BC diagnosed April 2010 - surgery - chemo - radiotherapy.
Treatment finished January 2011. Worked through all my treatment but had 2 months off January to March 2011. Phased return to work reaching full time hours end of My 2011
I’ve just had my 2011 appraisal at work and they’ve downgraded me as I didn’t reach all the objectives set. BTW the objectives were set while I was on sick leave. I’m peeved that they didn’t take into account I hadn’t worked a full year. I was set the same number of objectives as my colleagues who were fit and well.
Anyone else had problems like this in their workplace?
I would have thought that as BC is covered by the disability act that your employer should make adjustments and allowances for you and I don’t think downgrading you is acceptable. However how you go about this is something else! Do you have a union?
There is a Employee Guide leaflet available that gives advice following a cancer diagnosis. I will try and find a link.
Hugs
Dot
x
Well done for working through most of your treatment. I work in a sales environment and found that the cancer diagnosis knocked my confidence badly, i know i’m going to struggle when i do eventually get back.
You are covered under the equality act during and after cancer treatment, macmillan have a good fact sheet to look at, which actually gives an example very similar to your situation. Good luck, it’s very difficult being understood by others who haven’t been through the same
In addition to the information from your fellow users here’s the link to the BCC ‘EMPLOY charter’ which you can give to your employer as it describes your rights and requirements following a diagnosis, there is also a copy for you:
Lesley it sounds to me as if you have effectively been downgraded for being off sick. That cannot be right.
And what a mickeymouse outfit, thinking they can abuse the concept of appraisal like that. The buzz if you must use them is for appraisal targets/objectives to be agreed together, and to be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-framed. How anything much beyond surviving treatment and getting back to work can be Attainable and Realistic, given the year you had, is beyond me. And you clearly didn’t agree to them if you were off sick. Hope you have a union to back you.
I had a brief interim appraisal during my phased return. It went like something this:
Hallo, so glad you could make it. Well done. Now, what do you think you will manage in the year ahead, do you want to try and get back as you were before or are there any chanegs you’d like us to make?.. or maybe you want to hold that question for a few months and see how you get on, right? End of.
So basically: review the year gone: i’m alive and i’m here. What more do you want?! Next, what were my targets again? Yes, i’m doing okay most days, no major screw-ups yet. I feel valued appreciated and that they have some sense that all may not be quite back to normal for some time yet, despite good appearances. And for the future? well we may need to move the goalposts but will finish the settling back in first before looking at that.
Hi, I was a manager for 9 years, when we did yearly appraisals and someone was on long term sick, it was based on ten months rather than 12 in your case, if your yearly appraisal is based on performance they can’t appraise you when you weren’t there. I would certainly speak to human resources, its totally wrong, good luck xx
Thank you all for your replies. I’m feeling totally nervous with the situation, I want to say something so in the future anyone at work who is unfortunate to get cancer doesn’t go through this. But on the other hand I don’t want to in case, and I know they can’t do this, find a way to get rid of me. I’m not strong enough to take on the company coz for sure they would have a good legal team behind them.
I read the material on the MacMillan site.
It’s good to hear that you had good support from your workplace.
I’m going to obtain my 2010 appraisal to see what was written and get all my facts correct before I go any further. Then I’ve got to decide who I go to for help.
A good legal team will not support them to break the law, they need to stick within established guidelines and procedures.
If you don’t have a union to look after you, then check with your car or household insurances or your bank as there is often an add-on of free legal advice for all sorts of disputes which will at least introduce you to whatever help you’re entitled to and where the rights and wrongs of the situation are.
As an employer and company owner, I feel I may be able to assist u on this one .
I have fired some very incompetent staff in my time, and have found the laws very frustating in ensuring protection for both employer and employee ( the amount of unwarranted tribunals that get to courts for sillyness is unreal, employees abusing the discrimation laws in order to be recompensed for something they did wrong just cus they lost a job etc blah blah)
However u have a very valid case and u should challenge your employer!
Put ur grievance in writing laying down all ur objections to your down grading, at the end of ur letter u need to state that u expect to be heard in at an official grievance meeting and u will have a representative ( this can be a union rep or an employee of the company that will hold no bias to ur case ) and clearly state that u feel there dicision is unfair and They may be in violation to the DDA/ Equality Act.
Alot of employees are lead to believe by their employers that they cannot raise grievances/ approach acas/ file for tribunal until they have left or been fired from a job, this is wrong. U should challenge this.
By placing ur grievance in writing may be just the shake they need ( no employer likes to face the prospect of legal action from an employee no matter how stable they are, it is not good for company image and they would rather avoid and help settle the matter in house, than it becoming some circus in the courts)
If u are going to challenge them, and by rights u should, do not agree to ANY unscheduled private meetings, as they may try to rail road u if they can get u by themselves, and there are many " no win " “no fee” employee protection firms that will look at u case and represent u for FREE. Any firm that will take ur case on a no win no fee basis will be able to fight hard on ur behalf as they need to recoup costs ( if they win, it is billed to ur employer). Always remember if they have acted unfairly u should fight it, and having the reassurance that money isn’t going to be the only reason to stop u, it’s worth a go!
Good luck sweetie, and hope u see some results. Xx
This is just scandalous! I’m so sorry that you’re having to face this on top of everything else. You’ve had some great advice here and I really hope you can find the strength to pursue and win your case, for yourself and any others who might come up against this kind of blatant discrimination in the future. Wishing you the very best of luck, Angelfalls xx
Thanks for your very usefull comments. I’ve started to put pen to paper as to what I want to say to HR. I’m not going to be confronational I’m going to state the facts and tell them how my treatment made me feel.
I realise I didn’t do myself any favours by contiuing to work coz as far as they could see I was ok. I always went into work with a smile on my face and didn’t moan about how I really felt, really I was pleased to be alive.
I needed to carry on working to try and keep some normality in my life otherwise I would have been at home on my own and would have totally immersed myself in cancer, I had no husband or partner to turn to.
I would like a sincere apology from the company for being arrogant in assuming I could continue to work as normal, for disrespecting me and for not caring.
This gripe with my company is the last part of my journey to regaining my life back after cancer, if that makes sense.
And please let them have a copy of the EMPLOY charter. From the moment of your diagnosis you come under the Equalities Act, so they have to take your condition into account when dealing with you - they have no choice and it doesn’t matter whether you came into work for some of it or not.
A good few years ago I had 7 months off after having my 4th baby, and when my then boss did my appraisal, he just copied and pasted everything from the previous year, because I’d been off for more than half of the current year. Needless to say, I didn’t stay at the company for very long after that, I found myself a much better job.