the boss about applying for the jobs?”, I asked.

 

“No, not yet, but it will all be done this week” my colleague assured me.

 

“But we haven’t even heard back from HR on the outcome of the consultation.  How are we supposed to be confirmed in post by Friday; it’s already Tuesday afternoon?”

 

Sometimes tolerating my cynicism and sometimes find it wearing, to the amusement of the graduate, we made a bet.  He bet a pint next time we met in the pub, hopefully to celebrate eventually having jobs and contracts of employment, that we would both be confirmed in post by Monday.

Our manager has insisted that HR has been a stickler on the formal redundancy and restructure process, this long after it has made any sense.  The process explained to us is, we have to make a written application for our jobs before being interviewed for them.  It has been called a written “expression of interest” but that usually then entails a justification for why we are interested and why they should be interested in us, which is basically a written application.  For this to be the formal process, there must at least be a hypothetical possibility of our failing to justify our interest.  If so, then they must give us some time to write the application, presumably at least a day.  Otherwise, HR could be accused, in an employment tribunal, of contriving our dismissal by not giving candidates reasonable time to prepare an acceptable application.  Then we have to be interviewed.  Again, there must at least be the hypothetical possibility of failure or why bother and not just assimilate us as is the common-sense thing to do?  If so, they must give us some time to prepare for it; one would think at least a day.  And, between them, the two heads of service have to interview ten people in their teams, as well as they being interviewed themselves by the Director (they, too, are part of the restructure).  And HR hasn’t sent us their conclusion to the redundancy consultation yet.  They have to give feedback to their consultation of the team (that is, answer my question) which they have to do before they can confirm the redundancies and new team structure, create the jobs and then start recruiting to them.  The latter involves sending us all the Job Descriptions for which we have been ringfenced, something HR stubbornly claimed in our Team Start-of-the-30-day-redundancy-consultation Meeting, despite all evidence to the contrary, we can’t possibly have seen before, and therefore we cannot possibly know that they are similar enough to our current roles to claim that we could know we could just be assimilated into them.  How could we possibly be confirmed in post by Monday?  Even if our manager and HR suddenly became effective and vital human beings, there just simply isn’t enough time left in the week to recruit the whole team compliantly giving us all a chance to read and make sense of the job descriptions, make a written application, for all the applications to be read by the managers and give feedback to HR, to invite those successful for an interview, give us time to prepare, write up the notes to the interviews and send them to HR and then HR send written confirmation of appointment, which usually is a contract of employment, by the end of Thursday so that we are in post on Friday.  And these, I know in my bones, are not effective and vital human beings.  Our team manager hasn’t even turned up to his own team meeting.  And didn’t say he wasn’t going to either.  We just knew.  And now we are betting on his effectiveness as a manager in that same meeting.

Then, at 2:22pm, I get an email from our manager:

“Hi Paul,

“I haven't been able to get HR to reconsider the need for an interview to confirm you into your new post. Appreciate this is frustrating, but I am keen to move on and progress this as easily as I can so you can start your new role officially from Monday 1^st October [Monday is 3 October].

“Is there a time this week that works best for you for a light touch 30 min interview. (sic)  Likely to be 1:1.

“I want to make sure the time is productive, (sic) the single question I will be asking is: What are the key challenges and opportunities you see in the SV and S106 area for H&F accross [sic] the next 12 months.

“Best Regards,

“[Head of Employment and Skill]”

 

Righto, so we’re not bothering with the redundancy consultation anymore then?  And there will be no expressions of interest made; that’s just assumed now?  And I’m going to be interviewed for the job without having been sent the Job Description which HR and the Head of Business and Enterprise said I can’t possibly have seen?  And HR hasn’t rowed back on their patronisingly-delivered assertion in our meeting that I can’t possibly know what the new Job Description is?  Or answered my question?  Or acted in any way that would indicate that a consultation ever happened? 

According to this email, without giving a reason, HR has told the Head of Service, my manager, who failed to attend his team’s Team Start-of-the-30-day-redundancy-consultation Meeting, that I can’t be assimilated into the role.  And he has given me the interview question to prepare because, as he says, his objective of the interview is productivity.  The objective of the job interview is obviously not to find the best candidate for the job because I have already been doing the job for eight months and one would think that that is enough time to assess whether he thinks I am right for the job or not, and he’s not going to learn anything more about me by meeting me for half an hour.  We’ve already met.  It is an enormous interview question to answer but one he can’t possibly have an opinion on himself, so he will be at the mercy of my experience.  And I have time to prepare something thoughtful.  I could just read him out the contents of this diary but I only have 30 minutes.  And the tone of this email is this is just an HR hoop to jump through so that he can have me in post (and paid) from Monday.

I have to admit, I didn’t see this coming.  My colleague, Policy Officer, did, though.  And now I probably owe him a pint as well as having to admit to him, in front of our witness, the amused graduate, that he was right.  Perhaps he has demonstrated to me that it is good to have faith in our superiors and be less cynical.  But, then again… why did he bet that we would be in post by Monday?  Why not Friday?  Both days seemed completely impossible given we, up until now, were following a formal redundancy and restructure process.  We were told originally by our manager that the plan was we would be in post by Friday.  And, in the above email, our manager now says Monday.  Monday is a strangely specific claim to make by my colleague since it was never the plan… unless he already knew something.  My email from our boss came less than two hours after our meeting.  Could he already have spoken to him?  I suspect I have been hustled.