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

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.

Because the OP hasn't been back, I am wondering if it was a reverse and that OP was the person sending the text to their manager? If so, and if you are reading this OP, let us know how you are doing

I’d be tempted to keep it between the two of you but take a managers stance of anything after this will be taken to HR. Point out how it’s broken trust between you now and the trust had to be earned back.

I would reply back saying “perhaps you’d like to book today off as a retrospective holiday and in future keep some spare for emergencies 😉🙃”

Totally agree with this. If you’ve got a solid performer then once in a while I wouldn’t worry about something like this, we’ve all been there (well apart from all of the comments from people who have clearly never lived any sort of fun life). I’d just message back and say I don’t think you meant to send this to me and leave it there. Obviously if it was a regular thing or performance overall was poor then it should be dealt with it more formally

You can live a fun life without being a liar, a pretty stupid liar at that when you send out evidence of your lies.

@Iwasafool Yes, you can live a fun life without being a liar. It is pretty difficult though, over an extended period of time to balance family commitments, work commitments and an active social life, and sometimes these areas encroach on each other. I doubt this boss would lose any sleep over this person missing out on a meal with friends or missing bathtime with the kids in order to finish off a project or meet a deadline, or even using personal time to travel to meetings or conferences with overnight stays etc. As a company, it can't be all take. The amount of times you hear a company put pressure on employees to work more than their contracted hours based on the "sometimes you might need to work longer" type wording in contracts and to use staff's free time as a cover for their lack of resource planning. If a worker does a skive for the day after one too many shandy's, good on them. But maybe don't boast!

I think sometimes the majority of us will tell a white lie on an off day, or perhaps do the bare minimum rather than call in sick. I don't like the Cromwellian attitude on this.

If they’re a good performer and this is a one off, just say “I think you sent this to me by accident. Fine as a one off, but let’s not repeat this, hey?”

No need to be a dick about it. I allow my team a level of trust as long as they’re performing, it’s not a big deal.

How do you trust people who lie? How do you have a respectful relationship with someone who lies to you and then shares that with other people?

One of the big issues with WFH is trust and this person has blown that. I can't see anything in the OP to suggest this person has been sacrificing their home life for work but if they are they also need to address that with their manager not just decide to pretend to work for a day.

I suppose we have different views about lying but this person wasn't doing the bare minimum, they didn't attend team meetings and were uncontactable for large parts of the day which means other people have been wasting their time.

I've never heard being honest referred to as Cromwellian. Would you feel the same if you were paying for someone to do work for you and they didn't do it but charged you?

Why are people still replying as if the OP is coming back? She isn’t!

In any case, on the off-chance this was real, it’s been a week - OP would look completely incompetent if she brought it up now.

You said they go rogue from time to time meaning not a one off therefore I would schedule a meeting with employee and HR. It is partly about the employees behaviour but also as you are a new manager you are setting your boundaries. Do you want to be seen as a pushover?

Send them a link to this thread. With a wink face emoji. Then ask what they think you should do.

Or tell them they’re a complete cockwomble for ruining the plausible deniability on your part, and that though you’ll take it no further this time as long as they make up the time, it’s one strike. Next time lose a day of holiday. If ever again after that, you’ll throw them straight to the dogs of HR.

Meanwhile, further proof that Teams is the devil’s work…

@Iwasafool I suppose in the days of full office attendance this person could have called in sick. Would that be as outrageous? I have a very different outlook to liars in my personal life, mainly because I try to hold people to the same standards that I live by. Unfortunately, in the corporate world that I don't apply the same standards. Those above me wouldn't think for a second about rinsing the expense account or having a jolly up with the pretext of client hospitality. If they finish a meeting at 3pm on a Friday, are they really going back into the office? Would the head of office struggle in with a hangover? Would they thing twice when considering whether to throw me out on my arse if they needed to make cut backs and then sleep like a baby? The answer is no, that is why I don't get all high and mighty about a hangover and some one off petty skiving.

I don't have an issue with the hangover and I'm teetotal so don't understand what is so great about making yourself feel terrible but that's irrelevant. The organisations I've worked in would just expect you to be honest, phone in and say you feel rough and can't work or you feel rough but can't cope with a meeting, apologise and move on. People do it for a variety of reasons, the baby has had me up all night, my husband has moved out, I'm stressed about house move/debt or whatever. Lying isn't the answer. How can you trust someone who has blatantly lied, someone who is working from home so you need more trust than if they are in the office? How can you support a member of staff if they have problems but lie? In this case how can the OP ever believe them, say they can't join a meeting as their internet is playing up, will the OP believe that, even if she accepts it will she always have that doubt in her mind?

It sounds like you work for a very unpleasant organisation, I wonder what came first dodgy boss or boss who is tired with lying staff so doesn't worry about throwing them out on their arse? I guess I'm lucky as I've never worked anywhere like that.