So it's been 2 full weeks from me calling a customer a cheeky bitch and I'm still employed there yet no word as yet from HR or otherwise.

My TL and my manager don't know anything new, and it's technically out of all our hands as it's someone neutral doing the investigation and therefore nobody could influence it anyways.

The 2 weeks CS training is over, and today I practically delegated myself to floorwalking next week in support for the new team. My TL just nodded and agreed with my suggestion - he's pretty easy-going and laid-back in general, but a very decent guy and the best TL I've had there, I should add. Goes out of his way to have your back.

I had hoped to know the verdict by now, yet I was informed today that investigations can take months.... Well fuck that, I don't want to sit around in limbo for ages only to be dismissed in the end regardless. I would like to stay there, truth be told.

I'm at a crossroads of sorts. Either I wait it out and see what happens which will be either a dismissal or not, or apply for other jobs and hand in my notice when I get one, which in turn wouldn't help the ongoing investigation, screwing up any credibility I have with them.

If I do wait it out and it turns to worst case scenario I've had an idea. I'm going to make a request along the lines of being granted a grace period for me to find a new job. I think such a request would be reasonable on the grounds that I've had 3 years of service at the company with no mistakes, complaints or incidents, and brilliant attendance. Along with the fact that I've held my hands up willing to face the consequences, and patiently waited it out whilst they did the investigation.

Is negotiation of a grace period after dismissal a thing? Reasonable request? Good idea?

Gunna do a bit of research on where the fuck I stand here, cos this limbo shit is pissing me off.

So I realised that if I was dismissed that asking for a grace period wouldn't work if the dismissal is "with immediate effect" and it would just be a waste of time asking.

Aside from what may or may not happen, there's literally nothing for me to do in work now. Yesterday I had some admin work to keep me going, but I asked my TL this morning what to do - he shrugged his shoulders and said I've got nothing for you to do. I said so what WILL I do then? And he told me I could just sit at my desk and play around on the internet.

So that's my current employment status - sitting at my desk messing around online learning myself stuff that's completely unrelated to work, and getting paid for it.

Today I was approached by the TL who is conducting the investigation, who wanted to brief me about his role in the incident and request that I think about my response, and meet with him in a private room.

He had with him another neutral party to witness our meeting. He explained what he had done so far and asked would I like to say anything about it. I gave him my version of the incident, that the customer had offended me and I responded by swearing as I did, and that I thought the phone was on mute. I said that although I thought it was on mute, that it was no excuse and it was totally inappropriate to respond in the way I did. I added that this has been the biggest lesson in professionalism, and no matter what the outcome is, whether I keep my job or it's an outright dismissal, it has certainly changed everything about the way I'll be conducting myself now and in the future.

He now has done his bit. I know the guy, he's a decent bloke, knows I've been there quite a while without any trouble, and I'm confident he'll give HR a recommendation that doesn't warrant dismissal.

Now I wait for HR to make their decision.

Walked into work today and my manager had approved me to go back on the phones selling to and retaining customers.

HR still has to make a final decision, so it's still somewhat preliminary, but it's probably a good sign.

Maybe it's my manager making a point that she trusts me to be back on the phones no matter what happened.

But I just don't have any experience of a situation like this so all I can do is continue to roll with it.

Guess who isn't getting sacked.

My manager said to me this morning that she'd heard from HR.. She then looked at me and told me "you're gunna be ok" coupled with a wink

It's not official until the week after next, since I've taken next week off, but it's nice to know I'm safe, with probable and likely formal conditions of some form or other.

I don't care what the terms are, I can recover from anything in the company but a dismissal.

It's 3am and just have to share this cos I'm buzzing and I'm now likely to get very little sleep before work in a few hours.

I took last week off work to do some work around my proposed business. I got drunk for the first half but then I dusted myself off and got stuck in.

I started the free trial on Shopify (10 days left) so that I can customize it and get a feel for it etc.

After lengthy brainstorming sessions I decided on and secured a catchy domain name for my website (it was thanks to my nerdy mate, he came up with it).

I've been doing product research, which is one of the toughest parts, and contacted a few Chinese suppliers whose stores from which I showed interest in selling some of their products. (I still have much more research and contacting to do)

The reason I'm buzzing right now is, I've just received response from 2 of the 4 suppliers I contacted. They're more than happy to do business with me, and pretty much agreed to all my requests, except one of them couldn't put a logo on items or packages for me. But that's ok the other one can.

What logo am I talking about? I don't even fucking have one yet

Tomorrow I need to make a call to complete my application for start-up business bank account. They needed to know at least a few of the suppliers I intended to buy from. So that should be them happy to proceed now I've ticked that box.

Anyways, I've had on and off anxiety about it all since I kicked things off a few nights ago, but now I'm getting excited, this communication with suppliers shit is progress. I'm doing business.

I survived my disciplinary today.

HR were present and after being asked questions about how and why the incident happened etc, as well as my thoughts and feelings about it including how it affects/has affected my conduct going forward, the meeting was adjourned for 40 minutes whilst they conferred and made a decision... Which was, a final warning

So that's that. I can now put this ugly event behind me.

After a crappy few months with the work related incident, then losing a cousin suddenly, and a few other set-backs, I finally built my online store and launched it as fully live this week.

Something nicely surprising, is that I've had 10 people sign up to my mailing list, both pre and post launch, and I haven't spent a dime on marketing..

By checking my google analytics, it appears I've had hits from the USA, the UK and Ireland. The Ireland and UK hits aren't surprising since I've had people I know take a look at my site to give me feedback (all love it), but the USA ones, well they do surprise me, because they've found me organically.

So now it's a matter of getting my head down and doing some effective marketing, and try to get my first sales.

Attempt number 1 - send a discount voucher to my 10 subscribers, offering 20% off their entire first purchase.

Cool thing is happening.

Obviously, although my business is technically live, I'm still pretty much in the pre-trading phase, trying to figure out where best to spend my money on advertising, rather than just throwing money aimlessly at different things. However..

My mate is doing some freelance work for Invest NI - one of the local business-backing and support organisations. He sent me forms last night to fill out, and in a nutshell, he's going to get me 30 hours of fully funded, one-to-one business mentoring.

This is great timing and I'm gunna make full use of this shit.

I woke up on Saturday to my first sale on my website.

It turned out to be fraudulent, so I made the decision to cancel the order.

So at least I've experienced the feeling of making a sale.

Not much is going to happen for the new few weeks as it's the Chinese new year and they all go on the piss apparently.