Suspended from job, advice needed

Deinonychus_2

Hello. I have been suspended from my job. I am not the only one. I work in a supermarket. Long story short, our manager said it was fine to eat food / take products that were being wasted (sent to the bin for being out of date/broken etc) and now myself and several other of my colleauges are suspended for theft.
I am due to have an investigative meeting tomorrow. Which will either then lead to a disciplinary meeting where I will more than likely be fired (likely) or my suspension being cancelled (unlikely).
I am wondering which will be in my best interests... Should I quit so I don't have this on my record when it comes to future employment? Or should I accept a dismissal? I have a wife and 2 small children so I need to be able to claim benefits such as JSA. But i worry if I quit that the JSA will be a problem to claim. But if I accept the dismissal, my future employment prospects will be harder. Please help! My family can't be without any income so I need to make the right decision.

jobbingmusician

Why do you feel that you will be fired, rather than your manager? Surely if you all say that your manager told you it was OK to take these products, it will be him/her in trouble rather than you?

How much has it been stressed to you in the past that you should not do this (if at all?)

Your actual question is a red herring, I'm afraid - future employment prospects are likely to be the same whether you are fired, or whether a future reference says that you resigned whilst undergoing an investigation. But nil desperandum - if several of you have been suspended, it's more likely to be your manager that will go - this is likely to depend on the answer to my question above. The situation is rather different if all you have is your manager's guidance on what you can eat/take home from if you have all had an intensive company induction which tells you that spoiled items must not be touched under any circumstances, for example.

nonnatus

If you're confident that you (and several others) were allowed to take the food and had a verbal agreement with the manager, then you'd be mad to resign and slink away guiltily!
JSA would be tricky if you voluntarily put yourself out of work.
Future references would undoubtedly state "resigned whilst under investigation for gross misconduct" so you wouldn't make that any better either.
I say stay and fight your corner...

Mara69

You claim that the manager said you can take their products:

Has the manager in question confirmed that he will be admitting this at the meeting?
When did he tell you this? Was there a group of you or was it on an ad hoc basis one at a time?
Did you get anything in writing from him?
How many of you are being investigated?
What does your work contract say about taking produce from the store?

If you are telling the truth then stay and fight your corner. Frankly, the fact that you are considering slinking away makes me doubt it.

prowla

I used to work in a Tesco in the 70s, filling up shelves on the night shift, and we were allowed to eat the broken biscuits. (Of course, if there weren't any by break time then somebody would always manage to "find" some.)

IMHO, it is far better to let the staff eat the stuff that can't be sold than to throw it away. I hope that everybody keeps their jobs.

vickyj

The concern supermarkets have over staff consumption of waste items is that items may get deliberatly "wasted" in order for staff to have them. This is why they have a policy of skipping and not just giving it away. I m the first person to rant and rave about wasting stuff but a friend worked as a supermarket manager and they said that staff would deliberatly put things to the back of shelves ect so that things would get wasted at the end of the day and that they can have them.
Hate waste but a lot of the time dishonesty leads to these policies :-(

DCFC79

Deinonychus wrote: »

Hello. I have been suspended from my job. I am not the only one. I work in a supermarket. Long story short, our manager said it was fine to eat food / take products that were being wasted (sent to the bin for being out of date/broken etc) and now myself and several other of my colleauges are suspended for theft.
I am due to have an investigative meeting tomorrow. Which will either then lead to a disciplinary meeting where I will more than likely be fired (likely) or my suspension being cancelled (unlikely).
I am wondering which will be in my best interests... Should I quit so I don't have this on my record when it comes to future employment? Or should I accept a dismissal? I have a wife and 2 small children so I need to be able to claim benefits such as JSA. But i worry if I quit that the JSA will be a problem to claim. But if I accept the dismissal, my future employment prospects will be harder. Please help! My family can't be without any income so I need to make the right decision.

Good luck keeping your job,

Takeaway_Addict

prowla wrote: »

I used to work in a Tesco in the 70s, filling up shelves on the night shift, and we were allowed to eat the broken biscuits. (Of course, if there weren't any by break time then somebody would always manage to "find" some.)

IMHO, it is far better to let the staff eat the stuff that can't be sold than to throw it away. I hope that everybody keeps their jobs.

Problem is this then gets abused as proven by the paragraph above....

Judith_W

Have they a written policy that states you are not allowed to eat the wasted food?

In your position I would explain you thought this was OK as had been advised by the manager, and then promise not to do again. Refer to unblemished record etc etc. And beg for leniency.

Unless the supermarket are seeking to reduce staff, it is not in their interests to sack a large number of staff over a minor issue that needs re training rather than sacking.

rabb

suspending a number of employees over this seems BIZARRE! How many have been suspended?

I'm purely speculating but I'd say one rogue colleague was taking the michael and eating perfectly saleable grub.

He/she got rumbled and then said "A, B, X, Y & Z also do this.....it isn't just me!" hence the mass suspensions.

Hope it concludes soon for you in a positive way.

PasturesNew

Eat or take?
Did you eat the stuff, or take it away?

I worked somewhere once that provided office staff with a free 3-course lunch (part of a wage deal)... but the rules were that it was a sacking offence if they removed any of the food from the canteen. So, they could eat it, but not take it.