Verbal warning?

[Doglover321]

I work for a childcare agency and cover at a wide range of different nurseries across the county. I had an awful bullying experience at this particular nursery recently (all the others have been lovely!), and decided to post about it ANONYMOUSLY on an Early Years Practitioners Facebook support group. I didn’t identify myself, the nursery, or anything else. I simply just said what happened.

It turns out that the manager of this nursery is a member of the group. She decided to call the agency and report my post. The agency have given me a verbal warning, as well as said I will no longer be placed at nurseries belonging to this chain - this is despite me having a really good experience at a different nursery belonging to this chain after this incident!!

Considering the post was anonymous and it might not have been me who made it (I told others about my bad day), do you think it’s a bit much from the agency?

They don’t seem to care about the bullying and have just said they can’t afford to lose work with this chain.

Yeah, so by trying to deny it's you on social media, you're going to completely lose the trust of your manager. And that's really shooting yourself in the foot.

Just be honest and learn from it. You fucked up by posting on social media about it.

Use the proper channels and join a union if you're being bullied.

So you still advertised a bad experience at work, and damaged the reputation.

Cosycover · Today 15:59
Can you not say it wasn't you?

OP
I have tried

But it was you. It is one thing to post a story anonymously, which is something people can respect you for if you feel strongly that you need to post about what happened. However, lying about it when you are caught is a bit different.

You posted about a client (anonymously, but apparently not sufficiently so that it wasn't spotted) and got caught. We can be sympathetic about the events leading up to this, but if I posted something about a client, even anonymously, and got caught I would count myself lucky for only getting a verbal warning. You could have been out on your ear.

Anonymously or not, it was a silly thing to do. Learn from it and don't do that again.

and then started an outing thread on mumsnet

If you were employed that would be different to agency. But as agency is based on mutual choice/availability and sounds then it unlikely they need to change their minds.

i assume hr are saying the company has deemed you’ve breached social media policy?

Social media is not the place to vent about your employers. The agency wants to retain their client. The client has more value than you. Fair? Probably not but it’s the reality of the situation.

Follow formal procedures for complaints. Need to vent? Phone a friend!

Oh and that bored panda website

Be careful also as it can get around agencies and employers about who is prone to venting on social media. Not just as an employee either.

I know of quite a few service users and customers who are “black listed” by professionals as it’s common knowledge that they are very vocal and critical on social media. Suddenly they are all wondering why no one has any availability!

and Reddit

This is a problem on MN too. People thinking the internet is a safe space to say what they want because they're being anonymous. It's not. Nothing you put on the internet is anonymous. If you're lucky it will just stay where you put it, or it could end up in the Daily Mail, or it could be seen by someone who recognises the story and gets you into trouble.

You are literally doing it again. Posting about work-related issues on an internet forum. All it will take is someone to recognise your story and report you to the agency.

You took a silly risk then that's backfired.

Even with your fake FB account, it was still obvious it was you and you knew when you typed it you might get found out.

I'm not sure why you'd do that really, unless you think sharing your experience was more important than getting yourself work?

Exactly. I remember being taught never to put anything on the internet that you wouldn't be happy having published on the front page of a newspaper.

Same. I'm pretty sure it is part of mandatory data protection training that most organisations give now.

Anything you put on the internet stays on the internet. There are always people in the public eye getting "cancelled" for old Tweets they made 20 years ago that weren't controversial at the time. People getting fired for posting inappropriate photos on FB. People not getting jobs because the company they've applied to has done a background search and seen racist/homophobic/sexist posts shared on SM. Yet people still continue to treat SM like a private diary.

You're claiming you were bullied in the workplace.

You reported to your manager and then blabbed it over social media, instead of waiting/following it up/fining out what they're doing about it etc.

So no, you did not follow policy.