Advice

A performance plan can be updated where a genuine new concern arises, but the change should be clearly defined, evidenced and communicated before it is used to assess you. New or harder targets should not be applied retrospectively, and the effect on support, timescales and the final review should be explained.

Sickness absence does not automatically stop a disciplinary investigation. The practical question is whether you are fit to participate fairly and whether the department should postpone, adjust the meeting, obtain medical advice or allow another form of response.

Where the concern is about your line manager, you can usually raise it with their manager, HR, a designated dignity-at-work contact or through the formal complaint or grievance route in your department. Focus on specific conduct, evidence, impact and the outcome you need rather than relying only on the label of bullying.

A flexible working refusal should be based on one or more permitted business reasons applied to the actual request. Concern that other employees may also ask is not, by itself, one of those reasons, although the employer can consider the real operational effect of granting multiple arrangements.

Disability-related absence can still be managed, but the department should consider the individual circumstances and whether reasonable adjustments are needed to the trigger, recording method, support or outcome. A trigger should prompt review rather than make a warning automatic.

Occupational Health recommendations are advisory, but the manager should still make a reasoned workplace decision and consider any duty to make reasonable adjustments. Silence, indefinite delay or criticism in the affected area without addressing the recommendation should be challenged in writing.

A long security-clearance delay does not by itself mean that clearance will be refused, but a provisional offer normally remains conditional until the required checks are completed. Keep the sponsoring recruitment team informed and avoid resigning until you have a formal offer and agreed start date.

You can create a proportionate written record by confirming the outcome, priority and deadline after important verbal instructions. The purpose is to allow correction before the work is completed, not to demand that every conversation becomes a formal document.

A department may have contractual and management flexibility to move staff within reasonable limits, particularly where grade and core terms remain unchanged, but the answer depends on your contract, mobility or flexibility clauses, departmental policy and the scale of the change. Do not treat the label of managed move or restructure as enough to settle the issue.

You can raise a recruitment complaint where there is a specific process or factual error, but disagreement with the panel’s judgement is not enough on its own. Identify the exact instruction, evidence of the error and the fair remedy you are requesting.