Disciplinary process over employees slagging colleagues on private WhatsApp group

Ladyjuicy - this sort of thing is as old as the hills but the big difference is that is has taken place on social media rather than the pub,club, Christmas party, etc. That is a big no-no. I think you should ignore some of the moralising about this (let he who is without sin, etc) and just look at it as a very foolish mistake that you should try to resolve as quickly as possible.

If you go down the route of people making accusations against the other party at this point it is most likely going to make the situation worse, reflect badly on everyone and spoil the atmosphere forever (unless we are talking about some type of sackable offence). Just deal with the issue that arose. It was wrong. Apologies are needed to the offended party.

If other issues arise in the future then individuals should address it through the grievance procedure. If individuals have issues re past behaviour they could address them directly (and privately) with the person concerned, saying what occurred, what they felt about it and that they will not tolerate anything of the sort in future.

Ladyjuicy08 said:
In fairness there are a queue of people now willing to make complaints against him,he's opened a can of worms with making his complaint
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Maybe, but it is irrelevant to the matter in hand. Just deal with the WhatsApp issue.
 
I think this thread highlights the importance to employers of having written policies in place to deal with bullying and harassment in the workplace and to inform all employees, including visiting contractors, etc., of those policies,

Employers should also realize that they have vicarious liability, which extends beyond the workplace, for instance, to the Christmas party and other work-related events.
 
Ladyjuicy08 said:
Has no-one ever annoyed u at work before and u complained in what u thought was a private group about them This group was not set up to slag anybody it was 1 instance and 1 meme that's all
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You seem to fail to appreciate that doing this on social media and making the comment in private to another person are two very different things. Just as slagging someone off down the pub is very different to doing it on social media. The difference is that social media last forever and you have no control over where it can turn up later. And sadly this kind of thing has had tragic consequences in some cases, which would naturally make any employer concerned about their own liability.

What you are now describing re work place complaints etc. is most definitely having an impact on the work force and I would not be at all surprised if there are consequences come down the road for the members of this little group, epically if they are agitating for additional complains. It does not have to be a disciplinary action, just a promotion over looked, a bonus not given, a reference not as good as it otherwise would have been and so on.
 
Jim2007 said:
You seem to fail to appreciate that doing this on social media and making the comment in private to another person are two very different things.
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Whatsapp messaging is end-to-end, They don't store any messages on servers anywhere. I would suggest it's like someone recording your conversation in the pub and then playing back to someone else. This whole conversation is ridiculous. They had a private conversation and someone decided to tell a person not in the conversation about it. So what; company should not be involved in this but we are living in Snowflakia now
 

To be honest it was 1 meme that was forgotten about as was sent weeks ago & never mentioned again I didnt even remember when my boss said it to me the person who screenshot it imo just caused whole load of unnessary trouble that could of been avoid cos now whole place is up in arms over it
 
The salient point is that a complaint was made to management, which to protect themselves must take action.

The action they take will depend on the full circumstances.

Ladyjuicy08 said:
the person who screenshot it imo just caused whole load of unnessary trouble that could of been avoid cos now whole place is up in arms over it
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For you, this should be a cautionary tale. Chalk it up to experience.
 
Ladyjuicy08 said:
We were doing a gentle bit of slagging on it about someone from work who goes around slagging everybody off to their face & behind their backs.
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Ladyjuicy08 said:
To be honest it was 1 meme that was forgotten about as was sent weeks ago
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Could you clarify if it was definitely just one meme and nothing else, the 'we' in your first post suggests otherwise?


Ladyjuicy08 said:
The group has been disbanded but the employee has put a complaint in against all the members claiming bullying
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Surely the only member of the group who has a case to answer is the one who posted the meme, unless there is more to it.
 
elcato said:
Whatsapp messaging is end-to-end, They don't store any messages on servers anywhere. I would suggest it's like someone recording your conversation in the pub and then playing back to someone else.
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It certainly is not and at this stage with all that has been published it is hard to imagine there are people who still believe that their messages are private. First of all anyone can do a screen grab and toss it up anywhere on the net at anytime, even the situation we are discussing demonstrates that. Second, it is not some kind of secure point to point communication network, it has to go over relay servers, routers etc any of which can cache a copy and thirdly you are relying on their unmonitored integrity to say they are no in fact keeping a copy.

You should not put anything up in social media that you would not mind seeing up on the company/club notice board or the white board in the kitchen.
 
 
1 meme 1/2 comments saying yeah it's the spit of him and few laughing emoji 6 messages in total and nothing else before or after that
 
Jim2007 said:
You should not put anything up in social media that you would not mind seeing up on the company/club notice board or the white board in the kitchen.
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I've seen print out of memes at work stuck up with people's name on them and the person just laughs it off I've even had my name written beside picture on the notice board few years ago but it's not malicious
 
This whole debacle is a joke or rather SHOULD be, but unfortunately in the age we live in, its gets blown up out of all proportion and people think they must be seen to take it seriously. Since time immemorial, people spoke about people and in general what would be relayed back would not be complimentary. So what, get over it, we're all adults, start acting like one. To take umbridge and go running to management is just so purile "Oee Oee Oee I'm straight telling on you", springs to mind !
It is pathetic.

As Oscar Wilde said "There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."

Having said that, as already noted, one must be extremely careful what is written (in every media) and to a lesser extent what is spoken, for obvious reasons.

BTW "WhatsApp" is not regarded as social media, per se, but as a messaging service and contrary to what has been said above is not easily intercepted. It uses end-to-end encryption and is so secure that even "WhatsApp" cannot access Person A's message. In other words, there is no Person C, and, supposedly, no potential hackers.
 
I can't imagine a situation where an employee would come up to me complaining about such a scenario. I wouldn't entertain such school yard nonsense, and the staff would know this.

Being asked by posters here to apologise to this idiot is what's pathetic. Get real. At this stage, i would gather all involved, and remind them they're not flippen 12 years of age anymore.

Jeez, how do companies get any work done in such environments.
 
SparkRite said:
It uses end-to-end encryption and is so secure that even "WhatsApp" cannot access Person A's message.
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And you believe this because.... Oh yes they tell you....

In the real world, developers and admins make mistakes and data gets exposed, servers and caching gets added to speed things up and encryption gets turned off because it generates massive overhead and that is before the hackers get involved.

At the end of the day it is your data and if you are happy to take them at their word then that is up to you. But personally I would not believe it for a minute.
 

Think of it like this. You can't trust anyone in that group now.
 
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