Support Person or Representative

 

If you have been invited to attend a meeting at work and have been given the opportunity to bring a support person or representative along, then chances are it’s a fairly serious matter.

 

If an employer knows their business they will give you the opportunity, in writing, to bring someone along if there is anything that might involve a workplace performance issue or perhaps a restructuring.

 

Who you bring along can make a big difference to the outcome of the process. If you have been invited to a meeting where your conduct is in question, you should consider the option of taking someone along who know what they are doing. Quite often that can be a union representative (if you are a member), but an HR professional would be your next best option even if it means you have to pay.

A family member or friend can help take notes and perhaps contribute but that person is unlikely to offer any real motivation for the employer to think twice about issuing a warning or worse.

 

At Employment Help NZ we often attend meetings as representatives for employees who need our help. Usually for us to do a great job for you, we would need to meet before-hand and spend an hour getting a perspective so that we can adequately assess your situation and defend you. Most of the time our attendance will cost you $660 (3 hours) but we are told time and again by our clients that in the long-run it saves them money.

 

A good example is where an employee has behaved in such a way that it is deemed serious misconduct.  In that situation our presence and the argument we put-up may be enough to sway the employer from actually firing someone. Even if we can’t salvage the outcome, we often manage to have “without prejudice” conversation after the fact to change the official story and allow the employee to resign, often with some pay as well.