being interviewed for your own job

[kinell]

my partner has the misfortune to work for a government agency

there are cuts being made to this typical top heavy organisation

hers is a specialist job and the position will remain after the cuts but she has now to undergo the ludicrous (extra) waste of time of being interviewed for the job she has done perfectly well for three years

she like most others in the office are losing morale other this and thinking of telling them to stuff their job

my view is that at 'the point of interview' she could rightly consider herself not to actually have tenure of the job and even if subsequently offered her position she could say 'no thanks' and leave without giving notice (an interview is a two way procedure)

any views on this scenario?

[squarebear]

I was wondering about this. If she has to be interviewed for her own job then surely her job no longer exists and she can claim redundancy?

[kinell]

mmm

some peoples jobs are being lost and they are inviting..with certain over-complicated criteria these employees to apply for other remaining jobs..

again its a fair view to take that if say three people are also applying for the job then they havent got the job at interview stage......and neither do you, even as the incumbent

so your contractual obligations no longer apply

[factor-fiction]

I disagree with the above answers. It is quite common in allsorts of organisations to make people reapply for their roles. It isn't redundancy if the role still exists. It may be that others in the organisation may also be considered. If your husband doesn't get teh job he may have to go through a reployment process. At all times all parties have to give notice before a contract is terminated

[wolf63]

This has been happening in all the civil service departments for years so I think that if your partner talks to her union rep they will be able to explain it all to her.

I was 'lucky' enough to have been pensioned off on health grounds prior to my particular work area being treated like this.

Once upon a time the Civil Service was a cushy job for life, but now its dog eat dog.

[4getmenot]

she should be offered voluntary redundancy

[237SJ]

It`s not unusal in the private sector. My company does it with it`s middle managers and has been doing it for quite a few years. My friend works in a major supermarket`s head office and she has had to re-apply for her job twice. Despicable practice if you ask me but a sign of modern business.

[Prudie]

Agree this can be very stressful and a massive blow to self-esteem if unsuccessful but is unfortunately common practice these days.

[craft1948]

Absolutely.....BT has been doing this with middle management for years. I survived a couple of times and kept my job, others were not so fortunate and had to register as re-deployees and apply for other jobs.

[squarebear]

"It may be that others in the organisation may also be considered"

Then surely this should have considered at the original interview stage?

[Argonaut40]

My Feelings are the same as squarebears - it doesnt make sense in my eyes. If she is applying for her own job then she must have lost that position either through being sacked or being made redundant. Also if she had been made redundant then the exact same job title cant be available for a period of time or otherwise the position was not truly redundant. Of course crafty companies do offer the same job but under another title.

[redman41]

It is a ludicrous situation kinell ! What she needs to consider unfortunately is; Would resigning from the Job cause you finacial hardship with the loss of her earnings, especially if you have a Mortgage to pay each month. If she resigns and is able to get another Job straight away then there is no problem really. It's a case of Pride or biting your Lip in order to survive........not a nice situation really !

[grasscarp]

I was once in the same position. At my interview I said that if I was the wrong person for the job then I should have been replaced a long time ago. I got the job!

[woofgang]

I have been on both ends of this and it is silly. The reason in the cases i was involved in, including my own is that a whole tier of jobs were being reconfigured and the same rules had to apply to every post whether there were 10 candidates or only one so as to be seen to be totally fair which I can kind of understand. The last time it happened to me, my lovely manager bought chocolate eclairs and invited my jobshare partner (she was permanent, I was not.) to be the other panel member...