
Working at a company and all of a sudden you see a notice from your manager or supervisor saying in 24- or 48-hours’ time you’re going to be facing a disciplinary hearing.
A whole bunch of emotions go through your mind. Your mind is confused, you don’t know what to do, you need to pack up your stuff. It feels like a million things going through your mind.
The most important thing that you need to do is, center yourself and be able to record the facts of the situation or whatever is alleged against you. Generally, when you’re facing a disciplinary hearing it’s because of misconduct that you are accused of.
Misconduct meaning dishonesty, theft, harassment any kind of violation at work that you should not have done. That’s what your company or your ex-employer is now suing you for or accusing you of. Therefore, it is important thing to look at the situation objectively, if you get to involved with your emotions, you’re going to have a difficult time trying to analyse the evidence and being able to prove your innocence.
That’s critical here because in 24 to 48 hours’ time, what’s going to happen is you’re going to go into that room where the disciplinary hearing is going to take place, opposite you is the employer representative which can be anyone from HR or an outsourced company and then you’re going to have a chairperson, which is going to hear the dispute. So, look at the situation objectively and plan your strategy.
Planning Your Strategy
In terms of how to go about planning your strategy, I would advise you to take out a sheet of paper, on the left-hand side write down those things that are being alleged against you. Try to break it down into date, time, and witnesses. Also write down, what is the company accusing you of?
On the right-hand side, you’re going to go and write down your defences to those things. For example, if the company has accused you of stealing money between May and June and you know full well you are not at work or someone else had access to the bank account at that time or told register, whatever the case is try and find evidence to prove your defence. Without evidence, it’s just your word against theirs and the company is probably going to have evidence against you.
How do you go about getting evidence when you are not at the workplace anymore?
How do you get your emails? If the laptops back at work. Are you allowed to contact staff members? To be honest you’re not allowed to do that, you’re not allowed to communicate with ex-employees.
My advice is to think carefully about situations and events which relate to your particular charge. That particular accusation that’s levelled against you, from a perspective of witnesses, who else can testify on your behalf? Is there someone else that can corroborate your version? Is there someone else that can back up your claim? If you need to get a hold of that person and ask them to testify for you, the correct approach is to actually approach either the HR department or your ex-manager and say I’ve got my hearing coming up, I need this person and this person to come and testify for me. That is the approach and get it down in writing because that can be used as evidence at the disciplinary hearing.
Extra steps to help you prepare for a Disciplinary Hearing:
Step 1:
Analyze the Charge Sheet. What parts of the charges can you challenge (tip: look at the date, time, eye witnesses etc.). Practically consider what evidence the employer will try and use against you and see how you will counteract this evidence.
Step 2:
Immediately request for any information that you might need to prepare for your case. For example, emails, and other documents which the employer has and you need for your case. Because without evidence, you cannot win your case. Please request this evidence as soon as possible before the hearing. Make sure to do it in writing so you can produce it at a later stage (in case they ignore your request for these important documents that you need).
Step 3:
Be prepared for a battle! Usually the employer seeks dismissal at the disciplinary hearing. This means they going for your neck and they want to fire you! So do not be surprised when the employer asks for this. Rather start preparing as best as you can – so that you will be ready when your case goes to the CCMA eventually.
Remember to be calm and focused. Whilst it is a difficult time, do not let your emotions side track you.