Dismissal - Advice needed
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hutman
Posts: 104 Forumite
Looking for some thoughts on dismissal from job.
Situation:
Employer Response:
Meeting:
Next Day:
Context/Concerns:
Should I hire a lawyer to clear the misconduct charge?
Thanks
Situation:
- Highly paid role at an small-mid sized financial services company.
- At the end of most recent client assignment, received negative feedback from client on performance and allegedly deleting a file on shared drive.
Employer Response:
- Meeting proposed to get my feedback. Meeting had no subject, no mention of any disciplinary hearing, and no evidence presented.
Meeting:
- Employer mentions the alleged deleting of a file, catches me of guard. I had no prior knowledge with this offence that had been alleged.
- I respond, admitting deleting a file on shared drive, but qualify that this was a folder with only my own personal files. All of them were Google search pdf and powerpoint presentations as part of independent research. In addition I offer to prove this and restore files if needed. I deny misconduct.
- I send an email to previous client asking if they felt I had deleted something I shouldn't have. No response within one day. Work email address deleted following day so don’t know if they did reply.
- Employer considers my response and literally minutes after calls me back in to say that it was a one off and consider it a warning. Back to normal.
Next Day:
- Telephone call from employer to say I have been dismissed, and no further discussion was needed. No mention of any details.
Context/Concerns:
- I have never been dismissed from any employment.
- Did some research after been sucker punched and discovered none of the usual processes for dismissing an employee had been followed by employer, including providing notification of hearing, providing any written warnings, taking steps into a thorough investigation of the supposed allegations and providing evidence to employee for the wrongdoing.
- Wrote a email letter to employer claiming id been victim of discrimination/ unfair treatment with no due process followed for dismissal and that they revoke the “misconduct” charge since it affects my future prospects. No response received.
- Employed at company for 20 months.
Should I hire a lawyer to clear the misconduct charge?
Thanks
0
Comments
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Looking for some thoughts on dismissal from job.
Situation:- Highly paid role at an small-mid sized financial services company.
- At the end of most recent client assignment, received negative feedback from client on performance and allegedly deleting a file on shared drive.
Employer Response:- Meeting proposed to get my feedback. Meeting had no subject, no mention of any disciplinary hearing, and no evidence presented.
Meeting:- Employer mentions the alleged deleting of a file, catches me of guard. I had no prior knowledge with this offence that had been alleged. - So the obvious answer is the truth. Which does not require you to be 'on guard'
- I respond, admitting deleting a file on shared drive, but qualify that this was a folder with only my own personal files. - You have no personal files. All of them were Google search pdf and powerpoint presentations as part of independent research. In addition I offer to prove this and restore files if needed. I deny misconduct.
- I send an email to previous client asking if they felt I had deleted something I shouldn't have. No response within one day. Work email address deleted following day so don’t know if they did reply. - Irrelevant. Why are you contacting this person?
- Employer considers my response and literally minutes after calls me back in to say that it was a one off and consider it a warning. Back to normal. - very reasonable
Next Day:- Telephone call from employer to say I have been dismissed, and no further discussion was needed. No mention of any details. - How long had you worked there?
Context/Concerns:- I have never been dismissed from any employment. - irrelevant
- Did some research after been sucker punched - stop exaggerating and discovered none of the usual processes for dismissing an employee had been followed by employer, including providing notification of hearing, providing any written warnings, taking steps into a thorough investigation of the supposed allegations and providing evidence to employee for the wrongdoing. - None of those are mandatory.
- Wrote a email letter to employer claiming id been victim of discrimination/ unfair treatment with no due process followed for dismissal and that they revoke the “misconduct” charge since it affects my future prospects. No response received.
- Employed at company for 20 months. - You have no rights. You can be dismissed for no reason.
Should I hire a lawyer to clear the misconduct charge?
Thanks
No. You should move on.0 -
I send an email to previous client asking if they felt I had deleted something I shouldn't have. No response within one day. Work email address deleted following day so don’t know if they did reply.
You were doing fairly well until this point - this isn't the action I'd expect of a highly paid employee
But this is the sucker punch - unless you've been discriminated against in some way then cut your losses and move onEmployed at company for 20 months.0 -
Under 2 years employment you can be dismissed for any or no reason so I do not think fighting it would be worth the cost. As long as you get any moneys {including holiday pay I am afraid that is as far as it can go.0
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thanks for the responses.
I realise that in order to submit an unfair dismissal claim, normally two years of employment is required. However, it seems to me that none of the procedures to dismiss an employee from a workplace were followed in my example. Indeed i was let off with a verbal warning and the following day dismissed without comment. Had some of those devices such as a proper investigation been afforded to me, i could have challenged the misconduct charge at the very least and come to an agreement to leave mutually. To be clear, i want to challenge the misconduct charge and do not wish for any money or other extras from taking a legal route.
Anybody have any thoughts on this or can support my argument?0 -
A few points:
You appear to be concentrating on the fact that you deleted files from a shared drive and have glossed over the fact that the client also complained about your performance. Surely this will have been a major contributing factor in your employer's decision to dismiss you.
You have acted in an unprofessional way by creating/ storing/ deleting personal files on a drive shared with your client. Would they be able to evidence that any of these personal files were either created or accessed by you during working hours - i.e. on their time?
It was also extremely unprofessional of you to have contacted the client after the issues regarding these files were raised with you by your employer. They may not have replied to you but may well have raised this communication with your employer.
In what way do you perceive that you have been a victim of discrimination? Has your employer treated you differently because of your race, sex or other protected characteristic? Or are you just clutching at straws rather than acknowledging that your own actions and poor performance have lead to your dismissal?0 -
thanks for the responses.
I realise that in order to submit an unfair dismissal claim, normally two years of employment is required. However, it seems to me that none of the procedures to dismiss an employee from a workplace were followed in my example. Indeed i was let off with a verbal warning and the following day dismissed without comment. Had some of those devices such as a proper investigation been afforded to me, i could have challenged the misconduct charge at the very least and come to an agreement to leave mutually. To be clear, i want to challenge the misconduct charge and do not wish for any money or other extras from taking a legal route.
Anybody have any thoughts on this or can support my argument?
They didn't sack you because of the misconduct, you got a verbal warning for that.
They sacked you because they could, without reason.
There is no misconduct charge, you cannot challenge anything.0 -
thanks for the responses.
I realise that in order to submit an unfair dismissal claim, normally two years of employment is required.
Two years of employment is required. You can't claim unfair dismissal.
You can however claim wrongful dismissal i.e there was a breach of the employment contract, .
https://www.curzongreen.co.uk/practice-areas/employment-law/unfair-and-constructive-wrongful-dismissal.html0 -
thanks for the responses.
I realise that in order to submit an unfair dismissal claim, normally two years of employment is required. However, it seems to me that none of the procedures to dismiss an employee from a workplace were followed in my example. Indeed i was let off with a verbal warning and the following day dismissed without comment. Had some of those devices such as a proper investigation been afforded to me, i could have challenged the misconduct charge at the very least and come to an agreement to leave mutually. To be clear, i want to challenge the misconduct charge and do not wish for any money or other extras from taking a legal route.
Anybody have any thoughts on this or can support my argument?
If the procedures are contractual (big if as they are frequently not) and they failed to follow them you could theoretically make a wrongful dismissal claim (i.e breach of contract). No qualifying period.
However the very most that would get you is a few days pay for however long it would have taken them to do it properly.0 -
A few points:
You appear to be concentrating on the fact that you deleted files from a shared drive and have glossed over the fact that the client also complained about your performance. Surely this will have been a major contributing factor in your employer's decision to dismiss you.
Thanks for your detailed response!
Undoubtedly it was, you're right. But poor performance according to a client's standards is rarely a reason for dismissal, especially considering the same behaviours and ethics have been shown to gain positive client reviews at another site. Normally under such circumstances you'd be asking the employee for any training they might need.You have acted in an unprofessional way by creating/ storing/ deleting personal files on a drive shared with your client. Would they be able to evidence that any of these personal files were either created or accessed by you during working hours - i.e. on their time?
creating/ storing/ deleting - performing such actions on a shared drive is part of everyday working life. I, and other colleagues must have deleted hundreds of documents off Shared drives and SharePoint and the like. it is extremely elementary for this to be considered an act of misconduct unless the deletion was one of sensitive and private property of the client which could not be retrieved.It was also extremely unprofessional of you to have contacted the client after the issues regarding these files were raised with you by your employer. They may not have replied to you but may well have raised this communication with your employer.
Little confused on this one. Why is this unprofessional? After all if its a document which they are looking for, all I'm doing is offering to hand it back to them IF i have deleted it in the first place. My intentions were benign and trying to clear up a misunderstanding - not wriggle out of an allegation.
Secondly, i'm beginning to doubt this was a reason at all, and actually something which has been fabricated by employer to legislate a misconduct charge.In what way do you perceive that you have been a victim of discrimination? Has your employer treated you differently because of your race, sex or other protected characteristic? Or are you just clutching at straws rather than acknowledging that your own actions and poor performance have lead to your dismissal?
The process of dismissing an employee was not afforded to me. No investigation took place. I'm happy to take ownership of the fact things didn't work out and mutually step aside. But not for misconduct.0 -
Undervalued wrote: »If the procedures are contractual (big if as they are frequently not) and they failed to follow them you could theoretically make a wrongful dismissal claim (i.e breach of contract). No qualifying period.
However the very most that would get you is a few days pay for however long it would have taken them to do it properly.
@Undervalued -Thanks for your reply.
Does this mean, i have hope for getting the misconduct charge removed?0
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