I might get fired for Gross Misconduct and I'm scared what will happen

ScottishGuy1122

John_ said:

Adamthom85 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Adamthom85 said:

 to which say said "can you just delete any of the posts" and seemed fairly normal, then just said thank you and "well have another chat on monday"

Whatever you said, have you deleted the offending posts now?  Maybe, if they are not there, then the company cannot do anything.  

It is very odd that some member of the public tracked you down to work from a personal FB - you must have really upset them.

And in the future, just stay away from social media as it has got you into too much trouble now twice.

I deleted everything straight away, so the only proof they have is what's in the email. If they don't have anything I can't see how it's going to progress much more than "be mindful of our social media policy etc" and maybe a warning about future posts.

If they have something on the other hand, they would already know what was said so why wouldn't they do the investigation right there and then. They would obviously know if its grounds for gross misconduct and i woupd be suspended right there and then and told id have an investigation. And why would they think I made the comment on linkedin, when it was face book. The comment threads look different. If they had the post they would know it's facebook. And again, if they already had the information, they surely wouldn't say "thanks, we'll have another chat Monday at some point" they would say "we need to have an investigatory meeting Monday and we will send you a confirmation for a Skype meeting to discuss" or something like that.

Anyway, won't know until tomorrow. Wonder how little sleep I will get tonight

What will you say if asked about it?

I suppose it depends on if they have evidence, if not I'll simply say I've deleted all my comments but would definitely never say anything that could be offensive or deemed racist.

If they have something, I can't really explain it away, because if it was seriously enough to get involved I will be going down the disciplinary route regardless. I guess just plead my case, explain about the provocation on earlier comments etc bit I don't think I've ever heard of that stopping the investigation, they will mostly likely process to a disciplinary if they have anything.

ScottishGuy1122

Just waiting on a call now...I got a grand total of 2 hours sleep, so that's great.

I just keep thinking about it over and over and I can't get my head around why they would ask me to delete the posts if they intend for an investigation to happen, as an investigation is done prior and is specially about getting all the evidence.

If they go ahead with the investigation I will have no evidence to back me up.

[Deleted User]

Adamthom85 said:

I just keep thinking about it over and over and I can't get my head around why they would ask me to delete the posts if they intend for an investigation to happen, as an investigation is done prior and is specially about getting all the evidence.

It's quite simple. They wanted to prevent any further reputational damage.

When you come home and water is pouring through the kitchen ceiling, the first thing you do is turn off the water supply. You don't want wait until you've found the cause.

They already have the evidence needed.

ScottishGuy1122

Deleted_User said:

Adamthom85 said:

Just waiting on a call now...I got a grand total of 2 hours sleep, so that's great.

I just keep thinking about it over and over and I can't get my head around why they would ask me to delete the posts if they intend for an investigation to happen, as an investigation is done prior and is specially about getting all the evidence.

It's quite simple. They wanted to prevent any further reputational damage.

When you come home and water is pouring through the kitchen ceiling, the first thing you do is turn off the water supply. You don't want wait until you've found the cause.

They already have the evidence needed.

I thought that too. But why would they think it's was LinkedIn if they had the evidence it was clearly show Facebook.

And if they had the evidence they wouldn't have said "we'll have a chat Monday at some point" they would state on the Friday. "This is a serious allegation and we will need to conduct an investigation on monday, we will notify you attend via Skype" or something to that affect.

[Deleted User]

The LinkedIn/Facebook issue is a non point, its just a slip of the tongue.

Having the evidence doesn't mean in any way they couldn't say they would have a chat on Monday.  At the moment, they're turning off the water supply. They'll figure out how to fix the problem over the next few days.

These things are progressed more cautiously than you believe.

ScottishGuy1122

Deleted_User said:

The LinkedIn/Facebook issue is a non point, its just a slip of the tongue.

Having the evidence doesn't mean in any way they couldn't say they would have a chat on Monday.  At the moment, they're turning off the water supply. They'll figure out how to fix the problem over the next few days.

These things are progressed more cautiously than you believe.

Yeah I fully understand that, but the last big job I was in, they didn't call and ask me to delete anything, just went straight in with an investigation and had all the transcripts, here because the details were private, they only have what was sent and I've already deleted it.  Which doesn't sound like a full collection of the evidence as any comment on its own can be taken out of context or falsified 

Undervalued

IrishSean said:

Former employment officer here:
I can't see you having anything to worry about; you haven't defamed your company or been discriminatory in a real or perceived way towards a customer, client, supplier or employee.
There are no 'technical infringements' e.g. personal internet use on work time.
I worked with a girl who had a blog describing how much she hated her job and the company: she couldn't understand why she was told off by management about it! But in the end she wasn't sacked or even disciplined.
In future:
Stay off social media if you plan to give your name.
If accused in the wrong, as in this instance (linked-in, you don't post on it) then say nothing in addition!
Be careful you aren't being baited for a blackmail scam: another reason to staff off social media if you've been singled out and targeted like this; it's unlikely you have, most likely they were a troll with too much time on their hands. 
I think you're over-worrying: in short if they've invested £12k minimum in your training they'll most likely want to support you in avoiding such scrapes in future. They haven't mentioned anything that suggest a disciplinary hearing, which you'd have the right to union representation at at the very least. Most companies deal with pretty baseless complaints like this on a 'rear-guard' basis. 
You'll be fine
Does sound like you'd benefit from help on the debt free wannabe section though. You should post up for advice & support
😀💪

She may not have been but plenty of employees have been sacked for less. Some firms have extremely tight policies about any reference by employees on social media. Even if there is not a specific spelt out policy there is an implied duty for employees to act in good faith and not do anything to bring the employer or other employees into disrepute.

The OP may well have been have been reported by a "troll with too much time on their hands" but that is irrelevant. Once you place something in the public domain there is always the possibility of it being seen by your employer so you need to be careful only to post what you would be happy to put on a sheet of paper and hand to your boss.

Some years ago a former colleague of mine had a dispute with their credit card company. Rightly or wrongly he didn't like how it was handled by their complaints department and took exception to the particular complaints "executive" involved. They had a fairly unusual surname and he searched fairly deeply on the internet. He found some old posts on maybe MySpace (which I think was an early rival to Facebook??) with drunken holiday antics and disparaging references to the employer. He made screen shots and sent them to the CC company. Within days the complaints executive and two others were dismissed. Not everybody (and I certainly have reservations) would agree with my colleague's actions but his argument was simple that if this person hadn't slagged their employer off on the internet and posted their antics for all to see they would still have a job.

ScottishGuy1122

Undervalued said:

IrishSean said:

Former employment officer here:
I can't see you having anything to worry about; you haven't defamed your company or been discriminatory in a real or perceived way towards a customer, client, supplier or employee.
There are no 'technical infringements' e.g. personal internet use on work time.
I worked with a girl who had a blog describing how much she hated her job and the company: she couldn't understand why she was told off by management about it! But in the end she wasn't sacked or even disciplined.
In future:
Stay off social media if you plan to give your name.
If accused in the wrong, as in this instance (linked-in, you don't post on it) then say nothing in addition!
Be careful you aren't being baited for a blackmail scam: another reason to staff off social media if you've been singled out and targeted like this; it's unlikely you have, most likely they were a troll with too much time on their hands. 
I think you're over-worrying: in short if they've invested £12k minimum in your training they'll most likely want to support you in avoiding such scrapes in future. They haven't mentioned anything that suggest a disciplinary hearing, which you'd have the right to union representation at at the very least. Most companies deal with pretty baseless complaints like this on a 'rear-guard' basis. 
You'll be fine
Does sound like you'd benefit from help on the debt free wannabe section though. You should post up for advice & support
😀💪

She may not have been but plenty of employees have been sacked for less. Some firms have extremely tight policies about any reference by employees on social media. Even if there is not a specific spelt out policy there is an implied duty for employees to act in good faith and not do anything to bring the employer or other employees into disrepute.

The OP may well have been have been reported by a "troll with too much time on their hands" but that is irrelevant. Once you place something in the public domain there is always the possibility of it being seen by your employer so you need to be careful only to post what you would be happy to put on a sheet of paper and hand to your boss.

Some years ago a former colleague of mine had a dispute with their credit card company. Rightly or wrongly he didn't like how it was handled by their complaints department and took exception to the particular complaints "executive" involved. They had a fairly unusual surname and he searched fairly deeply on the internet. He found some old posts on maybe MySpace (which I think was an early rival to Facebook??) with drunken holiday antics and disparaging references to the employer. He made screen shots and sent them to the CC company. Within days the complaints executive and two others were dismissed. Not everybody (and I certainly have reservations) would agree with my colleague's actions but his argument was simple that if this person hadn't slagged their employer off on the internet and posted their antics for all to see they would still have a job.

I agree, I didn't post anything about work, colleagues, customers etc and don't have that information anywhere on my profile. To be fair it was in regards to the recent horrible incident in America and someone said it was definitely a racist murder, but I tried to calmly explain thay yes, it might be, and it might not be as we don't know if anything was said and this started the torrent of abuse...I know I should have walked away but I may have said something in anger (I would never use a racial slur) but my response could be loosely maybe defined as such if anyone took exception....Which I fully own up and admit was a stupid thing to say and totally out of character..

Just waiting on when they will call, I'm not sure what to do if I still haven't had a call by say 4 or 5pm. It sounded very informal which would not normally be the tone if I was accused of racism, they had proof, which is gross misconduct.

ScottishGuy1122

I genuinely don't know if it's a good or bad thing the longer I don't hear from them, especially with the informal nature of the call on Friday and saying they would call at some point to have a chat.

My thinking would be is that if they have evidence and it's very serious, they would hold an investigatory meeting with me asap on monday and suspend me pending investigation.

[Deleted User]

If it's very serious, they'll be making sure they have the process absolutely right before contacting you.  

You can't read anything into it either way. You just need to wait.