Does any of this constitute Gross Misconduct?

[FishHeadsAndTales]

Under the category of threatening and intimidating behaviour?

Physically lunging at someone. Right up in their face. Swearing, extremely aggressive tone. Finger pointing right in face. Followed by shouted threats to beware of making an enemy of person shouting because there will be consequences?

I would think so, check your STAFF HANDBOOK

Yes, under bullying and harassment.

Police instead of HR?

Misconduct definitely, gross misconduct is dependent on your policy.

At the very least I'd expect it to skip a couple of stages in the disciplinary process and be seen as serious enough to require a final written warning.

Staff handbooks won't cover detailed scenarios but aggressive behaviour as described would qualify in most.

Sorry, should have said. There are potentially mitigating circumstances which would be taken into consideration:

• what precipitated the actions
• are there any personal circumstances at play for the offender that would cause out of character behaviour
• were there witnesses or is this a he said/she said scenario

There is video evidence.

What about the other 2 questions?

It would be open and shut if the person who was intimidated and threatened was just being normally professional, if they were taunting/insulting the offender then it's a different matter. While their behaviour wouldn't be acceptable, it would be more understandable.

The person being threatened had asked the other party to please attend to their work, and leave them (threatened person) to attend to theirs.

This after repeated interference from the soon to be threatening party.

If you don't have access to your employer's Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination policies right now then Gov.uk, ACAS and Citizen's Advice websites will provide some guidance in the meantime.

Citizen's Advice have a chatbot too if you can't find the answer on their site.

Bump.

Bump.

You are bumping, but probably need to be clearer on your answers to @FatAgainItsLettuceTime's questions. You still haven't really answered them and they sound like they will help.

I'm guessing someone did this to you at work and you want to know if they will be sacked? In that case, what did you do/say prior to the escalation?

It needs to be formally investigated and then the chair of the disciplinary hearing will decide under guidance from HR and with reference to staff policies.

Its definitely misconduct, I'd suggest potentially final written warning, whether it's gross misconduct and a dismissal offence no one can tell you without going through the process.

If it helps, I gave a final written to a member of staff who was verbally abusive to someone who worked in the staff canteen, if it had been physical , racially motivated etc. it would have been gross misconduct and dismissal under the HR policies at that workplace, for an isolated incident.

I've explained above what happened directly before the incident. But, to recap:

The threatening person was asked, politely but firmly, to attend to her work, and to leave the other person to attend to theirs. This after repeated unnecessary intrusions by the (soon to be) threatening person.

It happened in the middle of a public place, witnessed by staff and members of the public. It's all on camera. Footage has been viewed by various levels of management and the seriousness and complete inappropriatness of the incident openly acknowledged.

I cannot answer if there were any mitigating circumstances for the other person. I'm not in possession of that knowledge.

You need to look at your contract/staff handbook.

Ok, it does go back to the answer though that none of us can tell you whether this person will be fired or if they'll get a warning.

The whole thing should be investigated and the company should follow their policy.

Honestly, there's something about the way you have written this that leads me to believe there's a history in the way the 2 people interact at work that wont leave either party looking professional.

Why are you asking? Are you the injured party and wondering why the other party is still
employed? That’s none of your business. The disciplinary process is confidential.

£5 on the op being the threatener.

I am the person who was threatened, and I am just looking for advice.

And no, there is zero bad history between myself and the other person at work.

It was all completely out of the blue.

Police and HR (in that order)

Different firms will have different ways of dealing with it. And that should include investigating with both parties, then coming to a conclusion and a way forward.

until they know the circumstances as to why this happened they shouldn’t be making a decision and it’s not a forgone conclusion it’s gross misconduct

so I suggest waiting to see what happens

Fairly sure it would be treated as such where I work. Any mitigating circumstances would doubtless come out in the disciplinary proceedings and might affect the outcome, but the starting point would be the conduct itself.