HELP Fired for Gross Misconduct, can anyone help?

[Henrysgone]

NC because I am going to be recognisable with all my other comments and threads.
Well, I've been a bit stupid, naive, flippant etc.

Trying not to give too much identifiable information but I work in an area when one main employer is paying your salary by "leasing" you to different projects. Usually, you are always employed but occasionally, you might find yourself with no work but you still get paid and wait for the next project to arrive. By being employed like that you don't get paid as much as working alone but for those moment with no work, it's godsend to have a steady income.

I found myself in december in such a position. No work. This took over 7 months to find me something to do and in the meantime, I was connected to both the internet and having my emails so I didn't think it was necessary to go to the office every day and sit around for 9 hours doing nothing. I thought if something comes up, I will get a call/email and go in the office. I used to go in the office every other day for a few hours just to be seen.

And this is where the gross misconduct comes. According to my contract I should have been in the office for the whole 8 hours and they have gotten proof via the log-in/out system it exists at work that was not the case. Since this has been going on for months, it is classed as gross misconduct. Their argument was I didn't ask for work and was not proactive therefore I fell under their radar. My argument is they did it on purpose as it was said in a meeting that they "were surprised I had not left yet". My work has meet standards (and a few of them I exceed the standards) all the 10 years I worked for this company.

Now, my hearing with HR and my representative is for this week. I was caught of guard so I asked if I resign to have a clean record to find another job and not be unemployable. They can't guarantee that. But when I check online, poor timekeeping is not gross misconduct and it's their fault, nobody stopped me earlier.

What could I do. While this chance has been truly screwed, I want to preserve my name. I have a decent career and a family to feed and can't throw it all away if I become unemployable.
I am distraught right now as this is not how I envisage my life to turn.

I agree with contacting ACAS and asking for advise as soon as possible. Without looking at your contract and employee handbook it is virtually impossible to tell you what to do and I wouldn't just go with what answers you get on here (although I'm sure some are very accurate/educated responses!).
I do wonder why on earth you didn't approach your manager in the first instance and ask if it was a) alright to work from home b) if there was anything you could do admin wise while waiting for work. I couldn't stand a job where I sat around doing nothing, what a drag! It does appear calculated to pop your head in the door every few days and then scoot off home. It is complex though! Good luck.

A contract isn't just the written document you get when you start a job. It's all the pay rises (they're a change to contract), role changes and working environment changes that occur during your employment. If each of these isn't documented as a contract change then the original contract isn't the entire contract. This may be an angle to discuss with an employment lawyer if you want to go that root.

My experience when working for a large company as a manager employing people, was we were advised to look out for allowing working practices to evolve in a way that wouldn't suit the companies needs. So not turning a blind eye to 9-5 becoming 9.30 then 9.45 - a bit after 5. Or allowing the odd day and specific task from home but as a business our policy was we were office based so this was an exception not something to become routine.

If you can evidence that line management/ more senior staff were aware you were not full-time in the office and working/ at home for periods in this time (emails/ text messages/ even social media facebook etc), that no one pulled you up on it, that anyone else has done similar (even for shorter time scales), you could use this as leverage.

If you get the feeling they want you gone, you're prepared to go, then maybe the angle to take is the route of least pain for both sides which would be a clean break with the reference based on your entire period of employment.

Is there any witness to you chasing and getting results for your project?

Do companies give references of character?

Not that I'm aware of its who you include as a reference. I hope you do get this sorted it does sound like you were unfairly treated. I think they don't want to pay you out.

Keep in mind that if resign or you're dismissed for misconduct you might be refused JSA for up to six months. If you are made redundant, have a temporary contract not renewed, or are unlawfully dismissed then that should not affect benefits eligibility. Depending on your finances this may be a consideration.

I think you were being a bit of a chancer.

However, they have let you be, they can't now turn round and say it's gross misconduct . Surely there should be some sort of performance management put in place before now?

IANAL.

How long have you worked there? Where was your manager in all this?

Prior to this incident, what was the longest you had been between projects?

You should apply for a job in the NI Assembly - our MLA's have been getting paid for sitting on their arses since January

Seriously though, I agree with above advice re seeking help from an employment lawyer or at least ACAS

Why are people assuming the company have sat around doing nothing? This has clearly just come to light. The OP admits that s/he deliberately went in to the office regularly to be visible. In a busy work environment, people aren't necessarily going to spot the exact hours every employee is there- there has to be a degree of professional trust. It sounds as though there haven't been any warnings because the the OP has only just been rumbled.

I need one of these jobs.

They tend to be jobs where the work you do get is short notice, long hours, high stress, possibly relocating, etc. OP mentioned that they've been expected to work 24 hours straight. So it's a tradeoff. The company basically pays you to be available to do that work.

Umm....this is weird. My work has just got rid of some people for exactly the same thing in fact I'm the guy the boss goes to to get the access data.

For what it's worth, the people here resigned and walked away. I would suggest that's what you do.

They tend to be jobs where the work you do get is short notice, long hours, high stress, possibly relocating, etc. OP mentioned that they've been expected to work 24 hours straight. So it's a tradeoff. The company basically pays you to be available to do that work

What types of roles are they? I'm genuinely curious. I had no idea that this was a common employment model.

Why are people assuming the company have sat around doing nothing? This has clearly just come to light

Then they are incompetent in managing the work. If the OP and her colleagues are charged out there will be charging records and 'bench' records and regular reports on both. It becomes visibility very quickly if people are available - I know exactly how much demand and availability I have in my practice at any time. OPs manager would be in the same position and if not, is failing to do their own job.

If they are struggling to sell work, then letting people fall into this trap would save them redundancy money.

Babbity, it clearly hasn't just come it light. Read the OP and subsequent post.

It's against UK employment law to make you, or expect you to work 24 hours straight unless your have ceded that right in your employment contract.

I’m sorry but I think it comes down on you. You should have been in the office (why didn’t you check if you were allowed to be at home) not turning up for 7 months isn’t ‘poor time keeping its unauthorised absence. While I think you should have had a warning before this it is ultimately your fault. No one gets paid for doing no work for 7 months how did you think that was sustainable?

Why are people assuming the company have sat around doing nothing? This has clearly just come to light.

Then the company is at fault. How could they not notice? Of course they did - this is just to get rid of the OP without redundancy payments.

There is no doubt she has breached her contract with unauthorised absence, the question remains op did they make attempts to contact you and get you into the office? If they did and you still didn't come in it's basically self dismissal. If they didn't they do have a liability here.

I work for a consultancy and this is very common (not having consultants deployed )

Check your contract as it's really down to that , especially when it comes to gross misconduct

Consultants can't just fire everyone they can't deploy , we frequently have redundancies yes

Check the ts and cs

Just a bit of anonymous legal advice for you... there are two things to think about here - please note that you cannot rely on this and should get proper advice but i just wanted to give you my 2 penneth professional opinion for what it's worth...

1. your employer hasn't said anything for 7 months, so i think you could argue that they were (at least to some extent) complicit in this and that your breach of your contract was effectively waived (at least for some of that period) given how long it's taken them to mention it; and

2. I think you may have a claim for constructive dismissal. Waiting so long to mention this and based on the other comments you've mentioned, this sounds like they've been waiting for an excuse...

i suggest you see a lawyer quickly.

I agree with this - if they have let you do it for 7 months then there are now implied terms to your contract.

What kind of contract do you have? Do you get paid less for periods where you have no work?

I'm with Cotswold you knew you should have been in and you've been taking the mick.

I would try to Resign before they sack you how long is your notice?

If not coming into the office and physically reporting for work, is deemed gross misconduct, they surely cannot allow this to happen for 7 months and not address it, then sack you. They have a duty to advise you somewhere of what they expect before taking action. By allowing this for so long they have led you to believe it is acceptable practice surely? Not saying it's the right thing to do and I would have thought you also had a duty to proactively seek work and remain in contact at least but I think they're on shaky ground.

OP I would initially start a grivence procedure about the lack of work provided.This will stall disciplinary proceedings and give you breathing spaceThen contact a solicitor who s of lawyers will give yiu 30 minutes free advice to see if you have a case.
I definitely do not think this constitutes gross misconduct.You have been doing it for 9 months without them complaining so I think you could easily infer that they condoned the arrangement.

I can't comment on the whether you should have been in or not so won't. It all seems a bit odd though and you do need an employmemt lawyer. It might be covered by your home insurance.

I do however want to suggest that going to the meetinh with an action plan and suggestions on how you would stop it happening in future might be useful to show you recognise it's serious. If you genuinely don't think you've done anything wrong, then you can still present an action plan but just in a different way. Don't call it poor time keeping though, that's belittling it and won't go down well.

If you do think you were in the wrong, say so. I don't know but I can't see that impacting negatively on your case. If they think you're in the wrong, then acknowledging can only work in your favour - I think?

Suggest how you can make it up eg pay back the money over x months.

Make sure you know the relevent work policies inside out and they (and you) follow them to the letter.

Mostly, don't panic. You messed up. Worse case scenario is that you are fired for gross misconduct but you will recover from it. I'm not going to lie, chances are it will be tough for a while but life does go on. I was fired (not for misconduct, so I know it's different) but I still got work quickly afterwards. It was a complete change of direction but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

If you are fired, try to get a temp job fairly quickly, or volunteer. Both tend to be a little more relaxed aflbout references. You'll avoid a gap in your CV and be able to truthfully give a reference from your most recent employer and hopefully avoid this company.

"What types of roles are they?

Senior IT support, particularly disaster recovery, is the one I know of. If a big corporation's computer system fails the costs can be multi-million-pounds, and the support techs will be working round the clock (as a group, not necessarily individually) to get it resolved.