Esoteric employment scenario

[Famous Graham]

The small company I work for (and have done so for 3 years) is based in Reading.

Last Decemember I moved to Edinburgh and continued to work for them but from home, with a flight down to the office once a week (including an overnight stay in a local hotel), paid for directly by the company (although I paid for airport carpark, trains from Heathrow etc that were then reimbursed via expenses).

The cumulative costs of this weren't really appreciated at the time this arrangement was agreed and it was recently decided to cut back on said office visits. This week would have been the first I wasn't due to go down. However, I got a phonecall last night (10:30 or so) saying I needed to go down due to a particular project and I was booked on a flight today. Pain in the arse, but no real problem.

However, I missed the flight as I overslept - entirely my own fault, no bones about that.

I have since received an email from the director saying that today's office schedule had to be rearranged due to my non-attendance (fine), the project I'm working on is costing too much (doesn't cost anything except my time and no other work has suffered because of it), maintaining my expenses is no longer cost effective and has placed additional cost pressures on running the business.

Therefore he would like me to return to being office based in Reading - the company will pay relocation expenses.

Thing is...I do not want to move. And certainly not back to Reading - I was inordinately glad to get out of the place nearly a year ago and I'm very happy here in Edinburgh. I also enjoy the work I do.

There's two kickers to this though

The director in question, is my old man. It's a family business. I know people think they are indispensible etc but the business genuinely will suffer, at least in the short term, if I leave. nd I don't want that to happen if I can avoid it.

I have no written contract - at least, I certainly never signed anything. We just never got around to sorting one out when I joined 3 years ago and therefore nothing was amended to include the teleworking.

Bit of a vague question this, I realise, but...any thoughts?

[Famous Graham]

We've had the odd disagreement before but nothing serious and it's always been verbal with the "threat" of not being able to maintain the distance lurking in the background. As you say though, it soon blows over. Doesn't help that I'm as stubborn as he is and will dig my heels in on certain things (this being one of them).

This is precisely why I haven't replied to this particular email today and will wait until tomorrow.

However, the explicit request for relocation there is a new one and is making me question the future a lot more than I have in the past. It'll probably blow over again though, but I wouldn't mind knowing exactly where I stand with regard to employment law, if only to point out that the request is impractical and, ultimately detrimental to the business.

You're right, I don't want to go to court or anything that drastic - and if things really did come to a head then I would just cut my losses and look for a new job up here (and he'd in all likelihood bung me a couple of months' salary to tide me over).

[Famous Graham]

Oh I know things have been good for me thus far - I'm under no illusions there. Neither am I under the misapprehension that the company somehow owes me anything.

No, I simply would rather carry on doing what I do. (And aside from the altruistic concerns for the business itself, there are obviously personal incentives - the package, including home working etc, is not to be sniffed at)

But it will not be at the cost of moving back down south.

In fact, the original plan was to relocate the business up here around about now anyway, as he was living up here too. But that's since been abandoned, for reasons best known to himself.

[Famous Graham]

groomi said:

But generally, do you honestly think it's feasible for you to live in Edinburgh and work in Reading unless you work for a company the size of Shell/BP/GSK etc.?

Perfectly feasible - I have done for almost a year now. The rising costs came about due to insistence that I come into the office once a week. To be honest, the things I do (programming, magazine layout, website stuff etc) warrant once a month, if that, of trips to the office.

[Famous Graham]

Ordinary Bloke said:

In my opinion (hardly worth reading on now, is it. By the way that's the verb to 'read', not the place in Berkshire) this is a family dispute, and has no connection to employment law.

If my Dad pissed me off I'd have an argument with him and probably my Mum would get dragged into it and we'd come up with something. As the last poster said, free flights from Edinburgh isn't really going to work, is it?

Why has he changed his mind? Do you often oversleep? Could you leave and get another job? No, I didn't think so.

Nope, you're completely wide of the mark - this is me asking for information on a company asking me to move home. This is exactly why I left it to the end of my original post to mention it was a family business, and that was only to give some insight into why I might be reluctant to "sue em for constructive dismissal and take em to the cleaners". We sorted the family/work thing out a long time ago (I've been there for 3 years). In this instance my boss has pissed me off. He just happens to be my dad. As for the "free flights"...it's hardly a luxury. In fact, it's bloody tedious.

I probably shouldn't have mentioned the "moving business up north" thing, it's clouded things a little - that was really to illuminate some of the thinking behind my personal move.

No I don't often oversleep at all. And of course I could get another job. I don't want to - both for my own sake and the short term effect on both the business that I have a vested interest in and my dad - but I will if I have to.

[Famous Graham]

You didn't piss me off There is no family politics - there's no family (without going into details). And with a company of 5 people, office politics is pretty much non-existant too.

I have no leverage from the family angle whatsoever. Quite the opposite in fact as we try our best not to give anyone else in the company a reason to think I've got it easier or anything. Unfortunately he tends to overdo that

[Famous Graham]

Right, this isn't going away. I'm going to need to get some definitive advice, whether from here or some employment information "office". Any suggestions on who to contact?

I am a member of the National Union of Journalists, despite the job no longer being that applicable - I assume I can still give their legal eagles a shout?

Edited by Famous Graham on Wednesday 31st October 09:27

[Famous Graham]

RichUK said:

On email / IM if you want to chat about it off line.

Will do - there's a danger here of it spiralling off into analysis of our relationship, characters and whatnot. All I'm really after here is how to determine if it's an unreasonable request (outwith my personal desire not to move back down south) and thus how to respond to it. I suspect raising a formal grievance is the answer but that then really ups the ante.

[Famous Graham]

coyft said:

2. The travel costs associated with you being so far from the office were more expensive than initially thought. So the boss is flexible yet again and agrees for you to travel less to the office. Which presumably suits you just fine as it's a pain for you to travel.

Never happened - last week was the first week I wasn't going to go down. So it has not been implemented, much less evaluated.

coyft said:

3. On the ONE occasion they ask you to be flexible and consider their needs you oversleep and miss the important meeting. If I were your boss I would be pissed off and expect you to apologise, offer to refund the cost of the missed travel and basically grovel and promise that it wouldn't happen again.

4. I suspect you did none of that

I did do that, but not the offer to pay thing. Never crossed my mind, but it's a fair point.

coyft said:

and instead said "what's the problem, it's no biggy, was only a stupid meeting and I overslept so what?!"

I have just a little more respect for the business and boss than that.

[Famous Graham]

coyft said:

At the end of the day you have to convince them that your move to Scotland is good for the business.

That's a very good point. I'll have a think on that.

As for the "putting up with disruption", this really was the first time in 10 months that I missed a flight and changes had to be made in the office. If it had been the 5th, 4th, 3rd...hell, even 2nd time, then I might agree with you.

UptheIron - I think a week or so would work out more expensive. There's only one hotel - 85 quid a night and no, the meetings can't come to me as they involve everyone in the office. Your "final solution" is the way I'd envisage going about things if it comes to that, yes.

As it happens, I've had another email today reiterating the "formal notification for me to relocate", so I'm going to get a flight sorted asap to try and sort things out face to face. Probably won't be able to do so until next week though.

Edited by Famous Graham on Wednesday 31st October 13:31

[Famous Graham]

UpTheIron said:

Famous Graham said:

UptheIron - I think a week or so would work out more expensive. There's only one hotel - 85 quid a night and no, the meetings can't come to me as they involve everyone in the office. Your "final solution" is the way I'd envisage going about things if it comes to that, yes.

Is this issue really about cost though? If it is, then what price do you put on staying in Scotland. What if you were to meet the travelling expenses personally?

If it's not about cost, then could you put a case forward that spending fewer but longer periods of time in the office would be more productive?

It's a good question. It's the reason quoted in the email about relocating, certainly. Whether that's his REAL reason or not, is another matter (he's a "traditional" sort of manager in that if he doesn't see you working...you're not I've had to change my methods of communication quite drastically to cope with that, but successfully I thought. Agreeing to remote working originally was a bit of a surprise to be honest - I think he only went for it due to the intent to move the business up here. Which now isn't happening.)

Meeting expenses personally is not an option. Financially I mean, not being intransient or anything.

As I mentioned earlier, I DID suggest fewer trips (I might not have mentioned staying another night or two, sorry if not, but that was part of it) but we hadn't had a chance to implement it before this all came up.

[Famous Graham]

Nope - it's meaningless. There's only 5 of us in the company

After a phone conversation this afternoon, I'm getting the distinct feeling there's something more behind this, so this Thursday's meeting has just become a lot more interesting.

As a result, I suspect whatever resolution appears is going to have to be born out of conversation and agreement, rather than any kind of bandying legislation around. Nevertheless, thanks for the input folks.

Edited by Famous Graham on Tuesday 6th November 19:51

[Famous Graham]

Aaand I'll be redundant at the end of January.

Chuffing marvellous.

[Famous Graham]

scotal said:

Famous Graham said:

Aaand I'll be redundant at the end of January.

Chuffing marvellous.

Were you given an ultimatum you chose not to accept or was all this sorted prior to you even setting foot in the door?

Him "Job needs to go back to being office based"
Me "I'm not relocating from Edinburgh to Reading"
Him "Well that's that then, 3 months notice to sort out outstanding stuff and we'll put together a redundancy package"