Please help - Facebook Status - Company Confidential Information

[evo17paul]

Hi all,

 

I appear to have got myself into a spot of bother and am looking for advice.

Basically the whole company was brought together and it was announced that we were all on 30day consultation process as the company needs to cut costs.

 

We were also told, that on the same day individually we would be meeting with the MD and HR team, and at this point I was individually told that they were basing the criteria on 'last in first out' and due to my term of employment (3yrs 2mnths) I was at high risk even though 4 other people in my department alone started after me.

 

I was obviously feeling aggrieved at myself meeting this criteria especially as in general I am praised for my work and have even received praise from our customers directly also. Anyway, that night I had updated my facebook status to point out that I was under 30day consultation and I had complained about thats what working hard gets you..

 

It has since transpired that someone has gone back to my boss and revealed my facebook status and now I am being accused of leaking company confidential information and now I have a meeting with my boss, MD & HR this coming Friday. I have also received a separate email from my boss asking for 'exact wording' on what I put for their records.

 

Now firstly, I did not disclose the company that I work for in my status or reveal any other person(s) status within my own status, this was purely a personal message about me.

 

Secondly, at no point during the general meeting or any subsequent emails sent about the announcement was it said that the information was company confidential and also we have not received written formal notice of the announcement of being under consultation.

 

I did get collared on Monday of this week by my boss and he asked do I know what its about and I said my facebook message (as I believed being honest was the best policy), but I did not disclose the message or anything.

 

Now I have separately decided to not to disclose anything for their records and if question I will be saying that I wish to discuss this during the meeting, but is there any other advice anyone can give?

 

All help much appreciated

 

Thanks

 

P

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG. Oh dear, Facebook again. I hope I'm wrong that this doesn't normally go well and that we can help you.

 

My best, HB

[Lydeard27]

Hi sorry to hear your problems m8, I too faced a gross misconduct charge over ambiguos comments put on FB. The problem is that even if your privacy settings are quite tight it is classed as a social networking site and even if one of your m8s comments on any of your status your company can then say because that person doesnt work for your company then he/she is therefore a member of the public, and you are bringing the company into disripute.

Apparently an employer is allowed to look at your facebook page or even act on any information if some brown nosed turd decides to stitch you up!!! It really is a nightmare of a place.

I have since advised everyone I know to ensure that privacy is set for friends only including photos, and that anyone from work who is not a close m8 is physically put on a block list (that way they cant even read your comments added to a mutual friend)

 

If you have a union it may be worth asking for help, especially if your company doesn't have a clear social networking policy and for any disciplinary they must follow strict company guidlines. It is a very dodgy area at the moment and the law seems to be favouring companies, it seems to be a very easy way for them to cull employees rather than go down their normal disciplinary procedures. But definately get some advice from a free community law centre or the citizens advice.

 

I had the backing of the workforce and threatened to take the company to a tribunal and once sacked proceeded with this action. (this is a very long drawn out process and obviously costs the company money) eventually the problem was resolved and I got my job back (lucky but there is hope)

 

Ensure if they do try and do you for it that they follow their procedures properly. you are protected by employment law because you have been employed for over a year but you will need to look into this, their disciplinary procedures and wether at anytime they have issued any sort of statement regarding social networking sites.

 

Sorry not much help but hope it encourages you not to give up, fight them, dont just give in and assume they are ok to treat you this way and get some free legal adice

 

[SarEl]

Oh dear. And people still look at ME strangely when I say that I would rather eat glass than register with Facebook!

 

But I am afraid that the previous poster is absolutely correct in all respects. There is every possibility that the company could turn this into a dismissal if they want to do so, and equally every possibility that a tribunal would uphold it - more than enough people have already been down this road in tribunal before to know that there are very good adds against an employee winning. Which is doubly unfortunate since a redundancy selction based solely or heavily on first in last out would be unlawful (indirect age discrimination) and you would have had quite a good chance of overturning this criteria.

 

I would suggest that you have already started with an "honesty is the best policy" approach (which I agree is best) so keep to that. If the number of people who could see your comments is very limited, then point out that this is no different than your having told your friends down the pub, and having been obviously distressed about possibly loosing your job, you simply talked to your friends in the same way; there was no intention to divulge anything secret since you hadn't been told that possibly loosing your job was a secret!; and apologise. It may blow over - it may not. But right now there is little you can do but wait and see what happens.

 

I do feel a need to point out yet again to people that Facebook is very dangerous if you intend to post ANY comments which impact on your employer or employment; and that having ANTONE at work amongst your firends or people who can access your pages is exceptionally dangerous. If you have genuine friends at work, then you are very lucky - but you will never know this until they HAVEN'T turned you in for that comment you posted about the employer!

[evo17paul]

Hi guys,

 

Thank you for the advice, it is much appreciated and gives me a few pointers.

Unfortunately it is not only me in this predicament, but a fellow colleague as well, so I will also pass the information to him as well.

 

Thanks again and I will let you know the outcome.

[honeybee13]

Please keep up posted, we'll do what we can. As Lydeard says, you can at least check that they do things by the book. Do you have a copy of the disc procedures, etc?

 

My best, HB

[evo17paul]

Hi all,

 

Well I took the great advice here and fortunately for me no action has been taken apart from a big slap on the wrist.

It appears they have no evidence of the message, partly due to me deactivating my facebook account almost immediately. But I'm not taking this lightly and think I will continue to keep it deactivate for the time being and for the forseable future.

 

Once again, thank you for the time spent for a new user to the system, and not to take this funny but I hope I do not have to raise questions like this again.

 

Thanks

[honeybee13]

Hello again. I'm delighted that you've had a good outcome and thank you for letting us know. I hope you'll let your friends know what trouble Facebook can get them into, now you've found out first hand.

 

My best for the future, be good .

 

HB

[SarEl]

It appears they have no evidence of the message, partly due to me deactivating my facebook account almost immediately. But I'm not taking this lightly and think I will continue to keep it deactivate for the time being and for the forseable future.

 

If you knew how many cases of this I see and hear about - you would deactivate it for ever

 

An American friend of mine told me a story - I have no idea whether it is true. She says that the person who "invented" Facebook was once briefing some nice people from the CIA. They were astonished at what he said. They wanted to know what he did to get people to post all sorts of highly private and personal infromation on the internet so that anybody could get at it. He said that he did nothing. So they wanted to know why people would willing hand over this sort of information to total strangers. His reply was "because they are stupid b*st*rds". Like I said, I have no idea if it's true - but if it isn't, it should be:-) There are few secrets in the world, and once they are on line there are none.

[papasmurf1cx]

Evo.... if you want an education and to avoid employment pitfalls you could do no better than stalk on here and read the various problems people have.