A Clear-Cut Case Of Sabotage

I worked away from home for a few years as a self-employed business consultant because there wasn’t much work in my field near my hometown. Unfortunately, my wife suddenly became quite ill one year, and whilst her parents were really helpful, I was desperate to find work that would mean I was able to go home to her each night. 

I eventually found work for a consultancy who told me that they were developing a satellite office in my region, which initially sounded really promising, but ended up being one of the worst professional experiences of my life.

In the nine months that I worked there, my boss changed three times. When [Boss #1] left, we lost our main contract. It turned out that nobody had been doing any business development when they were on a full-time secondment, so when they left, there was suddenly no work for me or my team. This led to a lot of nonsense which, in retrospect, was almost certainly them trying to get me to quit, but like I said, I was desperate so I put up with it. This particular story is about a meeting with [Boss #2] a day before [Boss #3] started, in response to my asking if I passed my six-month probation — and hence would be a bit more difficult to fire or let go.

Boss #2: “[My Name], I have reviewed the probation objectives [Boss #1] set you with the Head of the Department (HOD) and we don’t agree that they were appropriate.”

Me: “What do you mean? These were all agreed on at the time and formally submitted. I’m pretty sure the HOD even signed off on them.”

Boss #2: “HOD says he’s never seen them. So, we have set you four new objectives. Here they are: [list]. As I’m sure you’d agree, you haven’t achieved any of these objectives, so we can’t pass your probation. HOD is particularly disappointed that you haven’t done more business development.”

Me: “Wait, what? Out of six objectives, you have changed four, and since my probation is up tomorrow, you’ve pre-emptively failed me by giving me less than a day to complete them? How is that fair?”

Boss #2: “I didn’t say you had failed them.”

Me: “What do you mean? You just told me that I failed them.”

Boss #2: “Oh, no, you haven’t failed. You just need longer to achieve them, so we’re extending your probation by another two months. Don’t worry. Most of the people in the team had their probation extended.”

Me: “And you honestly don’t think that’s a problem? Surely if almost everyone needs their probation extended, that suggests that there is an issue with the whole system?”

Boss #2: *After some silence* “Anyway, Human Resources will be in touch with the papers to confirm your probation extension. Please make sure you agree on the new objectives with [Boss #3] when they start tomorrow.”

Almost as soon as [Boss #3] started, we had a meeting to go over how angry I was about all of this, but they basically talked me into taking it on the chin and promised that they would pass me after the two months. In fairness, they did, but at that point, I pretty much went straight into garden leave because the business initiated processes to make my role redundant.