Apologising
[ch 5: page 64]Apologising quickly, acknowledging an error, cooperating and indicating a willingness to learn from mistakes can help avoid a dismissal. An apology should be taken into account by the employer when considering sanctions, including when deciding whether dismissal is within the “band of reasonable responses” (see page 74).
In the following case, an apology was relied on to justify a difference in treatment between fellow workers for similar offences:
Mr Crisp was dismissed for posting comments on his Facebook page including “once again, f**k you very much work’, openly criticising an Apple app, sarcastically describing an iPhone as a ‘Jesus phone’ and posting ‘Tomorrow is another day, a day I hope I will forget’ a day before Apple released the tagline ‘Tomorrow is another day, a day you’ll never forget’.
He was uncooperative throughout the investigation, answering “No comment” to all the questions, and he failed to apologise. He drew attention to two other employees who had also posted derogatory comments online about Apple, both of which owned up to the misconduct and apologised. They received final warnings. Crisp’s dismissal was found to be fair even though his co-workers kept their jobs, largely because of his failure to cooperate during the investigation or to apologise.
Crisp v Apple Retail (UK) Ltd ET Case No. 1500258/2011