Got The Sack

[lukemg]

This is a shocker Z, you have my sympathy. Like the others have said, something smells a bit about all this.
I would go back in and do the couple of extra days, put the onus on them to work out what they need to know or what needs finishing off (they are telling you it will take 2 days only, not you telling them).
In the meantime, I would assemble an email to all the parties involved (include the offensive note), guy who requested it, director, boss who sacked you, anyone else interested.
Indicate your surprise and disappointment that your contract has been cancelled, indicate you never meant to cause offence (email does not have body language and can sound very bad when you dont mean it to !). Detail the time line, X asked you to detail the reqs and send them to Y, you duly did as asked.
Indicate you are sorry about the outcome and will gladly assist in any handover that is requested.
This makes sure everyone knows what happened, at the moment they are all looking at only a small piece of the jigsaw.
This will at the very least shake up the tree a bit.
Go in, do what they ask (be co-operative but don't take the lead on info giving etc, react to questions, be nice), take the money and walk.
All this give them the finger lark works for about an hour, much better to collect the cash, act as if you couldn't care less and smile on the way out.
If you need to get a stab in, collect as many emails addresses as you can, wait till you get the cash then send a note from a random yahoo/hotmail acc explaining what happened (make it factual) to all the people there so they know what kind of place they are working for.
Then register the directors id on every porn site you can find.

HTH

[MarillionFan]

Well to fair I have never heard of anyone being terminated for sending an email to the boss.

Firstly do you have a copy of all your emails. Something happened to me last year and the one thing I needed was a copy of the emails.

As it happens if they terminate you for the reason they stated, they have to prove gross misconduct. Having gone down this route last year I have been instructed that the agency will lose if they act in this way. Any 50/50 situations go your way.

Personally if me (and this has happened), I would walk into the IT Directors office and give him a f-cking mouthful, I would tell the agency to go f-ck themselves and most likely turn up at their door and put the agent over a desk.

Then again... I am an extremly violent individual.

[gables]

Well I was in a few technical reviews meetings, one of the contractors who calls himself an Technical consultant made some stupid suggestions relating to the data model design, e.g. we should have multiple instances of an entitiy e.g. employee (i.e. have same employee with several IDs in the system) and other laughable suggestions, I didn't laugh, just said that good design principles suggests that each entity should have a unique ID. I know that guy was not happy with me making this comment either, I didn't think twice about that till now, this is because in most roles I go on its normal to discuss design principles, but may be this guy took it personally? not really sure. I should really learn how to keep my mouth shut, can you teach an old dog new tricks?

If I was on a team or was leading a team and a member of that team was aware of some design issues and didn't air their thoughts\concerns then I'd be pretty pissed with that team member (you in this case), you did right by questioning the design and drawing attention to it, so as long as you were professional in how you did this and at the appropriate time(s).

[zamzummim]

Well to fair I have never heard of anyone being terminated for sending an email to the boss.

Firstly do you have a copy of all your emails. Something happened to me last year and the one thing I needed was a copy of the emails.

As it happens if they terminate you for the reason they stated, they have to prove gross misconduct. Having gone down this route last year I have been instructed that the agency will lose if they act in this way. Any 50/50 situations go your way.

Personally if me (and this has happened), I would walk into the IT Directors office and give him a f-cking mouthful, I would tell the agency to go f-ck themselves and most likely turn up at their door and put the agent over a desk.

Then again... I am an extremly violent individual.

I kept copies of the emails, I have been re-reading them,they did not contain any offensive material at all, very factual re what is the project requirements, I just forwarded these emails to the agent, and asked him provide any other evidence they have for misconduct.

Are you suggesting I should insist on the notice pay (which is 4 weeks i.e.not a joke)?? What if they brought up some low life individual to whitness saying I upset them (i.e. that Technical Consultant) ? do you think I'd win and they have to pay me at least 8K if they can't proof a mis-conduct?

Am not a voilent man, so any screaming etc wont work

[Francko]

Am not a voilent man, so any screaming etc wont work

Pay MF. He will do it for 100 quid and a few pints afterwards, when you have to listen at how he smashed his face.

[Cliphead]

In my experience, any member of an IT team who is sacked is immediately escorted from the premises, accounts deleted etc, for obvious reasons. If they want you to come back in be careful you're not being set up.

[zamzummim]

just occurred to me, could be that the client is actually gave notice to the agency and is going to pay them the 4 weeks, and they are telling me differently? I still haven't received any termination notice in writing, should I write to the agency copying the client iterating what has been said to me by the agency?

[MarillionFan]

zam

http://www.johnantell.co.uk/

Give john antell a ring. He specialises in these things. You can then choose whether to take it further. Say you were recommended off CUK. He sometimes posts here.

MF

[The Lone Gunman]

just occurred to me, could be that the client is actually gave notice to the agency and is going to pay them the 4 weeks, and they are telling me differently? I still haven't received any termination notice in writing, should I write to the agency copying the client iterating what has been said to me by the agency?

If you are opted in the agency is legaly bound to pay you whether they have been paid or not. Mail them and point this out. Point out that you will be going to law and it will be them that pays the 8K should you succeed in proving no misconduct took place. That may bring them round.

From this point you should cc all mail to both parties so that everything is above board. Should you receive a reply from one forward it to the other asking if they feel it is correct.

As I said before, none of us are legal (are we?) so get proper advice, we may be talking bollox.

[BoredBloke]

Surely the agency bills at their rate * your hours (or days) If your hours or days = 0 then thier bill = 0.

I would chase for the 2 days and put this down as a learning excercise. If you are going to do the extra days then you want something which outlines what they expect from you and when. Watch your back though. If they are up to pulling a stunt like this, then you could be leavining yourself open to more problems. Since you already have an iron in the fire I would decline thier offer for extra work and move on, stating how untrustworthy they are. I would also decline it in writing detailing your version of events in the process - but still chase them for the outstanding funds.

Also, as you opted in, it is my understanding that the agency should be the ones you chase - it is nothing to do with you that the end client has not paid the agency. Your contract is with the agency.

Any clues as to the client and agency? So that we can all beware.