Hi all! My son has a gross misconduct charge which I'm trying to help with

[BullTerrierBaz]

Hi,

My son has a gross misconduct disciplinary hearing in 2 days time.
The allegations are; Intimidating and threatening behaviour, specifically threatening a member of staffs safety, intention to start up a business in competition with his employers and solicit staff and breach of confidence and trust.

The threatening behaviour was regarding overheard conversations about incidents outside of work. After speaking with him it is clear that speaking like this is common practice for management and staff in this place, he gave examples of many inatances of this and witnesses are backing this. The threat issue was an off colour joke and this is after another staff member was directly intimidating and being aggressive to a staff member which was resolved by an apology. The issue about setting up a rival business is laughble as it was another member of staff that directed the conversation this way and he gave statements to this effect detailing things he could not have known without being told. Has he got a chance? It sounds very directed to me.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Hi all! My son has a gross misconduct charge which I'm trying to help with

Hi and welcome!

Hang in there, Eloise01 should be along shortly, she is our employment specialist :first:

[Eloise01]

Re: Hi all! My son has a gross misconduct charge which I'm trying to help with

I am reputed to be rather blunt. I'm afraid in this case there currently seems to be no way around it. Sorry about that.

Has he got a chance? It appears that what you are saying is that he is guilty on all charges...

Possibly on the threatening beahviour, depending on what witness statements the employer has, and who they determine is telling the truth, he may have mitigation ( a reason why it happened, because the fact of it happening appears to be not in dispute) which could help - but an employer only has to listen to mitigation, they do not have to accept it. The fact that people often act inappropriately towards others the work with isn't a defence. It's a confession that he thinks it is ok because others do it! He needs to be very careful with this line of argument. I am sure you must, at several points during his childhood, have pointed out that if others jump off a cliff it is no reason to copy them - most of us parents have!

On the second charge, it seems on the face of it that if your son wasn't setting up a rival business then there wouldn't have been any details to be led around to spilling - so set up or not (and how would he prove that?) if that is what he has been doing then that alone would be sufficient for an employer to dismiss. So laughable maybe - is it true??? If not, then can he produce anything to prove it isn't. Hard I know, but it seems like the only solution.

If they have evidence of these two allegations (and that includes witness statements), then honestly, probably no chance. In these sorts of circumstances, I would normally suggest that grovelling is not an inappropriate strategy if he needs the job.

Can you give me anything better on these allegations? Anything that throws doubt on them? Anything that suggests that they aren't true? Any witnesses to dispute the facts? I haven't got a lot to work on here!

[BullTerrierBaz]

Re: Hi all! My son has a gross misconduct charge which I'm trying to help with

The setting up a rival company part was a private convo he had with a colleague about aspirations for the future and that is the distant future as he makes 13k PA and has no operational knowhow as well as being on a debt management plan so has no spare money. His colleague started divulging all kinds of information about the company and relationships between clients/client managers, members of staff they woukd 'take: and about how the company commits fraud. These were all facts relating to areas of the business he has no involvement in and no way to know without thus person saying it to him.I think he said she was at the bosses house drinking the night before and probably said a bit too much and panicked afterwards.

[BullTerrierBaz]

Re: Hi all! My son has a gross misconduct charge which I'm trying to help with

Basically these two were having a chat, he told her he wanted to set up his own business andthe colleague directed the conversation towards the company, he said that he wanted to set up a different kind of business, she intimated that clients thst she deals with werent happy and would leave soon anyway so would be eady to take, he asked about this and she went into specific detail that obviously I cant post but basically related to aspects of the company he isnt involved in. The statements he has are detailed and confidential information that wouldnt be possible to know.

[Eloise01]

Re: Hi all! My son has a gross misconduct charge which I'm trying to help with

Tnen all he can do is point all this out. There isn't really a magic wand, and such conversations are most unwise, whoever starts them. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but there is not such thing as a provate conversation. He should remember that in future.