Can we stop employees from having direct contact?

Comms69

marliepanda wrote: »

I'm not sure why people are finding this a difficult issue to comprehend but maybe its because I have done this before. At my work we have a work 'Skype' type thing where we post and talk to the team.

I dont text my colleagues.
I dont email my colleagues
I dont private message my colleagues
(and vice versa)

If I want to get Bill to do something, I post it in the Skype.

The devil is - as always - in the detail.


I tend to agree with you on the in work stuff, but outside of work becomes more questionable

marliepanda

Comms69 wrote: »

The devil is - as always - in the detail.


I tend to agree with you on the in work stuff, but outside of work becomes more questionable

Agreed, but if a work colleague contacted me after work I would be a bit awkward I suppose. if I was happy for them to, I would continue, but if not, I would block them.

If this was then brought up at work 'why didnt you reply to my text' 'why didnt you accept me on FB' that could become awkward...

elsien

If she's contacting colleagues outside of work on non work related matters (or even on work matters), then surely it's down to them to take a bit of responsibility and just not engage with her at those times. Or decline contact. Or unfriend her. Or whatever.
Just the same as you would do with any annoying acquaintance that you really couldn't be doing with.
If it's not work related contact and she's not using the work systems inappropriately then it's not really down to work to police it. There may be an element of staff running to you because they don't want the unpleasantness of telling her themselves. But if it's nothing to do with work then they do need to be a bit more assertive themselves and not expect you to dictate what can and can't happen. I'm guessing that Snapchat isn't a formal work tool?!

undercoverirish

Sorry I’m not deliberately trying to be obstructive, just cautious about what I’m saying as it’s in the public forum

1: What was said? Joke picture message sent to 2 colleagues, a couple of text messages here and there, and also messages and pictures on snapchat.
2: How? Email? Phone? Social media and text messages mostly
3: Very rarely would you have any authority to dictate what an employee does outside of work (makes you look stupid suggesting this tbh) the feedback all relates to contact outside of work !!!129318;!!!8205;!!!9792;!!!65039; However I guess we have told her no direct contact at all
4: What is the job? Why have a 'team' if they don't act like a team implementation and support specialist within a technical support function. We definitely want a team environment for them but we were trying to stop the situation escalating.
5: how long has she worked for you? 10 months so she’s quite new

It was a knee-jerk reaction I’ll admit, and we hadn’t thought of the consequences or how it might be received/perceived by her. We only have this instruction to her and not to the rest of the team, we know they communicate directly however some of them are friends as well as work colleagues

elsien

marliepanda wrote: »

If this was then brought up at work 'why didnt you reply to my text' 'why didnt you accept me on FB' that could become awkward...

"I prefer to keep my work life and my private life separate." No other explanation needed.

fairy_lights

undercoverirish wrote: »

1: What was said? Joke picture message sent to 2 colleagues, a couple of text messages here and there, and also messages and pictures on snapchat.

If that's all she did then bringing in a rule preventing her from contacting other employees seems a bit of an overreaction. Why did the colleagues 'add' her as a contact on social media if they didn't want her to contact them? I can see how she would be confused.

Comms69

undercoverirish wrote: »

Sorry I’m not deliberately trying to be obstructive, just cautious about what I’m saying as it’s in the public forum

1: What was said? Joke picture message sent to 2 colleagues, a couple of text messages here and there, and also messages and pictures on snapchat. - I'd suggest it's for those people to request no further contact. She must've somehow got their numbers / snapchats etc - certainly seems an out of work issue
2: How? Email? Phone? Social media and text messages mostly - I would avoid getting involved (bit late, but still time to bow out!) this seems very much personal stuff
3: Very rarely would you have any authority to dictate what an employee does outside of work (makes you look stupid suggesting this tbh) the feedback all relates to contact outside of work !!!129318;!!!8205;!!!9792;!!!65039; However I guess we have told her no direct contact at all- indeed. But you aren't paying her for her time outside of work, so you don't get to dictate
4: What is the job? Why have a 'team' if they don't act like a team implementation and support specialist within a technical support function. We definitely want a team environment for them but we were trying to stop the situation escalating. - I don't see how it could've escalated it was a few texts and pictures.
5: how long has she worked for you? 10 months so she’s quite new - on the plus side you can just dismiss her with 1 weeks notice

It was a knee-jerk reaction I’ll admit, and we hadn’t thought of the consequences or how it might be received/perceived by her. We only have this instruction to her and not to the rest of the team, we know they communicate directly however some of them are friends as well as work colleagues

You need to back out slightly and decide whether you want to continue employing her or not.


No point getting involved in personal disputes.

BorisThomson

On what basis is she making legal threats?

Why do you not have appropriate legal/ HR resources to deal with this?

undercoverirish

I regret it already. She is screaming discrimination now so this has turned into something bigger than we expected. We just wanted her to stop messaging her colleagues directly.

undercoverirish

We!!!8217;re a small family run company so we do enlist help to put policies together etc but day to day things we just manage ourselves. We thought this was a simple issue!