Job offer being reconsidered

Hi @fibrowarrior13, I'm really very sorry to read of your experience today, it must be very disappointing and disheartening to say the least.

I personally would ring ACAS for advice; not just necessarily for where you stand with this particular offer, but going forward, especially if the offer is withdrawn.

If it had been an Unconditional Offer (sounds like it was not as it was Subject to References) you'd likely have a right to take legal action for Breach of Contract. (Not suggesting you'd want to necessarily take that route had it been Unconditional).

However, even with a Conditional Offer (Subject to References/could also be conditional, for instance, on satisfactory previous attendance/health record etc); a company withdrawing such an offer would need to be extremely careful that they were not acting discriminatory if the person has a disability.

They would be prudent to be considering what reasonable adjustments they could/should be making in order to not be discriminatory and to uphold the offer (if it's discrimination then I'm sure you still have a legal right to pursue for breach of contract. Or at least to complain if they do withdraw your offer).

I'm not suggesting you'd have the appetite for the above but just putting it out there, my employment law knowledge is not as up to date now hence recommending ACAS.

The description you give of the role, i.e working remotely mostly/term time/not full time i.e. within what you feel are within your capability, sounds like adjustments would not have been required anyway.

(When I was offered a position after sick leave, and dismissal from previous role due to Long Covid, I offered to have a longer probationary period to try to secure the offer. In the event, it wasn't necessary - they couldn't anyway as it was the NHS - so I was offered the job. Didn't work out because of ill health/disability, but that's another story!)

I do feel their stance is particularly harsh when their conversation with you took place this morning; ample time for them to consider, in my view, instead of leaving you all weekend not knowing.

I've seen from your later post that they've not responded to your email this afternoon.

Whatever the outcome, I wish you well and that you can weather this with resilience. The same resilience you've already proved you have. (My background was 20yrs+ in HR/operations management, prior to a career change to nursing, and I didn't rescind offers for this type of reason, nor did the senior management I worked for either; not in any of the three companies I worked for. I would not have stayed if that was the culture.

My very best wishes to you. I hope they're a company worthy of you. Take good care.

Oh that is just the most brilliant news - I am SO pleased for you! Moreso that they hadn't left it until Monday to inform you, and supporting you too. It's good to know, gives faith, that there's still decent employers out there! I hope you have a really lovely weekend and congratulations on getting the job 😊. Thanks for updating too!