About to be fired for gross misconduct...need advise

Exodi

TIL: it's apparently not gross misconduct to sink a six pack of Special Brew at work as long as you are stood outside the building. Can't wait to try this later!!

Ozzuk

ds383 wrote: »

They don't actually know that I drank AT work though, I haven't told them that. I told them I took the pills on lunch and that I drank all day before showing up to work. So maybe there might be hope still as they have no solid evidence that I actually drank on the premises?. I don't know though.

No proof is required, just reasonable belief that you were drunk.

ds383

Exodi wrote: »

TIL: it's apparently not gross misconduct to sink a six pack of Special Brew at work as long as you are stood outside the building. Can't wait to try this later!!

Thanks, you made me laugh.

Ozzuk

I did want to add - good luck for tomorrow. Knowing you don't have a leg to stand on means your position can't get much worse. Go in being remorseful, don't make excuses, let them know you are getting help (and what that help is), how sorry you are, maybe they will give you another chance.

I seriously wouldn't hold out any hope though.

Either way try and use this as a catalyst for change - get help.

ds383

Ozzuk wrote: »

I did want to add - good luck for tomorrow. Knowing you don't have a leg to stand on means your position can't get much worse. Go in being remorseful, don't make excuses, let them know you are getting help (and what that help is), how sorry you are, maybe they will give you another chance.

I seriously wouldn't hold out any hope though.

Either way try and use this as a catalyst for change - get help.

Thanks, I'm going in expecting to be fired, I don't want to get my hopes up. I am seeking help from CGL (change grow live) at the moment for my drinking. I can't sink any lower than I am right now so things can only get better.

Savvy_Sue

You say you live with your parents: will you get support from them, or is there a culture of drinking at home too? And have you been honest with them, with your friends, with everyone?

Substance abuse often leads to dishonesty: everyone tends to skate around the problem and not call it out for what it is. And that doesn't help.

ds383

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

You say you live with your parents: will you get support from them, or is there a culture of drinking at home too? And have you been honest with them, with your friends, with everyone?

Substance abuse often leads to dishonesty: everyone tends to skate around the problem and not call it out for what it is. And that doesn't help.

Yeah, they will let me stay at home but I feel guilty (and hate) living there for free and I know they want me to get another job pretty much asap because they don't want me to stay at home for free as I'm in my 20's. The problem is if I get another job asap I know I'll continue drinking before/during that job too at the moment. I need time off to get well. My parents found out about my drinking problem recently because they were the ones that had to take me to the hospital. Before that I'd been hiding it from everyone.

marliepanda

ds383 wrote: »

Yeah, they will let me stay at home but I feel guilty (and hate) living there for free and I know they want me to get another job pretty much asap because they don't want me to stay at home for free as I'm in my 20's. The problem is if I get another job asap I know I'll continue drinking before/during that job too at the moment. I need time off to get well. My parents found out about my drinking problem recently because they were the ones that had to take me to the hospital. Before that I'd been hiding it from everyone.

A friend of mine recently had issues with drinking (I appreciate its a lifelong thing but it all came to a head recently)

Her parents took away her ID so she could not purchase alcohol (in theory) and also spoke to the local shops asking them not to serve her (this is of course voluntary)

Is this something your parents would be willing to do to help you in the short term?

ds383

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

You say you live with your parents: will you get support from them, or is there a culture of drinking at home too? And have you been honest with them, with your friends, with everyone?

Substance abuse often leads to dishonesty: everyone tends to skate around the problem and not call it out for what it is. And that doesn't help.

But yeah they do support me financially, thankfully - I'm very lucky because of that.

Genuineguy03

First of all I never gave any false hope - I asked questions and thought I was clear we may be able to help, dependant on the ops answers. Unfortunate because he drank in the work place we can't do anything. Yet if it had just been a couple of pints/glasses he drank at the pub on his unpaid lunch break (which is his own private time, not his employers time) and said drink reacted with his medication, then we have been able to help save his job under protected characteristics, given they know he drinks and know that he takes medication for mental health issues which course him to drink. Second scenario I just pointed out to you all is not the same as drinking on work premises or going to work intoxicated (where medication for a known protected characteristic had no part to play). As you all know, the act of drinking on work premises is an act gross misconduct, which I did state as much earlier.

As for rest of my posts, they were a generalised debate on law and protected characteristics with a troll and not meant as specific advice to the OP. I'm actually surprised, how some off you have responded, not exactly a warm welcome, which doesn't set a good example for this forum, does it! Though am well aware that some people do, over time spent advising on forums like this, end up, unwittingly, unable to see pass what is simply written here to be able to see the bigger picture or spot things that may seem minor or irrelevant yet, in fact, from a legal point can change the whole course of play - such as how his mental health is a protected characteristic, and how if he'd been drinking off work premises during his lunch I.e. 1 or 2 pints/glasses and it reacted to his medication his intoxication would a result of his medication and therefore his protected characteristics. Hence why I asked the questions I asked in the first place! Questions no one before my post thought relevant to ask! You might not like my approach/method, but it works, it gives me a fuller picture of precisely what the circumstances were. Something I see people, all too often, not even bothering to do. Instead they give advice based solely of 1 original post that only gives a basic description of things and never the full picture, and then people loose jobs based on that advice of there being no hope, when asking a few simple questions to get a more complete picture can throw up something vital that would give grounds to totally opposite advice that leads to saving a persons job. But then I guess complacency is a major issue in all advice giving forums.

Now i joined this forum to help people, not make enemies. There's clearly enough people here that are good at that, along with being unwelcoming. So this is the only post I shall be making in response to others slating my advice, falsely accusing me of giving false hope or accusing me if being a know it all, which I don't pretain too be, and how anyone can come to that conclusion from just a few posts I made here is beyond me. Though great job on the welcoming committee, am sure the site owners are immensely proud of you all.

OP. The problem you have us whether they know you were drinking in the work place or not, is they likely have you on CCTV and probably will check it. And like I said if it hadn't been on work premises then that would have changed things. You can off course be honest with them and ask for help. And if you not already so, make appointment with your doctor, and inform them of that and that you hope to get treatment, but losing your job will only have a negative impact on your mental health and make it worse. Tell them you know they gave you a chance before, but you didn't know it would react with your medication like it did. They may take that into account and may decide to give you a chance by letting you get help and take time off sick for it. As you never know, they might actually be supportive.