THANKS....not suspended for internet/email misuse

the_prophet

I thought before I posted the sordid details of what has happened to me I might first ask if anyone has had this happened and come out of it ok. I may have been 'fitted up'.... I have been on the ACAS web site as they are following their guidelines but feel so shocked and overwhelmed. I have already been to see a solicitor, I am not guilty of the most serious charges and can prove it to some extent.... I have been told that anyone can be got rid of using IT...... is this true?????? thanks in advance

the_prophet

I have been charged with accessing my managers email which I have not. The computer terminal I use can be used by other people and my managers also use it. At times I have switched on the computer and because she/he has not logged out properly there emails have been there, however the company are saying this has been taken into consideration and it has beeb accessed in a different way???

shameless-about-money

Two women took their employer to court last year because they were sacked.

They worked from 10 - 4 Mon to Fri.

They had sent 360 emails each way to each other PER DAY!

They were sacked. They took them to an Employment Tribunal and actually won their case.

I wouldn't have employed them either, they are supposed to be there to work not to talk on the net all day long.

msmicawber

Hi prophet,

Have you checked your company's guidelines for IT use/abuse? I suspect you'll find that they're very loosely drafted so that, technically, you could be sacked for sending a funny e-mail to a couple of your mates, or using the internet in your lunch hour to check this site.

However, since they appear to be specifically concerned with you accessing your Manager's e-mails, presumably they have dates and times at which they are accusing you of doing this - have you asked them for specific details of the complaints against you? Have they told you what happens next? - presumably an interview with HR/Personnel/whatever they're called this week. Have you got a colleague or friend who could attend with you? (I am pretty sure that this is your right, but it's advisable to have someone present when you're under stress as you don't always remember what went on, and it gives you moral support.)

I feel for you, as various of my colleagues have been summarily dismissed for IT abuse (I work for an IT company), and in certain cases I've been deeply suspicious about the accusations.

Good luck.

shameless-about-money

Al_Mac wrote:

In our company the policy is to lock your terminal when you leave your desk, your password is yours alone and should not be divulged.

So having a shared terminal, it is the responsibility of whoever left it in a state for you to see, depending on you not doing anything, if you see what I mean.

Not sure I understand "in a different way".

Shameless, not relevant or helpful

Since at the time I posted we didn't know what the OP had actually done it could have been very helpful!

Lighten up!

kelloggs36

My ex found out that I worked for CSA and accused me of accessing his personal details. I did not do this and asked them to provide all the evidence. They were unable to provide any as there is a trace of all access as we use a PID card (or smart card) which you enter your password on etc. It logs every single entry onto the system so it was easy to prove that I did not access anything. In any event, because I am staff, my case is a sensitive one, so I cannot access it anyway even if I had tried, so he was talking complete rubbish and was only doing it in order to make my life difficult.

You therefore need to ask them to provide evidence of the alleged abuse. Do you have a union you can turn to?

shameless-about-money

Al_Mac wrote:

Telling the OP he was going to get sacked for sending to many emails was helpful:rolleyes:

I didn't say any such thing!

I was writing that post at the same time the OP was also writing a post - he had not told anyone the problem at the time.

Anyway, if it is in the contract, misuse of email does constitute gross misconduct and is basis for termination.

Does nobody around here have a funny side any more!

CFC

the_prophet wrote:

I thought before I posted the sordid details of what has happened to me I might first ask if anyone has had this happened and come out of it ok. I may have been 'fitted up'....I have been told that anyone can be got rid of using IT...... is this true?????? thanks in advance

The answer to your question is NO. The real question is, would any of the other employees (including IT managers) lie in order to put the blame on you/get rid of you? The answer to that is that everyone has different levels (or none) of integrity, so nobody here can answer that question.

Can you be dismissed for abusing your company's email policy? Yes, depending on how you have been briefed about it and how serious it is.

Will that automatically happen to you if a disciplinary hearing believes that you did what you are accused of? Impossible to say as we don't have enough facts.

Is there much point in paying to see a solicitor? No, not unless he/she is an expert in employment law. Employment law is a specialised area and your man-in-the-street solicitor won't be up on it. (It's made on a case by case basis and so it's hard to keep up with) CAB or your union might be a much better bet.

the_prophet

Hi thanks for the information... I have asked them to provide a formal list of the times and dates I was supposed to have done this, but have not had anything yet (it has been ***weeks) however I can already discount some of the dates that I remember from the suspension meeting as I was not even working. They have also said I have gone into my history on a particular day and erased I did not do this and as other people can access my terminal and even the IT company can access the terminals when they are on I am assuming that this can have been done 'outside the office'. My computer knowledge is quite limited and I have spoken to an IT guy so that I have some questions to ask at the 'investigation' meeting. I just hope the investigation is just that, as I feel already hung drawn and quartered. Even the question of looking at the internet, some of this can be explained in that we need to do research, I have been asked why I down loaded msn onto the computer and I wouldn't even know how to do this. I am sure it was a temp who came down for the day sometime in october and he seemed to spend the whole time browsing. I am not a member of a union sadly as I never thought anything like this would happen to me. I have been told I can take a friend with me to the investigation meeting but I am not allowed to speak to any colleagues and it would be so helpful if I could get diary dates of peoples movements in the office as it would help to explain things.... I will speak to the CAB when I have a date for the meeting.... just so distressed and shocked by everything

Bossyboots

CFC wrote:

Is there much point in paying to see a solicitor? No, not unless he/she is an expert in employment law. Employment law is a specialised area and your man-in-the-street solicitor won't be up on it. (It's made on a case by case basis and so it's hard to keep up with) CAB or your union might be a much better bet.

What a load of hokum. Of course there are man-in-the-street employment experts out there. These days most solicitors specialise in one field of work or perhaps two that are linked in some way rather than the old days of a jack of all trades. There are constantly courses being run to update them on matters and a certain amount of these are compulsory. I think it far more unlikely that the CAB will have sufficient knowledge of this than a solicitor practising employment law.

the_prophet

Dear all, have some knew information I wonder if anyone can help

Dear everyone, further to my first post there is now some more information to go on and have some question to ask and if anyone can answer I would be so grateful. A print out of internet usage has now been supplied and it makes very interesting reading but don't understand so much of it. I have been given a list of internet access and it reads like this.

COOKIE NAME ...........................LOCAL FILE ...........................LAST ACCESS TIME.........HITS
ebay.co.uk.......................****@ebay.co[1].txt......................16/12/2006 14.07.57.......1825
connextra.com..................****@connextra[4].txt...................08/01/2007 16.01.25........15
doubleclick.net.................****@doubleclick[1].txt..................18/02/2007 11.56.54.........30

This is just an example of many sites I am supposed to have accessed. What I would dearly love to know is
1. when you log onto a web site, how many cookies can it generate (on the cookie item names there are sites that I have never been to, do not recognize).
2. Is it possible that if you log onto a web site such as yahoo or other web sites where you have the ads that flash upon the web page, does it send a cookie of that particular web site that it is advertising and show in your cookie item that you have visited that particular web site even though the web site has not been visited at all.
3. (****@doubleclick[1].txt) **** are to protect company's identitiy. what does the 1 stand for in the bracket??. most of the brackets contain 1 and 2 but some contain 4,5 and 3.
4.(****@doubleclick[1].txt. What does it mean by txt. what information could there be on this.
5. Hits..... when you log onto a website (such as ebay) and surf within that website does that generate more hits on that website or is it just the initial log on that would count. For example ebay would have to have been accessed about 26 times per day for 9 months to have generated this amount of hits if only the initial log on counted which would be absolutely impossible.

Thankyou so much to anyone who takes the time to read the above and answer.