Disciplinary procedures at work

cindyhove

Does anyone know what constitues a reason for Disciplinary meetings?
I am not speaking of misconduct - gross or otherwise - but 3 very specific incidents like sending a letter with an incorrect name on it.
Do these sort of issues warrant a disciplinary meeting and if not what can be done about it?:eek:

Anihilator

Yes they would warrant a discplinary process.
All small things add up and if the company ever needs to dismiss or disclipline as a result they need proof etc

I would imagine 3 small incidents would be a warning, if it continued it might escalate.

elsien

If it's a regular pattern of mistakes, then they'll probably be looking at it as performance issues.
Some places might deal with it in supervision first, then move onto disciplinary if the person doesn't get their act together, it depends on the set up in the specific workplace.

jdturk

it all depends in what context, 3 errors in a day may be deemed as incapability of doing your job and thus merit a disciplinary. 3 mistakes in years probably wouldn't.

However if the letter was addressed to the queen and you put Mr Queen instead of MRS Queen then that on its own probably could be construed as a disciplinary offence

DVardysShadow

I think that any employer who starts to deal with trivial mistakes within a disciplinary framework really is not worth working for.

Anihilator

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I think that any employer who starts to deal with trivial mistakes within a disciplinary framework really is not worth working for.

Its fairly common although they normally call them perfomance review/management.

If an employee isnt performing then they need to be pulled up on it officially otherwise you end up not able to dismiss them when they are incapable.

If its reached this stage though it sounds like the OP better change soon as they obviously are going through the motions.

Zazen999

cindyhove wrote: »

Does anyone know what constitues a reason for Disciplinary meetings?
I am not speaking of misconduct - gross or otherwise - but 3 very specific incidents like sending a letter with an incorrect name on it.
Do these sort of issues warrant a disciplinary meeting and if not what can be done about it?:eek:

Whoever is the manager of this person needs to sit with them, point out the error and start managing them properly. As mentioned, it depends on the context; 3 letters out of a mailmerge of 30000 is not as significant as 3 letters to 3 members of staff where the letter contains details about their wages [for example]. If any training is needed, then the manager would be better served training them properly before rushing into disciplinary proceedings.

cindyhove

Thanks everyone for your input.
I am obviously job hunting as it would seem that they are "after" me. I certainly won't stay there but jobs are not growing on trees at the moment!
Out of the 3 specific incidents only 1 can be proven - and I admitted to that (human) error. I of the items was not because of me - I passed on the info to a colleague to deal with and the 3rd cannot be proven or disproved one way or the other any more.
I am now wondering that if the reasons they called me into a disciplinary meeting are not great enough to warrant one can I do anything about it? I just really don't see that 1 admitted mistake in a name (no sensitive data as it was sent to the right address with the correct info - just the wrong name) and a POSSIBLE error in a diary can be reason enough for taking such action.

Zazen999

Oh - I see! It's you that has been called into the meeting.

Right - first things first.

Have they told you, in writing, what might occur as an outcome of the disciplinary?

How did they find out, have the recipients complained?

Did you actually type them, and what checks did you put in place to check the info; is it possible to check the info anyway?

boliston

cindyhove wrote: »

.....
I am now wondering that if the reasons they called me into a disciplinary meeting are not great enough to warrant one can I do anything about it? I just really don't see that 1 admitted mistake in a name (no sensitive data as it was sent to the right address with the correct info - just the wrong name) and a POSSIBLE error in a diary can be reason enough for taking such action.

Surely most systems link a name to an address. It almost sounds like a SYSTEM error if a letter can be generated with the correct address but the wrong name!

cindyhove

No they didn't even put in writing what the complaints were. When I asked I was given another letter with very little information and no specifics in it..
They received the complaint from the recipient of the letter. yes it was a single typed letter - in a hurry! I know how I made the error. Yes It was an avoidable error on my part but it still seems like a drastic step to take.