Job offer retracted

[Redraven93]

Hi everyone,

Sorry to offload - today i've had a really down day. I left my old job in the NHS a few months ago after being treated like crap by other staff members because of my anxiety. Long story short, when feeling suicidal last year because of how stressful my boss was making my life i foolishly posted on my twitter account that my boss was a b****. I never stated their name, used my real name or a picture of myself, but 6 months later a colleague of mine found out it was me and reported me, for which i was told i was to undergo a formal investigation. I handed in my notice the next day and was on sick leave for my notice period, so i was never informed of what happened regarding the investigation.

Go down the line a few months and i had an interview for a really amazing job (also NHS) and got offered the job verbally, pending references. I have only worked one job before so i had to use my old boss as a reference, as well as an old college tutor. Fast forward to today and i have a call from the job, retracting their offer making me jobless once again. I don't know what to do. I am running out of money, the suicidal thoughts are creeping in again and i have nobody else i can ever use for another job reference. I just feel so bad, like i've ruined my chance at a job forever!

[Kuatir]

You should be able to raise a grievance aganst a former employer or colleagues. You made a mistake with Twitter, but you were pushed to breaking point. My thinking is (and I'm no expert) that you might be able to get a bad reference written off at the least.

You might find some helpful information here: http://www.acas.org.uk/?articleid=1670 ,but also try speaking to the Citizen's Advice Bureau.

[brucealmighty]

very tough situation but as kuatir says there are a number of options

employment law solicitors can advise you regarding your next moves, and ACAS and the CAB are indeed very useful. I was in a similar situation some years back and I was able to use people from my previous job for references, not the managers I had problems with.

no matter what happens there are always options. there are any number of jobsearch engines nowadays so upload your CV and be hopeful. I know how you feel but I promise you have every chance of a job somewhere regardless of one blip.

keep your head up and don`t give up

[MyNameIsTerry]

You should be able to raise a grievance aganst a former employer or colleagues. You made a mistake with Twitter, but you were pushed to breaking point. My thinking is (and I'm no expert) that you might be able to get a bad reference written off at the least.

You might find some helpful information here: http://www.acas.org.uk/?articleid=1670 ,but also try speaking to the Citizen's Advice Bureau.

I thought you couldn't legally give a bad reference? So, an employer may refuse to give one or give a poor one instead, which would be legal.

Grievance policies are for employees, the OP is now a member of the public to them. The question is whether the NHS has a specific policy but there would be no obligation to since an ex employee would normally be making a complaint outside of employees rights.

The OP resigned and it's not clear whether they completed the investigation. It sounds like they may have let it slide because of the resignation as they couldn't conduct it in the time or maybe even let it go under the circumstances due to being signed off sick. The would have had to involve the employee in their disciplinary process, even if they chose not to comply so they would at least need to send letters.

Many companies have social media policies these days. Mine did and they used it to dismiss people but in their case it was because they were running the company down. I have to despair at a world where you can't express your opinion over your company being crap without fear of reprisal just because you wrote it on social media!

I wish this new avenue was closed off to employers, I see no issue in calling your boss a name. It's certainly not illegal. Talk about madness?!!!

I guess the question is the reference. But how do you prove a bad reference has been given? They may have decided based on absence rates? I would take the prospective new employer to stand by you in giving a statement otherwise there will be no proof. It would be worth finding out what is on file about the complaint that was raised by the other member of staff, if it was a complaint even since it could have been the old manager, and whether they pursued it. If they didn't inform the employee at the time, they will have broken disciplinary procedures but it's harder to do things once you've left since you are in the realm of legal action, tribunal, etc.

OP - there are ways around references. Do some voluntary work and gain new references :winks: Some employers only go back so far in obtaining references, some do a year or two and some just do the last place you worded, so you can put some distance between yourself and your old place. Maybe even do some agency work to insert new employers in front out them and you soon put some distance there, it doesn't have to be a dream job, it's a means to an end.

Good luck. There is plenty of support on here for your anxiety too.

[Kuatir]

I thought you couldn't legally give a bad reference? So, an employer may refuse to give one or give a poor one instead, which would be legal.

Grievance policies are for employees, the OP is now a member of the public to them. The question is whether the NHS has a specific policy but there would be no obligation to since an ex employee would normally be making a complaint outside of employees rights.

The OP resigned and it's not clear whether they completed the investigation. It sounds like they may have let it slide because of the resignation as they couldn't conduct it in the time or maybe even let it go under the circumstances due to being signed off sick. The would have had to involve the employee in their disciplinary process, even if they chose not to comply so they would at least need to send letters.

Many companies have social media policies these days. Mine did and they used it to dismiss people but in their case it was because they were running the company down. I have to despair at a world where you can't express your opinion over your company being crap without fear of reprisal just because you wrote it on social media!

I wish this new avenue was closed off to employers, I see no issue in calling your boss a name. It's certainly not illegal. Talk about madness?!!!

I guess the question is the reference. But how do you prove a bad reference has been given? They may have decided based on absence rates? I would take the prospective new employer to stand by you in giving a statement otherwise there will be no proof. It would be worth finding out what is on file about the complaint that was raised by the other member of staff, if it was a complaint even since it could have been the old manager, and whether they pursued it. If they didn't inform the employee at the time, they will have broken disciplinary procedures but it's harder to do things once you've left since you are in the realm of legal action, tribunal, etc.

OP - there are ways around references. Do some voluntary work and gain new references :winks: Some employers only go back so far in obtaining references, some do a year or two and some just do the last place you worded, so you can put some distance between yourself and your old place. Maybe even do some agency work to insert new employers in front out them and you soon put some distance there, it doesn't have to be a dream job, it's a means to an end.

Good luck. There is plenty of support on here for your anxiety too.


Yeah, good points. I retract my statement!

Nothing stops you from asking for the reasons why the job offer was taken away. That might be the next step. You can't take action if you are not sure what you are taking action against.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yeah, good points. I retract my statement!

Nothing stops you from asking for the reasons why the job offer was taken away. That might be the next step. You can't take action if you are not sure what you are taking action against.

It's still a good point to get advice from ACAS, CAB, etc that you mentioned.

It would be worth knowing whether the NHS do anything different to the private sector. If they internally use information in a different way? The NHS actively discriminate against patients without a care, and no reprisal to protect us, do it wouldn't surprise me if they have rigged processes against their employees too.

[randomforeigner]

Don't offload stuff on the internet that you don't want GCHQ and *everybody* else to read. Anyway, there's a book called "What Color is Your Parachute? 2016: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers" which I read before (not the latest version) and it has a great many pieces of advice in it. Also, you might want to look into what job options you have open, not only the amazing ones. Make a list of your friends, neighbours, your parents' friends and neighbours, the college tutors, etc. and decide how you can ask them about job openings or advice. The book explains how to do these things. Anyway, from what I gather you don't know why the job offer was retracted. Maybe you were one out of three candidates and they simply opted for another one. Or they discovered they ran out of money in their budget. Or they realized too late they had formulated the job opening in the wrong way, and will now go and look for some other type of person. Look also into other areas than the NHS (if that was your primary choice). If you look for a job in the private sector, you can always say you've changed your mind and want to try out working in the private sector. Look for smaller companies where you will talk to the manager directly.

[Pipkin]

Get some advice if you feel aggrieved but, ultimately, it's up to the prospective employer how they select and, as long as they can demonstrate fairness, they've done nothing wrong.

Social media is very tricky as employers are well within their rights to use it as part of the selection process as long as it's not discriminatory against someone with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. Mental health is covered under disability but you would need to prove a clinical diagnosis and that your on-line comments made clear this disability. You would also need evidence that this was the reason for your non-selection. A verbal offer and then no job offer can't be treated legally as a retraction without written evidence to support it.

I'd recommend you review your social media profile and try again. Not an expert but I am an employer. And I'm very sympathetic!

Pip

[MyNameIsTerry]

The first question I would have is - what happened to that investigation? If they dropped it, there won't be anything on file and all that any prospective employer would get would be a reference without it stating the employee resigned and spent their notice signed off.

There may be nothing to even fight for in this case. So, finding out what HR have is the first job. If a manager is telling prospective employers about the investigation when nothing progressed, then that may need addressing as a matter of conduct because until a hearing, nothing has been determined about whether conduct has been breached. But to get to this, you need to know what has been said and the prospective employer may choose to stay out of that if they have enough to justify not taking you on and we are talking the NHS here, an organisation that is big on not admitting liability until forced to.

If something is on file such as an investigation and a hearing that determined a breech in conduct, it's important to know about it. It should have been communicated.

Challenging that because of suicidal feelings of the time may depend on the willingness of the old employer to accept it's not worth it and bin it. They can equally dig their heals in as it's going to be very difficult to argue without something to confirm the condition.