Old work colleagues spying on me

[ATadFedUp]

I Work for a large organisation , and I do use social media . I don’t post drunken photos , abusive content , anything like that . Just normal day to day things , and I do write personal things on there about life but it’s no secret . Somehow my old colleagues have found my certain social media page even though I’ve blocked them . And they’ve reported something I wrote on there about something personal that management do know about but it’s been taken out of context . I’m not in touch with my old colleagues and I’m not in trouble thankfully, as I deleted it when told and I also apologised that it had been taken out of context and management were fine and said they’d feed back, but I don’t know who’s passing the info on and not sure how to stop it other than don’t use social media ?

I can’t lose my job can I ? Again I haven’t posted anything bad and Management saw the post and told me that it had been taken out of context and to just delete it but I can’t help feeling sick ? Also found out I’m pregnant today which isn’t helping the nausea lol

Anyone else had similar ?? Please tell me you don’t think I’m a knob and that it’s ok to share personal stuff on my own personal page . I can’t stop thinking about it and I’m really emotional 😂
I wouldn’t mind if they spoke to me directly but they’ve bypassed me and just gone straight to the top !

@Stickybeaksid do you think He would’ve said on the phone if it was being taken further ? He was pretty chilled and said that he just thinks it has been read wrong and that I should just remove it which I did instantly .
It’s never happened before it’s very much an innocent misunderstanding
I’ve delete my SM now

Of course you can use social media. But just make sure you only post what you wouldnt mind your boss and their boss seeing.

@thepeopleversuswork definitely more trouble than it’s worth that’s for sure

And I would stick to this policy even if work hadn't found out about the last time

To me the worst thing is that you don't know who to trust.

Something similar happened to me when a colleague broke the confidentiality of a meeting to try to get me into a lot of trouble. As it happened, it didn't work as I was able to give a valid explanation of the comment I made and the context in which I made it - and that it should not have left the room and if the person involved (who wanted to bullock me) tried to take it further, they would be in more trouble than I was.

But it has soured me great because I ought to be able to trust that group of people, the meetings ought to be totally confidential (the whole point of them is that they are a venue to discuss things like this and provide mutual support)

I think I know who the "grass" is - but I can't be certain - so it means that I and others are at risk of being reported (out of context) to a particularly spiteful individual.

Not being able to trust colleagues is AWFUL!

At the next meeting I mentioned the breach of confidentiality, and said that if anyone was uncomfortable with anything I say or do, to speak t me there and then - either publicly in the meeting or privately afterwards, and we'll sort things amicably, but that discussing confidential matters outside the room is not on, and leaves us all vulnerable.

Don't post on SM about work ever - unless it's completely anonymised.

THe organisation might monitor SM of employees? - many organisations certainly likely to have a quick google when recruiting.

@DingDongSchadenfreudeOnHigh that’s the awful thing it’s the not knowing who you can trust . It’s painful especially as we are at work more than we are at home! Your situation sounds awful too and I’m sorry you experienced that .
I’ve deleted my SM but wish I’d taken a copy of my post because now I have nothing to feed back off if questioned but I think management are ok as I have called him and he’s said it’s fine he’ll pass my apology on but I feel like I can’t say or do anything right . Feeling very fed up now and like I have nobody . Woe is me kinda mood lol

Keep work and colleagues totally separate, never post about work.

@Cherrysoup I get that now , lesson learned the hard way :(

We all learn something the hard way Tea - if we're lucky the repercussions aren't too bad. It seems that you have been able to explain the context and there has been no harm done - other than you now don't know who to trust, which is awful.'

Don't beat yourself up about it - let it go and enjoy Christmas. From what you have said on here, it can't have been so very terrible anyway.

TBH, if I was your boss I'd be less impressed with whoever tried to cause trouble than anything else. This is just spite.

@DingDongSchadenfreudeOnHigh young dumb and immature is what I feel right now . Your comments have helped me a lot thank you. My friend has just text me as I told her what happened and she said her and her mum both read my post and that they said it was inspiring and not horrible in any way and that the old colleagues obviously felt threatened in some way or genuinely wanted to just cause more problems .

Like you say I’ve learnt the hard way , hopefully nothing will come of it. Maybe these pregnancy hormones are making me feel worse than what I normally would . I’m very much a ‘set out to please ‘ kinda person so I hate it when I feel like I’ve done wrong even if I know I haven’t .

Yes I shared something on social media on a forum about something that had taken place at work (that was in my scope of work) and some silly woman insinuated that it wouldn't be hard to find out where I worked and tell the management what I'd done/said. As I'd done nothing wrong it didn't matter, but I was incredibly distraught about the fact that someone I don't know would actually be so weird or nasty to go to the lengths to do that in the first place.

Someone else on that forum who was sick of this person being such a bitch to me online sent me a PM to say that this person worked for such and such an organisation, the area and what her job role was so I could have dished the dirt for her, but luckily for her I'm not that type of person. I did let her know that I knew where she worked though I didn't let her know how.

Just shows how things can get out of control though.

@BAISum6367 Sad but also glad you know I’m not the only one who’s experienced work and social media encounters . I worked with a guy once who wrote on social media about a night out and going to the gym all whilst he was off sick with a bad back , he never got disciplined and that’s at the same organisation I’m at now

DYST - I think if there are clear rules about such things then your employer can take action. They could get caught out if there are no policies in place though which is probably why they are reluctant to do anything with the gym man.

@BAISum6367 I don’t think we have any rules as such , especially about my situation , just violence , indecency to the public , stuff like that but even then I think you’re entitled to a warning. A friend of mine got fired after having too much time off sick with loads of different things and even then they gave her a warning but she said they couldn’t touch her as she had a condition , but the reasons she was off were nothing to do with the condition so they eventually got rid of her . But I’m pretty sure they have to warn you first before taking action . I keep telling myself ‘you took it down as soon as they asked’ so I can’t do much more than that . And I apologised loads

If you can’t stop posting stuff like this that can possibly be read wrong then you need to delete social media. You aren’t the Queen. Nobody cares what you ate for dinner but you could lose your job. Grow up and stop posting!

It’s not just posting about work, you need to be mindful of opinions you express and how you express them. Whilst these opinions may not lead to disciplinary action in your current job, they could in future applications and they might impact on your working relationships.

@whonoes I have deleted :) p.s I never share what I had for tea , and I’m glad I’m not the queen 👸🏼
@lemonTT I get that , I’ve definitely leaned my lesson .

Thanks everyone

Set your profile to private, then it's unlikely anyone you don't want to see it will see it (they could only see it if shown by a Friend.) Most people have their profiles set to private.

@didyousaytea I really really don't understand why you'd ever post anything about work, even in a positive light. Just treat work and social media as two separate entities.
Looks like you need to review what you're posting on social media in future if you want to avoid situations like this. Learn from it.

I assume we're talking about Facebook here so yes making sure you limit who can see your posts is a good idea, and of course be careful not to post anything that could look awkward when shared as a screenshot.

A blog post I wrote Who are you sharing your Facebook posts with?

You can also stop other people from tagging you in posts or photos, or prevent them from reaching your public timeline before you've OKed them: Tagging | Facebook Help Centre

Don't forget that if you comment on someone else's page or post then your comments become visible to their friends, and possibly to the public depending on the sharing settings they used for their post (if you see a globe symbol that means everyone can see it, it's public).

With Twitter there's really no such thing (beyond having a locked, private page) as blocking someone from seeing your profile or Tweets as they can just log out to view them, so anything you say there can be found. Blocking someone just stops them from viewing your profile while logged in (they also can't reply to your tweets) but they can see them if they're not logged in.

Jo

Agree with others that the best thing is not to talk about the company or management on social media. Even making the profile private isn’t 100% safe, our office has a social media policy which says that no matter how information comes to the attention of management, if it is something that could potentially harm the company it can result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal (so that covers “friends” taking screenshots of private social media accounts and forwarding to management)

Lesson learned. My company can and have sacked people for things they've said on social media. They sacked someone for saying they were bored at work and posting the view from the window by their desk. They would sack someone posting something racist or homophobic, they aren't the kind of people they want to employ.
Take care with your posts and lock your profile down tight. Never mention anything your company or colleagues.

Well maybe the lesson needs a bit more work. You are posting about work again on social media. Ok you are anonymous but people and situations get recognised. It just takes one of those old colleagues to be reading or daily mail journo looking for a lazy story to find over the h9liday period.

Social media is exactly that - social. You shouldn't ever talk about a business that you are employed by. I get you're very stressed by this, but you did bring it on yourself. Apologise and learn from it.