Colleague forwarded personal texts to my manager

[Warks]

Ca someone help me please. I had a particularly bad day at work I only popped in to deliver my sick note and my boss lied to me about a couple of things. I was so angry when I left as I considered him a friend. I said nothing at the time. At nine o'clock that night a colleague/ friend at work text me to ask how I was as she had seen me leave looking quite annoyed I vented via text to her about how I can't stand lies how do I trust the boss anymore how disappointed I was etc because he said x y z. She told me she would have a word. I said no leave it, I will sort it myself and speak to him in a few days when I have calmed down and when I return to work. Firmly believing that due to how my boss and I got on I could approach it and talk it out. I was so angry I needed time to sort my thoughts. She forwarded all my personal texts to her to the boss, who has now taken a grievance out against me as I haven't displayed the values of respect within the company. These were private personal texts on personal phones where I vented my frustration to who I thought was a friend. Where do I stand, surely a basic human right is to have freedom of speech and not to have a personal text to someone made public as this text has now been sent to all those investigating things I said my boss had done which re the truth. etc and after 12 years working for the company I have been told could result in a final written warning for not adhering to company values. These were personal texts at nine o'clock at night while I was off sick.

[leclerc]

Re: Colleague forwarded personal texts to my manager

Glad you registered here. I'll ask [MENTION=51026]Ula[/MENTION] to look at this thread and ask site team to move it into employment law section so that people can help you more.

[Warks]

Re: Colleague forwarded personal texts to my manager

Thank you

[ULA]

Re: Colleague forwarded personal texts to my manager

Does your company have a policy regarding mobile communications/social media or something similar? Many companies now have in place comprehensive policies that cover use of your own personal device or personal use of social media platforms like twitter and Facebook and the impact of comments outside the work-place/work-time made via them.

[mariefab]

Re: Colleague forwarded personal texts to my manager

I would say nothing more about the matter to anyone connected with the workplace and when you go to the investigation meeting taking a statement saying something like:

This was not a public communication. It was a private conversation on my personal phone responding to an enquiry from someone I believed to be a friend. I had no reason to believe that it be shared with anyone else specifically because when the other party said that they would have a word I instructed them not to.
If this had been a publicly accessible conversation on Facebook or other social media I would acknowledge that the question of whether it adhered to company values could arise. But this was not the case.