I have worked for my company 11 years.

A year ago I took a promotion at a factory and

it's a very stressful job and very demanding.

I have made a number of mistakes that I have gotten away with in this past year.

I think this mistake is the final straw.

I was suspended today and I have a hearing on Monday with hr and the managers.

I have figured this job is not for me and if I get to keep my job I want to be demoted and just be a normal worker like before.

In all my 11 years I have never had all these workplace discussions and telling offs in the office untill this past year with this new job.

The mistake that I made on the 15/8/14 I did not do on purpose.

I felt under pressure and was doing two jobs at once.

I was packing and then stacking.

Each hour me and Another collegue was taking it in turns packing and then stacking.

I was packing on the line as the next hour hit

The other collegue told me its now my turn to stack.

As I left packing for stacking the labels for the packets ran out.

I rushed straight to the cage for the reel but the line was still running

so all the packets were getting pushed off to the side

then The other collegue was boxing the product off with no labels and

the cases on the other end of athe line was stacking up on the line from the otherside.

I quickly went into the cage and rushed getting the reel as there was pressure to keep the line running.

The reel was the front one in the cage and visually looked exactly the same as the one which product we was using

and it was on the same shelf as the reel that we should have been using in spec.

I quickly rushed and took it over to the machine

i rushed that much that i forgot to check the code inside of the reel.

I felt like i was doing two jobs at the same time.

At one point we use to have a machine minder whos sole job was to watch the machine

and do all the reel changes and fix the problems because in rte packout the label machine goes wrong quite alot.

But now they are on the line packing and stacking and there is nobody to take care and watch the machines so

i would say there is no efficient care with the machines anymore.

When something goes wrong the person who knows how to sort out the machine has to leave the line

and there is nobody packing or stacking and the packets and boxes build up so you feel under pressure

and rush the job, when there should be time taken to make sure everything is done correctly

like making sure the reel is correct and checking the code.

I am not in the union but

I spoke to a guy from work that is I said if I join the union would he help me?

My hearing is at 2 and I'm meeting the union guy at 1 and we will go over everything .

I am no good at remembering things so

I have written down kind of a letter with all my thoughts and opinions about what happend

and what might have caused it.

I deffinatelly didn't do an act of gross misconduct

they are always cutting back on staff

and it was an accident waiting to happen.

I was signed off about the procedure of the reels

but it didn't mention about doing 2 different jobs at the same time.

Where do you think I stand?

Hello and welcome to CAG. I'm sorry to hear about your problems.

In case it helps the guys to advise you, when were you notified of the meeting on Monday please? Because from what you say above the mistake was today.

I expect the forum guys will be along later or tomorrow, please bear with us until they're able to get here.

My best, HB

Hi yes I was notified of the hearing for Monday and the mistake was made today. Thanks

Thank you for that.

It sounds quite short notice to me, but the forum guys should be able to give you more information.

HB

It's good the union are prepared to help - please pay your subs next time!

A defence of "you cut the staff and it's not my fault" won't get you anywhere. "I'm sorry, I am not sure this is the best job for me and I'd like a demotion" may get you further.

Is Monday a hearing, or an investigation interview?

Yes Monday is the investigation interview. So you recommend me not to talk about the staff shortages? But the mistake I made use to be somebody's full time job. Maybe your right I am not there to talk about staff shortages but I have never made any mistakes in 11 years with the company untill I took the promotion and now I have a record of them. I have not had any warnings but have had a handful of work place discussions. I told the union rep I will join them when I go in on Monday luckily he's going to be kind enough to help me.

Saying "I screwed up and it's your fault" has never, to my knowledge, led to a good result!

Saying "I screwed up and it's your fault" has never, to my knowledge, led to a good result!

My case that I will argue is I felt like I was rushed and under pressure doing 2 jobs at the same time which led to my unfortunate mistake. Maybe this is the best way to argue my case?

Without the mention of short staff I guess at the end if the day I am not there to talk about other staff

How about training.

You could say that you feel that there is a history since taking promotion that of making mistakes and that you want as much as they do to reduceor cease making the mistakes. Maybe worth asking for extra training?

How about training.

You could say that you feel that there is a history since taking promotion that of making mistakes and that you want as much as they do to reduceor cease making the mistakes. Maybe worth asking for extra training?

I got the wrong labels out and left them on the table but another factory worker with no responsibility put them in the machine

I got the wrong labels out and left them on the table but another factory worker with no responsibility put them in the machine

"It was someone else's fault too."

Can you not hear how that sounds?

"I am sorry, I will try and make sure it won't happen again." You need to accept responsibility!

they have been waiting for a mistake to get me demoted.

Earlier, you said you wanted to be demoted. What's the issue?

I don't think that's always a bad thing, if you own up to something, it show's honesty and integrety, management might look upon it in a good light. Especially as your in a position of responsibility. When people make mistakes, it's human nature to blame others, taking ownership of the mistake should give you some credit, although pevious mistakes is a negative, they might see a trend forming, mistakes cost time and money.

What you need to suggest is they actually need to nominate specific people to carry out specific tasks, there is a bit of 'hit and hope', anybody from the production line should suddenly stop and carry out a different another task.

Ask the union person, about raising a formal greivance. It sounds like your under a lot of stress and the company aren't helping you, if the company offered help maybe the mistakes wouldn't happen.

Saying "I screwed up and it's your fault" has never, to my knowledge, led to a good result!

Hello there.

I agree with the guys earlier. To add to what rebel says, it's been suggested before on threads here, that if you can come up with possible solutions for the problem, you look good.

HB

Well I had my hearing today The union guy thinks it will be a warning but depending on what the warning is we will appeal. With it being the first one he does not think it will be a big one but from the sound of it the job is making me I'll and he recommends me to step down he said you will lose a few quid but what's more important that or your health. I think I'm going to step down but I'm going to wait untill the verdit before I do. They asked if I've mentioned health issues to any manager before I said yes they took a big note of that. They basically said to me even though you was not doing that job role at the time with you being on there it's still your responsibility and you should have stopped the production that is entirely in your rights and I wouldn't have minded you doing that. If you did that we wouldn't be sat here now. He said he has noticed over the past couple of weeks little mistakes that was nothing that built into this big mistake. He questioned if I was happy doing my current job role I said I will tell you more after the verdit (the reason why I said that the union told me not to say my feelings on my job untill after the verdit) he said you should still be paid on full pay as he doesn't think the mistake is that serious because the mistake got picked up where as before the mistakes have not been picked up on and the orders have gone to supermarkets and they didn't pay as punishment.

Thanks for the update, keep us updated. Good to see the Union Rep helping you.

I also signed up for the union when I was there today

Well I went for another hearing today they told my they have statements from the other people there at the time. They said if it was them they would have checked for the code but what they did say was how busy and rushed it was etc. I then told the company I wanted to step down from my current job role as I think it's affecting me health wise and I have been going to the doctors and the doctor asked if I was stressed and anxious and I think it could be work related with the intense responsibility and pressure and for this reason it is not the job for me. My union representative said they cannot sack you ... You don't have to worry about that as other people have been suspended and given warnings for the same mistake but theirs went out to the supermarkets mine was picked up. They took the notes down and said I would be in again on Thursday when the main manager will be there and they have taken on board everything I have said. Tommorow I will be getting the statements from the other staff hand delivered.

Well today was the verdict and I got a final written warning the union guy thinks it's not worth appealing I stepped down from my current job role and he said now it's virtually impossible you can do anything to affect that. The main high up manager liked and appreciated I out my hand up and said it's not the job for me. He said a lot if people don't admit to that and it took guts to say that. The result is I keep my job will be awkward the first couple of days back but now I have no responsibilty I should feel better in myself and keep my head down at work

Well Done Matt, Good Luck.

It's a good idea to keep a diary at home, update the diary on daily events that effect your job.

Well Done Matt, Good Luck.

 

It's a good idea to keep a diary at home, update the diary on daily events that effect your job.

As previously mentioned maybe holding my hand up and admitting the job role was not for me could maybe have saved my job the main manager really liked the fact I did that

Well done. Glad it all got resolved for you