Facing dismissal because of a mistake

Proc

Three important points jump out here:

1) You don’t need any training to tell you that you don’t use company cash for personal expenditure. Who needs training on that?
2) You’ve been there less than 2 years. If the company wants to get rid of you, they can for any reason they deem fit (providing it’s not discrimination)
3) Your deputy chose to spend the money knowing it was petty cash. He should have refused. Your only defence is that you assumed he would fund it out of his own pocket (unless you’d blatantly given him far more than would be required for work purposes)

Whether or not he is a terrible deputy is clouding the issue. It sounds like you have no control over your staff, and it’s up to you to manage his behaviour. If you think his behaviour is inappropriate you need to fix that with him. It sounds like he doesn’t respect you.

I actually think you’ve made a silly little mistake – it’s the sort of thing that could quite happily be overlooked with a slap on the wrist. I think the outcome will really boil down to how much they value you as an employee. Apologise profusely, play dumb, and if possible just say you thought the deputy was going to fund out of his own pocket.

Southend1

Sorry to hear about your situation.

I would be arguing that I understood that the deputy would be paying with his own money for my parcel and I would then pay him back.

In the end it will come down to who management believe.

It would have been helpful to be a member of a union as you would have access to an ERA accredited representative and free legal advice.

Try to think about what mitigating factors will strengthen your argument in the disciplinary hearing e.g. previous good conduct, health issues etc. And what you should avoid saying e.g. you thought he may use petty cash.

scheming_gypsy

Southend1 wrote: »

I would be arguing that I understood that the deputy would be paying with his own money for my parcel and I would then pay him back.

.

I think we've finally agreed on something!

maninthestreet

Your defence should be that you did not use company funds for your own personal expenditure - it was your deputy who did this, without your prior knowledge.

superbigal36

Got to admit this stinks of excuses for me.
1st You send deputy out with your parcel and no money.
2nd You don't pay him cause you have forgotten your purse. I am not sure how you would not have determined that before you sent him.
3rd Then you need the deputy to remind you to pay the debt back.

So you forgot the rules, your purse, and to pay it all back within 24 hours.

Now you want to deflect the blame onto someone who takes orders from you.

monty-doggy

I've got a lot to think about. Im not so stupid that I'm trying to get away with it. I wasn't stealing, and it wasn't hidden, I've been very stupid.

I'm damn good at my job and under normal circumstances I would never do anything like this. I'm devastated.

My deputy is an absolute idiot. And even if they don't dismiss me I have to decide if I even want to go back working with him.

I don't want to come across like I'm trying to prove I was right, I know I've done wrong but it was genuinely a mistake, one ill prob always always regret.

[Deleted User]

maninthestreet wrote: »

Your defence should be that you did not use company funds for your own personal expenditure - it was your deputy who did this, without your prior knowledge.

This would be dishonest behaviour and if the people looking at her case saw through this the situation would be clear cut deception.

She sent the deputy to the post office with £30 from the stores petty cash and sent him with a personal parcel to be paid for with the petty cash, however she expected to reimburse him on his return from her purse, so the petty cash would only have been used out of convenience.

To claim that he is at fault would require her to lie and state that she expected her deputy to pay with his own money and not the petty cash, which is a direct contradiction of what she has said here:

monty-doggy wrote: »

I asked him to take a parcel of mine as I've not even had chance to get to the post office given the hours I'm working. He had money from petty cash and I said when you get back ill sort out how much mine costs.

Although this is a very unfortunate situation and I don't agree that she should be fired over this, throwing her deputy under the bus by lying would be exceptionally inappropriate and quite frankly despicable. She is in the wrong, passing the blame is not right.

The OP should explain what happened: she is overworked, she made a mistake, she did not intentionally take money from the company and maybe she'll find people willing to corroborate her story, but even considering lying is wrong.

monty-doggy

superbigal36 wrote: »

Got to admit this stinks of excuses for me.
1st You send deputy out with your parcel and no money.
2nd You don't pay him cause you have forgotten your purse. I am not sure how you would not have determined that before you sent him.
3rd Then you need the deputy to remind you to pay the debt back.

So you forgot the rules, your purse, and to pay it all back within 24 hours.

Now you want to deflect the blame onto someone who takes orders from you.

I'm not deflecting the blame at all. I know I've done wrong! I just feel like I've been shat on, and willingly put myself in that situation!
I take it you've never made a mistake???

scheming_gypsy

citricsquid wrote: »

Just quoting you without quoting everything you said.

From reading the original post, I just think she's waffled on and told us everything whether it's relevant or not. She's told US that he had petty cash money, but she's telling us after the case, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's how it happened at the time.

[Deleted User]

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

From reading the original post, I just think she's waffled on and told us everything whether it's relevant or not. She's told US that he had petty cash money, but she's telling us after the case, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's how it happened at the time.

From all the posts she has made it seems absolutely certain she knew he was paying for it from the petty cash, however she expected to pay the money back before it became actual money in the stores system, which does (in theory) seem sort of logical behaviour if you don't have the training in handling petty cash (which she says she has not had).