Disciplinary hearing for gross misconduct

I really need some advice. I have been employed for 6 months and after 5 months all staff were advised of being placed on redundancy notice. Most people had given up like myself long standing jobs to join this company. Anyway, those I trained with have a closed Facebook group and we ranted on this group page which was only open to the 10 people in the group. One of these has taken it upon themselves to report myself and another staff member but not before deleting all their own comments. In the rant we said we were going to not work at full capacity as we felt the company had betrayed us. We did not carry out any of the actions and 2 of us have attended initial investigatory hearings to tell our employers it was merely a rant in what we thought was a closed group. Our employers have been told that the conversation they were handed is an edited version and they have not seen the other persons comments which goaded us onto saying what we did. They have now decided to instigate formal disciplinary action for gross misconduct. Is there any way they may consider a final written warning as they did not have the full facts? I intend to hand in my notice immediately after this has finished but am trying to maintain a reference that does not state sacked for gross misconduct. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Disciplinary hearing for gross misconduct

Disciplinary hearing for gross misconduct

Hi all



So basically I've always used the internet a lot in free time at my job and have got used to it. My old manager used to sit behind me and would see me surfing the net when there was nothing else to do and never made an issue of it. However I have a new manager now and I don't know if that's the reason but for the first time in 3-4 years of working there I've had my internet usage brought up. Apparently I was in the top 5 of the company, with the rest being people who use the internet for their jobs, and upper management and the board were aware.



My manager told me I had better lay off as it was causing him and me negative attention. I said sure. I think he might have said something about sticking to lunchbreaks, but the way he put it across wasn't heavy. I cut right down that day but over the following few days I did access websites outside of lunchbreak. My usage was about 50% of what it had been but still not fully compliant with the company rules (stupid I know, I should have made sure I was fully compliant after knowing upper management and the board had their eyes on me, partly 3-4 years of habit taking back over, although still not an excuse).



Anyway I'm hit with gross misconduct which is not something I've had before. I had the investigatory meeting where I was incredibly contrite, said I had no excuse and was ashamed (I've stayed right off the internet since then). I have the disciplinary hearing this Thursday and am told I risk being dismissed without notice or pay in lieu of notice.



Anyone have any advice about anything further I could say or do that might help? Also how serious an issue do you think this may be when it comes to finding another job?



Thanks

Disciplinary hearing for gross misconduct