Burning issue at work ...

[Johnjeff]

Long story short, the company I work for has a new management team, three individuals who have all subsequently been made directors of the company.




They were hired 11 month ago on the basis they would deliver substantial revenues to the company and kick start a growth plan.




11 month later they have not delivered a single penny of the plan, income is down, costs are eye watering, significant losses, and the company is virtually on life support as I type this trying to scrap together funds to pay wages this week.




Anyway, moving on...




I found a document three month ago on a shared printer on the operational floor next to the now Managing Director's desk (shared open office set up). The document was titled "HR Strategy" and in it under the subtitle (my name) was a brief paragraph detailing that I am good at my job, however with the "AP" (action plan) "sack the c**t".




The language and level of professionalism we know is quite frankly shambolic let alone coming from an "MD". Further, I remain mindful that everything else noted in the agenda has come to pass (redundancies etc).




Subsequently I have confirmed with certainty this document was indeed created by the Managing Director (how I did this - I logged on to his computer two weeks ago and see the document on his desktop). Yeah I know one may gasp but we are an SME, employees 16 and no IT or HR department.




Anyway I kept this to myself over the last three month, unsure what to do... do I report it to my "formal line manager", who so happens to be one of the three directors, or do I report it to the Owner (informal boss).




Last week, due to the current financial state of the company and a merging conflict between the Owner and one of the newly appointed directors, and EGM was called.




I made the decision to share this with the Owner leading up to the meeting and emailed the document to him asking for this to be raised, minuted, and a written apology provided by the individual. If its going to be raised and discussed in a formal environment, and EGM was the place for it was my rationale.




My email was acknowledged by owner, but my request to raise in the EGM ignored.




I spoke to owner last evening on the telephone who confirmed he has spoken to the individual but I am in the wrong for reading it in the first place and should have handed the document back to the author. I shared my view on it all and admitted that I logged into his computer two weeks ago to obtain concrete evidence to the fact before I made a decision on what to do about it. It was basically all my fault was his response and not sure what he is going to do about all this.




I was gobsmacked.




I have consulted an employment lawyer but they want to £700 just to meet for a couple of hours and review details surrounding it.




I don't have this kind of money.




What should I do? I feel helpless.

[jaguarsuk]

I should think that you have a very good case for constructive dismissal if it goes that far, but that might not be need for that.

The document was left on a shared printer, had the author wished it to remain private then he should have printed it and collected it promptly. You are not in the wrong for reading the document unless it was marked Strictly Private & Confidential.

Logging on to his computer was not a good thing to do, that said if there is no IT policy specifically stating you can't and passwords are shared (I assume they are for you to have his) then you could claim that it is custom & practice on that grounds that employees have shared access to each others computers.

As regards raising the matter, whilst you have made the owner aware and discussed it informally you need to file a grievance with your line manager. This will demonstrate should you need to at a later date that you gave the company every opportunity to rectify the mistake. Simply write a letter to your line manager, scan the signed document and as well as handing the hard copy of it also email it. This will ensure evidence of receipt.

Have you ever heard the term jump before you're pushed? If the company is on life support and this is how you are being treated when it has been noted that you are good at your job then it's time to go and be good at it somewhere else.

Your actions now:

1. Check if the company has an IT policy and if it does what that says about logging on to someone else's computer. Equally check what it says about sharing passwords too.

2. Once you know your position regarding that, formalise your grievance via the proper channels.

Ula may offer further advice.

[ULA]

jaguarsuk has given good guidance. You certainly need to establish what the IT policy is for the company as you may have fallen foul of this by logging into the MD's computer. Also if the company is in such a difficult financial situation then maybe some job-hunting is in order.

I do have an issue with the fact that it appears from your post that you found the hardcopy document some 3 months ago yet only decided to raise this as an issue just recently. Normally you should raise a grievance, even on an informal basis, as soon as believe you have a grievance to raise. Therefore you need to consider if you do decide to raise a grievance what reasons you will provide as to why you have left it three months and state them in the grievance letter just to cover off this point at the outset.