I worked for Creative Support for four months and up to the end of my probation I genuinely thought things were going well. My work standard was great. I had excellent relationships with staff and service users, I had consistently good feedback in weekly supervisions and my communication was strong. Aside from four days off sick my attendance was fine.
At my end of probation meeting I was told I would be transferring to a different service but I wasn’t given a clear outcome. I wasn’t told if I had passed my probation, failed it or if it was being extended. I was left not knowing where I stood. After that I had my planned three non-working days off as normal. Once those were finished I went to start at the new service for my first shift. When I arrived at the new service they didn’t even know I was coming. I was introduced to staff and service users and just got on with the shift as normal. Halfway through that first shift I was told my employment was being terminated. My own manager who was present in the service instead of speaking to me directly sent a manager from the supported living home across the road to carry out the dismissal. The whole situation felt disorganised and badly handled especially after being left without a clear outcome at probation and then dismissed mid shift in a place that hadn’t even been properly informed I was starting there. There was also repeated questioning around my mental health during my time there, despite it never affecting my work or performance and already being discussed openly at interview. Combined with the poor communication and lack of clarity around my probation, it all felt like there was very little care or consistency in how things were handled. Creative Support talks about inclusion acceptance and good communication but my experience did not reflect that.
