Disciplinary on basis of anonymous complaint by fellow colleague

Sumarokov

Hi. I am trying to defend a colleague at work (I am her advocate in the disciplinary). She is accused of being rude to a customer in a shop. The accusation is being brought anonymously, but is clearly by the only other person who was present at the time (a fellow work colleague). As far as I understand, no complaint at all was made by the customer.

1. Even if my colleague (Z) was rude, is there a legal basis for accepting the evidence of the only other person who was there at the time as the basis for a work disciplinary (X)? I know this person (X) has an act to grind against her (Z).

2. What is the best defence in this case? Just deny it and so it is one person's word against another's? Or try to present evidence that X does not like Y (like things X has stated in public)?

I would be very grateful for any insight or guidance. Thank you!

jonnygee2

I think you should just

1) Encourage your colleague to be honest about the words and tone use with the customer to the best of her memory.

2) If they were rude / could be considered rude maybe look for other mitigating factors (perhaps it was a very long shift, or something was happening in your colleagues personal life)

I really would not go down the route of attacking the anonymous accuser.

JReacher1

I would advise your colleague to tell the truth about what happened. If they did not do what was alleged there can be no evidence of wrong doing.

I would not even mention the other colleague

Dox

Looking at your post, I think you know that she was rude. Best bet is, as others have said, to tell the truth and if necessary apologise like mad.

Comms69

Not necessarily relevant; but I, as a customer was accused of being rude this weekend.

I had queued up like everyone else; waiting upto 10 minutes for the (very) slow servers to get through each order. As my turn arrives I literally take one step to the right to pick chocolate for my little lad, turn around and see they’ve started serving the next person. ( before you say I should’ve got it sooner, the chocolate is to the side of the till).

When I called the server up on this, instead of apologising for the obvious mistake, they try to make out I was out of order. Thenafter he actually approaches my table and asks for an apology.

My point is there’s plenty of snowflakes out there that get offended at every little thing. This one luckily kept his teeth. But clearly complaints of rudeness are becoming more and more common.

TELLIT01

As others have said, your colleague should simply relate the incident as clearly as they can recall it. There is nothing to be gained by making accusations against other members of staff.
Many years ago I was working in retail and was the only member of staff in the department at the time. I was in the middle of serving a customer and another customer was getting impatient, kept trying to interrupt and wanted me to break off and serve them instead. I explained that I was already serving somebody, was on my own in the department, and would be with them as soon as possible. The second customer once again tried to interrupt so I said that I only have one pair of hands and they would have to wait until I had finished with the current customer. She reported me to the manager as being rude. In that instance when I explained what had happened the manager accepted that I wasn't the person being rude but pointed out I might have chosen my words more wisely.