Brun

....Yesterday while at work i had a "little accident". Basically, i'm in a small (30 employees) toffee/fudge factory where i'm the Production Manager. We have two Glucose tanks, 1 which holds 12 tonnes and one which holds 6. We had a delivery yesterday of 15 tonnes, and with one thing and another, i forgot to flick the switch for the butterfly valve when one of the tanks was full - this resulted in 4 or 5 tonnes being dumped on the floor which in round figures is £2k.
It was a very simple but costly mistake which i hold my hand up to
I've worked for the company for 10 years and have never had any sort of official warning for anything. Do you think they could possibly have the right for giving me the boot over this.
If you have any jokes, please save them till later - i'm absolutley filling my trousers

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

im assuming something like this would and could be classed as gross misconduct on your part. dont think its anything to do with unsafe working practise as it was an accident, but i worry that they could have you over a barrel with "undue care and attention". especially in a higher position.

in your favour though, you have worked there an extended period of time, with a clean rtecortd throughout, and i also assume you dont make many errors either big or small in your position. this in any disciplinary action that could be taken against you, may give you a decree of crepency and perhaps leniency in this situation.

without knowing the nature of your employees i couldnt say. but as a neutral, i would persoanlly say what you have done could be classed as gross misconduct, depends what it says in any disciplinary prodedure/book your company holds. ask for a copy and have a read through it. also i would ring acas or any union your part of and speak to then if your worried fella.

good luck anyways...

andy

DJ Vinyl Ritchie

Ladies and gentlemen! We have ourselves a real fudge packer

On a serious note, I can't see you getting the sack over this, especially as your Management. 2k is hardly going to break the bank, you'll have a slap on the wrists and a stern telling off.


DJ Vinyl Ritchie.............failing that, you may have a kilogram of rock hard toffee rammed up your rectum

fitzscoob

I would be surprised if they did. Unless they are looking for excuses to cut members of staff I would very much doubt you would get more than a talking to.

It was an accident, not deliberate. I'm assuming this isnt an every day occurance?

They must have some form of insurance covering wastage and spillage, it just depends if 2k is enough for them to worry about or to just re-order more and discuss the situation with you.

Best of luck.

DaveMiddleton

I manage a company with some 70 employees and my personal opinion is that if you have had a good/very good career with them till now, there is absolutely no way that you would be fired. Mistakes happen in all walks of life.
When my Offshore engineers make a mistake the theoretical cost per hour of "downtime" on a drilling rig can be five times or more what your error caused. Just admit and apologise.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

lol maybe its just my employers that look for a reason to dismiss everyone

sounds like you may get a slapped wrist after all. hope so anyways fella.

i got a disciplinary for not reporting a repetitive strain injury as soon as it started hurting lol. i mean wtf

any piccies of the situation. would be an interesting sight

CrisPDuk

I'd be very surprised if you got sacked for it, reprimanded at most, it really depends on how sensible your bosses are really.

Besides, management should bear some of the responsibility, your tanks should have interlocks on them to prevent overfilling I know we insist on it on any storage vessel we supply.

If the worst happens, you can always come and try my job I get to routinely scrap material that makes your spilage look like small beer when commissioning our installations

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

just buy a few bags of tate & lyle chuck it in the pot and add a bit of water. Call it a trial recipe

Butty

iTrader: (2)

It will depend on whether there is a written procedure for filling the tank and what part you didn't adhere to.
Also, has a similar spillage happened before and nothing done to reduce the risk?

No procedure, manual filling and the time pressures put on a PM all conspire to make this sort of scenario inevitable.
Perhaps you could be proactive in the circumstances and suggest a way to avoid it in the future e.g. level control for tank filling.
This will save money in raw material costs, the clean up costs plus your time in standing over a tank and manually filling it.

I'd try and turn the situation into one of system improvement.

Nick

tmo

warning and nothing more

silver sonic

iTrader: (4)

brun,
this happens where i work all the time !
and you know where i work!
bigger employer but never has anyone been reprimanded.
no automatic valves and overfill sensors??
no wonder you don't supply us anymore!

hows the aircon??

LG John

You should have turned this around! As soon as the stuff was on the floor you should have slipped on it and pretend to hurt your back! Then as you fall you accidently injest some, and being a diabetic you fake a coma/hypo Finally you sue their ***

SiPie

No chance of getting any cash unless he was also an illegal immigrant

scoobynutta555

As above,the tanks should shut themselves off when they are full automatically as a fail safe, maybe you can recommend this as an upgrade

I doubt it's a sackable offence, and if the worst came to it you could offer to pay the 2k either straight off or in installments from your wages.This really is last resort!

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

hope you get it sorted

Freak

And black

AFRIKANZ

Hmm, not good. Get them to contact me, I design tanker fill points complete with auto switch overs, high and high-high alarms that can be used to trigger all sorts of things.

GrahamG

HAHA

No chance of you getting the sack.

Abdabz

I agree

By the way do you employ "fudge packers"

Ooooo how much I am laughing now It hurts... make it stop

Scooby Roo

Brun

I very much doubt you will get fired. You may get a warning through your companies disciplinary procedure.

This seems to be a failure in process and an accident. Don't fill ya trousers, specially not with fudge [that would be seen as theft and you would deffo get the bullet].

I'd say they need to put it down to lesson learnt and install an automatic system..........by virtue of doing this may leave your position obsolete.....

Roo

Scooby Roo

Can you imagine the advert

"Experience fudge packers needed to fill my box"

I'll get me coat

Norman D. Landing

If they sack you for that then it's tribunal time !

I'd expect a verbal and nothing more.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Have they not got a ball **** thingy in ?

A lad I worked with caused a problem on site when I worked in Process Control, animal feed mill with several tonnes of icky Mollases laden feed going through, working live on the card cage he nudged the reset button on the main board, cue sound of huge relays clunking , it reset the cycle which was controlling several big and expensive bits of kit which all stopped complete with several tonnes of rapidly hardening animal food in it, it ruined one machines recently replaced forming thingy as it set hard and was too fiddly to chip out, they binned it.

They lost a couple of days of production, plus the damage and nothing was ever said !

Another one I remember being told was a Navy grunt who filled a Hawker Hunter (I think) but didnt replace something in the tank so all the fuel came out, all over the ship - now he did get bollocked !


I think sometimes management tend to take it on the chin and then try and improve processes and failsafes as if you are able to have this happen there is a problem in the process, leaving it down to human error, I am surprised it hasnt happened before so they may be a little embarassed and you shouldnt be in the position to turn the building into a giant Sundae.

It isnt Gross misconduct or even misconduct, you made a genuine error, nobody got hurt, nothing wilful or malicious, it cost 2 grand which is a lot of money but in the scheme of things for even a smallish company not massive, you held your hand up to the error which is always the best policy, I hate it when people compound a problem by witholding information or trying to cover their tracks.

Possibly, the way you handled it may actually make them think more of you in a bizarrre way, i.e. it shows that they can trust you.

Just dont make a habit of it and I will send J4ckos mate round with a spoon to clear up.

Tidgy

if it was an honest mistake, a long term emplyee such as yourself, as long as you havn't had any other problems i might add, will prob just get 'a stupid boy pike, don't do it again' said to you and that'll be it, wouldn't worry to much.

john_s

iTrader: (1)

You might get a formal warning of some sort (probably verbal), but I'd not expect it to be seen as gross misconduct (which it would need to be to fire you), especially given your clean record with the company.

For it to be gross misconduct, it would either have to have been a deliberate, malicious act on your part or you tried to cover it up and hide the mistake - which from your post neither clearly apply.

HTH.

John.

Marky-San

Doubt you would get a warning for it - but an investigation on prevention of recurrence is a must. Be in proceduraly, physical fix or some sort of verification activity.

Hope it all goes well - probably a bigger red face for you being the prod manager.

SiPie

Hmmmm....

Sticky Situation












Got my coat

speedking

Poor moles

hectic

Brun

Thanks for all the comments guys (and the jokes )
I still have a job The MD went mad when he got in (i wasn't in the office) but had cooled down later and was ok with me. I have a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday at 2pm when the HR Woman from our parent company comes over (they insist on handleing these matters). It would seem that i'm probably gonna get a Written warning.
Apparently the MD had said this morning (after he'd just found out) that he would consider demoting me to Supervisor and giving me the wage that goes with it . Am i right in saying that, he could demote me but could not touch my wages? Don't think they'd try it anyway but i thought i'd better ask