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Tricky Workplace Issues
A few employees at the small company where I work were fired over some messages that were discovered where some negative talk about the leadership team was going down.
Come to find out now that our company is appealing the unemployment benefits of employees let go and that is leaving quite a bad taste in my mouth. Should I talk to HR about it or just deal? I wish I could speak up for my former colleagues but don't want to create tension with my boss.
Peg Bittner
retired auditor now into volunteering
620
05/04/19 at 12:17AM UTC
Now you are still working, a group of people some of who were work friends were fired without warning as far as you know. You want to say something for those people you know. Now I have to ask, Why? You must realize that no one in HR management or anyone who decided to let these people go got up that morning and thought"I think today I am going to fire "A, B, C, & D". they had to have some reason and documentation to back up their reason. This action even though it hurts you and bothers you very much and even scares you. It is no business of yours. It does not pertain to you. You go to anyone about this you will cause more problems than you want and that is not what you need. Continue to keep your nose clean, follow the policies of the company and give the company the best work you can provide for them. Don't believe anything from the grapevine, remember grapevines have thrones and they hurt.
I speak from experiences that are too long to write here. I have personally witnessed people putting their noses in places they should never had put them. As a result they had to protect their own seat for a very long time.
Nirupama RaghavanDigital Strategy Consultant & Retail Expert
382
04/25/19 at 10:05PM UTC
Co-workers being fired unexpectedly is usually jarring to the work environment and I’m sorry that you’re experiencing that disconcerting feeling.
As a rule, I think it’s foolish to say negative things about people in writing, unless it’s related to coaching them through performance evaluations, and even that should be more constructive criticism than “negative”. However, I’m curious about the nature of the negative talk, because that has some impact on your options, in my opinion.
• If it was expressing concern about leadership practices, it’s disturbing that this would result in immediate termination and stopping of unemployment benefits. Does your company have any formal or informal avenues for providing feedback to leadership? If you don’t know, this might be an appropriate question for HR.
• If it was discussion about unethical behavior of leaders, then it’s a huge red flag that the firing was potentially a retaliatory action. Does your company have a process for reporting unethical behavior? This is another potential question for HR.
• If it was a discussion that was derogatory, harassing, or threatening in nature, such as mocking appearance or sexual comments, then immediate termination may have been the appropriate response.
The problem is that you’re unlikely to ever know the truth about what happened. Even if you hear from your former co-workers, they may or may not tell you the unvarnished truth. Certainly, for privacy and legal reasons, your company will probably not reveal what happened.
Given that you probably don’t know what the discussion was, I would not recommend going to HR at this point. It’s likely that they will proactively remind the team of any relevant policies, as appropriate. If you start to notice a pattern of discussion being shut down or retaliation, then you can reconsider your approach.
Tiffany Gaeta
16
04/25/19 at 11:05PM UTC
It's tough because it stemmed from use of company equipment for personal conversations where frustration with leadership practices was expressed along with some negative remarks expressed by one person though not harassing or threatening (according to what I was told).
We've already re-reviewed policies and guidelines which is helpful, however it still feels like the situation could have been handled better. As an HR person was brought in as a result of the incident I don't quite feel I can trust them to be an advocate for the employees who are left.
Nirupama RaghavanDigital Strategy Consultant & Retail Expert
382
04/26/19 at 12:48PM UTC
My experience is that HR is not designed to be an advocate for employees. It's a corporate function that ensures that HR policies are in place and followed. That's not really the same thing.
Anonymous
04/23/19 at 11:45PM UTC
Since they are now former employees I'm not sure you can do anything on their behalf.
However, you can position a conversation with HR to ask them to determine what type of policies need to be re-communicated to the current employees based on the situation. It may turn out to be harassment, physical threats, racial slurs, etc. It may turn out to be use of company resources (equipment/blogs) to conduct private inappropriate conversations. Or something more minor but still an important issue to management.
This could be a good chance to help employees and the company address the bigger picture of what needs to change in their corporate culture, get everyone on the same page, and move on.
Anonymous
04/24/19 at 1:32AM UTC
I completely agree that framing this about making the future better, more understandable, etc. rather than what happened in the past is the much more palatable way to have this conversation and it will be much better received as a result.
Anonymous
04/23/19 at 7:49PM UTC
Oh wow. I'd imagine that happens with pretty extreme cases. I'm so curious what was said for the precautions to be escalated that way.
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