WWYD: Team member accidently sent me a...mail

[Junestepe]

WWYD: Employee accidently sent me voice note via TEAMs outlining how they were hungover in work today. They were supposedly WFH and didnt attend team meetings were uncontactable for large parts of the day, they provided excuses BUT they just accidently sent me a voice note meant for a friend detailing their hangover and elaborate cover story for not attending meetings/not working today!!!

Employee is senior, established team member who can go rouge from time time but over all is a solid performer.

WWYD: How do I handle this? Person works full time remote. I don't want to fire them...don't want to involve HR..but I want deal with this appropriately and send the correct message so the incident is never repeated. I'm a new manager so your advice appreciated! Thank you

Funny how OP didn't specify the poster's gender, but everyone assumed it was a man.

I'd write back and say something along the lines of 'did you mean to send this to me'....enough said, they will be mortified. But in all honestly, many/most of us are capable of this kind of thing from time to time....not cool to make a massive fuss about it, clearly the message was sent in error.

I agree. But let him know you saw the message.

Good plan, no decent employee ever made a mistake in their lives and from what I’ve heard there are STACKS of good, proven members of staff out there to replace this one when you piss them off so bad they quit 🙄

100% this. We’re all human!
not as if they’re skiving to go and drink…. They’re just hungover.
nextttttttt

"Lots of the “give the bloke a break” crew assume that the Manager position is unassailable and that the employee will somehow return the favour of a blind eye by being a reliable employee going forward, or respect the work needs going forward."

Yes, we do. OP said he had a good record overall so we can reasonably assume he will generally keep working well, occasional blips aside.

"Remote working is a trusted privilege."

Depends on the workplace. In mine, it's now an acquired right we have negotiated with management and signed an addendum to our contracts.

What did you do in the end @Junestepe ?

LOL, I thought that.

I don't think work ethics are a party political matter.

If the employee is usually a good solid worker, is it really worth risking their job over? Let them know you know and you are willing to let it go this once but that if there is a repeat performance you might not be able to keep it under wraps. Say you know the message wasn't intended for you, but you are now in a difficult position.

Everyone overdoes it from time to time and maybe it was better they didn't get involved in any work - don't know the nature of the job, but they could have made a total cock-up of something if they had.

How is this thread still trending when the OP hasn’t even come back? What exactly are you guys discussing😂

What is the actual point in posting a query if you are never going to come back?! Waste of everyone's time.

We all have bad days just let it go

I’d reply something like, “Clearly this was not meant for me. “ When the person calls in panic apologising I’d make it clear I expected them to make up for the misrepresented time and sharpen up but I would not involve HR / conduct warnings personally.

This is what I would do

I think we can safely say she let it go as it’s been five days since her one and only post and she never returned. People are STILL writing multi-paragraph answers with advice after 500+ answers that contain the same advice and OP not returning to possibly read any of it anyway.

Yes, you definitely need to stop doing this! Not just because of the risk of something popping up, anything you write down on a work platform could be used if you ever had a difficult situation with that person. It’s not a place for chat/gossip.

Keep it professional in the office and on office software. If you need to have a moan, save it for the pub.

She could be reading it, for all we know, just not commenting...

… five days later? The 550th comment that says the same thing as at least several in the first 500? I think that might be a bit much for the positive thinking.

I hope people are as unforgiving and bitchy to you as you are to them.

If anyone is still reading the thread now I’d be very surprised.

There's an angle I haven't seen yet in the replies. Does your subordinate have a problem with alcohol?
I know some of you will think I'm going overboard but experience (my xw...) shows me that people can appear functional, solid even, and yet have serious issues.
If you want to be supportive you might choose to not involve hr, but you should meet to talk, you should address this point imo, and involving hr / formal processes should be mentioned as a threat: "I'll do this if these problems recur". Going "that was funny let's ignore it" is not supportive if there is a real problem.
Alcoholics anonymous / al-anon has good resources.

I agree, there was a woman we knew about who, to the casual observer, appeared perfectly "normal". She held down a responsible and well paid job and was always well turned out but she was an alcoholic. Eventually it will catch up with them and cause problems at work and in their private lives. If there is a drinking problem an early intervention may be a good thing, but hopefully this was just an isolated case of having one too many.

Verbally bollock them so the others know not to fuck around ( they will tell people they sent it to you) but leave it. We've all been hungover and pulled a fast one..havnt we?