Can making a huge mistake in work be gross misconduct?

[BumbleBumbleBumbleBumbleBee]

Mistake was found a year after work carried out. The person who made the mistake should absolutely have known better. It was signed off by others in the department at the time. Would this on its own be enough to be considered gross misconduct? A disciplinary hearing has been called.

There was also an error in appointing someone to supervise you who was new in that role, and you were new. So that goes above both of you.

How are things @BumbleBumbleBumbleBumbleBee

I believe that the way a person behaves after the discovery of an error can have a significant influence on how the investigation concludes.

I don't suggest you do anything to cover up, but don't just throw yourself under the bus either. Give the investigation team your cooperation, with the full facts and circumstances surrounding the work you did at the time, and let them decide on the severity of their outcome. Be conciliatory, helpful, cooperative and give the facts, not any speculative "I could have /should have ...".

The fact is you did what you did at the time, you can't undo that. Be kind to yourself. Treat yourself as if you were supporting your best friend. You're only human, and I bet you didn't come into work thinking "I'm going to do a really shite job of this".

@Bestyearever2024 I'm with you on this.

Im going to say the unsayable - I bet a man would style this out and would probably be given a caution, whereas a woman takes the full force of the punch and beats themselves up, putting all the onus on themselves.

It's a fine balance, between not pointing fingers at others, but also recognising the context at the time: limited experience both them and their supervisor who was also meant to be the "checks and balances" person. - I'm thinking why have the supervisor checking @BumbleBumbleBumbleBumbleBee work, when even they didn't spot the erroneous recommendation to pick "the right option".

It's good that you're not going to resign over this, OP, hold your nerve, stay calm and see how it plays out. Also, think about what you can learn from this. Ones biggest errors in life are also the ones to grasp and use to help you improve. You have great skills, you are qualified for the job.

I'll leave you with the thought - why do organisations take out professional indemnity insurance? It's because people are fallible humans, and they need a safety net in case of this type of situation. It makes me wonder if your employer holds this insurance and whether they will be claiming on it, if there financial loss involved....

Hope it goes OK OP. I think all you can do is say you didn’t realise there was a gap in your knowledge, that you’ve made no other mistakes and that you’ve learnt from this and taken steps to improve your knowledge.

Any update OP?

How Is it now OP?

Any update @BumbleBumbleBumbleBumbleBee - hope all is well