Hi
This is in two parts really involving the same Manager and Employee.
Part 1 - We have a lady in our company who has been complaining about her boss. Whilst she was off having an operation he had access to her emails so he could do her job, no problem but he was deleting her emails and reading ones that weren't relevant to him.
She isn't happy about a number of other things so I advised her to raise a grievance so we could pursue the issue. She can't see the point as she thinks nothing will get done as he is a manager and its his word against hers and is talking about handing in her notice. Now should the fact that I know about this verbally be enough for me to step in and try to resolve this or do I need her to put it in writing?
Part 2 - In reading her emails her manager came across an email she had sent to a colleague in our parent company about being surrounded by idiots (she used a word worse than this!) which he thinks we should pull her up on disciplinary as not so long back she sent an email to our entire IT department referring to someone in her department as overweight (again using a different word!)
So I don't really know what to do. I think she should be disciplined for email but know she will kick off about him getting away with things. Any advice or pointers would be greatly appreciated.
What a first week back at work after maternity leave!!
Bring it on!
Thanks
Rachel
Replies
Thanks for responses and no wouldn't have it any other way, why I work in HR!
Its such a hard one as they are individually coming to me and part of me wants to put them in a room together to sort it out!
Agree with you Mike that its down to you as individual what you write in your emails but should he be going through her old emails when she has sent emails regarding her pay and time off sick. As for keeping emails being in HR I keep everything :)
She has advised me this morning that she is going for job interview tomorrow but wants to raise a grievance!
That is probably the most appropriate course of action as both parties will have the opportunity to put forward their case. Be interested in hearing how this plays out - obviously maintaining privacy etc
Might be worth checking out the ACAS wesite http://www.acas.org.uk/ for anything related.
Good luck!
Straight back and in the thick of it - would you have it any other way.
Quite a few things at play here and some honest thoughts from me not necessarily looking at this through eyes of HR and playing devils advocate.
Not sure why emails he was reading weren't relevant to him? If it's a company email address then surely all emails are relevant to work in some way?
Depending on what email policy is place it makes sense to delete emails that have either been actioned or aren't relevant to maintain inbox ground zero and keep valuable IT space and memory.
It also sounds like this person isn't big on diversity and equal opportunities or doesn't understand it and again this isn't using her personal email (if this was this whole situation would be different) it's using her work email. As you are using company property these emails aren't yours so anything you email or have in your emails are really the property of the company.
You are also responsible and accountable for what you put in any emails so whilst you mention there are other things at play I think from what you've shared it is the lady in question who really need to be under the microscope.
Mike
Crikey Rachel,
What a welcome back to work you've had!
My thoughts on the first issue are to suggest that the best course of action is to take it informally at first. Ask the employee if it's ok for you to perhaps have a discussion about the matter with her boss. Going ahead and getting stuck in without her go ahead could result in staff deciding not to approach you with their concerns as they may fear that it would lead to action being taken even if they don't wish to pursue it. In some cases, they may just want to chat, offload and are content with that.
It's going to be a difficult one to resolve, and I don't envy you having to take it on. I imagine the boss will not feel that he has done anything untoward, so maybe some coaching along the lines of how would he feel if his boss did that to him?
It's compounded of course by him wanting her to be disciplined for an email that he shouldn't have read in the first place! I tend to agree with you, particularly as it's a second occurrence, that there is a disciplinary on the horizon. I would however, bear in mind the need for informal action first where appropriate ( as per ACAS guidelines). Assuming there was an informal discussion recorded in the first instance, then it makes sense that the subsequent incident should trigger a discipline.
Good luck with it Rachel, I look forward to hearing how it progresses when we meet up in Bristol again,
Cheers
Steve