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To get fired from a job is the largest workplace punishment you can receive. Safe to say, you can’t really get a reference from them in the future and you’ll have to seriously work hard to rebuild any lost reputation. But how does someone get fired?
Talking to The Telegraph in 2015, employment partner at Lewis Silkin law firm, Michael Burd said most contracts hold a generic dismissal clause, which leads and is referred to in a summary dismissal. These are obvious things such as bullying, drinking, drugs, theft and also “conduct which brings or is likely to bring the business into disrepute”.
Whatever is in your contract in this section, can be held against you. A conversation found on Just Answer.co.uk detailed that, because an employee left early from work and this was against policy, they were fired due to gross misconduct. What this conversation also broke down was the process which an employer should use before dismissing someone.
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Once an employer has found something they believe to be cause for dismissal, they go to the HR department to check whether or not there is a policy in place supporting their claim. The employer needs to show that they had honest belief that misconduct occurred, carry out an investigation based on witness evidence and open a disciplinary hearing. The process is taxing to both sides from here on out, as the employee and employer will hear from both sides and take a view on whether misconduct happened.
