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Capability meeting

Steel Icarus

Steel Icarus

we move
I've been summoned by my line manager and the HR advisor to a capability meeting tomorrow (Monday).

I work in a college and the week before last I had a very bad week. HR were being incredibly difficult about releasing me to do union steward training, and in the end two senior managers took me into an empty classroom to tell me I wouldn't be allowed to attend the start of the course (which was subsequently rearranged after my union branch intervened). My supervisor had a go at me for a jokey, off-the-cuff remark I made but she did it in front of several of my colleagues. I'm having mental health trouble with general anxiety disorder overwhelming me at times, and having to be covered while I have counseling and also having time off with ill kids has made some colleagues irritated with me. All this happened over a few days, and in the week with the anniversary of my brother being killed which set off my anxiety in the first place.

So last lesson Friday was I.T. and there was no teacher. It's not my job to supervise or keep order, but I've been instructed in the past to stay in class as usual and provide usual support, which I did for the few students I support in that class. And I'd had enough and couldn't be arsed so I basically turned a blind eye to them playing battle tanks or chess or whatever - and was caught by the head of department (who spent the lesson in his office and went home 20 mins before college ended).

So I'm to take a bollocking for that and also saying I'm feeling like my motivation and mojo is absent at the moment. I feel genuinely sick with worry about going to work tomorrow.
 
S☼I said:
It's not my job to supervise or keep order,
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I don't suppose 'I was doing you a favour out of my role,' would be helpful. Its what I'd want to say. 'I try to play for the team by stepping over and above my role and this is what the reaction is?' etc 'on a friday afternoon when I'm supposed to take on responsibility that isn't mine, but I do to keep the classes going? Where was the cover? Am I at fault for your not having cover?'

but thats probably a bad idea and why I am unemployed lol

in any case, keep it zen and don't let the bastards get an inch on ye
 
Yeah, half of me wants to demonstrate the indignation I feel about it, half wants to say sorry, sure, tell me procedure for future
But they have to recognise what a large amount of stress I feel under. For goodness sake I spent my bus journey home on that Friday with my fingers in my ears trying to breathe sensibly and trying to block out all the noise...not actual noise, the input.
 
have they said what this meeting is actually about?

capability suggests the possibility that they are questioning the health stuff / time you have had off, rather than disciplinary (as in allegedly not doing your job properly)

does the procedure allow for union representation at a capability meeting? have they given you enough time to arrange this? can you ask for meeting to be postponed until you can?

is the health problem sufficiently long term to be considered a disability under equalities legislation?

what's the background to you (and colleagues on similar sort of grades - if there are any) covering where there isn't a teacher?

what's the general relationship between management / union there? is there a possibility they are getting at you for union activity?

i'm aware from some past workplaces that if a union rep is up on a disciplinary charge, they are entitled to representation by someone from branch office - have you alerted your branch / region (or whatever structure your union has) to this?
 
S☼I said:
I've been summoned by my line manager and the HR advisor to a capability meeting tomorrow (Monday).

I work in a college and the week before last I had a very bad week. HR were being incredibly difficult about releasing me to do union steward training, and in the end two senior managers took me into an empty classroom to tell me I wouldn't be allowed to attend the start of the course (which was subsequently rearranged after my union branch intervened). My supervisor had a go at me for a jokey, off-the-cuff remark I made but she did it in front of several of my colleagues. I'm having mental health trouble with general anxiety disorder overwhelming me at times, and having to be covered while I have counseling and also having time off with ill kids has made some colleagues irritated with me. All this happened over a few days, and in the week with the anniversary of my brother being killed which set off my anxiety in the first place.

So last lesson Friday was I.T. and there was no teacher. It's not my job to supervise or keep order, but I've been instructed in the past to stay in class as usual and provide usual support, which I did for the few students I support in that class. And I'd had enough and couldn't be arsed so I basically turned a blind eye to them playing battle tanks or chess or whatever - and was caught by the head of department (who spent the lesson in his office and went home 20 mins before college ended).

So I'm to take a bollocking for that and also saying I'm feeling like my motivation and mojo is absent at the moment. I feel genuinely sick with worry about going to work tomorrow.
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tell them to shove their meeting until you can get a union rep to accompany you.

although i would email them in the morning and say 'thank you for your invitation to a meeting to discuss my ability to discharge my duties. i would be grateful if you could rearrange the meeting for a later date to allow me to be accompanied by a union representative' or similar.
 
S☼I said:
I've been summoned by my line manager and the HR advisor to a capability meeting tomorrow (Monday).

I work in a college and the week before last I had a very bad week. HR were being incredibly difficult about releasing me to do union steward training, and in the end two senior managers took me into an empty classroom to tell me I wouldn't be allowed to attend the start of the course (which was subsequently rearranged after my union branch intervened). My supervisor had a go at me for a jokey, off-the-cuff remark I made but she did it in front of several of my colleagues. I'm having mental health trouble with general anxiety disorder overwhelming me at times, and having to be covered while I have counseling and also having time off with ill kids has made some colleagues irritated with me. All this happened over a few days, and in the week with the anniversary of my brother being killed which set off my anxiety in the first place.

So last lesson Friday was I.T. and there was no teacher. It's not my job to supervise or keep order, but I've been instructed in the past to stay in class as usual and provide usual support, which I did for the few students I support in that class. And I'd had enough and couldn't be arsed so I basically turned a blind eye to them playing battle tanks or chess or whatever - and was caught by the head of department (who spent the lesson in his office and went home 20 mins before college ended).

So I'm to take a bollocking for that and also saying I'm feeling like my motivation and mojo is absent at the moment. I feel genuinely sick with worry about going to work tomorrow.
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there is nothing to worry about tomorrow as in the absence of a union rep to go with you, you can tell them what to do with their meeting.

look up the policies which mention capability - sickness absence is most likely to refer to it.

see what preliminary things they are supposed to do, which i imagine they have omitted.

everyone's motivation varies, some days i literally drag myself out of bed to go in, one day i won't bother and will chuck a sickie - haven't done that for ages.

talk to your union colleagues, this is by no means as dark as it seems now.
 
I only got the letter informing me of the meeting on Wednesday 18th and was off again with the kids Thursday. The letter is dated 16th January.

So I won't have had a week's notice, will I? I'm within my rights to get them to reschedule it til I can get a rep from branch to come along.

My line manager said it was specifically about the unsupervised lesson on the Friday that triggered this meeting, but we would discuss future situations such as that and also my supervisor and how she handles things at this meeting. She said to admit I'd been a naughty boy, take it on the chin and we can get onto the business of working together to see how they can help me :rolleyes:
 
Says 5 working days notice on gov.uk. Considering they refused to let me go to union training cos a week notice wasn't enough I can clearly refuse to go tomorrow, yes?
 
Be cautious...they could be planning to start the capability process with you despite making out it's no big deal.

Do you have access to the college policies? They should have a capability policy and ime it is you statutory right to accomplament.
 
The policy was included with my letter.
I made a mistake - they need to give 5 working days notice for a formal meeting. This is a stage one capability meeting (informal)
 
If they have included a copy of the policy they may also try to get shot of you by offering you 'choices' such as 'capability' or a settlement agreement...
 
Are you a TA? Or a HLTA? It's been a long while since I was one (in a secondary school) but at the time it was expressly not my job to teach or supervise a whole class. If a teacher didn't show I had to call someone from the SLT as under health and safety rules (as well as others regarding child protection iirc) there needed to be a teacher there. You shouldn't have been put in that position at all and it's not your fault that you were.

Eta: and the HoD was aware of the situation but did nothing, is that right? You're not accountable AFAIK.

If the meeting starts going in a direction you don't like and you haven't got a rep there you can halt until you have one. They'll know that but are probably hoping you won't use it. Do.

((((Untaggable steel))))
 
S☼I said:
The policy was included with my letter.
I made a mistake - they need to give 5 working days notice for a formal meeting. This is a stage one capability meeting (informal)
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Ok. If it's a meeting with hr I'd say it's formal and you should say you would like a rep to be present. They should go for it even if it's just to cover their arses.
 
The letter says "there are a number of performance-related issues I would like to discuss with you. An informal review meeting has been arranged for..."
And later "At this meeting you will have the opportunity to ask questions and raise any difficulties you may be experiencing with your work. The purpose of the meeting is to address any problems you may be having and provide the necessary support and guidance to enable you to reach the required standards of performance. Please be advised i have asked (HR advisor) to be present in order to take notes and provide me with management guidance. Although there is no statutory right of accompaniment at the informal stage of this procedure I would like to extend the offer of accompaniment to you on this occasion. If you wish to be accompanied by a trade union representative or colleague please let me know no later than Friday 20th January."
 
Rebelda I'm a learning support assistant. They're likely to say I saw the lesson had gone to shit so why didn't I get anyone to help. Cos I'd had enough, is why. The HoD once he came in and caught some kids on chess (with me giving tips :D ) told them to get on with it, then went straight back in his office and phoned my line manager, and not long after went home, twenty minutes before the end of the lesson.
 
S☼I said:
Rebelda I'm a learning support assistant. They're likely to say I saw the lesson had gone to shit so why didn't I get anyone to help. Cos I'd had enough, is why. The HoD once he came in and caught some kids on chess (with me giving tips :D ) told them to get on with it, then went straight back in his office and phoned my line manager, and not long after went home, twenty minutes before the end of the lesson.
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So he phoned your line manager to grass rather than slt so that someone could come and cover? If you'd left the room to get someone the kids would have been entirely unsupervised. I think you need to be very honest about this. It's not buck passing, as hod he's accountable ultimately. His salary reflects that.
 
Rebelda said:
So he phoned your line manager to grass rather than slt so that someone could come and cover? If you'd left the room to get someone the kids would have been entirely unsupervised. I think you need to be very honest about this. It's not buck passing, as hod he's accountable ultimately. His salary reflects that.
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This will be my main bone of contention. There seems no reason for him to not come into class to cover the lesson, there was no teaching involved, and all he was doing in his office was stuff on the computer he presumably could have done in the one in the I.T. room. He's got form for being a badgekissing jobsworth cunt - one of his team emailed saying she wasn't in as she was really ill and he forwarded the email to her whole department"by accident" but saying "this is how committed she is" or similar. So ringing my boss rather than do something about it is not unexpected even though it's ridiculous.
 
Rebelda said:
Does LSA = TA? Or do they expect you to take some lessons on your own?
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I'm not expected to take any classes. LSA is more or less akin to TA. We recently had a member of staff who was a technician who was always being asked to supervise classes and always refused. The guidelines are unclear for me; I've been told various things - with a single student to support, take them somewhere else if alone in a class which is getting rowdy, for example - but I support 4 students in that class and taking them all somewhere would be basically having a class anyway.
 
S☼I said:
But I do think I should delay this meeting til I can get representation.
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Yes. I think important things will come out of this thread but you also need the opportunity to discuss it with union colleagues. If they really had an ounce of wit they'd have emailed you about this on 16/1
 
S☼I said:
The letter says "there are a number of performance-related issues I would like to discuss with you. An informal review meeting has been arranged for..."
And later "At this meeting you will have the opportunity to ask questions and raise any difficulties you may be experiencing with your work. The purpose of the meeting is to address any problems you may be having and provide the necessary support and guidance to enable you to reach the required standards of performance. Please be advised i have asked (HR advisor) to be present in order to take notes and provide me with management guidance. Although there is no statutory right of accompaniment at the informal stage of this procedure I would like to extend the offer of accompaniment to you on this occasion. If you wish to be accompanied by a trade union representative or colleague please let me know no later than Friday 20th January."
Click to expand...


The wording of this letter suggests it's about more that the one incident and I certainly wouldn't go in alone if I were you.

Also what makes you so sure about them not offering you a settlement?
 
To be honest I may get consider it. Get my head straight and go for something else.

But talking about it with my line manager - who is a decent person - she made it sound like cos Head of IT was involved she had to make it a capability meeting, and that it would be a cursory ticking off but basically a meeting to clear the air regarding my supervisor and the feelings I expressed in my email where I said I can't get motivated and am struggling (because of anxiety and the sheer weight of bullshit piled up in the space of a few days).
 
Rutita1 said:
Is this the first time there have been any issues raised /discussed with them?
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No. I've had more than my "allowed" days off sick, as I've had some brutal colds, and I've got an inhaler now which they gave me time off to go and get. I've had the "you've had too much time off" meeting where the inhaler was suggested; I'm due a meeting to review this specifically as it's three months since the first one where they said not to have any more days off ill, but I've had two off ill since then. I've also had a bad year for being off with the children; both me and Mrs SI work at the same place and have where poss taken it in turns but still I've now run out of paid leave days, I don't expect to be paid for the three days I was absent last week looking after poorly children.
 
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