So currently off on a weeks holiday (today is the last day) & this morning get a text from my boss,

‘Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, unfortunately we’re going to be letting you go. As you’ve been with us for less than 2 years you’re entitled to one week’s notice pay which will be paid next Friday (we don’t require you to work this). The team feel it’s not quite worked out for you. We wish you well for the future’

Firstly – is that correct regarding the notice? Secondly – The only things I can think to reply with are currently lots of sweary insults, but I want to be better than that…. So any advice would be great!

giving you the elbow in a text message while you’re on holiday is utterly crap. tell him that.

😯 that is pretty brutal, good luck

What a shady way to tell you, (regardless of the notice period thing) Did you like the job, and are you worried/bothered? My sympathies if so.

pull up chair and open biscuits, gonna be some good answers coming.

Don’t reply. That’ll shit him up. (Maybe)

I’d ask for a written notification as I I do not feel a text message is an apropeate medium to make somone redundent. Leave it at that, then going to work to speak to somone / complain about being informed in such a manor. Very rude IMO.

I’d reply with ‘Is this a Joke?’

Actually, as he didn’t even have the decency/balls to ring you, (which would still be crap as you’re on holiday, could have waited until Monday at the very least) I’d call him. Possibly from another number he won’t recognise to make sure he picks up.

Don’t reply, turn up at work on Monday and let your manager tell you face to face.

I was ‘managed out’ with a bit more theatre/pretence at doing it by the book five years ago.
I was furious and in shock. My boss was incompetent, the company was in financial trouble and the demands of the job were damaging my health. There were significant aspects of the job which had been hidden from me during recruitment.
Luckily I have a friend who works in HR and I used him as an adviser – he knew I wanted to stand and fight and he just said: ‘leave’. Play it straight, hold your head high, stay calm and just leave and get another job. Which I did.

You’ve clearly been screwed over at some level here as his reasoning lacks any depth… maybe they’ve just realised they’re close to going bust?

The big question is, why would you want to stay working with that boss, in that team and that company? The answer is probably that you don’t, so on that basis you’ve just been gifted the opportunity to go and work for someone decent…

Always worth having a think about what you could have done differently. For my part I took away two learnings
1. Be smarter about company politics – and keep an eye out for insecure bosses – play the game rather than focussing on doing your job
2. My gut feel in interview told me the boss was not to be trusted- I should have trusted my own instinct and either not taken the job, or walked before my 3 month’s probation was up

This:

Don’t reply, turn up at work on Monday and let your manager tell you face to face.

What a pathetic excuse for a human being. I hate managers like this – keen to take the money and power but won’t step up to the plate for the difficult stuff.

If you have the moxy, ignore the text and turn up to work on monday going on about how your phone was stolen on holiday. Make him earn his manager title !

Sorry to hear that OP.

Firstly – is that correct regarding the notice?

Unless your contract gives you more, it appears to be.
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4096

Maybe I’m a spineless coward but the only text message I’d bother writing is:

a) I’ll pop in on Monday night after hours to pick up my stuff; and

b) if you’d like to provide me with some brutally honest feedback, I’d appreciate reading it. You might as well find out what their opinion actuallly is, even if you think it’s rubbish.

There’s generally no point in fighting imo: you’re not going to change them, they’re always going to be inept, they’re not going to give you the job and you probably wouldn’t want to work with them anyway.

He’s manager & company owner, small family company.

I wouldn’t bother with the ‘stolen phone’ bit, just walk in, sit down, see what happens.

Yup, as Bear and Gary M said .
Face to face next week,don’t let them hide behind a shitty little txt .

Firstly he can pretty much do what he likes (bar sex,age & racial discrimination) in the first two years. Should a line manager let you go with a text – hell no. Will you gain anything by hearing it face to face and having to face your colleagues whilst you do the ‘walk of shame’ – I doubt it. Whilst he has saved himself an awkward conversation, he has saved you one too. There are no winners in a conversation like that – a few folk think they can do one to their boss by telling him what you think of him/her, but in reality he/she has still won – they just sacked you and all you have been able to throw back is bitter sounding words.

You need to look at your contract T&Cs – 1 weeks notice is the legal minimum for anyone with up to 2yrs service.

Did you think this might be coming? Good luck finding your new job.

edit – Konabunny’s advice is very good.

is it a personal mobile ? if so I’d act dumb and deny recieving any text, turn up for work as normal, as per suggestions above.

This again:

Don’t reply, turn up at work on Monday and let your manager tell you face to face.

And take notes of everything said, by whom and when.

What a crappy piece of behaviour.

If you have the moxy, ignore the text and turn up to work on monday going on about how your phone was stolen on holiday. Make him earn his manager title

Absolutely this.

Bowl up bright and bushy tailed, ready to get going and be very, very positive about how good it is to be back at work. Get there earlier than your boss if you can as well so you’re already working when he arrives.

Text is a horribly cowardly way of releasing someone, make him earn his keep by telling you in person. And make sure you negotiate a much, much better exit package than 1 weeks notice, this’ll be much easier in person for you and much harder to turn down for him.

However, you do need to keep calm, serene almost, whilst you do this, don’t show your anger just yet.

Oh, and yes, the 1 weeks notice is legal for under 2 years service.

Looks like you’ve been expecting it for quite some time

I’d just ignore and walk away with your head held high.

Edit: ignore that, this must be the new job.

don’t reply, join a union, go into work on Monday as usual.

He’s trying to include your holiday as part of your notice period – he’s a ***t.

You don’t need to make it unnecessarily hard for him, but he needs to do this properly, so far he has failed spectacularly.

Text is a horribly cowardly way of releasing someone, make him earn his keep by telling you in person. And make sure you negotiate a much, much better exit package than 1 weeks notice, this’ll be much easier in person for you and much harder to turn down for him.

Agree with the first bit, but negotiate what?

The minimum would be a weeks notice and make him work it.
The OP presumably hasn’t got anything else in his contract so he’s already doing better by not having to work it.

He’s trying to include your holiday as part of your notice period

Read again – he isn’t.

A union won’t help either- for numerous reasons.

but he needs to do this properly, so far he has failed spectacularly.

He really hasn’t – he has done it in a ‘nasty’ way but everything he wrote was perfectly legal and legitimate. This is not redundancy but dismissal. No consultation etc required in the first 2 years.

That’s was a bit harsh Gary M – that was the OPs last job, this was his escaping role. Keep up in the back there..

Forget it and move on. Be grateful that you no longer work for someone who is clearly a complete arsehole – the last day of your holiday ffs.

Use the experience as a liberating one, not one which traps you in bitterness.

a text to tell you this is beyond amateur. id not respond but go back in on monday and make your boss squirm. easy to say but situations work best when you remove the emotion and deal with the incompetence your boss has shown. and use him admitting this to get you as good a deal as possible.

i got the bullet from my first design job after art school and totally off balanced the two morons ‘managing the process’ by being super calm. they had factored id be throwing chairs about and screaming…

use the force!

forward the text to as many others in the company as you can, let them see how badly you are being treated…

It’s getting like you need to ask for references from employees about the employer rather than the other way round these days.

Worked for a small family company for a while and will never do it again if I have any choice.

Having been told there’s no money pay or training by the owner and then seeing his new car and hearing how much he blew at the Casino. I gave up and got out. Only regret I never had proof of any tax fiddling to whistle blow.

You’re probably better off out of there just hope that it’s not too long before something better shows up.

Just call him and ask if the text is correct, if it is ask him to send you a letter so at least you’ve something in writing for when you sign on the following Monday. Also I’d check that he’s ok to do you a ‘so and so worked here’ type reference if/when needed.

Thank him for his time and go look for another job – no point burning bridges, only you’ll suffer.

No point on going in anyway as you will just have a pointless confrontation before the inevitable.

If it were me I would respond:

“Regardless who wins the tribunal, ‘Sacked by text’, is going to make a great headline, so suggest you come up with a more appropriate exit offer to avoid this.”

But its almost certainly not worth the effort, unless your contract is for more than 1 week notice.

Poor form aside, are you really on one weeks notice?

Regardless who wins the tribunal………….

Any employer with the slightest vestiges of a brain will know that a case like this is so far from getting anywhere near a tribunal that anything written after that would be seen as gibberish. Sorry.

Any employer with the slightest vestiges of a brain will know this that a case like this is so far from getting anywhere near a tribunal that anything written after that would be seen as gibberish. Sorry.

Although any employer with the slightest vestiges of a brain doesn’t sack people by text!

I wasn’t being harsh at all hels, didn’t read the old thread all the way through so thought the op must have been expecting it. Don’t see what’s harsh about that.

No, that’s slightest vestiges of professional pride – a bit different!

You only have to google sacked by text to see how common it now seems to be.

And another reason why you don’t give your employer your personal mobile number…

Do what “b r” suggests. Someone might have nicked his phone for a laugh.

Lousy way to do things if not though.

Alternatively reply : “Sorry who is this? Sandra”

convert – Member

“He’s trying to include your holiday as part of your notice period”

Read again – he isn’t.

i’ve read it again – still seems like the employer is including a holiday as part of the process (ie, the day John got told, the point at which the clocks start ticking, etc.).