So how much trouble am I in?

[Iloveoranges]

I manage a 'temporary' member of staff (X) who has been with our large organisation for three years.

I was told some weeks ago that Xs contract would be canceled a week before Christmas but quite specifically told by my boss that this was confidential and not to tell X because we don't want him to leave earlier in a huff. X would only be given the statutory 1 week notice for temp staff.

The reason for X going is not due to performance issues but simply cost cutting and X as a temp is an easy target.

X had mentioned to me that he had been headhunted by a rival for a specific role but intended to turn it down because he liked working with us.

Another colleague who left a year ago is still looking for work, so X might not get another opportunity quickly if this role goes to someone else.

So what did I do? I told X that his job was going and asked him to keep it confidential.

X has taken up on the headhunted job and has left.

As in all organisations, there are no secrets and this has all come out and my boss is furious with me and has a meeting scheduled to discuss it.

I know that technically I was wrong because I was told this confidentially but:
a) I think it's a shitty thing to sack someone whose been working for you 3 years a week before Xmas with only a week's notice.
b) It would be hard on X to miss out on the other job especially in a recession. He has a family to support.

My question is? How much trouble can I get in for this? Clearly, my relationship with my boss isn't going to be great but is this grounds for any sort of disciplinary route?

Well I suspect that they can probably take some sort of disciplinary action but it should probably depend in the impact of X leaving earlier than the managment anticipated.

If it's any consolation I think morally you did the right thing and well done.

You did the right thing. I hope it doesn't have negative effects going forward.

I suppose I would have gone to my boss and told him/her that I was going to tell X his contract was not being renewed because he had another job and if he didn't like it that was tough... but I am fairly tough.

Yes it's annoying he left a bit earlier, but morally it was the right thing to do. I think it would be silly to take the breach of confidentiality to disciplinary (although it's possible that it is a gross misconduct issue because it was failure to follow a reasonable request) but I think you could argue it was unreasonable to tell you that information and insist you keep it confidential.

Also, it depends what "temporary" means in terms of his contract. If he was on a fixed term contract and they were going to dismiss him purely because of that, without going through a redundancy process which would include proper notice, they could have been in trouble and you may have saved them litigation costs if he took it further. See here: www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Understandingyourworkstatus/Fixedtermworkers/DG_10027735

Actually the more I think about this the more convinced I am that not only have you saved their arses by avoiding not only an unfair dismissal claim but also the redundancy payment he would have been entitled to.

This is only relevant if he's an employee as opposed to a worker or self-employed contractor but temporary, fixed term or permanent after 2 year's service he has the right to statutory redundancy pay and after one year's service the right to protection from unfair dismissal.

If they had gone ahead and dismissed with a week's notice after three years service they would be open to him taking a case to tribunal for damages.

In hindsight, you probably should have told your boss what you were planning to do beforehand and not gone against policy, however any reasonable organisation would surely have supported you in your approach - you absolutely did the right thing morally.

I too think you did the right thing but unfortunately you do risk facing disciplinary action but the seriousness will prob depend as bela said on how big an impact of X leaving the company early had on the company. your boss will also prob now have a lAck of confidence in you as well so might be worth trying to mitigate in terms of saying 'it just slipped out by accident' rather than you made a calculated decision to tell X.

Good luck!

Dud you sign a confidentiality agreement that you wouldn't tell X? Or is it more that you have betrayed your boss' trust?

I don't know if you are in serious trouble or not but like others I think you did the "right" thing.

I don't know the specifics of HR in relation to this issue but morally you did the right thing. Well done!

you have just saved your company a ton of money in an unfair dismissal claim

if anyone tries to take you to disciplinary then you might want to mention that in the 'investigation' and see how quick it's dropped :)

Been up worrying about this. X was an agency worker so I'm not sure he would qualify for unfair dismissal. Thanks for all your support.

Was X an employee of the agency or placed by an agency as an employee or was he a self employed contractor placed by the agency?

Morally I'm 100% behind you, but not sure on the actual legalities given that you were told to keep the info to yourself.

Presumably X could have given a week's notice at any time and left? Your boss is being a tad unreasonable, and more than a little "in the huff" himself.

O.k. so you did the wrong thing. morally it was right. and we all, deep down inside would pray to god that our boss would do the same for us. You miss out on your DREAM JOB, becasue someone didn't say, after 3 years of fab work, diligent employee, missed out in it by a week, becasue you weren't told, of the imminent costcutting. Imagine if he had turned it down. How upset would he be. I'd never have forgiven myself.

But now, to the problem in hand.
Before you do or say ANYTHING. Think about your Company. Do they have anything on you. Any actual HARD EVIDENCE?

Imagine if he'd said to another colleague, "oh well I'm gonna go for that job , Oranges just told me I'm going to lose my job here". Thats still heresay. Your boss can not PROVE what words you actually used , or what you said EXACTLY, unless he has a statement from this bloke, or there are witnesswes.

I would play dumb. Say to Boss, yes, he came to me, and told me of his dream job. So I just encouraged him to accept him dream job, as I would do to anyone.

Its making what you did a lot less 'misconducty' !!
You may very get disciplined, but you may be able to limit the severity.