Gross Misconduct

[ice198625]

Hi

 

i work for well known leading company who provide paid television services, last week myself and 3 other people was pulled in to speak to management about a sale we made via our work ipad if you could class this as a sale as it was a free item to the customer who was part of the VIP package so they was entitled to this extra, somebody in my team questioned a colleague of mine asking how have you made that sale when the job is for tommorow then a manager has seen this comment and brought my collegue in for questioning telling him its gross misconduct to access a customers account without being on site with the customer even though the sale was a freebie and the customer has not phoned up to make a complaint.

 

The manager told my collegue who ever else has done the same thing will also be out the door so the manager has found out myself and 3 others have done the freebie sale via the ipad without being onsite with the customers even though nobody has phoned up to complain.

 

Myself has done this on two occasions

Person A has done it 3 times

Person B has done it 3 times

Person C has done it 2 times

 

We have all been told this is gross misconduct and legal hr has been involved in it, we went for our meetings with seperate managers in the area they asked why we did it, how many times we did it and what process must we take to ID a customer.

 

We get told if we dont upsell to customers and hit our 10 percent target we will be put on plans and if we still dont perform will be put through the conduct policy which i feel is unfair, We are under so much pressure to upsell to customers and this is why we have commited the above offences to keep off performance plans but they are not interested and dont listen. i am stressed, fed up and worrying i will lose my job in the next two weeks, i am drinking more alcohol than normal and not sleeping very well lately and my moods are not the best.

 

None of us has been suspended, they say its gross misconduct but i was told if its that bad surely we should of been suspended why they investigate im not happy about working why being investigated as it puts a downer on my day and makes me forget things or become irritated very easily.

 

Thanks for reading

[Emmzzi]

Are you in a union?

 

Have they trained you in the product sales in such a way that you know if the process followed was acceptable/not?

 

Generally, if trained it's best to just fess up. If not trained, ask how you were meant to know.

 

Sounds like a sales job may not be the thing for you... ?

[ice198625]

Im in the communciation workers union

 

We had half an hours training in front of a power point presentation so no training was not carried out properly

 

im not a salesman im a telecoms engineer and they brought sales into the role recently but im sure it doesnt state in my contract that i am a salesman aswell as a telecoms engineer

[Emmzzi]

Ok. So, step one is to call your union rep for advice. 

[ice198625]

How long have they got to produce a conduct pack for another meeting not heard anything in 3 weeks

[Emmzzi]

as long as "is reasonable" ie piece of string

[ericsbrother]

Get your union rep to ask them the awkward questions so at least they know you arent isolated. If the lay rep gets the brush off get the regional officer involved.

Now in some respects the longer this goes on before they set a date the better as they may have decided that once it gets a bit of  daylight it will curl up and die. On the other hand they may also be waiting for you to take a wrong step so log everything that you do and say to anyone and by all menaslet it be known that you are keeping a diary.

 

Year ago a work colleague of mine was accused of gross misconduct by dereliction of duty for allowing a massive chemical spillage. the truth was a few ml of water ended up on a bench and the antagonist was on a short contract, worked previously in a similar role and was after his job. Another colleague was knocked back for promotion on spurious grounds and happened to keep a log of everything done in that area and was happy to state what had gone on. Result- embarrassment for the complainant

 

Now in your case if the lack of training is a common theme for the people "caught" giving away freebies or even ambiguity regarding the exact wording of the offer then it will be easier for the managemtn to do the right thing so hopefully you have all thought about this and compared notes from the training sessions

[ice198625]

Up to now 

 

1 person has been sacked as they used the excuse he did it for his own personal gain 

 

The other resigned on the day of his conduct meeting 

 

Number 3 a personal friend of mine is due to have his conduct meeting tomorrow morning but is handing his notice tomorrow as he can't afford to be sacked because this would possibly make it hard for him to gain permanent employment incase they told the new employer the reasons why he left 

 

I don't know how they can use this as personal gain the sale was free to a customer and they pay 3 pound for it before tax the company puts pressure on its employees to sell on the job but it you look into my contract there is no mention of selling on the job so basically have they broke the terms of our employment as they are making us do extra duties which arnt in our contract

 

I asked my manager 2 weeks ago for the sales policy as nobody has seen this document and it's not in my contract he said its in conduct policy and it's my core role and expectations

 

The people above who have already had there conduct packs have received a sales policy dated October 2018 and nobody has seen this. This tells me my own manager didn't even know anything about it as he didn't provide me for it when I asked for it weeks ago now its in the conduct packs all made by himself

 

I am still waiting on my conduct pack in the post reason I've not got mine yet is due to me being on annual leave and I return to work on 2nd September this will follow in the post weeks later I'm expecting

 

Is it best I resign or do I have a chance here 

 

 

[Emmzzi]

So previously you were advised to talk to your union. What did they say?