employment question

AHarvey · 7 Aug 2009 at 16:40

Hi all,

Just wondering if you guys can give your opinions on something.

If Senior Employee A knows that Employee B has had a telling off and tells others then it is something that needs to be addressed. However, if Senior Employee A gets a telling off and then tells an employee that he is friends with that he had a telling off can the company discipline that employee?

Got a friend at work having issues like this, basically had a telling off due to an anonomous complaint, told 3 of us and it got back to the boss and is now facing more disciplinary action. I was under the impression that there is nothing they can do as he is completely entitled to speak about this. Nothing in contract or company handbook about it.

Gaz1988 · 7 Aug 2009 at 16:41

Sounds like his boss is annoyed at being made a bad man.

V4NT0M · 7 Aug 2009 at 16:42

Disciplinary action for what?

Guest2 · 7 Aug 2009 at 16:47

how did it get back to the boss? has one your friends friends grassed him up to the boss?

Dolph · 7 Aug 2009 at 16:49

Generally disciplinary action is considered confidential and should not be discussed with other employees, certainly while it is in the process of being looked into/addressed.

Specifically though, have a look at the company's disciplinary procedure and see if that mentions anything about it.

Dugganator · 7 Aug 2009 at 16:49

I guess it might be the way he said it maybe, an example would be "oh that **** gave me a right telling off, this company sucks and is poo". If he said it like this it would be seen to bad mouth the company and his manager

I guess it all depends on how it was reported back to the boss as well. The person that told the boss could have made it to sound worse then he said.

I mean if he informed you all at the same time that there was a complaint made about him but didnt go into to much detail then I cant see a issue on this.

Just think of all the news of people getting fired over facebook and convo's down the pub etc. I mean I guess he should have only said to the people he trusted.

Hairybudda · 7 Aug 2009 at 16:54

If there's nothing about it in the company policy or handbook I wouldn't be worried, tell your friend to take a look and see if there is a victimisation policy in the handbook because he could bite back with that.

HangTime · 7 Aug 2009 at 18:46

I think it would depend on whether the "telling off" was part of the formal disciplinary procedure or not.

AHarvey · 7 Aug 2009 at 21:48

thanks for the replies.

It wasn't a formal thing, just a quick "we've had someone say this about you what is your side of it?"

And all he said to us was "I've just been told off because someone made a complaint about me regarding this issue", no names and he wasn't really bothered because he was in the right in the matter. However, it now appears that one of the lads he told passed the message on to the girl that made the complaint and she contacted the boss about it.

It just seems so pathetic!