Final Written Warnings...

person30

I am writing on behalf of my friend, she is very upset and beside herself ...

She works in a care home and is one of the senior care assistants, she recently put up on facebook this post:

"Good easter weekend at work, 99 year old shouting at me, porridge spat in my face and a cup of tea poured over my shoes! Love my job, would never change it though"

Her employer has been given this information through another employee and the employer has come to the conclusion that it is gross misconduct as it is about vulnerable, elderly people...

Her argument was that because on her facebook there is no link to say where she works, the company or the place, there is no mention of the names of these people and as to when the incidents happened except for 'over the easter weekend'... She doesn't know what to do, her employer said that she has to attend a meeting next week to be handed the final written warning, and explained that if she stepped out of line in anyway after that she would be instantly dismissed... Is that right?

Should she accept the final written warning or is there any way she could appeal against this? She just doesn't know what to do / say for the best

Thanks everyone

bluenoseam

I think she should accept this written warning, no offence but writing that on her wall was damned stupidity & she's fortunate that they're only seeking a written warning!

newbie1980

i would have thought a written warning would have been suffice
a final written warning is a bit ott but unless she has a union rep or someone who could advise her properly it may be accept and keep head down until it drops off after 1yr normally

agrinnall

To be honest I think she's lucky to get away with a final written warning, I would say that what she did could well have been construed as gross misconduct. I'd suggest she removes herself from social media and avoids the temptation to do anything similar in the future.

ableandy

A couple of questions:

1. Is the use of social media covered in the company handbook?
2. Has your friend been briefed on the expectations of the company with regards to the use of social media?

If the above are both true then the company is well within it's rights to look at disciplining your friend, however :

The first step must be an investigation, at this your friend can give a statement as to what happened.

The next step is an invite to a disciplinary at which she can be represented by an appropriate person. An important point here is that the outcome of the disciplinary cannot be pre-determined.

To say she is getting a Final Written Warning with either an investigation or properly conducted disciplinary process would be a breach of process and your friend would need to appeal or go to a tribunal.

A tribunal would consider the effect of what your friend wrote, how it was linked to the company and how many people on the internet could have seen it or made comment on it.

J_i_m

If the facts in the OP are true, then I do think it's a bit of an over reaction.

For sure, you need to be very careful when making posts about work on social networks, and in this instance the person in question was daft and maybe 'unprofessional'.

But it's not like they've caused a massive safeguarding issue. Effectively what they tried doing is saying 'Hard day at work today, love my job though'. It's not like they've launched a personal attack on an individual.

Had, they gone into more detail and posted identifiable information then it would have been a safeguarding issue and definitely gross misconduct.

It was a silly thing to do, but I suspect there are more politics behind this, as on it's own it's a 'slap on the wrist' and don't do it again thing, it ought not be a 'OMFG instant P45' thing.

Jaybee_16

Firstly, I agree with others that it is never clever to post matters relating to work on social media sites for any reason. Does her FB page have any reference to where she works, or anything which could link the company to her post?


Secondly and to be in the minority, if the OP is the complete story then it is not a fair process.


How long has she worked at the care home?
Is she employed by the care home and not through any agency?
Has there been any investigation asking your friend for her side of the story?
Has there been any disciplinary hearing?


From the OP it seems a done deal that she will get a FWW without any opportunity to give her view or any mitigation.


The situation really depends on length of service as asked above. If the OP situation happens, then I would certainly appeal the decision and process.

Torry_Quine

I'm horrified to think that anyone would think it acceptable to put this on social media and I hope that the family don't find out.

However there needs to be a proper disciplinary meeting before the decision is made as to what kind of action is taken. I do think a written warning if all the facts are correct is appropriate and indeed it could be argued that dismissal isn't too harsh. Your friend needs to be extremely contrite and be very, very careful in future should she hopefully keep her job.

fruitedeli

Torry_Quine wrote: »

I'm horrified to think that anyone would think it acceptable to put this on social media and I hope that the family don't find out.

However there needs to be a proper disciplinary meeting before the decision is made as to what kind of action is taken. I do think a written warning if all the facts are correct is appropriate and indeed it could be argued that dismissal isn't too harsh. Your friend needs to be extremely contrite and be very, very careful in future should she hopefully keep her job.

How isn't it acceptable? She wasn't insulting anyone or bad mouthing her employer. All she said was she got shouted at and food went on her clothes, and that she still loves her job. This isn't equivalent to someone posting hahaha that 99 year old loser can't eat food properly. Her post seems to be quite respectful.

person30

Jaybee_16 wrote: »

Does her FB page have any reference to where she works, or anything which could link the company to her post?


Secondly and to be in the minority, if the OP is the complete story then it is not a fair process.


How long has she worked at the care home?
Is she employed by the care home and not through any agency?
Has there been any investigation asking your friend for her side of the story?
Has there been any disciplinary hearing?

No, there is no link to where she works on the facebook page, and I think she said she has around only 3 people on her FB page that work with her, but again nothing to say they work with her.

That is all that was written on the post, there was a comment underneath it to say that she'd walked into a wheelchair, but again, no mention to of the care home name or company, and the fact that it was her fault for doing so! Nothing to say that anybody hit her with the wheelchair etc.
She has been there 2 years to the date of her disciplinary order, she has no other disciplinaries on her file although she does have a rep for saying things how she sees them (not always a bad thing, but people in the village don't like it).
The "investigation" involved the manager telling her what evidence (screenshots) they had and that they were told to push for instant dismissal but he decided to do a FWW instead to be fairer on her.
The disciplinary hearing is next Friday.

There is no policy on social media, we have never been briefed on this, there is nothing in the grievance policy nor the employee handbook she has been given.

Torry_Quine

fruitedeli wrote: »

How isn't it acceptable? She wasn't insulting anyone or bad mouthing her employer. All she said was she got shouted at and food went on her clothes, and that she still loves her job. This isn't equivalent to someone posting hahaha that 99 year old loser can't eat food properly. Her post seems to be quite respectful.

If it were my relative then I would be complaining in the strongest terms that something so personal and confidential had been treated so carelessly. It's not all respectful to write about elderly, vulnerable people like this and it probably wouldn't be hard to find out who it was.

I do hope she doesn't lose her job but learns from this.