Being dismissed for gross misconduct is a serious matter. It typically means your employment has been terminated immediately, without notice or additional pay. Unlike dismissals due to performance issues or redundancy, gross misconduct involves behaviour so serious that it breaks the trust between you and your employer. Ultimately, it happens when an employer believes there is no way back for the employment relationship to succeed.

Before any action is taken, employers are required to carry out a thorough disciplinary process to determine whether the behaviour is, in fact, gross misconduct. It is important to understand your employee rights regarding gross misconduct, and you may wish to seek HR advice at this point.

What Is Gross Misconduct?

Employees are human, and as humans, we make mistakes. However, where a genuine mistake turns out to be gross misconduct is when it crosses a line. It is not a mistake but an action that undermines the employment relationship. When this occurs, it will usually end in a dismissal process.

Common Examples of Gross Misconduct

If you’ve been accused of gross misconduct, it’s important to understand how this differs from general poor conduct. Here are some examples that are often considered gross misconduct:

• Violence: Any act of physical assault or threatening behaviour towards a colleague, client, or customer is a serious breach and is likely to be treated as gross misconduct.
  
  
• Discrimination or Harassment: Making someone feel unsafe or intimidated through discriminatory or harassing behaviour is completely unacceptable and is typically classed as gross misconduct.
  
  
• Drugs and Alcohol: Being under the influence at work—particularly in safety-critical roles like driving or operating machinery—poses a significant risk. Many companies carry out routine or random testing to maintain a safe working environment. You should be aware of your employee rights when it comes to testing and refer to your employment handbook.
  
  
• Theft: Stealing from your employer, whether it's money, physical goods, or confidential information, is a clear violation of trust and will almost always result in immediate dismissal.

These are just a few examples—many other actions may also fall under gross misconduct depending on the situation and workplace policies.

What Happens If You’re Accused of Gross Misconduct?

If you’ve been accused of gross misconduct, your employer must follow a fair and reasonable dismissal process before reaching a conclusion. Here's what that typically involves:

1. Investigation

Your employer should carry out a full investigation to understand what happened. This might include reviewing CCTV footage, collecting witness statements, and gathering other relevant evidence. You might be suspended during this process (with full pay), especially if there’s a potential risk to others or the business.

2. Disciplinary Hearing

If the investigation suggests there’s a case to answer, you’ll be invited to a disciplinary hearing. You should receive proper notice and be given the chance to present your side of the story. You also have the right to bring someone with you—like a colleague or union representative. Your employer should record the discussion and provide copies of any evidence presented. You may also wish to seek HR advice at this point to understand your situation and employee rights.

3. Decision

After the disciplinary hearing, your employer will review the evidence and decide whether the allegations amount to gross misconduct and if dismissal is the appropriate outcome. You may wish to seek HR advice at this stage of even an employment tribunal if you believe you have been treated unfairly.

Need HR Support? We’re Here to Help

At Inspired CVs, we offer dedicated HR support to employees facing challenging workplace situations. Whether you’ve been accused of gross misconduct or need advice on your rights, we’re here to help. We provide one to one consultations to support you now and with your future career.

Contact us or book your HR consultation today to speak with a professional.

Overworked Employees

Underperforming Employees

Unable to Fulfil Needs

Business is Stagnant

Unhappy Customers

When considering your CV, it can be tempting to think that you can just use ChatGPT to do the heavy lifting for you. After all, when you enter some brief information about your career history, AI will generate content that sounds professional. However, although AI is a great tool to assist you with content, it should not be used to create a CV and these are some reasons why.

Inaccurate Content

AI doesn’t know anything about you as an individual or your professional career and skills. Therefore, when you enter some general content into platforms like ChatGPT, it will create a CV that may include inaccuracies. Although these may sound good on paper, if you are asked about these in an interview, you might cause yourself unnecessary stress.

Lack of Personality

Your CV is individual to you and therefore, it should reflect your personality. The reader is trying to get a better understanding of not only your professional experience and skills, but also your personality and what drives you. AI does not show personality and can come across as robotic. It is usually obvious when AI has been used throughout a CV and although it can be used as a tool to help, it should not be used to create an entire CV.

Inauthentic

When a recruiter looks at a CV and it has clearly been generated by AI, it can come across as unprofessional. There should be time and effort invested into a CV to ensure it reflects your personality as well as your skills and experience. Employers are becoming increasingly wise about AI generated CVs and they will be able to tell the difference between an AI CV and one where hard work and effort has been invested.

How to Use AI Effectively

AI can be a useful tool for supporting your efforts, rather than being the primary source of creating your CV content. Some ways to use AI effectively to support CV creation include refining your grammar and providing detail on structuring your CV and improving readability.

At Inspired CVs, we find that candidates prefer to outsource their CV, as it can often be difficult to sell yourself effectively. We provide professional CV writing services to candidates throughout the world. To find out more about online CV writing services, you can contact us or order your CV here.

Review Contract

Identify Issues

Speak to your Manager

Raise a Grievance

There are currently 5.4 billion social media users, with Facebook remaining the market leader. With such a high volume of users, it makes sense to incorporate it into your recruitment plans. You can target both passive and active candidates using Facebook and at relatively small costs compared to other forms of recruitment, such as job boards. These are some ways to use Facebook effectively as part of your recruitment strategy.

Recruitment Strategies on Facebook

There are two types of strategies you can implement on Facebook to support your recruitment efforts: organic and paid social media marketing. Organic social media is a strategy that involves building a brand to attract candidates to your business. The process is longer, and a consistent approach needs to be adopted to achieve success. On the other hand, paid social media is a more proactive form of social media, where the results can be instant. 

Build Your Brand

The first step is to ensure you have a business page set up, which you can use to build your brand and promote your company culture. You can then begin posting regularly (daily if possible) using a range of content, such as company reviews, employee testimonials, and general day-to-day footage of the inner workings of the company. People tend to engage more with personal content, and if you can show employees the environment and what they will be doing, it is far more engaging than a general job description. Not only this, but it ensures you are not only attracting candidates but the right candidate, who feels that the company would be the right fit for them.

Create Job Posts

As well as your regular day-to-day posts, you can also incorporate posts about the jobs on offer. A vibrant, attractive job post with a call to action on how to apply will help generate more applicants. With the additional benefit of them already getting an insight into your company through the other job posts.

Boost Posts

There is also an option to boost your posts (ideal for recruitment posts), whereby you can target a specific audience. The boost button usually sits under the post, and you can set it to users in a specific area, age, and target their interests. You are required to pay to boost posts, but it can be a good way to generate more leads.

Invite Users

You can invite users that engage with your posts (the invite button is usually next to their name) to allow you to build up your business page. In this way, an increasing number of people will be accessing your page and you will also build greater credibility by having a larger following.

Paid Ads

Although similar to boosted posts, paid ads allow you greater control over your ads and the ability to monitor performance. They are more complex and are more efficient if you have a specific goal in mind. For instance, attracting candidates to your website or receiving more messages.

If you are looking to support your organisation through workshops such as interview techniques, CV preparation, or guiding them through redundancy, we can help. Contact us today to find out more.

According to research by Westfield Health, over 64% of workers would leave their job if the culture of their workplace is negative, with 86% saying they are more productive if they are working in a good culture. Common signs that a workplace has a toxic culture are a high turnover of staff, poor communication and exclusion. If you are working in a toxic workplace, it can cause severe anxiety, distress and dread about going to work. These are some ways to handle a toxic workplace.

Focus on Job

In a toxic workplace, there is likely to be gossip, rumours and people generally being negative about others. The worst thing you can do in this case is to get involved in gossip. Not only will it affect your reputation, but it can also make you feel worse in the long run. The best thing to do when working in a toxic environment is to keep your head down, focus on your job and don’t get involved in anything negative. If people are gossiping to you, it is best to cut the conversation short, as it can be easy to let these conversations with toxic people in the workplace affect you.

Keep to Yourself

Unfortunately, someone can be your best friend in the workplace one day, and your enemy the next day. Workplaces can be a competitive place and some people will do anything to get to the top and may exhibit backstabbing behaviour. The best thing to do in the workplace is to keep yourself to yourself. You have your friends outside of work. Interact with others and stay friendly, but getting too close to people at work, especially in a toxic environment, can lead to disappointment.

Strict Hours

When you work in a toxic working environment, it can be all consuming, especially if you are feeling stressed and anxious about the workplace. In this case, it is important to be strict about your working hours. Having boundaries is important and better for your mental health. If you let your work spill into your personal life, you will never switch off from work and it can be detrimental to your mental health.

Speak to Someone

If possible, speak to someone that might be able to offer some support, such as a manager or HR department. Some managers are hands off, and may not be aware of how toxic the environment is. If you can find a confidant you can trust, they may be able to help, even if it is simply someone to talk to.

Find a New Job

It is not possible to work in a toxic environment for a prolonged period, as it will only lead to poor mental health. If you are feeling distressed by your working environment, it is often best just to remove yourself from the situation by leaving a toxic workplace. When you are searching for a new job it can make it easier to survive a toxic workplace.

If you are working in a toxic environment and want to find a new job, the best first step is to ensure you have a professional CV. Our top-rated CV writing services can help you secure your next job. Order your CV here or contact us to find out more.

One in ten older workers have returned to work after retirement, with the main reasons being financial concerns or boredom from being at home.  If you are struggling to find work as an older worker, you may be concerned about how potential employers will view you. Will they discard you straight away based on your age? Should you even mention your age on your CV? Age discrimination is a legitimate concern when looking for a job as an older worker. These are some steps you can take to improve your chances of gaining employment as an older worker.

Diversity and Equality Employers

Many employers actively recruit with diversity and inclusion in mind, therefore, giving older workers a better chance of being recruited. You can seek out companies employing older workers through platforms such as LinkedIn, as these employers are less likely to treat you as a number. Job boards will also provide more information on the employer and their values.

Age-Related Soft Skills

There are many advantages of hiring an older worker. If you are concerned about looking for a job as an older worker, you might want to highlight these. For instance, you could ensure your CV and cover letter cover the age-related attributes that make you an asset to any company, such as your reliability, ability to work under pressure, and ability to communicate. You may also want to highlight any physical activities you are involved in, incase the recruiter is concerned that you might not be as fit as younger workers.

Free Online Courses

A potential employer might have concerns that your skills are not up-to-date, especially if you have retired and want to return to the workplace. It is beneficial to review platforms such as Udemy, where you will find a range of online courses, even free courses to help you update your skills. Most employers base their hiring decisions on skills and experience, rather than age, and updating your skills will make finding work as an older worker much easier.

Try Networking

If you want employers to view you as more than a date of birth on a piece of paper, get out to networking events and meet employers. Career fairs in particular will allow you to meet recruiters face-to-face and leave a lasting impression on them. When you build a rapport with employers, you are more likely to have success, regardless of your age. Age discrimination is less likely to become an issue when the recruiter gets to know you.

Consider Freelancing

The main concern for employers when hiring older workers is that they won’t stay on the job for long. The risk can be eliminated with freelance work as it is usually project-based, so employers don’t have any expectations around your longevity in the role. If you are seeking work and you feel you are being eliminated due to age discrimination, freelance work can be a useful alternative.

If you are looking for a job as an older worker, it is crucial to give yourself the best chance of success.  At Inspired CVs, we provide the best CV writing services in Glasgow to suit your needs. Order your CV today or contact us to find out more about our online appointments and CV writing services. We offer CV writing services in UK for candidates globally.

Since the Coronavirus pandemic opened up the opportunity to work remotely, more organisations are allowing employees to work on a hybrid model than ever before. A quarter of the working population is now working on a hybrid model, which means they are splitting their working week between home and being on-site. It doesn’t suit all businesses, but for those that can offer this flexible working arrangement, it can be beneficial for the employees and the employer. 

Hybrid Model Options

There are several options when it comes to hybrid working, and your choice may depend on the needs of your business, as well as those of your employees. One option is to request that the employee works in the office 1 or 2 days a week, but they can choose whichever days they wish. Alternatively, you might request specific days or certain times each day, for instance, working in the office each afternoon, although this is less common and not as attractive for employees. These are some reasons why you may want to consider adopting a hybrid working model.

Reduce Costs

When operating on a hybrid model, businesses can reduce their overheads. For instance, they might ask employees to visit a site on a specific day, reducing day-to-day office running costs or they may even eliminate the office and hire an office when required. For employees, it can significantly reduce their costs of commuting to work, as well as other costs that they incur when travelling to sit, such as lunches, drinks, and parking fees.

Increased Productivity

Many people find that they are more productive at home, as there are fewer distractions than in the workplace. For instance, they don’t have colleagues speaking to them, they may not have access to a phone to take work calls at home, and they don’t get pulled into meetings. When working from home, employees can set their schedules for the day and work in a way that suits them, which can make them more productive.

Improve Work-Life Balance

One of the main benefits of hybrid working is that it creates a better work-life balance. Employees can spend more time at home, allowing them to spend more time with their loved ones and pets. They can spend their breaks however they wish. For instance, they may go for a run, read a book, or take their child or dog to the park. In doing this, they can create a better balance which can improve their mental wellbeing.

Better Retention

As there are so many employers offering flexible working patterns, you will get left behind if you don’t. Your employees may start to look for other jobs if they don’t have any flexibility. Whereas, if you provide hybrid working, you might find that you increase your retention levels.

If you are looking for hybrid working jobs, the first step is to ensure you have a professional CV. At Inspired CVs, we provide CV writing services in Glasgow with candidates across the globe. Order your CV today or contact us to find out more.