employment law

[bonnie1234566]

I sent a private wats app message to a colleague, there was a joke in the context of conversation where the person said they found it funny and understood the irony of it and my intention. For someone who did not know the context, it could be perceived differently.

7 Months later, when there were working difficulties in relationship with this person, I was informed by my boss that the joke i made at that time had been reported to them.

I was given informal action to this and accepted this and was closed by my boss, i was also informed the person was showing the joke to other colleague and was asked if i wanted to raise this as a concern as seemed malicious and to discredit me.

this was discussed, the person claimed someone had put this up to them and also my joke had caused offense 7 months ago. although i did not believe this apologized, my concerns of being discredited were left as resolved from this meeting.

2 months after this, the person is having their own conduct issues at work managed through processes, they share this joke with people external from my employer, who have been informed and the same incident is now being formally investigated as it could bring my employer into disrepute if shared on social media/press which the person has threatened to do.

is this legal?

I know the obvious one i shouldn't have made the joke (even though private and was a context). I already regret this.

If the content of the joke had been reviewed by my employer and informal actions were taken (which is recorded).

can the same joke now warrant formal action, because someone has shared it to a different audience (I have no control of this).

advice please

You will have to speak to HR. At this stage the person doing the sharing is at fault. In my view. They are sharing something which you sent but haven’t got anyone’s permission to pass it on. So now the company needs to deal with them and should have expected the “joke” to be deleted. You need to be a lot more careful in future.

There is no specific legislation around this. However, if your employer were to dismiss you for the offence at this stage, I suspect they would find it difficult to defend their position if you took action for unfair dismissal.

Your colleague appears to be trying to blackmail your employer - stop looking at my conduct or I'll share this post on social media. Your employer needs to stand up to that.

Two different things. One how they deal with this employee, and one how they deal with you.

can I ask what is it you said. Roughly?

You keep mitigating it by saying ir was a joke and the person wasn’t offended, but it is clearly serious enough that if it is leaked externally it would bring them into disrepute. Which yes they can take as gross misconduct. The root cause is the comment in the first place, I would speak to acas and also an employment lawyer.

Why would they find it difficult, I suspect they may find it more difficult to defend if they don’t be seen to act.

They have already acted.

OP made a joke to someone else who I will call X. Months later, X complained. Informal action was taken and the case was closed.

X has now shared the joke with people external to OP's employer and is threatening to share it on social media, apparently in an attempt to stop the employer's investigation into her own conduct. On what basis does that justify the employer re-opening the case against OP and potentially dismissing her? If it was serious enough to warrant dismissal, that should have happened when the employer first dealt with the case.