Disciplinary Meeting

[Redshoes]

You are allowed to have a family member present but not required to do so. You can still also have a union rep.
How did this happen, was it next person on till who found it, was all the money still inside the pod when it was found or is there a potential till loss too? Was the pod searched for due to a till lift to be found as missing when cash office came to process the money?

[Welshie]

Memse70 , you definitely have the right attitude, just be honest . Leaving a pod out is so easy to do if pod chute busy and you get a customer or you're trying to tidy your till to go home . Definitely take a trusted colleague with you even if they're not a union rep and let them know it was a genuine mistake . Good luck

[NightAndDay]

The importance of having someone with union experience in with you is more to than just protect yourself, it's to make sure the investigating and disciplining manager is following process and doing their job correctly, yes you are in the wrong, yes you will get disciplined but this is what you should expect to happen, you would be surprised how often some shoot from the hip manager decides they're better than policy and try force your resignation, a union rep or knowledgable representative makes sure things go the way they're meant to according to policy and law, they're the checks and balances preventing a manager to have dictatorial tendencies if you will.

[rnemse70]

You are allowed to have a family member present but not required to do so. You can still also have a union rep.
How did this happen, was it next person on till who found it, was all the money still inside the pod when it was found or is there a potential till loss too? Was the pod searched for due to a till lift to be found as missing when cash office came to process the money?

All the money was in the pod when it was found, I presume it was found right after I finished my shift but I’m not sure. If they view the CCTV before my investigation, they’ll see that I didn’t leave it there on purpose, it was left accidentally.

[rnemse70]

yes you are in the wrong, yes you will get disciplined but this is what you should expect to happen

how bad of a discipline are we talking here do you think? for context, i’ve worked there over a year and this is my first time ever even taking a step into the disciplinary process. furthermore, it was accidental and no money was actually lost and if they view CCTV they can see it’s accidental. surely, i’ll just be held to the standard of any other competent u18 and they’ll see that it was a genuine mistake. with a bit of grovelling, i shouldn’t be too harshly disciplined, right? maybe a written warning?

[T.C.1]

Try and get a experienced union rep in with you and like you say hands up it was my bad guv school boy error then giving them no BS it will go in your favour but as for how it is dealt with no answer can be given but your age limited experience and giving no BS will help.

[NightAndDay]

yes you are in the wrong, yes you will get disciplined but this is what you should expect to happen

how bad of a discipline are we talking here do you think? for context, i’ve worked there over a year and this is my first time ever even taking a step into the disciplinary process. furthermore, it was accidental and no money was actually lost and if they view CCTV they can see it’s accidental. surely, i’ll just be held to the standard of any other competent u18 and they’ll see that it was a genuine mistake. with a bit of grovelling, i shouldn’t be too harshly disciplined, right? maybe a written warning?

If the cctv shows that it's accidental in nature and shows no ulterior motive for theft, then providing you are honest and hold your hands up, it should be no worse than a first written warning, I'd guess a next steps, if it goes to final written warning I would look at appealimg it for it's harshness.

[Redshoes]

Nobody on here knows what is in the investigating managers mind. As such the advice on here should be to prepare you for the worst case. The worst case will be full disciplinary so you should have a rep. A rep can ensure policy is followed. First thing with policy is to check training. I don't think that ensuring putting a pod in the chute is in any of the training but ifyou have not done any of the checkout training a good rep can ensure the outcome of the meeting should be that you complete the full training.
The CCTV should be looked at, if as it says you are seen as just making a mistake this should again be a next step.
If there are other things going on that we don't know of we are unable to comment. My life experience tells me that if the pod was left out the next person on that till might just have put the pod away, unaware of the fact it had money in it. The cash office would then have been short a till lift and that till would have been short by the money in that pod that would be up to 1k. That would have resulted in the pod and money being searched for.
Many years ago I was one of many investigated over such a situation as this. It was before smart tills so it was everyone who was on that till that was investigated. Smart tills will narrow down the investigation and the CCTV is much better now too. At the time I was investigated, along with others, it was all about the money. Once the money was found it all went away.

[NightAndDay]

If a lift was in the bag, the lift slip should be shown facing outwards so the people can see which till user printed off the slip and the 8 bit sequence (000-255) of the lift slip in the bottom right corner as well as a date and time stamp and which till number. That was before smart tills though.

[forrestgimp]

Ok, a bit of confusion, I thought you were replying to the latest topic in this thread, the ops topic that you refer to is from 8 months ago.

oh right sorry didnt realise it was a necrod thread.

[Bahir]

Hi, sorry I can't start a new topic- so thought I'd post in here. So a similar thing has happened to me in the last week- been suspended for misuse of my colleague card. I had the investigation yesterday and was honest- it wasn't a mistake it was more being put under pressure by family members. I have a clean disciplinary record and generally I would say I am a good worker. I believe there's a 80/90% I'm getting dismissed- but I think my best hope is that I receive a final warning for it. What are my chances of surviving in the opinions of people on this forum?

[lackofinterest]

too be honest i don't think you'll keep your job. they usually take this offence very seriously.

[Bahir]

Yeah, I am prepared for that to happen. I just hope my clean record and general positivity to work helps me. Was a stupid error on my part- but can't change it now.

[gomezz]

I think a fairer and more apt sanction would be suspension of your staff club card for a year.

[Bahir]

I would take that as well. Even though I only work part time- I've been there for 5 years and its generally a good environment to work at- which is why I hope not to lose my job.

[penguin]

I think a fairer and more apt sanction would be suspension of your staff club card for a year.

Would it be fair in the wider view when so many have been sacked or on the odd occasion got final written warnings and in at least one case a demotion for the same offence, I get you may well have had your reasons for misuse of the clubcard but the fact is the company views this as a serious matter and unfortunately it would be best to expect dismissal, and think yourself very lucky if its anything less. I'm sorry this might not be what you want to hear but unfortunately that is the situation your looking at.

[Bahir]

Yeah, I am ultimately sure it will end up as a dismissal. I do understand the seriousness of the offence- but I believe it should be a final warning first, especially in cases where there has been no previous disciplinary issues. Its why like I've said I hope my clean record helps me in my disciplinary

[Morris999]

It will depend on the circumstances of the abuse, how many family members, were you in attendance at the time, do they live at the same address as you, how many times, how much etc.
Your conduct over the past 5 years.
While it’s classed as gross misconduct, I’ve only known one colleague to be dismissed in 20 years.
Then is the Store/Lead manager who’s doing the Disciplinary meeting got a reputation of dismissing for the slightest thing or a reputation of bottling everything no matter how strong the evidence and serious the allegations.

Without knowing the full facts I’d say you’d get a final, but it would have too have been once or twice for small amounts.

[Bahir]

Yeah, it was £55 so that's put me at a disadvantage right away. Obviously its my fault- but it was just to help my uncle who was buying alcohol as xmas presents and who's had a difficult year business wise due to covid. Obviously I've explained this in my investigation- but Tesco aren't so understanding so its hard to see anything other than dismissal

[gomezz]

I think a fairer and more apt sanction would be suspension of your staff club card for a year.

Would it be fair in the wider view when so many have been sacked or on the odd occasion got final written warnings and in at least one case a demotion for the same offence

That is an argument which would mean we should never have abolished the death penalty just because it would be "unfair" to those already executed.  Argument rejected.

[penguin]

But then in that case gomezz if we are going to go to that extreme should someone who walks into the local shop and nicks a lamb chop be hung, given that you would have been 250 years ago for sheep stealing, my point was that to apply a one off punishment as suggested i.e. a year long clubcard ban was unfair on those punished as per policy, in the same way as it would be unfair to punish someone convicted of murder today by being burned at the stake when anyone else convicted as per current law would get a life sentence.

[gomezz]

My point was that policy be changed to be more proportionate not that it be breached willy nilly.

[penguin]

That is fair enough and you do have a perfectly valid point but the hard fact is the matter will be dealt with under current policy and therefore it would be unfair if that policy was applied in one case but not another, if the manager who makes the call feels it should not go to a dismissal then the punishment must be one that falls under current policy, a year long ban from staff Clubcard is not an option and therefore the manager involved will have to take action in line with company policy.

[forrestgimp]

I think a fairer and more apt sanction would be suspension of your staff club card for a year.

Yep or just remove it altogether. Sacking would be a bit OTT

[Nomad]

I see the level of severity of using staff club card for another persons shopping as being equal to depriving staff of the monies they have earned and which they rely on to live, and then making them wait many weeks to get what they are owed.

Perhaps losing ones job should be applied to MM for their one first stupid mistake.