I'm mad and feel like walking away from this situation.

[esoteric]

Due to a several reasons I left my job in April, and before I left I trained my replacement, let's call him Dave. I left the company on good terms and they were gutted to see me go. Yesterday the agency I worked through contacted me and said the company are asking if I can come back because Dave has been in a car crash so they are looking for someone to cover for sick leave, so I say yes I can do it and in my mind thinking it maybe two weeks to a month. To find out for sure I phoned Dave to see how he's doing and what his situation is and he said he's doing okay now he has pills and is going to work on Monday. Now I'm confused so tell him the agency has asked me to go back to cover for him while he's sick, ended up leaving it with a verbal shrug and a looking forward to see you on Monday.

I was pretty excited to go back and see my old mates, but then he phoned me 30mins ago to tell me that they've sacked him. Now I feel that I've cost him his job by agreeing to go back and it's no fault of his own, the car crash wasn't his fault and he didn't go sick from work they sent him home. I feel like there are two different conversations going on, the company wanting me back full time and the agency telling me it's only sick cover, so the company feel like they can sack Dave.

So yeah it's soured me a lot and I want to phone either my old boss to see what's going or the agency because now it feels like an ongoing contract not two week to a month sick cover. When I gave notice I gave them 4 weeks, as an agency worker.. yeah.. and then gave them another 4! which was a two week extension and then 2 weeks training Dave. I'm not going to put myself in that situation again and it feels like I am in that situation because they've screwed over Dave.

 

[esoteric]

Certainly sounds like there's more going on that you've been told.

Do you have alternatives for other work (assuming you need to work) ?

Are the reasons you left back in April still relevant, or has something changed to mean you'd be happy to go back if the Dave situation wasn't looking suspicious ?

I don't need work right now no, I had loads of savings and a small passive income and my streaming income. My reasons for leaving aren't as severe so I was willing to go back

Unless you are very close with Dave, it should not really matter why he got sacked to be honest. Main questions need to be asked as above. Do you need the money? Do you need this role right now?
And as an agency worker I thought you could leave whenever you wanted, you did not sign a contract did you?

Dave is a friend so it matters to me. I can take the role and give it up when he was ready and it sounded like he maybe needed two weeks, I'm not interested in long-term and someone else might've taken the role and hijacked the job so for me it also felt like a favour for Dave holding his job. I don't need the money but can certainly use it, who doesn't want more money?

 

[esoteric]

Another thing to consider; if you refuse to go back, or cut your contract short, will it sour your own relationship with the agent? That may prevent you getting future work through them.

Nothing signed and I'm not contracted for a fixed time. I can leave whenever and they can get rid of me whenever. The only things I've signed digitally are my bank details and tax info. And yes if I back out now it would surely sour our relationship, but so has this, and I bent over backwards and beyond upon my leaving to leave on good terms so one day I might return to this company and have opportunities from the agency in the future. But I just like I've just been massively used.