AIBU to think my ex employers can’t do this?

[Wowsharona]

I recently accepted a settlement to leave my job after discriminatory comments were made to me on two occasions after announcing my pregnancy.

it was a good offer so didn’t want to go into a long drawn out tribunal process whilst pregnant.

I left last week, today I received a message from an ex colleague asking if my mother was ok. I was confused as my mother died years ago in my early teens.

turns out after I had been paid off and left (was an abrupt leaving due to the situation) 2 days after I had officially gone an email was sent from my work email address saying goodbye to everyone and telling them I was leaving to take care of my sick and elderly mother!

it ended with ‘I’m sorry this is abrupt but for my own mental health I am requesting no one reach out via linked in as I’d like to put all my energy into my family’

I’m absolutely fuming, AIBU to think although yes my email address is technically their property they can’t pretend to be me and email everyone?

(Not a lawyer): Telling former colleagues not to contact you on LinkedIn and saying you are spending time away from work for the sake of your family/mental health could potentially be seen as damaging to your professional reputation, and career/promotional prospects. It’s a form of professional isolation.

Good Lord @Wowsharona YADNBU

You ex-employer is taking arse-covering into the heights of fraud, and in the process harming your reputation.

Ableist view or not, I would NOT want ex-colleagues to think I had mental health problems, when I don't.

They need to retract, in full, and explain they made up that story to protect their own reputation. They clearly don't want anyone to even ask you why you left.

Snap @SleepPrettyDarling

The reputational damage is the big issue

You could do a subject access request for that date!! Surely impersonating someone is illegal….

Oh Op, I would enlighten your solicitor with this little nugget of info and let them go to town. Holy shit your ex employer really hasn't a fucking clue.

That's not okay. I'd be getting legal advice with the aim of another pay off.

This is awful! Maybe they are trying to nip other similar claims in the bud so don’t want it out there why you really left. It’s really underhand of them.

I'd ask MNHQ to move this to Legal Matters, OP. There are some very clever people there who'll be able to advise on this from that perspective.

I would contact your solicitor. And yes they have broken the agreement so you do have grounds for more compensation as well as bringing up a traumatic death of your mother and having to field lies about your health and family health.

Definitely contact a solicitor

Don't take any action until you see this email with your own eyes and confirm it is legitimate.

nothing to stop you posting on linkedin re living best life........... type post and specifically mentioning thet your deceased mother from xx years would be so proud of you and you wish she could have seen the adult you became......

Unless she wants to look for alternative work any time soon and not look like a hun

A defamation claim will be hard because of the serious harm test. As I previously said, your best option is a privacy claim, which you can bring even where the info which was disclosed is entirely false. Ignore the poster who suggested that you just ask for a correction and no damages - a disclosure of this nature is worth at least £20k and you could potentially get more because the NDA against you (which prevented you proactively disclosing your reasons for leaving) will be an aggravating factor.

I agree with the poster who suggested you start with a DSAR to get the email but even if you don’t have this, you can still instruct a solicitor and get the ball rolling provided you trust that your former colleague is telling the truth. The email will have to be disclosed by your employer as part of the litigation so it will come to light sooner or later.

I think that could backfire on the OP. Amy former colleagues who believed that she sent the email about her reasons for leaving might just think she lied in that email and then wasn't clever enough to stick to her own lie.

There may be a fraud here.

Since networking is a significant part of career developing, the request for no one to reach out on LinkedIn would be detrimental to OP, so a case for loss could be made (and a case that cutting OP off from her professional network would be part of what the sender must have intended). It’s a bit of a reach and not one most people would want to try and take to court, but possibly useful to point out to the HR department.

You’re pregnant and you lost your own mum whilst still a teen. I’m so sorry and so annoyed for you.

I wouldn’t do anything without advice from a solicitor OP.

That's awful. I'm shocked by this.

In a settlement agreement often you will agree with your employer your reason for leaving and neither of you can deviate from that. For example, my employer and I both agreed that I had left because it was the right time for me to pursue new challenges in my career. The wording of the leaving email was included in the settlement agreement.

This is completely weird op. Did you sign an NDA? If so I think you can reply to colleague saying ‘my mother isn’t sick, I didn’t send that email. I’m not at liberty to say more but rest assured my mother died many years ago and I’m fine.’

This is just incorrect and you should not be holding yourself out as a lawyer and giving advice outside your area of expertise (if you are in fact legally qualified at all).

The primary award for misuse of private information is for the distress which has been caused by the disclosure. If this has caused actual financial loss, then the amount of that loss can be ADDED to the claim. It is not necessary for there to have been any loss caused by the breach in the first instance.

Speak to the solicitor who reviewed the NDA Op & see what they suggest.

As a minimum, I'd do an SAR for all info from the date you started until the present date - see what that turns up. The speak to your solicitor again and go from there.

I'm absolutely shocked they did this!

Holy fuck I would blow my lid at this

But he smart, like pp's said, don't do anything until you have a copy for yourself

Then rinse them for all you can because this is absolutely shocking

Libel and slander is tricky and costly to prove from what I’ve been told.

It depends who sees or knows about this email and the mental health words used as well as her leaving her job. If clients/work contacts think her reputation is damaged either to work for her or if she wishes to seek further work after her pregnancy and birth and her reputation is damaged there then she could be in line for damages I’d guess.

OP, I’ll DM you but I know one of the best employment lawyers out there and would happily share his details with you if it’d help.

How were you represented when you went through the discrimination case? If a union go back to them if the lawyer go to them.

Disgusting