Unfair Termination at Work

So I migrated to Oz less than a year ago and I had a really hard time landing a job. I finally did manage to get a short term and not a very well paying contract job. Soon after that job ended I managed to get my dream job as a business analyst for mobile apps at one of the most reputed mobile application development companies in Australia. I had a great start at the new job, my colleagues recognized me as a very capable person and I had some very promising initial feedback.

FYI, I have worked in the space for over 6 years and I was actually a solutions consultant on mobile and web projects before migrating to Australia but I had to settle for a mid level Business Analyst job because I didn't have work exp in oz and I really wanted to rake in some good exp before moving on to better things. So I actually found the job to be very easy and not demanding at all.

One month down the line, a Senior BA in the company was promoted and made the team lead and so I had to report to her. I didn't have any issue recognizing her authority but over the course of time while she was reviewing my work she made changes to it which I didn't agree with and I communicated that to her. She didn't take it well but she had to accept it because I was able to prove that I was right but nobody except one of my colleagues working on the project was privy to this fact. I was still in my probation period and the decision to make me permanent was up to her. Towards the end of my probation, she kept trying to find fault with my work and rewrote entire documents that I had prepared with little or no change at all but it now looked like she did all my work on the project. And much of what she did was wrong and missing vital information (which is expected because she was not actively working on MY project). I knew things were starting to look bad for me now but I still tried to make sure the project was delivered to quality and so I stood my ground and explained to her all that she missed and kept showing her that she needed to make corrections till she finally gave in and made the changes. Believe me when I say that I have better technical understanding and knowledge than the lead because I actually have worked in the space longer than her and I think at some level even she was aware of that. The project was finally delivered on time and on budget. All those who worked with me on the project said that they would vouch for my abilities and the work that I did when I told them I was worried about my job security now. My colleague actually sent out a company wide email when we successfully delivered the project and praised my contribution.

During my probation review, my worst fears came true as the team lead trashed my work and said she had to do everything herself and said that I didn’t listen to her and she said that the project was a success because of her work. I was let go immediately without a chance to even talk to my colleagues. One of them actually got pissed off when he became aware of what happened and made a fuss about it and told the management that I was treated unfair and there was no wrongdoing on my part and everybody who worked with me could vouch for me. But it was too late by then. I was out of the company and without a job. I got quite a few calls and messages from people who said they were shocked by the decision. But i’m sure one week later people won’t think about it much and all memory of me will just fade away. I was prepared to give that company my full commitment because I so loved that kind of work.

Sorry for the long post which does not really have a point.. I’m just venting. I didn’t kiss ass but I never was rude either. I would like to say that I left the place with my pride intact but that's not true. My pride was hurt as I almost begged to be given another opportunity to prove my worth. My confidence is down and I’m out of a job. How do people deal with such horrible bosses?

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Comments

  • +3

    Immediately lodge a complaint with Fair Work for unfair dismissal.

    • I considered it but from what I read, it doesn't really apply to probation periods unless I was let go because of race, disability or language issue and the sorts. I also don't know what I can show as proof, I certainly can't expect my colleagues to jeopardize their jobs to stand by someone who they knew just for over two months. I'm also afraid that if I do take some kind of action, it may hurt future job opportunities cuz people talk in the recruiting circles. Lastly, I really really loved working at this company and I don't want people there to think I was an ass.

      • Depends on your state, unfair dismissal only applies if you've been employed for longer than 6 months (in NSW), but if it's discrimination, the 6 month rule no longer applies …

        I had a virtually identical situation, I'll write it in a separate post (i want to read the other replies first)

  • +5

    A very good cautionary tale for why people need to be aware of another thing in the workplace that nobody in university teaches you about: office politics. People who hold more power over you because of the natural pecking order, or perhaps they are more experienced, or perhaps they have more technical expertise, can sometimes be obsessed with recognition for hard work and they will manipulate you, or sh!t talk behind you to make you look bad.

    Office politics isn’t something you can sit out — doing so can cost you your job and if you let people in positions of power poop all over you, you'll be getting the short end of the stick. You will never be happy for as long as they are around and you will eventually leave, or get fired.

    Advocate for yourself and make it plainly clear that you are serious in your job. If you let somebody take the microphone off you and say to everyone "OP is lousy worker and I had to correct 100 mistakes before the project was completed", it's game over man. If they make noise, make even MORE noise, make yourself be heard and don't take shit from anyone who tries to backstab you.

    • +2

      I've had a similar smaller scale issue and its hard to know when and how much to rock the boat.

      I guess it comes with experience and is it far to say sometimes a fair bit of bootlicking may be necessary to survive?

      • In ops case I think he was trying to be completely passive by choosing to avoid the office shitfight. Then later gets picked on by his boss.

        Nice guys always finish last (but not always) read up on Adam Grant and his book called Give and Take.

        http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/04/interview-wharton-business…

        • Well I wasn't entirely passive. Like I said, I did stand up for what I thought was right but that ticked her off even more. I even had the backup of my team and they all told me that I was worrying too much as they have never heard of anyone getting sacked when the client and the team had no issues. And once I knew the probation review wasn't going well I told them all that I had done and where my work was undermined and seemingly "corrected" for no reason. I even told the team lead to state one example when I actually did something wrong. She couldn't make a point immediately even though she was blathering on about how many mistakes i made. But at that point the HR stepped in and said the decision was already made and I was being let go. I guess they thought it would be better to keep the more senior employee happy instead of retaining a new employee who they could easily replace by putting out a new job ad.

        • Also, if I were in their shoes I would probably listen to the opinion of a senior person I know than an almost complete stranger..

    • This. I learnt this lesson many years ago where a new manager came in (I was assistant manager) and was fired not long after for 'performance reasons'. It was obviously bullshit as no one ever mentioned anything but praise. It was clear the new manager was not winning any respect with her approach to the team and basically blamed me for it. I tried to let it be known she was 'the boss' but she still thought it necessary to stamp her approval.

      I never let myself be put in that corner again.

  • +3

    You have to act pretty quickly with Fair Work, but just know that when you are in 'Probation' there's a lot of things you aren't protected on.

  • The best option is contact the union if you currently have membership.
    If not, like others above, try contacting Fair Work and see what they have to offer.
    Good luck!

  • +1

    I'm sorry this happened to you and I sincerely hope it leads to some kind of advantage for you.

  • +1

    Lodge a case with Fair Work as a last ditch effort, but generally because it's under probation, the company will just say that you weren't a good fit for the company.
    They'll use any excuse to get out of it, but honestly, a company that has made that decision to terminate you will just force you to go back into a workplace where you feel unwanted.
    Head up and move on :)

  • +1

    Im sorry what happened to you, You will find a better job than this one. Just dont stop trying and let it attack your character.

  • +1

    I feel for you OP. Its very unfortunate that this happened to you. Office politics is definitely a scary thing and can cause someone's job. A big pat on your back for standing up for yourself and for what is right. However, with your next job you might want to consider playing it smart by passing the probationary period first before doing anything that might jeopardise your future.

    • Thanks. I did try to play it safe and I tried to smile and agree with her wherever possible. But I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. If I allowed her to do as she pleased and not correct the mistakes, then fingers would be pointed at me when the mistake came to light since I was the one who was supposed to own that part of the work. The project would have suffered.
      I have definitely learned from this experience though. Hopefully, I'll never let this happen to me again.

  • So my tale, in dot point:
    - working at a uni
    - had policy to record all lectures (technology meant that only 1/3rd were being recorded and the remainder of facilities to be upgraded over 3 years)
    - lecture capture vendor was migrating to cloud based
    - business stakeholder was tied to the vendor (went out on a limb, many times to say that they are the industry standard and best)
    - vendor claimed that they could record, dual stream video at 720p at 100mb per hour (hahahahahahha)

    Soooo, I investigated and proved the vendor to be fudging their figures, provided realistic cost projections (600,000 record & view hours per year at 1/3rd of lectures at industry standard mb / hour and $6,500 per TB of data through the cloud) …

    That conversation didn't go well

    I lodged a harassment complaint (before i left)

    Contract terminated

    Went through fair work ombudsman (who couldn't do anything enforceable), uni reps were belligerent and refused to offer anything

    Had a lovely chat with the FWO representative who said that next step was to go to federal court, but I'd need to prove harassment / bullying

    Have since lodged a GIPA / Freedom of information request to get access to any emails sent by this one person discussing myself over a one month period …

    The university is on their third stalling tactic (I'm hoping that means that there's some evidence)

    If they send it through and there's proof, then off to the fed courts I go (it'd be nice to be paid out the remainder of the contract, pain & suffering, relocation fees and the like)

    If there's nothing, then I drop it and chillax in my new role

    • +1

      As for your situation, you can't lodge a harassment claim after your employment has finished …

      Because it was within probationary period, it'll be a tough sell to find a legal avenue …

      The nature of the industry means that there's lots of people who are glory-wh*res and will attempt to steal your work …

      Side note, you're working in projects, just pass your documentation sideways for peer review, then submit directly to stakeholders …

      • Yup, your dispute seems legit. I don't see how that infrastructure could be set up cheap if it could be done at that quality at all.

        As for me, I did exactly that. I had my work peer reviewed and submitted some of my work directly without letting her see it and she told me to stop doing that and ordered me to send it to her first. She argued my peers didn't know about the quality that has to be maintained as she is the one who could make that call as she was implementing a new structure and process for doing things. Basically, it had to be her way or the highway.

        • Vendor quote: $240,000 per year (every year)
          Adjusted quote: $8,200,000 per year (after the 4th year)

          600,000 hours (current state)
          700mb / hr (720p - if the vendor could do 100mb/hr, they would have been bought by netflix already)
          1/3rd of all lectures (based on all-in lecture recording policy)

          600,000 hours x 700mb x 3 = 1,260,000 gb / year = 1260 tb at $6,500 / tb = $8,190,000

          Pretty simple to follow, even had it validated by the 12 most senior people in 12, but "he's an idiot who doesn't know what he's doing or anything about the product"

          That was before I factored in the desire for 1080p, text to voice, captioning, multi-lingual, latency issues of an off-net solution, low cost of hardware due to CISCO university discount (66% minimum), aarnet costs, existing real estate and … and … grrrrrr …

          On the plus side, not too bad for one month allocated to a project I requested because Unified Communications was ready to deploy in 45 days (instead of the 6 month proposed project) :)

    • Have you got some legal advice as yet? Is it a contractual dispute that you are going down the path of (better get a lawyer son) for your contract being terminated or pain and suffering for repeated unreasonable behaviour whilst working there?

      Either way you're going to need some advice outside of the FWO as contractual disputes and bullying are not their areas.

      Also that's a lot of specific, possibly identifying information you're putting out there for everyone to read….

      • They never got me to sign an NDA, so no concerns over being identified …

        Haven't engaged a lawyer as yet, just trying to see how far I can go, before I hit a wall and can't progress any further … will keep you posted

  • You say your are not originally from Australia? Obtaining that job while beating native ozzies shows you very capable imho

    Perhaps if your not white you could play the racist card?
    They F$%^* you over , time to return the favour

    • +1

      :)

      I am not white but there was no racism here. The lady was a migrant asian herself.

      • Could there be a cultural bias against you because she's female Asian, that is

        She is boss boss means top dog, no challenges accepted Do not correct the teacher type attitude?

        • +1

          Well she had the do not correct me attitude. When she knew I was right, she just quietly accepted things without appreciating my input in any way. Its in the past now, I don't think I can prove anything if I try to fight it. My work laptop was taken back, my work email account deleted so I can't recover mail chains and she was the only one who had control over my work and she was using my own client-side credentials while making the changes so I cant even point out the differences (or lack of) between her work and my work.

  • +3

    My mother told me this in the 1980's, as I neared the time to leave to be on my own:

    Keep a journal of all you do & all interactions as they happen.

    I thought she was incredibly pessimistic, but when I left home, I did this.

    I cannot tell you just how many of these situations I've won! I'd say, 99%. (Thank you, my wonderful, missed so much, mother, for your sage advice).

    Anything that anyone will NOT put into writing is a lie (my mother again).

    You have learned an awful lesson— but, you have learned.

    Good luck

  • It's a hard lesson to learn… That first 6 months (or 12 if a small business) in a new role where you're protections are limited. If it's a company you want to be with long term then you are at the mercy of your direct manager as it seems you found out.

    All you can really do is document your work and the criticism, bite your tongue and see out the first 6 months. Maybe in a few months time they will find out that your manager wasn't up to task…. Then again we all know someone in an organisation higher up or somehow stays there… Fairness has nothing to do with it.

    As mentioned by others above a non small business has 6 months to decide if they want to keep you on or not. They can fire you for a reason that may not be fair, just or reasonable… As long as it's not discriminatory…. And from what you said it wasn't. Chalk this down to a learning op

  • Hey OP, don't be disheartened as these kind of power plays in work places only means that your boss was threatened by your technical knowledge and experience.

    Find another workplace that'll treat you like a human being because you know your worth

    • +1

      Landed another job within a week after being let go. And this one is a more corporate and formal work environment but it pays MUCH better :)

      • +1

        That is what I hoped would happen. Excellent!

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