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Hi, until recently I was working for a news agency. I was called in by the directors on Thursday last week and told I was going to be made redundant and that I had a couple of options work my notice or go straight away and go freelance. I was left a bit shocked by this turn of events, having just moved into a house with my girlfriend with all the extra bills etc.
Anyway at the weekend I thought I would try to be proactive with my career and took some snow images and without thinking submitted them to the newspapers. One image was used online. This was spotted by the company I was working for and I was asked to explain myself. After speaking to one of the directors on the phone on Sunday morning and explaining that it was a moment of stupidity, he later sent me a text message calling me for a meeting on Monday with the 2 directors to go over what happened.
So I went to the meeting, which was between me and the two directors. I explained again that I was sincerely sorry and that it was an error of judgment and I was just trying to be proactive in the face of being made redundant. I was also under quite a bit of stress at home due to the impact that this would have financially. Any way this is when it all got a bit out of hand, they basically dismissed everything I had said and started accusing me that I had been undertaking freelance work on the side whilst under employment. I had told them that this was not the case, but they had made their minds up by this point.
Then in the last sentence of the meeting one of the directors turned to me and said that "he believed that I had been doing it all along and for that they are sacking me for gross misconduct and that I would receive a letter stating that fact"
I said that surely if the meeting had been planned as a disciplinary hearing then I should have been given notice of this and been allowed to bring in a representative. This was just dismissed.
I am now wondering what my options are. Im not really after any financial gains, as I was not really due any, other than wages and expenses which I will be pursuing. I had only been there 5 months. I just don't really want this gross misconduct charge hanging over me if I go for future employment. I also feel that the whole thing was designed to intimidate and they used the term "gross misconduct" as a scare device. I understand that what I did, although, pretty innocently, was a mistake and unprofessional, but I think that as employers they should take the higher ground and conduct themselves with a professional manner.
Anyway at the weekend I thought I would try to be proactive with my career and took some snow images and without thinking submitted them to the newspapers. One image was used online. This was spotted by the company I was working for and I was asked to explain myself. After speaking to one of the directors on the phone on Sunday morning and explaining that it was a moment of stupidity, he later sent me a text message calling me for a meeting on Monday with the 2 directors to go over what happened.
So I went to the meeting, which was between me and the two directors. I explained again that I was sincerely sorry and that it was an error of judgment and I was just trying to be proactive in the face of being made redundant. I was also under quite a bit of stress at home due to the impact that this would have financially. Any way this is when it all got a bit out of hand, they basically dismissed everything I had said and started accusing me that I had been undertaking freelance work on the side whilst under employment. I had told them that this was not the case, but they had made their minds up by this point.
Then in the last sentence of the meeting one of the directors turned to me and said that "he believed that I had been doing it all along and for that they are sacking me for gross misconduct and that I would receive a letter stating that fact"
I said that surely if the meeting had been planned as a disciplinary hearing then I should have been given notice of this and been allowed to bring in a representative. This was just dismissed.
I am now wondering what my options are. Im not really after any financial gains, as I was not really due any, other than wages and expenses which I will be pursuing. I had only been there 5 months. I just don't really want this gross misconduct charge hanging over me if I go for future employment. I also feel that the whole thing was designed to intimidate and they used the term "gross misconduct" as a scare device. I understand that what I did, although, pretty innocently, was a mistake and unprofessional, but I think that as employers they should take the higher ground and conduct themselves with a professional manner.
