Work gossiping about my disciplinary

[Acjb007]

I was under investigation for gross misconduct and at the disciplinary I resigned as I could tell their only option was dismissal. A letter from my GP was shown and they agreed to accept my resignation on medical grounds.

I'd like to know what my employers duty is as a friend went to my place of work to see me. She didn't know I had left and a manager went into full details of my investigation and said I'd been fired and the police are involved. I'm so angry they feel they can discuss my circumstances in great detail and the police are definitely not involved. I've since learned others have been told different stories and it's now putting my current job at risk as my manager is asking questions. Have they done wrong?

[Sangie595]

Re: Work gossiping about my disciplinary

I was under investigation for gross misconduct and at the disciplinary I resigned as I could tell their only option was dismissal. A letter from my GP was shown and they agreed to accept my resignation on medical grounds.

I'd like to know what my employers duty is as a friend went to my place of work to see me. She didn't know I had left and a manager went into full details of my investigation and said I'd been fired and the police are involved. I'm so angry they feel they can discuss my circumstances in great detail and the police are definitely not involved. I've since learned others have been told different stories and it's now putting my current job at risk as my manager is asking questions. Have they done wrong?

There's really very little that you can do about this. It is a civil issue rather than a criminal one, and even although some parts of this may be untrue, defamation is really beyond the means of most people, and in any case, it wouldn't hold together as a case.

Unfortunately people do gossip. You have presumably told your current manager the full truth about the circumstances under which you left your previous employment? In which case you should have nothing to worry about because he knows the whole truth. And has presumably taken up references from the former employer which, at worst, will confirm that you resigned whilst awaiting a disciplinary or under investigation? Of course, if you happen to have forgotten to tell your manager about all of these circumstances, you can see why he may be asking questions. Resigning before you are dismissed does not mean that the employer can't say anything about the disciplinary and it doesn't make you "innocent until proven guilty". In this case, if the people gossiping about you have done wrong, then so have you in failing to disclose the truth.

If your manager doesn't know, then you must make a judgement call, but my advice would have to be to come clean now and tell him the truth. Of course, he might not find out the truth, and it might all blow over. Or he might continue asking questions, go to the former employer, and find out the whole truth, in which case you may face gross misconduct allegations again. It's equally a risk if you come clean now, but at least you have the opportunity to put your mitigation. Based on what you have said here, you appear to have done whatever you were accused of, but the former employer accepted that there was some health condition that was a contributing factor, and so they let you go?

[des8]

Re: Work gossiping about my disciplinary

..but is there not also a breach of the ICO's employment prctices code, and possibly of the Data Protection Act?
Only asking.

[Sangie595]

Re: Work gossiping about my disciplinary

..but is there not also a breach of the ICO's employment prctices code, and possibly of the Data Protection Act?
Only asking.

The code is guidance, not law. And relates to information held by the employer. Now there is no evidence that this is an action authorised by the employer or even that the gossip had been obtained from the records held by the employer. I'm sure you know about workplace gossip as well as I do - it is usually inaccurate and speculative and spreads like wildfire. To be honest, I think that it would be impossible to prove, even if - and it is a big if- the original information relating to this gossip somehow came from records held by the employer. The fact is that once a disciplinary starts, everyone "knows" all about everything! Stopping gossip or tracing gossip to a specific origin is impossible.

But let's say that the OP decided to try to make such a complaint. All that will do is fuel the situation. It will cause more gossip. And if the OPs manager had already heard the gossip, they will hear the next lot too. Plus, make an official complaint to the employer, name who had said these things and prove it, then wait to see how long it is before the current employer starts getting even more information - anonymously. You can't stuff worms back in the can! So the question here is - has the OP been honest with their current employer? Because if they have even just misled the employer in any way, that could be considered gross misconduct too.

Unfortunately, to even stand a chance of being able to come up with advice on this, which is probably going to come down to mitigation, I would need to know what the allegations were, how long ago this happened, whether the OP have this employer as a reference (or how they got around doing that), and what they have already told the current employer ( assuming they have told them anything).