Been sacked for gross misconduct

[RidetheT]

I have been sacked. I made a mistake in work that could have had wide reaching implications for a client.

I hate myself. The mistake was through sheer stupidity and carelessness and rushing to get work done by a deadline.

I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I keep crying. I’m terrified for the future. How am I going to ever work again? Who would trust me? I don’t trust me.

We have about a months savings and then we are going to struggle to pay the bills/ mortgage so my kids are going to lose their home on top of everything.

I just don’t know what to do. My DH keeps telling me he has faith in me and he knows I’ll make it all ok. I don’t know how.

A better question is how many people are successful

And yet even the largest employers with huge professional HR departments can't get it right, never mind small firms making knee jerk decisions. I agree that there is no certainty - not even lawyers with all the facts can be certain, otherwise nobody would ever go to tribunal. And yet there are huge waiting lists, so there must be a lot of people doing just that.

Regulated companies screw up just like anyone else does.

@BigFatBully You should be entitled to payments from the DWP whilst you look for work. You will likely need your P45 from your employer.
Claims would be sanctioned if dismissed for misconduct. Op should get some advice if she needs to claim. It used to be the case that claiming unfair dismissal officially meant that snactions were not imposed, but it is a long time since I had to deal with such a case and the benefits system has changed substantially - but I know that a misconduct dismissal can be 13+ weeks.

I worked in the industry. It is not uncommon for support staff to make a mistake or two.

It's up to the IFA and/or the customer to sign off or check all paperwork to ensure everything is present and correct.

This obviously hasn't been done and seems like you are being made a scapegoat.

I completely understand if you wouldn't want to go back to work there, but you should definitely hold for a claim of unfair dismissal and that they need to pay you a lump sum to help in lieu of notice and wages.

Not necessarily. Mine wasn't. The dwp give you the opportunity to put your side of the story

That was a long time ago though, wasn't it? The world has changed.

27%. But 62% of claims are settled out of court. So the odds on a settlement are very good, especially since this is a small firm and the legal costs could swamp any settlement. Legal fees can be anything from £5-20k for a simple case, and that doesn't include the time expended by the company in dealing with evidence, appearances, etc (estimated about 2 weeks of work per claim).

Apparently a work coach can impose a 91 day sanction but if someone disagrees they can ask for a review. On multiple websites including gov.uk cab and many others.

"The mistake I made was definitely gross negligence. I filled in the wrong health information for a product where health status really matters. (I had 2 clients wanting similar products and got the forms the wrong way around)."

Most people could have made this mistake under pressure.

The fact that this mistake made to real financial impact for a client is irrelevant.

What is relevant is whether

• a fair process was followed
• the saction (dismissal for GM) was within a band of reasonable responses.

I would speak to an employment lawyer ASAP.

Especially if you have a suspicion that your company might have been struggling financially and might have wanted to save on redundancy costs.

It might be worth spending a few hundreds pounds for an assessment to see if you have a case against unfair dismissal.

Good for you @RidetheT. you’ve had some good advice form knowledgeable people on this thread so do keep coming back for support.

We all make mistakes. All of us. It’s what humans do!

Best of luck xx

Didn’t want to read and run. OP you are clearly remorseful and recognise your error but please remember you are only human and humans make mistakes.
i think it seems quite harsh of your employer and really if the implications are that serious they should have additional review measures in place.
take a day or two out and then breath and get back to job hunting. This one incident doesn’t define your worth or commitment that you have shown over 10 years. Chin up. This will pass and you will feel better.

Someone might have mentioned it earlier - check if your house insurance will pay for legal help. Just look up your last policy renewal under the legal section.

Unfortunately, a Union will not help unless you are already a member

Yes I know. But "ask for a review" and "get a different decision" are not the same thing. This is a DWP cutting benefits left right and centre - they are hardly likely to be a sympathetic audience. I would not depend on any sympathy at all, especially since there is no dispute on the facts of the matter. It is only my experience, and out of date I know, but a tribunal claim being lodged was always an influential factor in such decisions - after all, everyone says it wasn't fair. That doesn't mean it wasn't.

From CAB "If you’re dismissed for misconduct, your benefits might be delayed for 13 weeks or in some cases even longer. This is called a ‘benefit sanction’."

I know this. I'm on universal credit and have been for some time now. However - it does look that the first level sanction would be 91 days which is 13 weeks - which is the same as it was back in the day. And if someone was sanctioned they can apply for hardship. It's also not the dwp cutting benefits. It's the govt changing the descriptors of how people can get PIP and lwrca. I'm on both (the Scottish equivalent of Pip) so I do appreciate how difficult it is going to be for people. Even if they are denied UC they can still apply for hardship payments. That's always been the case. It's still always worth making the claim for benefits even if someone does get the 91 day sanction.

Thank you everyone for checking but all the correct processes were followed.

you are wrong

This fee estimate is very low. More like £20-100k in my experience for full tribunal. The last one I was involved in the tribunal alone ran for two weeks so £20k wouldn't even cover the barrister to attend never mind the solicitors and the expert witness.

She said differently later on. Are you on some kind of mission to rubbish everything I say?

Here is where the OP said she didn't think correct procedure had been followed

No don’t be so bloomin thin skinned

what I don’t like is posters riling up the Op in to think she definitely has a case etc etc

when the details provided is sketchy at best

I agree with this. I admit I know nothing about your industry but I work in a regulated industry where people sometimes make mistakes which results in someone dying. And they don’t get sacked. We are big into human factors, systems errors and recognising that the majority of the time it’s a human error rather than incompetence or not caring. The fact you’ve worked there for ten years should count for something! I hope your appeal is successful.

I'm not thin skinned as and I agree with you that the OP could have given more detail. I assume she's just very upset

I'm glad you're appealing it - you've had lots of good advice here and I'm commenting just so I can see any updates.

And also to say that I am an employer and if I found out that is what had happened to cause you to lose your previous job, it wouldn't deter me at all from hiring you. Mistakes happen, the one you made was so easily done, and it's why we have two pairs of eyes checking everything in my business. I'd want to know why no one had your back at the firm you're in.

If one of my employees made a mistake like that, I 100% know that the attitude of me and my business parters would be, "Mistakes happen, it's what we have insurance for, really not ideal but it could have happened to any of us - let's use it as a teachable moment."

We've done that with a mistake an employee made in the past that meant we lost an £80k contract, and again when an email was sent in error to a client that they REALLY shouldn't have seen. Without shaming, just let everyone know that shit nearly went very south so let's all be more careful - because they're the kind of mistakes we ALL can make.

I don't think you deserved to lose your job over this. You deserved a bollocking and then everyone moving on. I hope you can stop beating yourself up soon.

This is really good advice. I’m so sorry this happened. We are all human and we all make mistakes. Do not let this rule your life - I know east to say right now but you will get through this - you are more than one error x

Sending a virtual hug 🌺

I agree - I did qualify by saying a simple case. Two weeks is a long way off simple, as is the need for an expert witness. Assuming a basic case on what the OP has said, the case hinges around only one real point - is this a decision that a reasonable employer would come to? Even if the employer screwed up the entire disciplinary process and it was procedurally unfair, the fact that they are a small employer without HR resources (not an excuse, but a mitigation) and the fact that the OP did indeed cost them a lot of money over a mistake she made (not blaming her, and still think they should have been better prepared for soemthing like this which was almost inevitable - humans make mistakes) it is very likely that any award would be quite low, and that's assuming she doesn't get another job quickly which would reduce the compensation. There's also Polkey to take into account - to what extent the tribunal might consider she contributed to her dismissal. And a really tough tribunal outcome could be that dismissal was warranted but gross misconduct wasn't - so she could get nothing but notice pay.

Bearing in mind that pretty much everybody overestimates what unfair dismissal awards are like, she could get less that £5k if she won. But since tribunals are unpredictable, avoiding them is a good idea for both sides - hence the settlement statistics. If they offered £5k and a neutral reference for a mutually agreed termination, in the OP's shoes I'd grab their hands off. I'd take less money if the reference was ok - the reference is worth gold.

Care work is specialised work with very vulnerable people and it was deliberately downgraded after it was cut from the NHS budget and privatised.

It most certainly should not be seen as a stop gap job 😔