How much trouble is friend possibly in?

[zubin]

My friend (X) is a manager at work, we have another mutual friend (Y) who she is senior to. Y has been suspended, and X has been appointed disciplinary officer, so basically makes the decision about what action is taken against Y (which could be dismissal). So as part of suspension Y had the standard letter stating terms of suspension including 'you must not contact any employees of ABC company)'. It turns out that X has been contacting Y during the suspension and another manager has found out. How serious is this? X is worried she is going to get sacked!

I would expect her to be removed as disciplinary officer immediately. Unless she is the direct line manager, if they are friends she shouldn't have been appointed in the first place.

I would be surprised if they sack her for something but it's a pretty silly thing to have done especially as a manager, so she might end up with a warning.

What sort of contact was it? That might make a difference.

Did X know she was not to contact Y but did anyway? Or had the disciplinary procedure never been explained to her?

X knew she wasn't supposed to, she is an experienced manager and knows the policies inside out she just chose to ignore.
X says it's a few messages and the odd phone call 'as they are friends', she says they didn't discuss work or the disciplinary (whether that's true I have no idea, X has also been speaking to Y's husband who is very switched on about these things) - the other manager has said that Y will probably end up on a second disciplinary and X will probably be suspended! She is one above her line manager, Y's line manager did the investigation in to the original 'offence' and X makes the decision and delivers the outcome (although it's largely guided by HR so not completely her decision). She is terrified now, struggling to feel sympathetic given how stupid she has been!

Yes, I'm also struggling. She should have refused to be the disciplinary manager in the first place (she shouldn't actually have been asked, but she should certainly have flagged it when she was asked).

She's now knowingly opened the company up to liability, why shouldn't they come down on her like a ton of bricks? She needs to come clean and take her medicine.

If I were Y, I think I'd be asking why I should be put through a second investigation if the company can't appoint a competent investigating officer in the first place. You said that X had been contacting Y rather than the other way around - Y might claim she didn't know X wasn't meant to do this.

I agree Y should be vigorously defending herself. Yes her letter said don't contact any employees, but if the investigating manager who is two rungs more senior to her contacted her, I think it's reasonable of her to assume that's ok.