Hi, I work as technical support staff for a reasonably large outsource call centre. I was dragged into an investigative meeting today to be accused of gross misconduct. The order to pull me in came from the client and not my direct employers. I'm not sure where I stand, so I was hoping to get some help. There are three grounds: -Firstly, I failed to follow a strict technical support procedure having incorrectly made the assumption that one had already been done. The customer had referred to something early on in the conversation which I know to be the direct result of the final technical procedure in almost all cases- so I didn't bother going through them based on that. This assumption turned out to be incorrect. This is the sort of thing that wouldn't normally even result in any form of disciplinary, more of a 'slap on the wrist'. -Secondly, I knowingly manipulated our system to achieve a result for a customer not strictly provided for. There are a select list of criteria for this procedure which results in the customer getting free replacement parts when they would normally have to pay for such parts. The customer was not far away from these criteria so I knowingly and willingly bent them to suit. These were flagged up. There are two problems I have with this, firstly, I was genuinely mistaken in what the correct criteria actually are due to lack of communication from on high and secondly, this is something that is an epidemic where I work. This would normally be met with a recorded file note, or first written warning. -Thirdly, as a misguided attempt to establish rapport with the customer I referred to a colleague as a 'jobsworth', despite the fact that he had diagnosed a problem correctly and I hadn't. There was a negative connotation to the way I said it, but it was a flippant remark and both investigators in my initial meeting agreed on record that no malice was intended. I've never seen a case such as this, but I imagine this would be grounds for a disciplinary. I have been informed of my rights and am expecting to receive the rest of the notice in writing. My contract is short and sweet and does refer to gross misconduct being a possibility in some cases but does not clearly state in which. I haven't been able to get a copy of my company handbook yet, but I expect more information to be held within. The company's policies seem to be largely in line with ACAS. I have not been suspended. Where do I stand? My line manager and I both feel that none of the grounds will stand up to an allegation this serious. Am I being naive? Any help would be greatly appreciated.